In American Utopia, Byrne’s Music Is the Draw. The Dancing Is the Joy
Annie-B Parson challenges Broadway’s notion of choreography in David Byrne’s radical, intimate, concert-theater spectacle.
From left: Daniel Freedman, Bobby Wooten III, Chris Giarmo, David Byrne, Tendayi Kuumba, Angie Swan, Stéphane San Juan, and Karl Mansfield.
Photographer: Matthew MurphyIn 1983, David Byrne and his band, Talking Heads, launched a tour called Stop Making Sense that was the visual manifestation of their music: dry, witty, surprisingly rousing. Jonathan Demme made a movie of it, now considered one of the great rock films. In her review of Stop Making Sense, critic Pauline Kael zeroed in on Byrne’s unique physicality: “Jerky, long-necked, mechanical-man movements,” she wrote, noting, “he's always in motion—jiggling, aerobic walking, jumping, dancing.”
The idiosyncrasy of that music and those moves dazzled Annie-B Parson, who was studying dance at Connecticut College at the time and saw the live show when it came to New York. Byrne “was central to my formative artistic sensibility, more than any choreographer,” Parson recalls. “I was making all my dances and listening to Talking Heads and I was so affected by his aesthetic.”