Elizabeth Streb’s “Human Fountain” should make a big splash as conclusion of three-part Extraordinary Moves dance presentation in World Financial Center Plaza (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
River to River Festival
World Financial Center
220 Vesey St.
Thursday, July 14, 6:00; Friday, July 15, 12 noon & 6:00 pm; Saturday, July 16, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00
Admission: free
www.rivertorivernyc.com
Over the next three days, the River to River Festival will be presenting an exciting series of site-specific dance performances featuring three very different performances. Taking place in several locations around the World Financial Center, the ninety-minute Extraordinary Moves program begins with Australia’s Strange Fruit performing “The Three Belles,” followed by “Selected Works” from master juggler Michael Moschen, including “Triangle,” in which he situates himself inside a rather large version of the musical instrument. The audience will then make its way over to the STREB Extreme Action Company’s “Human Fountain,” a thirty-foot, three-story installation inspired by the Bellagio fountain in Las Vegas. Elizabeth Streb’s extremely talented company of performers blew away crowds at last week’s acrobatic, Whitney-commissioned ASCENSION, so this promises to be one heckuva finale. (In addition, Third Rail Projects will be presenting “Looking Glass” on Thursday at 12:30 in World Financial Center Plaza as part of the Extraordinary Moves series but not linked with the other three performances, and Judy Dennis’s “The Dancer Views” and “A Dance to Spring: The Drawings of Jules Feiffer” will be on view as well in the WFC Winter Garden and Courtyard Gallery, respectively.)
Australia’s Strange Fruit float through the air with the greatest of ease in “The Three Belles” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Update: The three-part Extraordinary Moves program is a whirlwind ninety minutes of breathtaking acrobatics. First up is Strange Fruit’s “The Three Belles,” in which a trio of dancers in elaborate purple Victorian costumes climb up bendable poles and then twist, turn, and lower themselves in the air, as if floating on the wind, looking spectacular set against the backdrop of the World Financial Center and the Lower Manhattan skyline. That is followed by Michael Moschen, who displays and discusses his unique approach to juggling, which ends up being more entertaining than it first sounds as he incorporates tap-dancing (seriously), a coat hanger, and an oversized triangle into his act. The program concludes with the thrilling “Human Fountain,” in which the fearless crew of the STREB Extreme Action Company clearly has fun re-creating Las Vegas’s famed Bellagio Fountain as they jump, fall, and soar off a three-tiered platform that reaches more than thirty feet high. The finale is simply dazzling. The three-day event concludes Saturday afternoon beginning at 2:00, 4:00, and 6:00.