A Choreographer Spars With Expectations By GIA KOURLAS Published: March 9, 2009 The Serbian choreographer Sasa Asentic is caught

between two worlds in his astut e and often funny lecture-performance piece My private bio-politics. In this criti cal look at the Serbian dance scene, presented over the weekend at Dance Theater Workshop, Mr. Asentic also explores larger issues in the world of contemporary dance. His observations, through text and movement, delve into questions of mark etability and what constitutes authentic Eastern European dance. Mr. Asentic views the production, created with the artistic assistance of Oliver a Kovacevic Crnjanski and dramaturgy by Ana Vujanovic, as an open-ended research project. Once a work in progress, it is now a work in regress, he said from the s tage. In its second year of touring Mr. Asentic deconstructed it, showing less a nd less, until at a 2008 show in Belgrade he performed it without any performance , he said. The audience, he added, watched only a video. At Dance Theater Workshop one section of the stage resembled a boxing ring, deli neated by string and featuring a religious icon with a whistle wrapped around it s neck. Within this landscape, which hinted at the trappings of stereotypical da nce from the Eastern Europe, Mr. Asentic undressed and sparred like a boxer. Sli ghtly breathless, he began a monologue, both earnest and deadpan, about how he h ad discovered dance. In using such a autobiographical approach Mr. Asentic makes reference to the con versational style of the French conceptualist and choreographer Jrme Bel. The laye rs of My private bio-politics run deep, and Mr. Asentic focuses on the tendency of some Eastern European choreographers to copy Western European dance paradigms t o gain acceptance and coveted invitations to prominent festivals. The talking built to a hilarious dance sequence in which Mr. Asentic confronted superficial expectations about Eastern European dance. (It covered references to folklore, exoticism and politics but was not limited to them.) Finally facing the audience again Mr. Asentic quoted the philosopher and critic Boris Groys: The only difference between Western and Eastern European art is that Eastern art always comes from the East. There are many levels to My private bio-p olitics a good thing yet its message is simple: Always break the rules.