FringeNYC: Nejla Y. Yatkin's Oasis

Every Fringe fest--stuffed to the gills with lots and lots of stuff--also has its must-see, unforgettable shows. This year brings us NY2Dance in Oasis: Everything you ever wanted to know about the Middle East but were Afraid to Dance--a work-in-progress by dancer-choreographer Nejla Y. Yatkin and some wonderful collaborators. The 70-minute ensemble piece--at once more serious, more powerful and more delicate than its subtitle would suggest--is showing at Theater 80 a few more times before the festival closes this weekend.

Oasis, inspired by the Arab Spring revolts, takes on difficult subject matter that others have tried on in dance theater and often fumbled--oppression, exploitation, rape, torture as well as the complexity of women's sense of personal identity and autonomy in repressive societies. Yatkin and her fellow dancers--Shay Bares, Sevin Ceviker, Ahmaud Culver, Jean-Rene Homehr, Rachel Holmes and Fadi Khoury--deliver a work that sears while daring to be exquisite, sensual and, during a fashion show devoted to hijab couture, even cheeky.

The modest East Village theater is clearly not the best location for Oasis, yet it presents little obstacle to this work's effectiveness and polished look--top-notch choreography enhanced by lighting design (Ben Levine), music (Shamou), animation (Iga Puchalska and Julien Smasal) and costuming (Ursula Verduzco and Yatkin). The seven dancers manage the small stage with ease, although this work needs, and will work well, in roomier surroundings.

A series of segments flow one into another, leaving no time for the viewer to recover from the dreamy spell or emotional devastation of the preceding one before becoming swept into the next. At the outset, animated silhouettes of a young girl conversing with her wise grandfather introduce the element of innocent curiosity. We might also ask, with this youngster, why we have created a world of so much pain? How did we lose our souls? How can we recover them?

That first bit of animation gives way to a swift, voluptuous duet between Yatkin and Iraq-born Khoury--both of them lithe and sinuous, continuously meeting and intertwining to the sound of muffled percussion and tinkling chimes. The dance is stylish, romantic and so engrossing that it takes a while before you notice something wrong: They're both wearing blindfolds. This segment yields to an anguished, frenzied solo for Khoury before a well-staged episode where masked men confine and torture him.

Yatkin can be a fiery dancemaker, but sometimes cool-and-quiet gets the job done--as in another section where Khoury lays out a serving tray and glassware along Bares' abject back and takes sips while calmly gazing at the young man who is so clearly his property and sexual conquest. And again, when Bares, alone and shyly trying out the finger cymbals that seem to manifest out of nowhere, slowly builds a deeply undulating solo--think of a Nijinsky, maybe, discovering bellydance--that speaks of the dawn of an inner power, a sexuality that is defined by self, for self.

I was shaken by much of Oasis. In the post-show Q&A, dancers revealed how deeply and personally it had affected them. Their investment in it clearly went far beyond getting the steps down.

Yatkin plans to tighten Oasis in advance of its premiere at next year's Bates College Dance Festival (Lewiston, ME). The Turkish Cultural Foundation will sponsor a presentation of Oasis at New York Live Arts (dates to be announced). Catch it this week at Theater 80 (Thursday, August 23 at 2pm and Sunday, August 26 at 1pm) or keep watch for these upcoming presentations of the finished piece.

Get more information and reservations on this and other New York Fringe Festival shows here.

"Saharava" on the Fringe

I'm only getting around to a couple of FringeNYC shows this August. With age--and heat and humidity--comes the desire, and the right, to be more selective and dash about less. But Saharava: A Ritualized Dance-Opera, with its Tarot-related theme, called to me, and its nearby location at Theater 80 on St. Mark's Place made it an easy choice.

