The Discipline of Beauty

Feb 28, 2013 at 4:00 am

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Sometimes it is the limitations placed upon us that free us creatively. Director/writer/theorist Jane Comfort explores the American concept of physical beauty through dance, but places some severe restrictions on the dancers: Each of them is burdened with the locked-joint movements -- and the prodigious front assets -- of a Barbie doll. The dancers compete in a beauty pageant and engage in physical relations with Ken. But then they're freed from their physical limitations and allowed to move like dancers once again, at which point they primp for a night out and undergo a plastic surgery consultation. Beauty is a thought-provoking and humorous examination of the strictures placed on women by a society that values certain physical traits above others. Jane Comfort and Company performs Beauty and Underground River at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday (March 1 and 2) at the Edison Theatre on Washington University's campus (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; 314-935-6543 or www.edisontheatre.wustl.edu). Tickets are $20 to $36.
Fri., March 1; Sat., March 2, 2013