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Dance Review | ‘Electrolux’ : By GIA KOURLAS
Dance New Amsterdam was smart to name Laura Peterson as one of its 2007-8 artists in residence: as a set designer, she is a problem solver. This theater has flaws, notably the six columns planted firmly on the stage, along with the sad fact that the seats aren’t staggered; sometimes it’s best to just give up and sit in the front row.
While Ms. Peterson doesn’t alter the seating for “Electrolux,” a new work performed Thursday night at Dance New Amsterdam, she works wonders all the same, painting the columns a glistening gray, enclosing the space with white walls and covering the floor in wall-to-wall white carpet. Two of the walls are also outfitted with slots for Amanda K. Ringger’s lighting, which alters the mood in an ever-shifting spectrum of color.

The quartet begins as Christopher Hutchings lies on the floor in the corner; Kathryn Harris, Kate Martel and Ms. Peterson hop up and down on both feet, winding their arms — first one and then the other — in sync to Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The pulse of “Electrolux,” despite the décor, is the music of Led Zeppelin.

Within the performance space are hundreds of feet of foam tubing. When clumped together, the material is something of a living mass; when it is unraveled and tied onto the columns like a web of telephone lines — a task the dancers accomplish with steely resolve — the space is suddenly given a ceiling.

As hard as Ms. Peterson tries to create an exacting architectural world with bodies and props, the familiar songs, like “Ramble On” and “Kashmir,” overpower just about everything, including the choreography, which sends dancers thrashing onto the floor or curling on their sides, frozen in stillness.

But the ending provides the weakest moment. As the dancers methodically coil the tubes and place them along the back of the stage, Ms. Peterson turns in slow, dreamy circles to the lesser-known song “That’s the Way.” Yet after such raw detachment, the switch is anticlimactic — even sugary. And sugar and Led Zeppelin don’t mix.

Dance, Dance Review, Laura Peterson, New Amsterdam