Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – John Jasperse Project’s VISITATION: Possessed by rapturous spirits of the dead by way of Wagner

• By drediman
• September 15, 2022
• No Comments

Last weekend, NYU Skirball commenced its eclectic, internationally-sourced fall season with a handful of premiere performances of John Jasperse Project’s Visitation. Set to the orchestral music of Richard Wagner, alongside a patchwork of evocative electronic soundscapes by composer Hahn Rowe, Jasperse’s new evening-length work for three dancers — the excellent Cynthia Koppe, Tim Bendernagel, and Doug LeCours — is an abstract meditation on ghosts, séances (and at the other extreme, exorcisms), and rapture.

The piece begins simply enough with the kitschy man-made components of ghostly apparitions — a white sheet and the human body itself. From there, Jasperse launches into a progression of scenes that artfully deconstruct intimate experiences with the otherworldly. Throughout, the body is used as a conduit for varying degrees of possession by spirits from the other side. Sometimes violent and often times sexually-charged, the work ultimately equates such experiences to states of ecstasy and rapture. At these climactic interludes, the interjection of Wagner’s sublime orchestral music from his operas — comprised of recorded extracts from The Ring Cycle and Tristan und Isolde — makes completely perfect sense.

With a running time of approximately 75 uninterrupted minutes, the single-act work could have easily outstayed its welcome. But in Visitation, Jasperse has concocted a dance that’s organically-constructed, keeping viewers more or less mesmerized with the diversity and poetry of its silky contemporary dance choreography and striking visual aesthetic. Over the course of the evening, the trio of sensual, technically-sound dancers — each are credited as creative collaborators alongside the choreographer — selflessly acquit themselves to Jasperse’s voluptuous vision.

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JOHN JASPERSE PROJECT: VISITATION
Dance
NYU Skirball
1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed