Dance: Gibney Company @ the Joyce

Sometimes you have to wade through the hype behind a dance troupe’s claim to “redefining contemporary dance movement” and see for yourself what they could possibly be talking about. It’s always a pleasure to find out they were telling the truth.

Last night at the Joyce, Gina Gibney and her New York-based dance troupe boldly slapped the dance world upside its proverbial head, with three pieces for whom the word “original” is woefully inadequate. In “The Game is Rigged “ the dancers break through the fourth wall, speaking to the audience in a way that initially seems like a cry for help from patients in a psych hospital. But you are mistaken. Gibney knows just what she is doing, and is making a point about the world’s failure to communicate. Helped by music so fresh and deliriously avant-garde, the dancers’ very nerve endings seems to pop right out of their bodies. Cerebral yet emotional.

In “Lucus Naturae,” a trio re-enacts the capture of King Kong; the subtext of this intensely physical pas de troix is clearly about colonization. The last piece “Oh Courage!” marries the disciplined frenzy of the dancers with the glam of a rock concert, as musical duo The Bensons performs stage right, playing everything from jazz and 21st century to Black spirituals. The dancers seem possessed by demons.

We’ve seen Pascal Roualt. We get Pilobulus. We love Fosse. We worship Balanchine. Gibney Company takes these dance troupes a giant step forward. “Redefining the contemporary dance movement?” Right on. Fabuloso. Did we mention we loved this? Go.