Faïn and Kocik: transformative space

Daria Faïn (choreographer) and Robert Kocik (architect/sculptor/poet) have had the good fortune to visit and soak up the atmosphere of ancient healing sites on the isle of Amorgos in Greece. Their new work, The Extent to Which, evokes the resonant geometry and history of the temples, baths and ampitheaters in which the Greeks cleansed bodymindsoul. As part of The Prosodic Body--Faïn and Kocik's overarching project--The Extent to Which re-links art and health in our modern-day awareness with an aim to create true transformation, not mere spectacle.

As spectacle, though, Extent has its beauties and its intensities, certainly not separate from its purpose. Performed inside and around an open enclosure of plexiglas and wood, with a stream of increasingly primal sounds both remote and startingly near, the hour-long work abstracts the experience of sitting in the ancient structures and witnessing the ritual arts. In one captivating passage, we watch dancers orbit the center of the performance space, and one another in shifting arrangements and pathways, with their arms and hands forming various hieratic gestures and their bare feet making a soft, dry, shuffling sound.

Another segment takes a less soothing approach as dancers pitch painted rocks at the barriers. There's a fascinating theatrical tension between the crash of rocks smacking into plexiglas--not far from audience members looking on from risers on those sides of the space--and the total control of dancers who, though dashing precariously around one another, toss those rocks with the power and disciplined, studied grace of Olympian athletes.

At the end of the performance, I felt more than a little spacey, as if I had been transported to another world.

The Extent to Which, a joint presentation of Danspace Project and CPR--Center for Performance Research, features Faïn's troupe, Human Behavior Explorers: Benjamin Asriel, Charlotte Gibbons, Alexandra Martorell, Valerie Samulski and Peter Sciscioli. Other members of the collaborative team include Rodrick Murray (lighting), Matt Dick (costumes), Michelle Nagai (music), and Kenta Nagai (live sound performer). The show runs through Sunday with two performances tonight, Friday and Saturday (7pm and 9pm) and a 3pm performance on Sunday.

CPR
361 Manhattan Avenue, Williamburg, Brooklyn
Just a short walk from the L train at Graham Avenue

Information and reservations or 718-715-1500