The sum of zero

Dancer-choreographer Kathy Wasik's fantasia on the number Zero--in a two-piece evening by the same name at Triskelion Arts--sent me on a search for fun facts about the ubiquitous and useful numerical oval.

Did you know, for instance, that a null pointer is a pointer in a computer program that does not point to any object or function? Or that in classical music, 0 is very rarely used as a number for a composition: Anton Bruckner wrote a Symphony No. 0 in D minor and a Symphony No. 00; Alfred Schnittke also wrote a Symphony No. 0? Or that in lattice theory, 0 may denote the bottom element of a bounded lattice? [Thank you, Wikipedia!] What the dickens is lattice theory? Will this be on the test?

From childhood, I've loved individual numbers (and letters) as symbols and entities with something very much akin to their own personalities and force. An instinctual Kabbalist type thing, I guess. I appreciate Wasik's idea of communing with Zero--surely the most buoyant, elusive and intriguing of numerical personalities--throughout her solo, Zero. The piece has its moments of visual pleasure and of whimsy, but I can't say I got it or took away much from the willowy, resilient Wasik's dancing--a long, dream-like performance in which her movements might be a bit too lovely and technically-controlled to speak up for her and her presumably visionary intentions.

On the other hand, Learning to Fall--Wasik's mysterious solo for beautiful Cara Liguori--is a much more cunning study. It uses the power of silence, chiaroscuro lighting (by Andy Dickerson) and carefully selected movement to focus attention. We zoom in on the exacting way Liguori readjusts one wrist with her other hand. She takes her time. She appears as one eternally suspended, touching her face, her hand or her shoulder while her mind seems to dwell elsewhere. Even the dance's ending seems to float in front of us, never landing.

Zero continues tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm at Triskelion Arts, 118 N. 11th Street (3rd Fl. R), Williamsburg, near Bedford Avenue L station

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