Through their interactions, Cooke shows how social transformation can be less a forward march than a messy, halting dance, with sometimes awkward partners.
That's where things get messier: Sayoc danced right up against the line that might draw police scrutiny by showcasing images that alluded to the assassination of prominent Americans, Martinez argued.
Then they get up and dance appealingly messy routines in a storm of crinolines.
Like that unsettling film by Lars von Trier, the dance wraps messy human desires around a false promise of science, vines strangling a host.
Unlike the polished folk, blues and Afropop of the preceding decade, Konono No 1 and Kasai Allstars were celebrated for their messy, often distorted electric dance music.
And in his opening remarks Mr. Houston-Jones bestowed Messies (his version of dance's Bessie Awards, which were not given out this year) upon artists who comment on the world around them.
It's only at Harcourt Street that the first harbinger of a messy night appears: A girl dances out of a club into the path of an oncoming Luas (Dublin's slow-moving tram system), and it grinds to a halt until she moves on.
It's only at Harcourt Street that the first harbinger of a messy night appears: a girl dances out of a club into the path of an oncoming Luas (Dublin's slow-moving purple tram system) and it grinds to a halt until she moves on.
Yet there is something about the hourlong work, some emphasis of handsome exteriors over messy explorations, that inexorably leaches the dance of power and interest.
Dance music is a messy scene whose rules and virtues can confound even its fans, let alone mainstream Grammy voters.
In a week dedicated to dance music traditionalism, this playful, messy approach was an appealing alternative.
