John Jasperse revisits FORT BLOSSOM at New York Live Arts this week
FORT BLOSSOM REVISITED (2000/2012)
New York Live Arts
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
May 9-12, $15-$30, 7:30
May 11, 10:00 pm show added by popular demand
212-691-6500
www.newyorklivearts.org
www.johnjasperse.org
John Jasperse once again turns expectations inside out and upside down with Fort Blossom revisited. An updated, expanded version of a 2000 work he appeared in, the piece features two clothed women, Lindsay Clark and Erika Hand, and two nude men, Ben Asriel and Burr Johnson. (The 2000 piece was performed by Jasperse, Miguel Gutierrez, Parker Lutz, and Juliette Mapp.) The quartet interacts with one another and a group of plastic inflatables, using them as furniture, toys, costumes, and sexual barriers. Moving on and off a rolled vertical canvas while experimental noise by Ryoji Ikeda rumbles in the background or goes silent for extended moments, the dancers, paired off by gender for most of the show, bring their bodies together in mesmerizing, breathtaking, awe-inspiring, and taboo-busting ways, particularly Asriel and Johnson, who examine every nook and cranny of their bodies, every crevice, rubbing, pumping, and melding into architectural and sculptural forms rarely seen onstage in such bare glory. Fort Blossom revisited is a spectacular achievement, a brutally honest and challenging work from one of the dance world’s most innovative choreographers. (For more on Jasperse and Fort Blossom revisited, read our twi-ny talk with him here.)