Project: Motion’s eMPHasis on BLUE left me a bit chilly. If the goal was to explore the color blue Memphis’ modern dance company didn’t dig too deeply. There’s a lot more to blue than the sky, the ocean, and general sadness. Blue is also bawdy, tactile, violent, and vibrant. For the most part eMPHasis on BLUE is humorless, nostalgic, and maudlin. It does, at least, close with a lively ode to blue “power suits” and corporate life that makes everything else worthwhile.
Project: Motion has assembled some great talent for its first show at The Evergreen Theatre and eMPHasis on BLUE is a beautiful thing front to back. It’s just—for lack of a better word—monochromatic. And the pre-recorded word collages that introduce each piece in the show—collages that closely resemble the sound bites used in a recent advertising campaign for ArtsMemphis— are a redundant and unnecessary distraction.
