Albany Student Press 1971-04-21

Living Theatre is the rather pretentious title given to certain works of stage whereby the stage itself can successfully disintegrate. If done with care, a performance with sufficient charisma may motivate an audience to give up its role as spectator and to become one with the experience.This is certainly an ambitious undertaking and, accordingly, an often unsuccessful one. However, for some joyous moments at the Art Gallery on Saturday, the lights were shining on a fabulous company of dancers, and the general frenzy they were able to inspire. A combination of professional and amateur dancers staged a production of "Jesus Christ, Superstar" to the delight of everyone present. In what became more of a rock ballet set to the music of rock opera, a brilliant Black dancer from Harvard made his debut to SUNYA in a superlative blend of poetic dance essence. His movement added a vivacious brashness to the humbleness generally portrayed by the role o f Jesus. However, what was to make "Jesus Christ, Superstar" really work, was the extent to which the audience became absorbed into the presentation. The performance ended to the tune of hundreds of dancing bodies "doing what felt good,"