Rohan Preston, theater critic: So, Caroline, thanks for your lucid review of Young Jean Lee's "Untitled Feminist Show," which premiered Thursday at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. It is always difficult to separate performer from performance onstage (and screen) but it seems downright impossible here. Could you ever forget the nakedness of the six performers in "Feminist Show"? Caroline Palmer, dance critic: No. Nudity is a big game-changer in performance. I can think of instances in other works where nudity seemed unnecessary, like it was there only for shock value. In this work it was intentional and so natural. I will remember how skillfully Young Jean Lee and her cast integrated it into the work. RP: For me, the nudity was very present, even shocking, at first. If it didn't go away – how could it? – it became less important to me as the performers showed their personality on their faces and through sheer charisma. Did nudity also become less noticeable for you? CP: The nudity wasn't shocking for me, perhaps because I was expecting it and it was so integral to the piece. But I did have to adjust my perception at first because it is so unusual for performers to be naked from the very start. I did disagree with Lee's program note that after an extended viewing the audience might stop focusing on the bodies altogether. I never did, but I considered the bodies in new ways as the piece progressed. It's an interesting phenomenon -- movement has a different quality when it's performed by a bare body, when we can see the mechanics of motion. RP: I like the way that the bodies related, in several tableaux, to each other and to women's pleasure and women's work. CP: Yes, I noticed that too! I wrote in my notes but didn't mention in the review is that there were times when the tableaux reminded me of certain works of visual art, like Matisse's "La Danse" in which the figures are in motion in a circle. RP: I thought of Renoir and Lucien Freud as well. The characters seem to step out of paintings. They also stepped out of nightclubs, music videos and the wrestling arena. Do you think conceiver Young Jean Lee was successful in reclaiming those spheres for such a variety of women's bodies? CP: Yes, I think she was. And the act of reclaiming space was achieved without anything more than shifts in music and the colorful shifts of lighting. I think that speaks to the success of the performers — they made the space their own but also brought enough familiarity in their movement for us to imagine them in a variety of settings. And if they were there, let's say the wrestling arena — how would they change the social dynamic by doing what they did onstage in that testosterone-charged world? RP: There were instances when the women were totally absorbed in a joyful, ecstatic shaking. Did those moments feel like religion to you? CP: It's interesting, I didn't think about religious ecstasy in the shaking but now that you mention it, yes, I think one interpretation is a physical response to something powerful and divine, a sort of revelation generated by their performance. I thought of the shaking as emotionally-induced spasms. They shook off imposed identities, societal burdens. They internalized everything from rage to sensuality, and could barely contain it. When they all stood together, shaking, it was a powerful effect — a force of energy RP: As the naked bodies moved about the stage, I found myself paying attention to some particular performers and not others. With its wit and joy, the show had me examining my own biases without beating me over the head. You? CP: Yes, same here. And when I realized I was doing that I questioned myself in ways that were not uncomfortable or shaming. For example, I found myself focusing on the performers who were the trained dancers, out of professional habit, and then I stopped myself and thought about why their movement is more valid than the performers who come from a different background. What could I gain from watching how they interpreted the movement or how they introduced different movement into the mix. I really appreciate being confronted with that moment.Rohan, I found myself wondering about this shift in direction for a playwright - a piece that relies so little on words and falls into the realm of the movement. What did you make of this artistic choice? Does this approach signal a change for just Young Jean Lee herself or is this trend in experimental theater?

Playwright and director Young Jean Lee. Photo by Gene Pittman.
RP: I think Young Jean Lee is a singular, fearless visionary. And in "Feminist Show," it's the force of her ideas that are on display. It does seem like a contradiction that this is a play without words. Of course, it's hard to categorize it as a dance performance, even though dance was such a big part of it. I'm still marveling at its success, considering that a show like this could so easily go terribly wrong. CP: What did you think about the section in which the performers seemed to attack and devour one another? I thought about how sometimes women can be the harshest critics of one another. Did you have another interpretation? RP: And sometimes, women are just having fun with each other. For me, the playful tone of that section, a light tone that defined the show, took off much of the edge of the points, even though I absorbed them. I certainly thought about catfights but I also remembered that we live in a society where so much of what we do, whether in joy or hostility, is consume. I took that scene as an extension of their playful engagement with each other. Hope to do this again sometimes soon. CP: This was a great exercise. Would love to do it more often.