ARENA Dances by Mathew Janczewski: Ugly

American society is obsessed with beautiful people. Paparazzi record the weight gains and losses of Hollywood starlets as closely as Ben Bernanke watches the stock market. Plastic surgeons earn big bucks enhancing or reducing what nature gave us. Average Joes rarely come out ahead on reality-TV shows. With "Ugly," commissioned by the Walker Art Center, local choreographer Mathew Janczewski confronts the all-encompassing desire for physical perfection, and transfers the phenomenon into the realm of dance—certainly a familiar world for the body-conscious. West Coast electronic music legend Morton Subotnick and his ensemble will join Janczewski's 10-year-old troupe for a kinetic exploration of the traditional meanings of beauty—and its opposite—that will surely redefine expectations about the human ideal.
Oct. 18-20, 8 p.m., 2007