http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/arts/dance/larissa-velez-jacksons-star-crap-method-spoofs-dance.html 2014-11-06 01:01:49 Larissa Velez-Jackson’s 'Star Crap Method' Spoofs Dance Sending up the pretensions of experimental dance, Larissa Velez-Jackson presented her work “Star Crap Method” at the Chocolate Factory. === To name a performance “ Yet, as Ms. Velez-Jackson soon explained, there was a method. She and her colleagues, Tyler Ashley and Talya Epstein, would be making up the show on the spot. The lighting designer, Kathy Kaufmann, would be improvising, too. And the person in the ski mask, moving around mirrors on wheels and later referred to as the White Shadow — that was the stage manager, Lillie De. The explanation was part of the method. The performers commented on their own performance. This self-described “transparency around process” was yet another disclaimer, but it was also part of a joke. Ms. Velez-Jackson’s comments, like characterizing the show as “the complete encapsulation of my entire artistic identity,” suggested an affectionate insider’s sendup of the pieties, pretensions and platitudes common to experimental dance shows at the Chocolate Factory. Among the items on the wall was a manifesto about resisting “every possible definition of what dance should be.” The performance took this seriously and didn’t. The haphazard movement incorporated various styles of dance, even rehearsed flashes of unison, but the principled adherence to amateurishness put all the pressure on the improvisational wit of the performers, who didn’t come close to sustaining interest for the show’s 90 minutes. Each member (including Ms. Kaufmann and Ms. De) managed a few amusing sallies, and the performers were capably attuned to one another. The show worked best and most distinctively as ad-lib karaoke. When someone took someone else’s off-the-cuff remark and transformed it into song, it grew slightly funnier. At one point on Tuesday, Ms. Epstein decided she wanted to peel one of the theater’s flaking walls. Hesitating, she assured the theater’s artistic director, Brian Rogers, that she was just kidding. But Mr. Rogers gave her permission. And as she tore off a hunk of plaster and Ms. Velez-Jackson proceeded to sing about it, the show came alive with the delight of the truly unexpected. Ms. Velez-Jackson, though, had previously and wisely advised the audience not to get attached to such moments. They are passing, and in “Star,” far too infrequent.