The Trisha Brown Dance Company moves through its final three years. It has only been a few months since I wrote about the Trisha Brown Dance Company, and here I am writing again. Ever since it was announced last year that health issues had caused Brown to retire as company head and sole choreographer and that the dancers were embarking on a three-year farewell tour, I tend to think, “It … [Read more...]
Diary of an Image
DD Dorvillier adds a new work to her month-long reassessment of her history in dance. DD Dorvillier always seems, in her choreographic projects, to be testing something. Perhaps it’s the audience’s perception of dance, or her own. She probes into the interactions of light and darkness, into the effect of space on sound vibrations, into the interference of objects on live dancers, and more. … [Read more...]
Please Do It Again
DD Dorvillier draws fragments from past works, strips them down, and re-situates them. On the wooden floor of St. Mark’s Church close to the 10th Street end of the space, a man and a woman sit close together, facing each other (right leg bent in front, left leg bent behind), They’re both wearing plain gray tee-shirts and shorts. It’s noon on the first Wednesday of DD Dorvillier’s reframed … [Read more...]
Where Do You Plan To Travel?
Yoshiko Chuma and Rebecca Lazier share a program at LaMama. Yoshiko Chuma’s program note for her π=3.14…HOW TO DELIVER AN AFGHAN HAT Endless Peripheral Border Cont… (part of the 2014 LaMama Moves Festival) begins with these words; ‘War is like a sick child. You either keep doing your job or not.” She should know. Growing up in Japan after World War II in a culture still shuddering its … [Read more...]
Creatures Under the Skin
The seven dancers of LeeSaar The Company perform Princess Crocodile at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Lee Scher and Saar Harari call their latest work for LeeSaar The Company Princess Crocodile, but that doesn’t mean we should expect to see a story about a crocodile who ruled the swamp or ate a princess or became one. These Israeli artists who’ve lived and worked in the U.S. for ten years now … [Read more...]
Breaching The Fourth Wall
Faye Driscoll at Danspace St. Marks and Netta Yerushalmy at the Harkness Dance Center bring spectators and performer closer together. The so-called fourth wall that separates performers from the spectators who’ve come to watch them is not always an obvious barrier like that created by a proscenium stage. Often it’s a virtual boundary that involves very little distance between the two zones. … [Read more...]
Looking Back, Dancing Now
Montclair State University’s Peak Performances hosts Douglas Dunn’s Aubade, January 24-February 1. Between the last moments of Douglas Dunn’s new Aubade and the swell of applause, the woman sitting next to me in Montclair State University’s Alexander Kasser Theater turned and said, “It’s so sad!” And yes it was, and no it wasn’t. As Dunn remarked in an interview, an aubade is a song to the … [Read more...]
Dissecting Pop Culture
Susan Marshall & Company turn music videos inside out in Play/Pause Did it begin with the advent of the remote? Mute the commercial from the comfort of your easy chair. Push the buttons; surely there’s something on another channel that’s better than the something you’re watching. Fast forward through a video. Oops, did the cat knock something over? Press pause. Bored during intermission … [Read more...]
Moving Pictures
The Kitchen and Performa present Maria Hassabi's dance installation, Premiere. The lobby of The Kitchen opens onto far-west 19th Street. Trucks could—and perhaps once did—drive right in. The night I go there to see Maria Hassabi’s Premiere, that area is as packed with people as the place’s full name (The Kitchen Center for Video, Music, Dance, Performance, Film, and Literature) is packed … [Read more...]
Two Masters of Improvisation
Two stellar improvisers, Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson, recreate a 2004 work at Dia: Chelsea, October 10-12, 17-19. Steve Paxton and Lisa Nelson came to improvisation from different directions. She was a member of Daniel Nagrin’s Workgroup in the 1970s, the same decade during which Paxton developed contact improvisation. While he was investigating the dynamics of body against body, she was … [Read more...]