Binge & Purge: Jessie Smith's Dead Bird Double Feature

But compared to Thrashoholic, Left and Leaving, with its hyper-saturated colors and subtle score, seems almost studious. Thrashoholic is performed in a space divided by a series of vertical fluorescent lights that create a dramatic, inhuman effect. The piece is a duet between Smith, performing a mash-up of more than 50 distinct pieces of choreography and drummer Jeffrey Mitchell.

Mitchell can launch into a jazzy vamp that switches to an industrial drum break at the drop of a dime. The piece lurches forward with each barrage, Smith starting with measured, languid movements before thrashing into harsh convulsions lasting only a few seconds or a minute before both stop, leaving a ringing silence (it's a loud piece), punctuated only by the heavy breathing of the two performers.

Thrashoholic's throughline is pretty simple: it's the process of binge drinking, getting raging-sloppy, and challenging yourself to see how long you can keep going, which dovetails with Smith's more formal exercise in building an endurance piece that pushes her to her limits. Following each movement, Smith faces off against Mitchell: at first, her expression is cocksure, daring him to bring out next onslaught; by the end, she almost seems to be begging for it to stop.

When Smith puts the piece on hold to actually take shots, she runs a big risk (beyond that of alcohol poisoning and liver damage), as the brutal shock value of the act threatens to overshadow the rest of the piece. But there's definitely more to Smith's choice than shock value. Whatever the narrative or theme of a piece is, on some level dance is always an exploration of the human body. Smith, like some other creative movement artists we've seen (Portland's tEEth, for instance), has come up with a innovative way to explore the body's internal processes. That's a dry and academic way to describe it, but in performance, it's a crucial and important distinction. There's a difference between Smith the dancer performing drunk and Smith interpreting drunkenness. It's hard to put into words, but it works, and it's one of the most unforgettable performances--for numerous reasons--that you'll ever see.