remembering merce

The sun shined brightly as I arrived at Battery City Park around 7.00pm for the River to River presentation of the dancer's celebration of Merce Cunningham's life. It is one year since he has passed and the dance community honored him by presenting dances from Susan Marshall, Lucinda Childs, Bill T. Jones and others. Though I arrived late, I was able to catch a few dance.

I arrived in the middle of Lucinda Childs' piece, Dance, which I have seen excerpted before. It was beautifully tedious, the dancers in white pants and shoes and grey t-shirts. They were absolutely committed to the petite allegro-like movements, the fast paced constant motion despite the intensity of the mid-summer heat and sun. I was glad I got there when I did. Lucinda is a quiet choreographer, to me. She is not like Paul Taylor or Twyla, who rely on their companies and names, signatures of their notoriety. However, her work is transfixing, it is like an endorphin rush. I love the pure movement commitment of the choreography. This is a piece I would perform in, in a heartbeat!!

The other two pieces I saw contrasted very much. One piece, in which an artist (I do not know her name), performed like a  slapstick banshee. Dressed in black, the curvy dancer frenzied through faces, screams, and popular dance moves in mockery and hysteria. I did not appreciate her aesthetic, it was plain, executed in mediocre fashion and lost my interest nearly immediately. I hate to be so harsh, but I wonder how this work made it to the River-to-River Festival.

The last performance was Bill T. Jones. Oh, Bill T. Any choreographer that has Jennifer Nugent working for him, is alright in my books. She was absolutely stunning in this very simple and slow gestural meditation. Recently, the New York Times got down on him about lacking content and choreographic ingenuity but this piece was so beautiful. It was like a poem to an old friend. Bill T. did a solo at the end which was simple and mesmerizing all at once.  That may be because of his history, his age, the fact that the concert was a tribute to Merce, but this dance was the one that stood out as a subtle tribute. I felt Merce during this dance.

How wonderful to have a dance like a prayer, a ritual. A beautiful homage to a man whose spirit was in his feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Z3yRkvzyM

This is the link to a youtube vid of Lucinda's Dance