A comic circus-collage that probes the relationship between a performer’s effort and the “payoff” for the audience. The work features stilt-dancing, acrobatic antics and hula-hooping--sometimes all at the same time--as it explores the rift between the desire to show off and the struggle for mastery. (Full work: 20 minutes; extracted version: 8 minutes; 4 dancers)
MUSIC: Quentin Chiappetta / COSTUMES: Michelle Ferranti / LIGHTING: David Ferri
"I enjoy Sperling’s wacky, ironic updates on vaudeville acts. In her new Bang for the Buck, to Chiappetta’s clangorously rowdy score, much goes wrong or perplexes the participants. Skurr walks on her hands, Sperling twirls more hoops with each entrance, Lutin gets yanked offstage by a white length of cloth she’s hauling herself along on. Chriselle Tidrick, on stilts, performs a patronizing trio with the much, much shorter Lutin and Skurr. . . . Life on the Orpheum Circuit from hell." -Deborah Jowitt, The Village Voice