The Orchestra of St. Luke’s is one of the companies giving free performances as part of this week’s Bryant Park Fall Festival
Bryant Park Fountain Terrace and lawn
40th to 42nd Sts. at Sixth Ave.
Setpember 13-20, free
www.bryantpark.org
Fashion Week festivities might have moved from Bryant Park to Lincoln Center, but that doesn’t mean that the former is just going to hide its head in the sand. Beginning today at lunchtime, Bryant Park will be hosting its own Fall Festival, eight days of live music and dance featuring performances by the New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Parsons Dance, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Black Rock Coalition, Ricky Ian Gordon, and, ironically enough, Jazz at Lincoln Center. Shows take place daily at 12:30 and 6:00, and everything is free.
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.
