H.Art Chaos is a clued-up modern dance company of women. The myriad questionnaire forms it distributes after every performance help it to read prevailing audience moods well enough to know that you can never generate as much enthusiasm for a full-length work as for two short snappy pieces bisected by a chunky interval.
Thus its debut of "Dolly" Nov. 10 at Setagaya Public Theater in Tokyo was buttressed by the premiere of "Sabaku no Naizo" (unfortunately translated as "Viscera of Desert").
Choreographer Sakiko Oshima has been acclaimed with great excitement on the company's recent tours of Canada, Europe and the U.S., and "Naizo" follows faithfully in the H.Art Chaos tradition of schlock characterization where the "baddies" get their just deserts. "Dolly," however, is a new and more abstract departure, along the lines of monochromatic glam dance with heavy dramatic lateral lighting -- and mercifully little over-the-top miming of cliched emotions or the running of hands through a well-styled hairdo.