Off-Leash Area tackles illegal immigration

The movement/theater group Off-Leash Area has, in the recent past, excelled at poetic explorations of an isolated, individual mind. In "A Cupboard Full of Hate," it was the wretched psyche of a bitter old man. "Maggie's Brain" examined the tormented yearnings of an autistic girl.

Through Paul Herwig's scenic innovations and Jennifer Ilse's simple, expressive choreography, the co-artistic-directors rendered these investigations in exquisite miniature.

In contrast, Herwig and Ilse take an expansive approach to a controversial, politically charged topic -- illegal immigration along the Arizona-Mexico border -- in "Border Crossing." The new 90-minute work interweaves the conflicting perspectives of almost everyone involved.

There are the silent illegal immigrants (Dana Buchwald, Erin Drummond, Zeb Henderson Shreve, John Zeller), who slowly lunge through the desert. The two-faced trickster who guides them -- Ilse is a riveting, sinister coyote -- plays to their vanities and dreams, then cruelly robs them of hope.

The border patrolman (Pedro Fonseca) stiffly articulates the terms of war along the new 23-mile border fence. A Forest Service ranger (Adri Mehra) laments his inability to care for the desert, as his time and energy are taken up with saving tourists from dehydration, scorching heat and illegals seeking their help.

As she picks up empty water bottles in the desert, a Midwest transplant (Marian Kimball Eichinger) blandly wishes the migrants would just enter "in a more orderly fashion." A social-justice activist (Taous Khazem) explains why she leaves water for the migrants with the rat-a-tat delivery of the blindly impassioned.

Ever-present at the core of these divergent perspectives is the desert itself. Beautifully and inventively rendered through a shifting mass of six performers (Herwig, Khazem, Paulino Brener, Katie Kaufmann, Kym Longhi, David P. Schneider), the desert takes shape as a felled puma, a lethal scorpion, a night wind and a stand of blooming saguaro cactus. The desert also protects a girl (Citlalitl De Leon) left to fend for herself after smugglers abandon her.

Despite the production's many points of view, Herwig's and Ilse's is a sympathetic one, which results in an unpolished production at times. The performances are uneven, some amateurish. The migrants' death scene is numbingly long, even though it features curiously energetic choreography. And like the immigration issue itself, the fates of the desert and the girl are left unresolved.

But these rough edges and loose ends also give “Border Crossing” a visceral sense of reality. As many of the characters ask the audience during their monologues, “What’s your solution?” Without being didactic, “Border Crossing” asks us to reflect on a situation that, as yet, doesn’t have one.

Camille LeFevre is a Twin Cities dance critic.