Three performers crowd onto one of the couches that form the funky seating. I chat with another dancer who's sitting beside me in the aisle. When they explode into tangos and waltzes, the walls become backboards for their more acrobatic antics, and their flashing legs create a wind in the front rows. Oberfelder, small and sinewy, is an athlete, and she embeds her love of physical challenge in her choreography. Gliding over the floor in a partner's arms and archingwith romantic extravagance are de rigueur, but so are handstands, dives, and startling tangles.
People use one another's legs as turnstiles.
Oberfelder and Joshua Bisset spin Melanie Fox on herhead. Not all Oberfelder's dancers are technically expert, but they have endearing verve and daring. They hurl themselves into the steps as if the walls and floor were foam rubber and they couldn't conceive that someone's arms wouldn't always be there to catch them. They proceeded to toss their little charmers up and down and around in a manner that put the old heart in the mouth. Embodying insights at once piercing and empathic, it evoked a response of sheer delight.