"I've got a crush on you..."

When I see a great dancer perform, I feel a kinetic response, a physical sympathy--almost as if, as I sit in the audience, I am dancing too. I feel something akin to how people experience movie stars, like their energy field is larger than mine and I am riveted by this performance being. What I value from these performers is not that they can execute the most turns, the highest arabesque or stay in the air the longest, but something else entirely.

--Annie-B Parson, curator of Dancer Crush (with Carla Peterson)

Oh, right on, sister! And Dancer Crush, a program of short works running now at New York Live Arts and dedicated to exemplars of performance and interpretation, really is "something else entirely." Something wonderful. And glamorous. And essential. And instructive. Leaving the show last night, one friend called the experience inspiring. When I talk about dance with my college students--most of whom expect dance to be entertaining and little more--I remind them that dancers do far more than entertain: They show us how we can live.

I've got a crush on Dancer Crush's curators--Carla Peterson and Annie-Parson whose sensibilities blow me away, whose vision here is not only intelligent and coherent, which would be enough, but electrifying. (Thank you for the joy.)

I've got a crush on Steven Reker who--with his band of dancer/rock musicians, People Get Ready--move, play and sing with ecstatic passion.

I've got a crush on Arturo Vidich, one-man tempest who, under Yvonne Meier's deadpan direction, throws himself into pretty much anything, from flamingo walking to aborted lap dancing. ("No, Arturo," Meier says, speaking into her microphone for emphasis.) He's Theater.

I've got a crush on Ishmael Houston-Jones, playing a game of taking direction from an on-stage quartet of manipulators and dancing the perfect Trickster-Ish combination of grace and gross.

I've got a crush on Jodi Melnick who makes whimsy and high authority virtually indistinguishable.

I've got a crush on Brandi Norton who moves inside the contour of the music.

I've got a crush on Heather Olson and her eccentric virtuosity, Queen of All She Surveys.

I've got a crush on Holley Farmer, elfin and clean and in charge.

I've got a crush on Leah Cox--She of Multiple Intelligences.

I've got a crush of David Neumann--Master of Absurdity.

I've got a crush on Dancer Crush, and I'm not alone. So, if tickets remain, I suggest that you hurry to scoop them up, because word gets around, and you will have lots of competition.

This program continues nightly through Saturday (7:30pm). Click here for more information and ticketing. 

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map and directions)