The Tension of Togetherness

Young stars on the downtown dance scene, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People are best known

for delivering intimately personal and intense performances, including 2005's wonderfully expressionistic "dAMNATION rOAD." Gutierrez asks primordial questions like who are we and why are we here.  "My hope," he says, "is always to create work that cannot be traditionally understood, but rather felt; an experience rather than a display. I am committed to creating visceral work that affords people entrance into their own privacy, turbulence, boldness and complexity."

This week, catch the charismatic Gutierrez's latest, "Retrospective Exhibitionist" and "Difficult Bodies." Gutierrez dances solo in "Retrospective Exhibitionist," followed by an all-female trio, MGPP in "Difficult Bodies." The two sets look at both sides of a performance: what a performer feels and what a performer presents to the audience (Gutierrez coyly sidesteps the equally pressing question of what the audience feels). 

In "Difficult Bodies," much of the group's dancing is improvised, created onstage by the women in response to cues Gutierrez gave them in rehearsal. Gutierrez's solo piece showcases more of what he calls "actions," in place of traditional dance movement or choreography. Using a TV/VCR, boom box, mic and video camera, he focuses on the vulnerability of what it is to be watched by others and examines the impact of time on (his) stage life. Over the years, Gutierrez has developed a truly distinctive style; one of the greatest perks of watching him is simply to track the development of his body's language and ideas.

June 6-10. Dance Theater Workshop, 219 W. 19 St. (betw. 7th & 8th Aves.), 212-924-0077; 7:30, $20.