Berry's movers and shakers

The Irondale Center’s feels like a mini-BAM Harvey Theater, what with its air of history, charming intimacy and dark, peeling walls. I visited for the first time last night, to attend a FLICfest performance. A good place, I think, to see a good, old-school piece of humanism like Confined, a work from the repertory of dancer-choreographer Emily Berry. The hour-long work was performed by Berry and her collaborative B3W company--Nicole McClam, Milvia Pacheco, Sara Roer and Akiko Tomikawa, with actress Sarita Covington and violinist Regina Sadowski. Music was composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain.

Confined’s text, scripted by Todd Craig, is a torrent of words tumbling from Covington throughout the dance. As far as I could follow, it treats of a multiplicity of identities and the experience of feeling constricted within roles imposed by self or others but it also has something to do with family heritage. I say, “as far as I could follow,” because the words are jammed so tightly against one another and fly so quickly from Covington--who must have one hell of a memory--that I could barely keep up. Because she sometimes moved around the dancers, she occasionally placed herself just far enough away that her delicate voice was not clear enough for me to understand. In fact, I experienced the overwhelming and, yes, confining presence of Craig’s text as a competition with imagery--Berry’s dancers and Gail Scott White’s fresh and engaging video. There were times when I had to block out one thing in order to try to grasp and honor the integrity of the other.

Berry works well with props--little wooden tables that turn into cleverly used projection screens; paperback books gently applied to a fallen dancer’s body like bandages; clothing knotted together into long strings that confine and burden. She can create quite touching moments with these imaginative uses of simple things. She has a wonderful eye for visual elements, a capable, well-grounded corps of dancers and a excellent collaborator in her videographer. The missing piece might be an awareness of what could be usefully pared away, a sense of when less could have a chance to mean more.

FLICfest--a Fort Greene, Brooklyn festival devoted to feature-length independent choreography--will run through January 29 with a diverse lineup and an after-hours cabaret. Some of the upcoming performers include Artichoke Dance Company, CatScratch Theatre (the company of FLICfest founder Jeramy Zimmerman) and Layard Thompson. Find out more and get tickets here.

The Irondale Center
Lafayette Avenue Church
85 South Oxford Street, Fort Greene, Brooklyn
(directions)

New Brooklyn festival of longform dance

FLICfest: Brooklyn’s new festival of Independent Feature-Length Choreography

by Alyssa Alpine, Culturebot, January 18, 2010

60x60 at Galapagos

60x60 Dance returns to Dumbo's Galapagos Arts Space, pairing 60 composers with choreographers to create 60 dances for a one-hour multimedia performance.

Tuesday-Wednesday, April 7-8 (8pm)

60x60 Dance is a multimedia extravaganza creating 60 dances with the works of 60 composers for a thrilling one-hour surfing of today's music and dance scenes. Envisioned by 60x60 project director Robert Voisey and choreographer Jeramy Zimmerman, this one-of-a-kind performance consists of 60 modern dance pieces set to 60 different and brand-new one-minute compositions. Dance influences range from ballet and tango to postmodern movements, while music includes medieval chant, neo-romantic chamber music, jazz, pop, electronica and everything but the kitchen sink.

Slots for choreographers remain available. If you agree to participate, you will be e-mailed a one-minute piece of music, and it's up to you to make a one-minute dance for it. Each night the call is at 5pm for tech and runthrough; performance at 8pm. Everyone improvs the first and last minute. If you're interested, please contact Jeramy Zimmerman at jeramy@catscratchtheatre.org.

Get information
Get tickets ($10)

Galapagos Arts Center (16 Main Street, Dumbo, Brooklyn)
718-222-8500
info@galapagosartspace.com