By Ernest Kearney — Lean and long-limbed Jason Helfgott bills himself as a “movement artist,” and his ‘experience” is a Gordian knot of concise physical renderings to the medley of musical artists from the Deftones to Metallica, which he opens with a pronouncement from the Pet Shop Boys: “They say the dead can dance – well so can I.”
There is an undeniable commitment in Helfgott’s performance that validates him as a “movement artist.” But that commitment does not elevate what one is viewing in the performance.
What those in the audience are left to resolve on their own is if they perceive a manifest purpose in what Helfgott is presenting.
In our world lurking beneath a plethora of terminology—minimalism, modernism, transgressionism, quantum futurism—one encounters plain-wrapped feculence daily.
Now I do not accuse Helfgott of this, but his performance appeared to me devoid of purpose, either that or he failed in communicating his purpose to me.
Towards the conclusion of his piece, a late-arriving audience member is reluctantly trammeled into performing with him. Their disconnection is disquieting, confronting the isolation between the two where unity is expected. This moment, however, that seemed to convey Helfgott’s intention was too late and too brief.
One feels that Helfgott just wanted to do a Fringe show and came to the stage with that as his only “purpose.”
But it’s the purpose within a performance, that reason why a performer felt that an audience would be better, the world would be better for seeing what he has created that distinguishes artistry from mere activity.
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The Jason Helfgott Experience is on stage for the Hollywood Fringe Festival 2023
at
the Broadwater in Hollywood.
For Hollywood Fringe Festival Details, Jason Helfgott Experience Show Information, and Tickets Click HERE.
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