Latsky shares her progress

Last Thursday evening, I caught up with dancer-choreographer Heidi Latsky and her work-in-progress--Gimp--at an informal, invitation-only showing at Henry Street Settlement: Abrons Arts Center, where her company is now in residency. Months ago, I'd watched her working on an intriguing duet with dancers Jeffrey Freeze (aka Freeze) and Lawrence Carter-Long. Little did I know how much Latsky and her dancers had interwoven and structured in the intervening time!

I was delighted to find that Lisa Bufano--an interdisciplinary performance artist who is a finger and lower leg amputee--had joined Latsky's team of artists who include some performers with visible, physical disabilities. Bufano had danced Five Open Mouths, a solo created for her by Latsky, which premiered, to much acclaim, at Judson Church in winter 2007. Now, a section of that solo, set to Cyndi Lauper's version of "La Vie en Rose" has been folded into Gimp, where it remains deeply affecting. [See a video of the Kennedy Center version here.] Other members of the troupe include Christina Briggs, Catherine Long, and Lezlie Frye, a spoken-word artist who says she had no prior dance training but is one of the most sensational movers I've seen in a long time.

gimp (gimp)

1. a ribbonlike, braided fabric
2. fighting spirit; vigor
3. a lame person
4. slang a halting, lame walk
5. To turn, vacillate, tremble ecstatically
6. a new, cutting edge dance event

[definitions supplied by Heidi Latsky]

Watching dancers with visible, physical disabilities makes me wonder about the many choices and intricate adjustments their bodies make in order to negotiate choreography's demands. If you have a symmetrical body, you probably have certain habits in how you work with your weight, balance, momentum in turns and so forth. How are those patterns altered when the body is asymmetrical and when motion and balance must be achieved in atypical ways? Can those alterations produce revealing, exciting results that push the aesthetic envelope? I think so. Dancers with disabilities are helping Latsky find striking new ways of relating to the body and investigating and creating movement.

Another free, informal showing, followed by refreshments and audience feedback time, is planned for Saturday, April 26 (7:30pm) at Henry Street Settlement: Abrons Arts Center. Space is very limited. If you'd like to attend, please RSVP to Heidi Latsky (917-929-6985 or hlatskydance@aol.com) or Jay Wegman (212-598-0400 x220 or jwegman@henrystreet.org).

“This work is new, exciting and immensely pleasurable.” -- Simi Linton, Disability Culture Watch