Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – A miracle on 23rd Street: Street-side performances at the cell and ChaShaMa whet the appetite for the long-awaited awakening of the performing arts

• By drediman
• March 20, 2021
• No Comments

Last weekend, as I roamed about Chelsea, I encountered a pair of short performances on West 23rd Street that gave me a jolt of excitement. Because of their pent-up, infectious vitality, these unexpected “pop-up” experiences have further whetted my appetite for the long-awaited awakening of New York’s performing arts scene this spring. A miracle on 23rd Street, indeed.

The first of these street-side performances transpired at the cell, basically a townhouse in Chelsea that’s been the multi-disciplinary nurturing ground for adventurous, off-center visual artists, theater folks, and musicians. The venue’s current tenants is Rachel Rampleman’s Life is Drag (which has just been extended to April 18), an exhibition that’s occasionally supplemented by live performances by one of its defiant alt-drag / burlesque subjects. Last weekend, I had the wicked opportunity to catch the extraordinary Darlinda Just Darlinda and Mimi Silk through the portal of the cell’s ground level window and garden patio. The empowering, audacious performances, which tantalizingly bordered on full-on performance art, complimented each other nicely. Darlinda embodied the unadulterated joy of performance, while Mimi’s grueling turn seethed anger, confusion, and self-reinvention. The 45-minute set featured – among other shocking but delightful sights – writhing on the ground, head-shaving, and a grand finale set to Bette Midler’s “From a Distance”.

Later that day, I skipped down the block to ChaShaMa’s 23rd Street storefront. For those of you who don’t know, ChaShaMa is a wonderful organization that works with local real estate owners to help performing arts practitioners access unused spaces for their craft. That night, I caught an offering of ChaShaMa’s “Behind the Glass” series, which presents works of theater and dance through storefront windows. On the docket that night was the last performance of Romeo + Juliet, The Love Show NYC’s compact 30-minute dance theater adaptation of Shakespeare’s popular tragedy set to an eclectic contemporary mixtape (the production is clearly inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 film version). There’s something oddly theatrical about the voyeuristic act of peering into what’s essentially a fishbowl to watch a performance. Although my sightline only allowed for partial viewing and some of the performers were greener than others, I nonetheless found the whole experience an alluring segue to what’s just around the corner.

Let’s see what this weekend brings …