Have you ever seen...

...a picture like this in the arts section of the newspaper and thought to yourself, "What the heck is this modern dance stuff all about, anyway?" Well I have -- many times. And I've also thought to myself, "I've got to go and see something like that some day."

Well, Friday night I did.

I drove down to a place called Stage 773, on Belmont Avenue near Racine (right near our old townhouse on Kenmore). Hedwig Dances, a "contemporary dance theater ensemble" was putting on a performance called "Vanishing Points." The cost for a ticket was $25. (No senior citizen discount?)

The company, in its 27th year under founder Jan Bartoszek, is a local group, having performed over 1,500 times in the Chicago area. The program even had an insert from Rahm Emanuel -- himself a former dancer -- proclaiming April 13 as "Hedwig Dances Day in Chicago." (How did I miss that?)

From the program:

Hedwig Dances' bold, interdisciplinary collaborations combine poetic choreography with sculptural artifacts, projected images and haunting original music. The resulting dances resonate with complexity and depth and provoke emotion, connection and wonder.

Wow. Okay, so provoke me.

The show was divided into four parts. The first two, "Dance of Forgotten Steps" and "It's Not About You," would take about 45 minutes, according to the guy who introduced the show. These would be followed, after a short intermission, by "Line of Sighs" and "Por Dentro," which would take an additional 30 minutes. Cool!

As the lights slowly raised on the first performance, "Dance of Forgotten Steps," I thought to myself, What on earth did I get myself into? The work featured six dancers, five of them from Cuba (of all places). There were just a few props and some New Age-like music. The costumes were in earth tones -- black and olive -- and the whole thing felt like some sort of homage to spring and/or rebirth.

(Or did I miss the whole point? Who knows?)

As the dancers got started (and the performance went on for some time), all I could think to myself was, How do they remember all those steps, all those moves? Is any of this ad-libbed? (And I don't think so; there was too much synchronicity.)

My next thought was, These people are in incredible shape! They really moved effortlessly (or so it seemed to me) and went on jumping and moving about for quite a while. (I'd be way out of breath!) The dancers, while having extensive backgrounds, couldn't have been much beyond thirty years of age. (I also wondered, How long can you do something like this?)

When the lights finally went down, I waited for everyone else before clapping. Is this thing over? I didn't want to be the only one clapping in case it wasn't.

The second dance, "It's Not About You," featured only two male dancers and a rope. It was vaguely homoerotic, I have to admit. (Would this be a good time to change the subject to the NFL draft?)

The costumes were different for this one, too; they were blue. (And all of the dancers, by the way, were barefoot for the entire evening.)

After the intermission came the third performance, "Line of Sighs," which is shown in the picture above. This one involved several ropes (looks like twelve) and three male dancers. (The tone of this one was much more aggressive, though; it seemed to simulate fighting, or competition of some kind.)

Finally, the last dance was "Por Dentro," which means "on the inside" in Spanish. And all five Cuban dancers returned for this work.

It started out a lot like the first one in that there was much activity on the stage. (It was then that I decided that dance may be a little like a three-ring circus: you could take it all in as a whole, or focus on just one dancer at a time. Or like a football game; you can watch the whole field or just one part, like the wide receiver and the defensive back covering him.)

Midway through this work, the five performers began to play a game of "tag." And this, in turn, evolved into one of the women pairing off with one of the men. They then simulated what could have only been lovemaking in a very subtle way. There was no chance of the vice squad turning up, but it was clear what they were portraying -- very interesting.

The whole show was over in about an hour and a half. Did I understand what I had just seen and heard? Again, who knows?

But I would see Hedwig Dances again.