Chris Schlichting’s thoughtful and intense “Period” wrapped its dancers around the air, and around the audience, as its three performers created a dense medium out of the ether. The Chocolate Factory Theater’s white walls and rough edges framed the work, which was co-presented with Lumberyard, the sponsor of Schlichting’s current creative residency.
Press
“This marvelous space dedicated to dance and performance in Long Island City, Queens, has just purchased a permanent facility in the neighborhood, but for the time being its forward-thinking presentation will continue at its current home.” —Gia Kourlas, New York Times
Press & Reviews
In its last season in its Long Island City home, the Chocolate Factory will present work by Melanie Maar, Miguel Gutierrez, Niall Jones and others, the organization announced on Monday. The Chocolate Factory bought a permanent facility in the area last year, and it aims to reopen in 2020.
The Chocolate Factory Theater, in Long Island City, Queens, seldom schedules shows into the summer, for at least one good reason. The little place gets warm. Even on a mildly hot evening, you sweat just watching other people dance.
Milka Djordjevich'S ANTHEM sneaks up, quite literally, on its audience. At the Chocolate Factory Theater, we the audience had taken our seats around a parquet dance floor when from a back hallway, four women appeared, step-touching toward us in conga-line formation. Their clothes seemed plucked from a 1970s closet: a gold velour jumpsuit for one dancer; suspendered pants for another; and for everyone, black jazz shoes. They took their time, as unrushed as the iridescent soundscape anointing their entrance.
An anthem has popped up in Queens — as rousing as one should be, but danced not sung. It feels like a rite of spring. Often in contemporary dance, the expressiveness of the body — and especially the face — is kept under wraps. Dancers stay in a neutral space of impassivity. But in her delightful new “Anthem,” the choreographer Milka Djordjevich presents an evening of dance that celebrates theatricality with a brazen, sensual and blessedly chaotic force.
