Originally part of a 1974 video project called "All About Eggs" (never
aired as a finished product), The Bach Duet renders a stately yet bright
cantata [for soprano and alto voices] into a wryly witty dance for a man and
woman in a clear spacial, if not an interlocked-via-partnering relationship.
>From spitting on the floor and grinding a foot in it to establish traction,
the dancers set off on a deadpan excursion through Bach's vocal and
instrumental music. Point and counterpoint accents between the dancers
dressed like celestial athletes build a dance musically precise and yet with
a logic of its own, as well as with an individual logic of each dancer's
own. Their often canonic and fluent moves occasionally freeze and/or reveal
seemingly anomalous gestures, high-signs for example, that, especially due
to their dead-pan delivery, give the audience a good smile or a genuine
laugh. Very little partnering takes place, that which does sometimes has the
air of momentary, spontaneous reactions and works from man-to-woman as well
from woman-to-man. More teasing moments of lets-get-to-work spitting, by
both partners, dot the rest of the friendly and wittily baroque display.