Repertoire

Ain’t That a Kick in the Head? (1999)
Choreographed by
Beth Leonard with Laurie Shayler, Jessica Nicoll and Barry Oreck
Music: The Ink Spots, Arthur Murray Orchestra
Length: 12:00

In Ain’t That A Kick In The Head? — a collaborative deconstruction of the world of ballroom dance — Nicoll and Oreck take partnering into the realm of the absurd. Two seemingly lost souls stumble onto the floor of a social dance hall where self-conscious awkwardness vies with untapped passion through the traditional ballroom forms of Foxtrot and Peabody. Beth Leonard’s unique take on romantic negotiation finds a new outlet through the rules of social dance; moving in the line of dance, maintaining the frame, and holding to the complex conventions of leading and following force the dancers into a sometimes bizarre no-man’s-land of not-quite-Fred-and-Ginger.