Monday November 28, 2011 - Down to the Wild Project in the East Village (or would we say NoHo?) for The Current Sessions, a programme featuring works - both live and on film - by nine choreographers. The Wild Project venue is a very neat space for dance, seating about 90 people in raked rows. The lobby is small, immaculate, welcoming - with a 'garage door' that I imagine would be open on Summer evenings. Earlier in the day, photographer Nir Arieli and I had watched the dress rehersal where he recorded the images you see here.
Photo at the top from Allison Jones' Listen to Me.
The evening gave me an odd sensation: I was by far the oldest person in the audience. Aside from Kokyat and I, it was a twenty-something crowd: swigging form beer bottles, they were attentive and enthusiastic. The danceworks were created and performed by people of their generation with music that suits their frame of reference. All the works presented - even the witty ones - showed seriousness of creative intent as well as committed and always enjoyable dancing. The sold-out crowd were keenly receptive to it all.
In her solo a room, home Jenna Otter used the space beautifully and set a standard for the works to come. At close range, the dancer's breathing became part of the texture of her performance as she veered from restless to subdued. Her excellent choice of Bach was the only nod to anything remotely classical in terms of music this evening, however I would like to express a hope that dance artists will stop using Glenn Gould's versions of Bach with the pianist's vocal 'commentary' always a distraction. There are a million recordings of all things Bach. Choose a different pianist.
In a duet by choreographer Allison Jones, dancers Hayley Jones and Amir Rappaport put their intimate and intense relationship on public view. Entitled Listen to Me, this duet on the surface is about two friends each trying to make a point. But there's a sexual undercurrent as well, of control and of unspoken passion. The two dancers were beautifully expressive of the work's wide-ranging emotional setting. The music was pleasant, innocuous, forgettable - a drawback shared by by most of the rest of the works we saw all evening.
Here are more of Nir's images from Listen to Me:
Above: from Allison Jones' Listen to Me.
In the solo Ragerian's Vignettes, Genna Baroni showed an interesting mixture of technical strength and personal modesty. This dichotomy made her quite fascinating to watch, with the dancer immersed in herself though also warily aware of the audience. Again the music was simply there, neither enhancing nor distracting from the dance.
Above: Genna Baroni
Bennyroyce Royon's duet Wander seems to portray a couple in an on-going relationship who have lost their focal point. As they vocalize their thoughts, which shift from the mundane to the profound, they move around one another, close but not connecting. Clad in casual summer-wear, Benny and his partner Marie Zvosec look great together. Benny's choice of a sentimental waltzy song from Pale White Moon suits him and Marie very well here.
In the end, they find a new beginning.
A brief film 4PLAY from Yarden Raz concluded the first half of the evening. It had a Chaplinesque feel to it.
At the dress rehearsal, dancers Christopher Ralph and Gregory Dolbashian had simply marked thru Jonathan Royse Windham's Oh! Darlin' so that I really couldn't get a feeling for what it would be like. But at the actual performance, Jonathan delivered a truly droll performance of this little vignette about a boy's livelong love for his teddy bear. As Chris and Greg removed layers of Jonathan's clothes, starting with his jammies, the dancer aged perceptibly. By the end, he was a bent old man...but still steadfastly attached to his bear. The familiar Beatle tune gave the piece an ironic twist.
In Alexis Convento's raucously charming duet la baggare, rival French femme fatales (dancers Allison Sale and Lynda Senisi, above) each attempt to get the upper hand in this fast-paced romp with a Moulin Rouge feeling.
Allison and Lynda gave their on-going competitive spat a distinctive flair.
Jordan Isadore's two-part film SARA began with a blonde-wigged dancer striking balletic poses, perfectly in sync to an antique music box. This truly funny flick gave way to a four-panel display of two dancers shot from four different angles; this was amusing for a minute, then went on too long. Brevity is still the soul of wit.
In the end, it was Yin Yue's mysterious and well-crafted we have been here before that stood out among the evening's offerings in its use of more than two dancers and its darkish, dreamy atmosphere. An abstract work, we have been here before shows Yin Yue's fine sense of structure and - in addition to her own dancing, which has a specific perfume - her choice of persuasive individual fellow dancers to shape her work: Sarah F Parker, Jacqueline Stewart, Grace Whitworth and Daniel Holt.
Daniel Holt in Yin Yue's we have been here before.
All photography by Nir Arieli.