Press Love
"In recent years, Arrie Davidson‘s KineticArchitcture Dance Theatre has made a name for itself as a relatively indescribable combination of dance, burlesque, and satire, and for performance pieces that are outrageous, boundary-bending, risqué, somewhat incomprehensible, and undeniably entertaining. Wonder/Through the Looking Glass Houses, the latest example of Arrie and her cohort’s output, fulfills all those qualifications and more."
"The White Rabbit, channeling Marilyn Monroe, steps through onto the audience's side of the looking glass and talks about the professional and personal difficulties of being a trans rabbit performer. After this meta discussion (which includes some funny-because-it's-true asides about cis men's obsession with sexy bunnies and how rabbits should be cast in rabbit roles), the Rabbit moves back through the glass, and the dance that follows, with Alice (Cecily McCullough) yet to cross over, mixes physical strength and vulnerability and juxtaposes that mixture to a clip of the Disneyfied Alice."
"What Does It Take to Challenge Dance's Gender Norms? It's scary to go, 'Well, what is an audience going to think of me now? What are they going to perceive? How do I costume myself?' " Davidson says. Prominent transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner may have given people the impression that a transition can take place overnight, but it is a complex multiyear process. Davidson decided she wouldn't stop performing. "I'm on the roller coaster and I'm not turning it around," she says. Instead, she grapples with it in her work, like the recent production Wonder/Through the Looking-Glass Houses, a modern take on Lewis Carroll's Alice tales, in which she uses her character, the White Rabbit, to slyly address transgender issues."
"An exploration of power, identity, form, and gender take shape in a surrealist dance experience at Dixon Place in Arrie Fae Bronson-Davidson’s Wonder/Through the Looking Glass Houses. A linear dance piece based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, the fantastical and surreal world serves as an evocative backdrop for expressive contemporary dance and expressive movement."
"An exploration of power, identity, form, and gender take shape in a surrealist dance experience at Dixon Place in Arrie Fae Bronson-Davidson’s Wonder/Through the Looking Glass Houses. A linear dance piece based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, the fantastical and surreal world serves as an evocative backdrop for expressive contemporary dance and expressive movement."
"This reimagining of Carroll’s topsy-turvy world— one full of interactive game shows and top 40 music— feels fresh and boundary-breaking. Is it remotely faithful to the origin story? Hell no. But as White Rabbit quips to Alice at one point, while both enjoying a dollar slice on stage, “What does it matter?!” "
"Beautiful, intelligent display of re-worked ballets through the lens of burlesque and queer storytelling. Reviewers have called the work of KineticArchitecture Dance Theatre—spearheaded by Arrie Davidson—burlesque meets dance meets acrobatics and DIAGHILESQUE! certainly fits the bill. Davidson also plays a central role in the performance, as both soloist and commentator who takes the audience through Sergei Diaghilev's complete works with her all-women company in just under an hour."