Dancers search for connections in extraordinary new production from Brooklyn-based choreographer Faye Driscoll (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St.
September 22-25, $20, 7:30
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org
www.fayedriscoll.com
In her brilliant evening-length piece, rising star Faye Driscoll sets the bar high, daring both cast and audience to reach it — and they do, with spectacular results. Brooklyn-based choreographer wunderkind Driscoll, who has gained raves for such productions as 837 VENICE BLVD. and WOW, MOM, WOW, premiered her Dance Theater Workshop commission There is so much mad in me at DTW in April and is bringing it back for a special return engagement. Driscoll’s latest is a challenging, exhilarating show that never lets up, making full use of the DTW space as characters march up and down the aisles, take seats in the house, climb side poles, and run between the light stanchions. Filled with uncomfortable humor, raw aggression, and an innate charm, There is so much mad in me examines Americans’ need to see and be seen in today’s overstimulated world, desperate to make emotional and physical connections amid heart-wrenching loneliness.
Supremely talented cast works out its issues in public in Faye Driscoll’s exhilarating DTW commission (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)
Driscoll demands much from her supremely talented cast, creating unusual, often spastic movements and long patches of dramatic dialogue that include scenes that place them on in-your-face talk shows and reality programs (think Oprah meets Jerry meets Tyra meets AMERICAN IDOL). An early duet between Nikki Zialcita and Michael Helland, two of the stars of 837 VENICE BLVD., announces that There is so much mad in me is going to be a very different kind of dance theater, and that continues with a gorgeous section in which Jesse Zaritt and Tony Orrico battle it out over Lindsay Clark, representing the private individual not sure how much she is willing to reveal in this ever-more-public society. When Adaku Utah grabs the microphone, she offers material gifts, and Jennie MaryTai Lau serves up lurid voyeurism, but Jacob Slominski deals out rage and fear. Making sophisticated sociocultural observations that comment on sexuality and violence, Driscoll never takes the easy way out, resulting in a fresh, original, touching, and powerfully direct experience. It is back by popular demand for four nights at DTW, so be sure not to miss it this time around. Driscoll, who was selected for last year’s New Museum triennial show, “The Generational,” celebrating the work of artists under the age of thirty-three, will participate in a postshow talk with Amy Jones following the September 24 performance.
After celebrating the Jewish New Year, the JCC in Manhattan is holding its annual open house, a free day to get to know the very busy Upper West Side institution. The myriad activities include a Kidzapalooza concert, a children’s sports expo, a postnatal Pilates boot camp, a video contest, skin cancer screenings, and workouts, demonstrations, and lessons in yoga, meditation, self-defense, Gypsy dance, indoor cycling, life coaching, Hebrew, low-flying trapeze, sand art, time management, cooking, dating, salsa, and much more, with special classes for kids, new mothers, and seniors, along with prizes and membership discounts. The afternoon ends with a screening of the eye-opening film THE LOTTERY.
As the audience enters the fenced-in area on Pike Slip under the Manhattan Bridge, eight women are already strapped into seats along a wall, each performer at a slightly different level on rusted metal ladders hanging from the top. Meanwhile, to their left, a huge salt pile is roped off. The eight dancers — Elizabeth Wilkinson, Mare Hieronimus, Teresa Kochis, Celeste Hastings, Ori Lenkinski, Adi Kfir, Meghan Merril, and Marcy Schlissel — are wearing costumes crafted from sculptural beeswax and lanolin, their legs slathered in goop, the ends of their outfits dangling toward the ground at varying lengths. They slowly start moving, turning a head here, twisting their arms or legs there, as Erin McGonigle’s electronic sound score can barely be heard, competing with the noise from the FDR Drive and the trains passing by directly overhead. Soon the dancers are lashing out at the wall, grabbing at it as if trying to escape, rubbing their bodies against it lovingly, or leaning over seductively, peering out at the crowd gathered below, making deep, emotional eye contact. A site-specific dance installation choreographed by Noémie Lafrance, MELT is a mesmerizing experience, forty minutes of fascinating, fluid movement featuring dancers who make the most of their limited range of motion, their bodies fastened to the wall, forcing them to thrash about with their extremities to the point of both exhilaration and exhaustion. With the sun shining on them, it is like their skin is melting away, their thin costumes dripping off them as they try to hold on to their souls. MELT has been extended through September 12, with two performances a night Thursday through Sunday. Tickets can be purchased in advance or at the door; $20 get you a seat on the asphalt ground, while $40 gets you a comfy beach lounger right up front.