Escalante and Poerstel double up for DoublePlus

Alex Escalante in Venado (Deer Dance)
(photos: Paula Court)

Alex Escalante's demanding solo, Venado (Deer Dance), feels sourced not only in his experience dancing with a Mexican folkloric troupe and not only in the ceremonial dances of indigenous tribes. It locates Escalante in a tradition of morally-focused, heroic performance that I associate more with modern dance than avantgarde dance since the Judson era. In the stark, dark setting at the theater of Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, we watch this performer build from a quiet, humble entrance--circling the space while acknowledging each of us with an almost imperceptible smile and nod--to sculpted imagery suggesting trance states and hefty, majestic physicality. Jon Moniaci's very faint soundscape, which sounds like a crowd chanting in the far distance, gives a strange sense of temporal and even spatial depth to the experience of this dramatic offering.

Alex Escalante
below: Alice McDonald (left) and Mary Read
in Molly Poerstel's
Stolen Grounds (working title)
(photos: Paula Court)

Escalante shares a Gibney DoublePlus program this week with Molly Poerstel, both artists curated by award-winning dancemaker Donna Uchizono. Poerstel's new piece, Stolen Grounds (working title), might, in its own way, be as dramatic and demanding as Escalante's solo. It is a restive, driven duet for Alice McDonald and Mary Read in which the two women bound and churn through the roomy space, starting in near darkness, measured formalism grappling with chaos. If you happen to have a good angle on it, you will see the full lit image of a horse's head (artwork by Samuel Taylor) that looms behind one of the theater's columns; if not, you'll just notice an intriguing glow coming from that area. In either case, clearly this stolen ground is haunted ground.

Escalante and Poerstel continue tonight through Saturday with performances at 7:30pm. Friday's show will be followed by a Q&A with Donna Uchizono and the choreographers. For schedule information and tickets, click here.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis
Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

First steps in Dance@DMAC

Michelangelo Alasa brings big dance to small places--well, to his Duo Multicultural Arts Center on East 4th Street--with this incandescent lineup of "downtown" dancer-choreographers in what he hopes will be an regular presentation at DMAC. Check it out on Wednesday or Thursday, October 8-9 (8pm).

Ticketing at SmartTix.com

Information at DMAC

Where the heart is

I can only imagine what it must mean for Alex Escalante to present a work like Clandestino in the presence of two families who cherish him--his biological kin and his artistic kin from New York's dance world. The hour-long work--presented through tonight by Danspace Project--is inspired by his parent's Mexican heritage and personal and public policy issues related to the immigration of undocumented workers. That sounds like a lot to swallow, but not to worry: Escalante has blended in just enough personal and political (and aesthetic) elements to encourage us to empathize and to think.

With the help of Joe Levasseur--the lighting phenom who also co-designed Escalante's set--he tranforms the sanctuary of St. Mark's Church into a place of interrogation as well as celebration with high-spirited social dancing amid increasingly provocative interaction with the audience. Escalante cavorts with the rambuntious, sexy team of Reneé Archibald, Pedro Osorio and Sandy Tillet, and I could have watched them dance all night. I also wished for a longer listen to the live music by Los Inmigrantes del Sur--Ausencio Cesario Garcia, Javier Francisco Dorantes Davila and Joel Vasquez Jeronimo.

Clandestino closes tonight. Due to the configuration of the audience, space is very limited, but try to get in. And don't forget to wear your dancing shoes!

Reservations: 212-674-8194
Danspace Project information

And if you missed my Body and Soul interview with Alex, here it is!

Alex Escalante: Body and Soul podcast

Alex Escalante's new evening-length work--"Clandestino"--pays tribute to his Mexican heritage, his immigrant parents, and the courage of undocumented workers, living in the United States, who, in the spring of 2006, turned out for massive rallies for their human rights. At a time when illegal immigration has become an exploited political flashpoint, Escalante asks audiences to confront their own feelings and opinions on this issue. The personal is the political, and vice-versa, in this vibrant presentation featuring live and recorded music, film, and a movement vocabulary inspired by contemporary Mexican social dances. Visit "Clandestino" on MySpace (see link below).

BIO

Alex Escalante, originally from Los Angeles, graduated from SUNY Purchase. He has worked in New York with Donna Uchizono, Jennifer Monson/Birdbrain, Doug Elkins, Doug Varone, David Neumann, Gerald Casel, the Metropolitan Opera, and has been fortunate to tour as Merce Cunningham's personal assistant. He was featured in the musical film Romance and Cigarettes, directed by John Turturro. His own work, as well as choreography for theatre with Division 13 Productions, has been presented at Dance Theater Workshop, Danspace Project, La MaMa E.T.C., Dixon Place, Movement Research at Judson Church, Joe's Pub, and Here Arts Center. In February 2007, his most recent work, Swallow Sand, was presented by Dance Theater Workshop as part of a Studio Series residency. Escalante is currently a 2007-2008 Movement Research Artist-in-Residence. He also works as a freelance photographer and is an avid surfer.

EVENT

Premiere of "Clandestino" at Danspace Project, St. Mark's Church, Thursday-Saturday, April 10-12 (8:30pm)
Reservations: 212-674-8194 or at Danspace Project's Web site (see link below).

LINKS

Alex Escalante's "Clandestino"
http://www.myspace.com/_clandestino

Danspace Project
http://www.danspaceproject.org

Body and Soul is the official podcast of InfiniteBody dance blog at
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. Subscribe through iTunes or at
http://magickaleva.hipcast.com/rss/bodyandsoul.xml.

(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

This material may not be reproduced in any way, either in part or in its entirety, without the expressed written permission of Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

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