At the Fringe, I see dead people

Yes. A handful of them. Dancing in Ectospasms, written and directed by Jessica Bonenfant and Edmund B. Lingan of Lola Lola Dance Theatre, which should not to be confused with LuLu LoLo from one of the other Fringe Fest shows I've recently seen. But like LuLu LoLo, Bonenfant and Lingan take their inspiration from women's history. In this case, the history concerns the 1848 birth of the American Spiritualist movement in Hydesville, NY, a town where, we're told--via words projected on a hanging bed sheet--"entertainment is not plentiful."

This relatively brief, impressionistic piece introduces us to Hydesville's infamous Fox sisters and their increasingly volatile and suspect spirit rapping (not what that sounds like) and an unidentified medium who summons various spirits out of a cabinet and exudes or regurgitates endless lengths of white, ectoplasmic-like fabric.

Spiritualism's rise converged with other interesting movements--women's suffrage, abolitionism and temperance--and was stoked, during the Civil War years, by widespread loss and grief. Ectospasm's characters--lightly touched upon and presented, without dialogue, in uninspired modern dance movement--might be worthy of more interesting choreographic design as well as a connection to this rich historical context.

Ectospasms runs again this evening at 7:30pm and has its final performance tomorrow evening, Sunday, at 9:30pm at the Robert Moss Theater at 440 Lafayette Street, 3rd Floor.

Complete New York International Fringe Festival information