Winterizing our summer: Gat at Lincoln Center

Last night, Lincoln Center Festival 09 presented the New York premiere of Emanuel Gat Dance's Winter Variations--starring Gat, Roy Assaf and the stark, Gat-lit stage of LC's Rose Theater. I've never warmed to the old notion that art is Man's attempt to upstage the awesome works of Nature. But Gat and Assaf and that stage really did put me in a state of awe.

Winter Variations is grey tones and suspended moments, drones and bleak shadows, yawning space around men in uncanny, telepathic coordination, ornate simplicity, fluid, softness of motion, the treading of time into infinity. Also on the bill: Gat's Silent Ballet, in its North American premiere run. As in Winter Variations, Gat's innovative lighting design defines and electrifies the space and--with the dancer-and-audience-exposing lack of musical accompaniment, the ensemble's sifting and shifting, their attraction/repulsion, the movements' eccentric pacing--both draws one in and creates a visceral disorientation. Silent Ballet is interesting and handsomely performed, but Winter Variations is the fine instrument, one of the most exciting duets in my experience.

I urge you to see these exceptional works and performers tomorrow night or Friday, if you can still get tickets. Try here.