Renowned British choreographer Wayne McGregor’s dance company Random Dance performed Far at UCLA’s Royce Hall last week. Described as “inspired by the controversial Age of Enlightenment and by 18th-century French philosopher Diderot’s very first set of encyclopedia,” the piece was an hour-long feast of lavish lighting and technically adept dancing.

To play devil’s advocate, in a 2012 interview with Stance on Dance, Anthony Rizzi, former dancer for legendary choreographer William Forsythe, said, “I’ve found with Forsythe’s work that’s affected European dance is a fluid, extreme elastic movement. I’m getting so bored. I just want people to fall down once in a while. Or be uncoordinated.” 

Based on this statement, one can guess what his reaction would be to McGregor’s choreography. The entire evening performance was an endless undulation; indeed, it grew monotonous about 10 minutes in. 

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Written choreographic instructions for the piece might read, “wriggle-wriggle-kick-wriggle-kick-wriggle.” And while the dancers were very good at wriggling and kicking, that can only hold one’s attention for so long. 

It’s human to fall down; it’s human to mess up. Does dance become obsessed with masking this oh-so-human element of the body, namely that it inevitably fails from time to time? Does dance derive its power from defying its humanness? Is that attractive?

Apparently. The show quickly received a standing ovation.

But perhaps as an alternative to the extreme wriggly coordination vogue in dance today, choreographers might take Rizzi’s critique to heart and break once in awhile. It will, at the very least, make a wriggly evening of high kicks and synchronized undulation a bit more interesting, and perhaps remind audiences of the beauty in human fallibility, as well.

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Reach Contributing Writer Emmaly Wiederholt here or follow her on Twitter here.