Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Worthwhile dance about town: Keone & Mari Madrid’s BEYOND BABEL and Lucinda Childs’ seminal DANCE

• By drediman
• October 20, 2021
• No Comments

Dance has kicked into full gear in New York. Indeed, between classical ballet headliners New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre’s respective fall seasons at Lincoln Center, as well as the wonderfully democratic Fall for Dance Festival at New York City Center, dance fans have recently had a plethora of options at their disposal. But the riches don’t end there, as evidenced by two worthwhile evening-length dance productions I attended about town over the past few days. Here are my thoughts.

BEYOND BABEL
The Gym at Judson
Through November 21

Before the pandemic struck, I fell hard – unexpectedly – for Keone and Mari Madrid’s Beyond Babel (RECOMMENDED), whose run was interrupted by the March 2020 lockdown. Fortunately, the production – which has been co-conceived and co-directed by Josh and Lyndsay Aviner of Brooklyn-based Hideaway Circus – has been able to regroup and resume its run at The Gym at Judson this fall. Set against the backdrop of a vaguely dystopian society, the work is a loose choreographic retelling of Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. Using hip-hop dance as its physical vocabulary, Beyond Babel ambitiously attempts to elevate the urban dance vernacular as a serious means of theatrical storytelling. The Madrids mostly succeed, especially in the production’s stunning second act, which unravels the plot with thrilling invention and genuine heart. Although my recent return trip has exposed some of the work’s less successful aspects (e.g., its slight over-reliance on its pop song collage of a score to establish emotions), the choreography largely ravishes with its impressive attention to detail and unalloyed joy, which the young and very talented cast manifest with energizing gusto. Leading the performance as the tragic central couple is the husband-and-wife duo of the Madrids themselves. Although both are exquisite movers and possess magnetic stage presence, I was particularly taken with Mrs. Madrid’s emotionally naked portrayal, which moved me with its transparency and unforced grace.

LUCIND CHILDS: DANCE
The Joyce Theater
Through October 24

Then over at the Joyce Theater, I marveled all over again at the vision and sheer audacity of Lucinda Childs’ Dance (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), which last night commenced a weeklong run at the beloved Chelsea dance venue. My first exposure to the seminal 1979 piece was, in fact, also at The Joyce, back in 2016. I remember being captivated by the overall impact of the collaboration between Ms. Childs, composer Philip Glass, and film artist Sol DeWitt, whose collective contributions resulted in a visually and sonically captivating exercise in sustained minimalism. By distilling the act of dance to just a few steps – performed obsessively in a few simple geometric patterns – and setting them to the glacial progression of Mr. Glass’s bright but relentless score, Ms. Childs alters our perception of time and space with the rigorous repetition of her choreography. Add to that the textured layers of the steady gaze of Mr. DeWitt’s historic footage of the original company, and the three-movement work also doubles as an artful document of a landmark artistic achievement, creating a vital dialogue between past and present, and thereby further blurring the notions of time and space. Performing behind a scrim (onto which Mr. DeWitt’s film footage is projected), Ms. Childs’ mesmerizing dancers are admirably up to the task of re-inhabiting this historic dance production. Indeed, it’s fascinating to observe – in real time – how time (has and hasn’t) modified dancers’ interpretation of Dance‘s movements since the work’s original incarnation.