Behind the scenes with LMCC and Enrico D. Wey

Great new art doesn't just auto-magically appear during Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's popular River to River Festival (various sites, June 15-July 14). It has to be made, and making it takes space and a fair amount of time. LMCC provides both to artists like Enrico D. Wey, now working on a dance project with a company of four in LMCC's Process Space residency at 125 Maiden Lane. Yesterday afternoon, a small group of visitors got a chance to look under the hood and see how Wey works.

Wey's work-in-progress, targeted for premiere later this year or in 2014, is conceived to be responsive and adjustable to multiple outdoor and traditional indoor venues. In his sample showing, each dancer twisted, slouched and seamlessly flowed through a connected sequence of moves of his or her own or adopted his colleagues' moves. Wey continuously shuffled and recombined dancers and number of moves--"Jeremy, can you learn Mary's 20," "Simon, go to your 75." In a later passage, dancers executed patterns of bending and swaying that, like gazing out at a wind-rustled meadow, made my breath slow down. All of this seemed an ideal way to hook audiences on the notion that contemporary dance can be welcoming and even fun.

To find more opportunities to visit Open Studio showings, and for complete information on River to River's "over 150 events in 30 days at 28 sites," click here.