Stand Up Dance – based on actual unrelated events

reviewed by Paula Citron

__________________________
based on actual unrelated events
Stand Up Dance
Choreographed and performed by Meagan O’Shea
At HUB 14 until Oct. 30
__________________________

Meagan O’Shea calls her company Stand Up Dance for good reason. Her work is a cross between stand up comedy and dance. O’Shea is an original. She works with text and props, and when I say props, I mean bubble paper, masking tape, a popcorn maker, eight pairs of shoes and tiny toy cars, just to mention a few.

based on actual unrelated events, her entertaining new work, has her ramble through the collective ideas of mind/body connection, happy love, and the disappearing honeybees. Each section was inspired by a real event which has been a flashpoint for an amusing stream of consciousness.

O’Shea can always be counted on for freshness, and this show delivers. She is an engaging performer who invites the audience along for a journey of whimsy, but also of substance. If there is any moral to this delightful show, it is O’Shea’s homage to humanity.

Gilding the lily is the fact that O’Shea has invited various top choreographers to be her opening act. I saw Susie Burpee’s very witty On Being Prepared. Her premise is how instruments are “prepared” in music by adding objects to them. Her flight of fancy is about what would happen if you added objects to a dancer. As always, Burpee commands the stage with her clever ideas to create innovative physicality.

based on actual unrelated events continues at HUB 14 until Oct. 30.