Austin McCormick’s ROCOCO ROUGE, an Intimate and Sensual Delight

In the scant eight years since director/choreographer Austin McCormick began recruiting his assemblage of classical dancers, actors, operatic vocalists and circus artists, Company XIV has become one of New York’s most consistently intriguing and enticing stage troupes. Though McCormick has taken inspiration for his evocative pieces from such diverse sources as the works of Charles Bukowski, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and The Brothers Grimm, the company’s artistic spirit has continually been influenced by the more erotic side of the Baroque period during the reign of France’s Louis XIV. They’ve been nomadic since Hurricane Sandy damaged their Brooklyn venue, but with their newest production, Rococo Rouge, Company XIV has settled into an inviting new home, appropriately on Lafayette Street. The Bar at XIV is an intimate lounge that’s open to the general public for cocktails, decorated to suggest the company’s taste for 17th Century sensuality. That style continues in the performance space, a plush, jewel box cabaret room with tiered tables. The show itself is a delightful sampler of dances and specialty routines, performed by scantily-clad men and women who elegantly undulate to an eclectic mix of music that includes both period pieces and more contemporary fare arranged in a unifying style.