I AM, HERE; HERE WITH US; WHERE WE FIND OURSELVES

As you turn the corner of the street, a warm glow pours from the church nestled mid-street, home to the Dancspace Project. Stepping inside, you’re greeted with a program and an unusual invitation – to sketch your journey in marker, mapping your path to Dancspace. From the outset, the audience is actively considered, as vital as the performers themselves. Throughout the performance, the house lights remain on, fostering a direct relationship between artists and audience, blurring the lines of observer and observed.

Stacy Matthew Spence’s “I am, here; Here with us; Where we find ourselves” unfolds within this intimate space, leaving its witnesses with a lingering sensation of closeness and connection. Bathed in yellow light designed by Carol Mullins, a percussionist and vocalist occupy one corner of the space upon set up. Then Spence, in all yellow, emerges and engages in a lively duet with the drummer, Raf Vertessen. A theme that continues throughout, it is unclear which came first, the music or the movement. There’s a constant trade off between impetus for initiation: beginning the note, beginning the gesture, beginning the next idea.

Joanna Kotze, dressed in blue enters, her presence so close that her breath becomes audible, defying the usual detachment of dance performance. Another layer of emotionality is projected into the room with the softness of Kotze and the entrance of the vocalist, Charlotte Jacobs, breathing over Spence and the percussionists’ dynamics.

The two move in relation, but not together, until Spence initiates a moment of “noticing,” establishing a connection that gradually intensifies until touch becomes inevitable. The audience becomes acutely aware of this newfound path of connection, transcending separateness to collective presence. Every moment welcoming touch slows down time, if only momentarily. The two embrace, and they join the front row of the audience.

Tim Bendernagel in green takes the space, shortly followed by Hsiao-jou Tang in red, and the dancers traverse a web of interactions, accompanied by the musicians. Soon Yellow and Blue rejoin the palette curated by costumer Athena Kokoronis, and a quartet emerges, weaving primary and secondary colors into a mesmerizing tapestry of movement and sound.

Moments of near-unison punctuate the performance, the movement quality akin to the stretching and snapping of rubber bands. Yet, amidst this quicker dynamic, fluidity remains integral to the progression of personal journeys aligning, culminating in a poignant moment bathed in the spotlight.

As the dancers share soft, intentional touches, a quiet awareness overcomes the audience, enveloped in the ambient tones of the vocalist. The house lights dim, leaving them in a spotlight before fading into darkness, the lingering tones echoing unity and connection.

The impact resonates profoundly, leaving audiences warm with the collective journey they’ve shared.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Emma Edy Morris