Katherine Longstreth's Soaking WET

Katherine Longstreth's evening of short solos and duets at West End Theater--part of the Soaking WET series, curated by David Parker--makes serious magic(k) in a modest setting. And that's magic(k) that builds throughout the evening and works on you until, gazing at Longstreth encased in a translucent hoop skirt whose distended hem contains and scatters a herd of balloons, you realize there's no escaping her mesmeric pull. Part poet, part oddball, she crafts lapidary pieces focused on clear, strongly sculpted gestures and intriguing relationships and set to a quirky, astonishing variety of accompaniment--Liza Minelli to The White Stripes and all points in between--that you simply savor, saying to yourself, That's it, that's it, just the right cut of music at the right time and what an ear this woman has!

I came to enjoy, too, the way these small pieces sometimes have uninflected endings, as if they were favorite passages roughly ripped out of a book and pasted into the scrapbook that became this concert.

Credit Jay Ryan, too, for touching each of the works with lighting artistry that beautifully enhances Longstreth's delicate but willful precision in all things and the expressive skills of her partners, Diane Vivona in Two for the Show and, especially, Kelly Bartnik, so exquisite in Three to Get Ready.

Longstreth's program runs now through Sunday at 8:30pm with an additional Sunday show at 5pm at the West End Theater, Church of St. Paul & St. Anthony, 263 West 86^th Street (between Broadway and West End Avenue), Manhattan.

For more information and ticketing for this and other Soaking WET programs, as well as directions to the West End Theater, click here.