VIEWPOINTS – DEEP BLUE SEA & IT STARTS NOW: Bill T. Jones and Alejandro Cerrudo unveil artful evening-length dance creations

This week, dance makers Bill T. Jones and Alejandro Cerrudo unveiled their respective new evening-length works to New York dance fans. Here are my thoughts these artful dance creations.

Bill T. Jones’s “Deep Blue Sea” at the Park Avenue Armory.

DEEP BLUE SEA
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company at the Park Avenue Armory
Through October 9

Perhaps the most notable dance premiere of the week was Bill T. Jones’s Deep Blue Sea (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED) at the Park Avenue Armory (the work was originally supposed to have premiered there in April 2020). Created with the venue’s cavernous drill hall specifically in mind, the expansive new work seeks to tackle big questions of the day – like racial reckoning – through the lens of both the individual, as well as the community. Primarily using Melville’s Moby Dick and Martin Luther King Jr.’s immortal “I Have a Dream” address to inform his musings, Jones adopts a tone that’s contemplative, but also restless and searching, which is heightened by the work’s fractured, episodic structure. Ultimately, the sprawling, nearly two hour production defies easy categorization, providing an all-encompassing experience that unabashedly embraces not only dance (as vibrantly provided by the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company dancers), but also healthy doses of theater, visual art (particularly impressive work by projection designer Peter Nigrini), music concert, and community gathering all in one evening. Starting with just the striking figure of Jones himself on the epic expanse of the drill hall, the work undulates like the sea, culminating in a large-scale spectacle involving more than a hundred bodies. Although a part of me misses the focus and intimacy of Afterwardsness – Jones’s direct response to the pandemic (also at the armory) – I was ultimately swept away and moved by the glorious cacophony of Deep Blue Sea.

Alejandro Cerrudo’s “It Starts Now” at the Joyce Theater.

ALEJANDRO CERRUDO: IT STARTS NOW
The Joyce Theater
Through October 3

For its second post-lockdown week of in-person performances, the Joyce Theater has programmed Alejandro Cerrudo’s new work It Starts Now (RECOMMENDED), which is scheduled to run at the indispensable Chelsea dance venue through Sunday. Cerrudo’s substantial history with contemporary dance companies like Nederlands Dans Theater and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago – where he was the company’s first-ever Resident Choreographer (a position Cerrudo held for a decade!) – is apparent in the piece. Indeed, the surreal, almost absurdist and pseudo-theatrical aesthetic that has long been associated with these companies permeates It Starts Now, as evidenced by nods to both Samuel Beckett and Bertolt Brecht, both whose spirits loom prominently over the work. Against this theatrical and atmospheric backdrop, Cerrudo plays out a cascade of short choreographed episodes. Unfortunately, although these scenes are heavy on suggestion, they lack emotional heft and don’t really add to a satisfying whole. Nevertheless, the choreography is never less than stylishly chic, which you’d expect from a talent like Cerrudo. Additionally, the choreographer has assembled an appealing company of dancers, with the standouts being Ana Lopez and Daniel Rae Srivastava, both of whom are stunning specimens and sensual, commanding movers.

Categories: Dance

Leave a Reply