PUT AWAY THE FIRE, DEAR

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Kayla Farrish appeared at the Guggenheim Museum as part of Works & Process’ Underground Uptown Dance Festival during this year’s APAP conference. 

A panel discussion complemented the dance excerpts from Put Away The Fire, Dear as a way of illuminating the creative process. But what that exchange really demonstrated was how Farrish, not unlike a jazz musician, pushed words out of her body as if they were musical notes.  When responding to questions, Farrish’s torso contracted, her head dropped down until she hummed the words into being.

Presented in conjunction with the Guggenheim exhibition Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility, Farrish’s Put Away The Fire, Dear​ “uproots power and history across generations of the American landscape,​ rupturing ​’The Master Narrative​’ to dismantle American Cinema of the 1930s-​60’s.”

That said, the impressionistic soundtrack by Alex MacKinnon surrounds couples connected in social dance embraces, who melt out of each other’s arms and spin off. On the opposite side of the stage, dancers break into urban contractions over rhythmic hop skips delivering splices of domestic narratives through sharply creative movements that splinter into visual and aural counterpoints. 

The choreography credits Farrish in collaboration with a group of very talented creative artists: Jessica Alexander, Christian Paris Blue, Kayla Farrish, Imani Gaudin, Kerime Konur, and Christian Warner.

Kayla Farrish is most definitely an artist to watch.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis