I?ve got a review of Huckabay McAllister?s tenth anniversary show up on Voice of Dance:

?Honey, I?m Home!, the title of Huckabay McAllister Dance?s 10th anniversary program, perfectly captures this company?s goofy sense of theatricality. HMD?s nine dancers are wide-eyed and wily; they exchange heaps of knowing winks whether the joke has to do with wife-swapping or simply turning in place like a ballerina in a jewelry box. You can?t help giggling at the performers? total commitment, and sometimes the choreography truly earns your laughter. But even comedy that keeps you chuckling brings varying degrees of satisfaction, as the evening of eight dances proved. There?s cleverness and then there?s cloying?and it?s hard to say which wins out at an HMD show.?

This was a tough one to write. Sometimes you go to shows that don?t quite work, but you?re so drawn to their strengths that it?s fascinating to tease out what went wrong. Hagen & Simone was such a case: I could have written about them for pages. I find HMD?s work competent but not terribly sophisticated?it doesn?t fail in interesting ways. And HMD has its own dedicated audience who like what they?re doing just fine. As a critic lacking a passionate reaction either positive or negative, you almost wonder whether there?s much need for your response in this somewhat closed circle.

One thing I wish I had noted in the review: the production values were solid. Sara Linnie Slocum did the lighting and Plastique contributed the costumes.

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