“Oozing Sludge, Gregor, Is Never a Good Sign” is Gia Kourlas’s review of the Arthur Pita’s dance-theatre adaptation of Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”, which is being performed at the Joyce Theatre.
Kourlas begins her article with a descriptive lead, peaking the interest of the reader with a suspenseful and eerie vision of the stage before the dance began. The author also explains the basic plot of the play in the subsequent paragraph.
Next, the author begins to analyze the piece, noting its impressive visual design — especially the moving wall of Simon Daw’s set, — and the time which is devoted to Gregor before he mutated from a salesman to an insect.
In her analysis of the play, Gia Kouras also evaluates the play, criticizing the abruptness of Gregor’s transformation and the yoga-like moves of the insect Gregor. However, she also points out the difficulty faced by a ballet dancer in playing the role of Gregor.
Offering little in terms of interpretation, Kouras does weave something of the sort into her critique, most noticeably in her line: “When it works, the struggle is internal: confusion, yearning and despondency are nakedly revealed in his forlorn eyes.
Although she didn’t follow the four essentials of writing a dance review perfectly, it is clear that Gia Kouras, in her critique for “The Metamorphosis”, applied the Feldman model of description, analysis, interpretation, and evaluation, as described in Wendy Oliver’s Writing about Dance.
-John Wetmore, Blog A
