GIBNEY COMPANY

Gina Gibney, known for her entrepreneurship and commitment to social justice through the arts, keeps on moving her company into the future with more and more commissions of the work of celebrated artists as well as new and experimental choreographers.

This season at the Joyce Theater four works were seen: two oldies but goodies by Twyla Tharp, and new contemporary works by Yue Yin and a choreographic partnership between Jermaine Spivey and Spencer Theberge. 

Tharp’s quirky Bach Suite (1974) opened the evening performed by Miriam Gittens and Jake Tribus. Dressed in white short unitards and white socks (Kermit Love and reconstruction by Santo Loquasto and Victoria Bek), the two curled and circled in proximity of each other in center stage, undulating spines, with playful skips, and pas de chats all with Tharp’s signature insolence and invention. Live music of Bach’s 78th Cantata was performed by Maggie Cox, (Double Bass), Rocky Duvall, (Mezzo-Soprano), Ariadne Great, (Soprano), Coleman Itzkoff, (Cello), and Caitlyn Koester, (Organ).  While well performed, the two dancers lacked the energy, mystique, and power of the original Tharp company on stage; never exceeding the bounds of the steps. 

Tharp’s 1970 THE FUGUE was next. This writer saw the original piece performed by three of her veteran company dancers, dressed at the time in Russian cossack outfits and black boots which effectively accentuated the rhythms of this work. Modeled on Bach’s “The Musical Offering,” it consists of a twenty count theme, developed into twenty variations. One can imagine Tharp’s early years as a tap dancer as she created with only the sound of footsteps. 

This restaging was performed by two men and one woman, (Graham Feeny, Eddieomar Gonzalez-Castillo, and Eleni Loving), costumed in brown trousers, grey shirts, and brown shoes. It opens to an empty stage, soon inhabited by two, entering with big, lumbering slow lunges, clapping the hip to suggest a new part or tempo, the feet always keeping a beat with or in juxtaposition to the other. The third dancer arrives, formations change, one leaves. One of the unique things about this work is to see how Tharp stretched and contracted time: the steps with quick actions… then with undulating spines and sinking torsos into slow, luxurious arabesque reaches. In time and space, one can feel this dance. 

A Measurable Existence (2022) by contemporary choreographer Yue Yin, begins with diagonal lighting from each side of the stage diving into the center ( Asami Morita) of an otherwise dark, smoky environment. Two juicy dancers (Jesse Obremski and Jie-hung Connie Shiau) dressed in peach colored pants and grey tops  (Christine Darch), fluidly execute lifts, jumps, somersaults, together and apart, brilliant dancing and inventive choreography. However, it had no stops and consequently no real expression or connection to the audience. 

Remains (2024) by Jermaine Spivey and Spencer Theberge, developed out of an improvisational rehearsal process with the dancers. The piece opens with eight dancers standing in a circle with one in the center, and another on a microphone reciting over and over “It could be me right on time.” This sentence was repeated by others, sometimes with exaggerated scatting, while people came and went setting up microphones, taking them apart, playing and dancing with them.

It continues with new parts and new text: “I always wanted to be like…” Was this section about procrastination? Someone always wishing to be, but never achieving it? This went on and on until all but one were on the floor, except the one “remaining.” But then… it wasn’t over yet! The group, all virtuosic dancers, trained in contact improvisation and modern technique, kept on going. But the sweeping runs, and patterned formations never achieved a point. Remains came across as a grand experiment with too many disparate parts and ending with no clear statement.

The Gibney Company is well on its way.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman