ChameckiLerner Dance Company: Visible Content

Brazilian-born dancers and choreographers Rosane Chamecki and Andrea Lerner explore the shadowy terrain of the mind in their new eveninglong work, Visible Content, which they’ll perform at MASS MoCA on Saturday. One woman’s fears are explored through a hallucinatory wedding of intimate-yet-intensely-kinetic movement, surreal film projections, and atmospheric music. The duo’s intent is to “attain a bold and transparent physicality—one that could reveal the psychological state of the body.”

Chamecki and Lerner, who worked and studied in Brazil before moving to New York City in 1989, have been praised for the strong link between the emotional and physical in their choreography and performance. As Deborah Jowitt wrote in The Village Voice: “What they do is engage in wonderfully drastic, vulnerable dancing. . . . I cannot bear to part from these people.”

The art direction—which highlights long, sheer, billowing curtains and concealed entrances that add to the tension of the action—is by James Chinlund, who was production designer on Darren Aronofsky’s mind-bending film Requiem for a Dream.

ChameckiLerner Dance Company will present Visible Content at MASS MoCA (1040 MASS MoCA Way, North Adams, Mass.) on Saturday (March 29) at 8 PM. Tickets are $16 adults and $12 students. Also, Chamecki and Lerner will host a Saturday morning movement class for children in MASS MoCA’s rehearsal studio at 11 AM. Tickets for this kids event are free with museum admission, but space is limited and reservations are required. For reservations and information, call (413) 662-2111.

Atom & His Package

Atom, of Atom & His Package notoriety, holds a degree in neuroscience. However, the only science project he’s interested in these days is his one-man, unapologetically brash synth-punk extravaganza—a show that prompted one critic to note, “There is a threshold to how much of this fucker any mortal can handle.”

A former punk-rock guitarist, Atom (aka Adam Goren) now proudly relies on his Package to enthrall (and/or appall) audiences—and he’s bringing it to Valentine’s with him for a show tonight (Thursday). No, he doesn’t whip out his dick (usually). Rather, the Package is a synthesizer-type gizmo capable of chugging out sounds ranging from hardcore to pop-punk without the odor and inconvenience of a surly band.

Atom tackles topics ranging from the absurdity of the metric system to German octopi to homosexual heavy-metal gods with equal fervor. Hilarity often ensues.

His latest release, Attention Blah, Blah, Blah, is described as his most tuneful and melodic effort to date. Atom brings songs from it and oh-so-much more to Valentine’s (17 New Scotland Ave., Albany) tonight (Thursday, March 27) at 8 PM. Special guests Brazil, the Zambonies and the Sixfifteens come along for the ride. Tickets are $10. Call 432-6572 for information.

Horns and Halos

When St. Martin’s Press hired author J.H. Hatfield to pen a quickie biography of political up-and-comer George W. Bush in 1998, the publisher expected no more than an accurate hack job—a standard regurgitation of the life and career of the then-Texas governor and son of a former president, compiled from news clippings. They did not expect any original research from Hatfield, the author of celebrity bios of Patrick Stewart and Ewan McGregor. He surprised them with the result, however, titled Fortunate Son, which contained explosive new information about Bush’s alleged arrest for cocaine possession in the early ’70s. The publisher released the book with some fanfare, but yanked it from bookstore shelves a few days later—after Hatfield’s own criminal history was brought to light. There was also, it is alleged, intense political pressure from the Bush family and their lawyers.

That’s just the beginning of the story told by filmmakers Suki Hawley and Michael Galinsky in Horns and Halos—screening this weekend at Time & Space Limited—a documentary about the repeated attempts made to get Fortunate Son published. There are continued legal troubles; contemptuous coverage in the mainstream media; and intense denials from the Bush campaign as the 2000 election draws near. The filmmakers present the film as a look at the “seedy underbelly of American politics and media,” and they aren’t kidding. The weird cast of characters, in addition to convicted felon/author Hatfield, is led by 29-year-old apartment building super and budding New York publisher Sander Hicks (pictured). Hicks, an idealist who also doubles as frontman in a punk band, divides his time between keeping the toilets working and arranging interviews with 60 Minutes.

Did Hatfield expose the truth about W.? Was there collusion between the Bushies and the mainstream media? Who was Hatfield’s “Deep Throat”-style source for the cocaine allegation? The answers are stranger than you could guess. As Brian De Palma—no stranger to bizarre narratives—said, “What a story!”

Horns and Halos will be shown at Time & Space Limited (434 Columbia St., Hudson) tonight (Thursday, March 27) and tomorrow (Friday, March 28) at 7 PM. There will also be screenings Saturday (March 29) at 8 PM and Sunday (March 30) at 4 PM. The filmmakers will be in attendance at the Saturday screening. Tickets are $7.50, $5 for members. For more information, call 822-8448.