STATE OF DARKNESS
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 16-20, $500-$1,000 for one-to-four-seat pods
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org/state-darkness
Last October, the Joyce presented a digital version of Molissa Fenley’s State of Darkness, in which seven dancers performed Fenley’s thirty-five-minute solo onstage, the first shows to take place at the Joyce since the pandemic lockdown began, albeit without an audience. Now, from June 16 to 20, six of those dancers will be back onstage, playing to a socially distanced crowd organized in pods of one to four people who paid between $250 to $2,000 in a benefit for the theater. The lineup features Annique Roberts on June 16 at 8:00, Jared Brown on June 17 at 8:00, Sara Mearns on June 18 at 8:00, Lloyd Knight on June 19 at 2:00, Michael Trusnovec on June 19 at 8:00, and Cassandra Trenary on June 20 at 2:00. Each performance, set to Stravinsky’s “Le Sacre du Printemps” (“The Rite of Spring”), will be followed by a Q&A with the dancer and Fenley, along with a Champagne toast.
In October, Joyce executive director Linda Shelton said, “It has been truly inspiring and uplifting to see the dancers and Molissa tackle State of Darkness during this difficult and unprecedented interruption to our lives. To me, this piece is about emerging from the darkness we have been coping with since March.” Fenley added, “In 1988, environmental, political, and social unrest inspired me to create State of Darkness. Today, a response to similar influences affecting us feels even more urgent and necessary.” With theaters back open and audiences allowed in, “urgent” and “necessary” only begin to tell the story.