Described as "a primitive and raw theatrical ritual combining dance and wordless song," the hour-long production "follows the journey of the Fool through the Major Arcana of the Tarot." As wonderful as Theater 80's tiny, shallow stage can be for some shows, the ambitious Saharava needs bigger space to serve Andre Megerdichian's large, skillful cast, passionate, sometimes complex choreography and bustling stage arrangements. A little more distance between viewers and performers might also work in its favor--for example, minimizing the awkwardness of up-flipping, underwear-exposing lifts. These close-up, unsightly flashes of strange-looking, "flesh"-colored underpants beneath the women's faux-Greek tunics had unintended comical, trance-deflating effect. Megerdichian's respectable efforts--and his dancers--deserve a chance.

Fahad Siadat, who played The Magician, a symbol from Tarot's Major Arcana, also composed the instrumental and vocal elements of this "dance-opera." His influence begins in the lengthy "Prelude" of Om-like vocalization, didgeridoo-blowing and drone-droning from a dimly-lit stage, dropping the audience's blood pressure several notches. That's cool and befits a ritualistic atmosphere. Unfortunately, despite the presence of trained voices, the subsequent straight hour of wordless howling, screeching, barking, wheezing and the like sounded amateurish, suggesting an extended acting exercise more than a ritual of transformation.

I know the Tarot well, and the only archetype that read at all clear to me was The Devil (David Niles), who turns the stage into hell on earth for his driven minions. It would have been good to comprehend this work better as The Fool's Journey if other Tarot characters had been rendered with sharpness and purpose.

But see for yourself. Saharava: A Ritualized Dance-Opera continues at Theater 80 over the following schedule:

Sunday, August 12 at 1pm
Tuesday, August 14 at 2:30pm
Wednesday, August 15 at 7:45pm
Friday, August 24 at 7:15pm

Get more information and reservations on this and other New York Fringe Festival shows here.

Rebeca Tomás at Theater 80 St. Marks

(photo of Rebeca Tomás by Zita Bradley)

New York fans of the renowned Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca know Theater 80 St. Marks as an intimate, vest-pocket stage for a small audience. Performers can scale back and work with natural effects and subtlety. They need not strain to project.

This weekend, Rebeca Tomás—a masterful flamenco dancer who has appeared with Barrio in Noche Flamenca—is making her solo debut at Theater 80 with a 75-minute program called A Palo Seco. And, I guarantee you, it's a major debut because, for better or for worse, Tomás holds nothing back. Shreiks of joy from her opening-night audience argued that it's "for better."

I'm going to insist that you see Tomás, but this recommendation comes with a caveat.

Her choreography and performance—so exacting and clean, I'd choose her as my surgeon—both feel aggressively over-dramatized. Even her frequent smile looks tense and self-conscious. Much is made of her slight stature (5'1”), her low center of gravity, and she's truly a well-crafted explosive device. Power in a woman is beautiful, but the ability to share the variable intricacies of one's self with an audience should also be prized. By comparison, her A Palo Seco colleagues--Sol "La Argentinita" and Laura Castellano--dance like ordinary mortals, and bless them for that.

Flamenco artists have been messing with the traditional formula for some time now. Big props to Tomás for the unique, if perhaps not terribly risky, vision of Metamorphosis, the first half of which shows the diva seated at a piano, arrayed in a sweeping, midnight-black bata de cola, as she plays Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata—expertly, beautifully--accompanied by violinist Alí Bello and electric bass player Sean Kupisz. It's an unexpected, spellbinding prelude, a respite of serenity. And then she gets up and unleashes her particular brand of flamenco—to Regina Spektor's edgy “Apres Moi.”

Besides Bello and Kupisz, Tomás's musical ensemble includes musical director/guitarist Pedro Cortés, percussionist/singer Oscar Valero, and singers David Castellano and Bárbara Martínez. The ensemble's needless over-amplification and its initial New Agey approach felt alien. However, as the show proceeded, the musicians and singers displayed more supple skills and thrilling collaboration ranging from traditional flamenco to a graceful interpretation of “Over the Rainbow.” Valero's fiery percussion, throughout, was extraordinary.

A Palo Seco continues tonight at 8pm and tomorrow at 3pm.

Complete program information

Theater 80 St. Marks
80 Saint Marks Place, Manhattan (between 1st and 2nd Avenues)
212-388-0388  Online ticketing