Jaroslow: a meditation on partnership

The Partner Project/Scene in Public--a world premiere by Risa Jaroslow & Dancers at Danspace Project--is a dream of a dance, my idea of dance heaven, a seemingly bottomless cornucopia of good things. It lasts only 50 minutes but seems an eternity--and I mean that in a good way. I did not want it to end.

The Partner Project/Scene in Public is an apt, if unfortunately clunky, title. Partnership--and how human interactions appear to, or are shaped by, those who witness them--is indeed the project. But this title represents a dance filled with grace, relatedness and sensitive response. Jaroslow explores many journeys of human connection, and her discoveries are fresh, never literal or obvious, always evolving in surprising, quirky ways. Her dancers are so alive in their movement and in their interactions that you clearly detect the flow of subtle thoughts and feelings, not only actions.

It is a flow of dancey dance (and a profoundly dancer-loving dance) performed by some of the craftiest, most supple, most illuminating performers in the contemporary art--most notably, Luke Gutgsell, Elise Knudson, Rachel Lehrer and Paul Singh, the core quartet of the ten-member cast. (Composer Robert Een and percussionist Hearn Gadbois also perform Een's atmospheric original score live.) And so, if you have friends who are a little shy of dance or who might be willing to venture beyond The Nutcracker and Revelations this season, take them to this. But you'll have to move fast, since The Partner Project/Scene in Public, which opened only last night, closes tomorrow night.

With dancing by Chellamar Bernard, Marcos Duran, Briana Fails, Courtney Jackson, Anne Merrick and Laurel Snyder

With video by Barbara M. Bickart, lighting by Carol Mullins, costumes by Amanda Bujak and set by Jon Pope

The Partner Project/Scene in Public--tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm (information and ticketing)

Danspace Project

St. Mark's Church

131 Est 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue), Manhattan

In search of mavericks

John McClain might say he never claimed to be one. Sarah Palin might give it a bad name. But La MaMa still loves mavericks. This week, you can visit the La MaMa Moves Festival and see who--among a bevy of choreographers across four shared Mavericks in Motion programs--deserves to wear the label with pride.

I'm going to cast an early vote for a couple of handsome Cunningham dancers, Rashaun Mitchell and his collaborator/dance partner Silas Riener, who showed Nocturnal Excerpts, a work-in-progress. Telfar Clemens's costumes turn them into a couple of vaguely disheveled, modern-day Pierrots, and Mitchell's movement ideas disturb and contort any conventional notion of what human bodies can do. Riener, in particular, is a compelling presence and mover, and it will be interesting to see where these guys take this duet.

If you missed Mitchell and Riener last night, try for Saturday's show (8pm), which also includes offerings by Benjamin Asriel, Myra Bazell w/ SCRAP, David Capps, Luke Gutgsell (partnering the fascinating Elise Knudson), and Lionel Popkin & Robert Een.

Mavericks in Motion programming concludes this Sunday evening. The festival continues through June 20.

Complete La MaMa Moves festival schedule

Tickets

La MaMa E.T.C.
First Floor Theatre
74a East 4th Street (near 2nd Avenue), Manhattan

A craving for Popkin

Since one of my dearest friends performs in Lionel Popkin's There Is An Elephant In This Dance--brought in from the West Coast and opened, last evening, at Danspace Project--I won't write a review. But I can urge you to go to see this delectable, dreamy, poetic, luminous thing, continuing tonight and Saturday at 8:30. Expect the unexpected!

Performances by Popkin and Carolyn Hall, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Peggy Piacenza. Original music by Robert Een, performed by Een with percussionist Hearn Gadbois and singer Valecia Phillips. Costumes by Jean Landry. Lighting by Kathy Kaufmann. Video by Kyle Ruddick and Cari Ann Shim Sham*. All deserve a shout-out!

Information and tickets or 866-811-4111