The Show Must Go On

Acclaimed French choreographer and conceptual artist Jerome Bel has an egalitarian way with casting for his work, The Show Must Go On. Newbies get equal time on stage with the pros-and since the show is dropping by Stanford, Bel has included Stanford students, faculty, residents and professional dancers for this latest edition of the piece. For Bel it's much more interesting to juxtapose all sorts of different dancing styles at once. It's not so much about the skill of the movement, as it is about each of the dancer's self-expression, something that's underlined by the fact that each performer is dancing to different music on their headsets-tunes that the audience cannot hear. The piece, at least to the audience's ears, is set to pop music, and songs like David Bowie's "Let's Dance" set the mood. (Amulya Datla)