Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Streaming sublime downbeat/upbeat dance: Kyle Abraham’s WHEN WE FELL and Ayodele Casel’s CHASING MAGIC

• By drediman
• April 10, 2021
• No Comments

Streaming dance has come a long way since the pandemic first hit. What started off as a makeshift way to provide content to audiences remotely has turned into a vital way to convey the art form, as evidenced by a pair of sublime but vastly different dance “films” I was able to recently stream.

KYLE ABRAHAM: WHEN WE FELL
New York City Ballet
On-demand through April 22

As perhaps the city’s marquee dance company, New York City Ballet has curiously remained quietly out of sight in terms of performance content during the pandemic, relying primarily on archival footage or “teaser” new works to appease its many devotees. Enter When We Fell (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), Kyle Abraham’s stunner of a dance film that dropped on Thursday. Artfully shot in black and white (the film is co-directed by Ryan Marie Helfant), the work seems to imagine a contemplatively stark world after humans. What’s left, it would appear, are architectural remnants – the monumental Koch Theater itself (the expansive lobby, the stage, the magnificent auditorium) is a powerful presence in the film – as well as spectral, elegant imprints of what was. Although these “ghosts”, who are represented by eight City Ballet dancers (a refreshingly diverse bunch, ranging from members of the corps to principals), pervade Mr. Abraham’s austere vision, they share it in harmony with the elements – water, stone, and metal are also strongly featured in the breathtakingly if deliberately shot film. Mr. Abraham’s sculptural, elegant choreography is as stately and devoid of melodrama as the elements themselves, audaciously suggesting that the world is perhaps better off without us. When We Fell is a striking departure for the choreographer, whose previous works have been flashy affairs. This deeply edited endeavor has been scored for piano by Morton Feldman, Nico Muhly, and Jason Moran, whose subdued work Mr. Abraham responds to with astonishing, level-headed purity.

AYODELE CASEL: CHASING MAGIC
The Joyce Theater
On-demand through April 21

Then we have Ayodele Casel’s gregarious Chasing Magic (RECOMMENDED), which was filmed live on the stage of the Joyce Theatre in Chelsea. It couldn’t have been more different – Ms. Casel’s new work is irrepressibly upbeat and casual, which is in complete contrast to Mr. Abraham’s formal, chilly vision for City Ballet. Segmented into nine short thematic parts (“Gratitude”, “Friendship”, “Joy”, “Inspiration”, “Trust”, “Legacy”, “Culture”, “Ancestors”, and “Magic”), Chasing Magic gives off the vibe of a laidback get together among close friends. As such, it’s an uplifting harbinger of things hopefully to soon come. There’s something disarmingly natural about Ms. Casel’s choreographic and performative talents, almost as if she’s just a kid playing in a sandbox (an analogy used in the brief prelude interview to the “Trust” segment with Ms. Casel and highly regarded jazz musician Arturo O’Farrill). Her brand of tap interacts with the music effortlessly and genuinely – floating on top of, weaving in and out of, and even inspiring it. Since tap is innately percussive, Ms. Casel and her fabulous performers also need to be musicians (and conversationalists) in addition to movers – a phenomenon that’s unique to the storied dance form. Happily, their music-making is as smooth, vital, and full of personality as the jazzy standards, African beats, and beatboxing they accompany (the stream concludes with an inspirational vocal performance by singer/songwriter Crystal Monee Hall). Chasing Magic has been intimately and dynamically shot in high-definition by Kurt Csolak, effectively capturing the celebratory nature of Ms. Casel’s work.