Love Reaches Across Time & Space In 'The Cotton Mouth Club'

By Michelle Meywes Kopeny in Arts & Entertainment on May 29, 2013 8:30PM

“Is our life’s destination predetermined or could one decision lead us to another path?” Chicago Dance Crash’s newest program asks this question as they place the same characters and storyline into two very different decades. Will they face the same obstacles? Will their outcome be the same?

The Cotton Mouth Club is Artistic Director Jessica Deahr’s second turn on the story-based full-length program. Last year the troupe wowed audiences with her vision of Gotham City which earned them a spot on Chicago Tribune’s “Best Dance for 2012.” This time around Deahr shares choreographing duties with former Giordano Jazz Dance company member Robert McKee, who also plays Cotton Mouth’s hero, Rooster. Their collaboration remains true to CDC’s reputation: challenging works that fuse contemporary street and classic dance. In a recent interview with Gapers Block about the show, McKee said, “the Crash dancers are so versatile, that anything that I could dream up I knew it was possible. And that opened up so many possibilities for choreography and movement. ” The result is innovative, eye-catching choreography that includes some impressive partner lifts that had the audience gasping on opening night.

The first Act of The Cotton Mouth Club drops us into the Roaring Twenties with our central couple. As the owner of the speakeasy, Rooster must decide if he wants to pursue a straight life with his wife, Zora, or continue in the seedy underground world of crime and gangs. Much as Baz Luhrmann mixed prohibition era style and extravagance with modern day hip hop in his recent film adaptation of The Great Gatsby, Dance Crash does the same with a soundtrack composed entirely of music from Outkast as swing mixes with breakdance and acrobatics.

In Act Two, we find the same players set up in the 1980s, this time accompanied solely by the music of Michael Jackson. As clothing and settings change, we see that much stays the same when Rooster faces the same predicament, tempted by girls and a hard and fast lifestyle. Whether it’s sparkling flappers turned leather clad vixens, or garbage cans replacing wooden liquor crates in a parkour fight scene, one love story proves to be classic in any age.

The Cotton Mouth Club plays on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 9 at Victory Gardens Biograph Theatre (2433 N. Lincoln Ave). Tickets are $25 ($30 door, $20 seniors and students).