FALL FOR DANCE: Program #2

Fall for Dance Festival at New York’s City Center theater is celebrating its 22nd year, welcoming international, domestic, and multi-national performing groups to its series.

According to Canadian choreographer, Clara Furey, Dog Rising (2021) explores “tension and immobility, persistence groove and pleasure.” The curtain rises on two men lying on the floor, slowly, slowly, rolling into shapes and somersaults, while the other gyrates incessantly to rhythmic music (Twin Rising), flooded in red lighting( Karine Gauthier). The two eventually rise, join in the hip rocking, arm and torso gestures, to sexual humping and thrusting actions, moving independently, then joining in unison.

Isolated in their own personal spaces, the three never look at each other, and yet share the stage. They are caught in constant, repetitive motion, seemingly unable to stop until they finally do…then stand motionless and still at the very end. Baco Lepage-Acosta, Brian Mendez, and Jontae McCrory performed impeccable, relentless, exhausting dances, each caught in loops of his own assembly line. 

Lil Buck and Davone Tines, two world class performers, brought their talents together in Resurrection (2025).

Lil Buck, known for his freestyle street dance and emotional storytelling, rooted in Memphis culture, and Tines, a bass baritone voal performer of opera, art songs, and spirituals, evoked reverence and spirit from the audience. In dark light (Roya Abab), the two appear at the back of the stage dressed in white. Lil Buck walks forward as Tines begins to sing majestically, filling the theater with an original hymn “By and By” as Lil Buck fluidly dances in waves of physical expression in front.

Half way through the piece, the stage changes to modern set design, as does the music, and the two perform to an adaptation of the original song The Truth, by Caroline Shaw.  They engage the audience to sing and clap in exultation as if in a church…a much needed spiritual release, a prayer, during this time of anxious world insecurity. 

Hubbard Street Dance Chicago ended the evening with a spectacular ensemble work, Impasse, (2020) by Swedish choreographer Johan Inger (former performer and choreographer with Nederlands Dance Theater). He brought honesty, humanity, and humor to the ballet employing the brilliant talents of fifteen exquisitely trained, emotionally available dancers.

An imaginative set design, also by Johan Inger, forms the outline of  a childlike drawn house. Framed in lights, soon,  a door, at first invisible, opens. A female dancer appears, fluid and mystical in her phrases. She leans against the wall of the house when an arm reaches from the door to her neck, only to quickly disappear. Soon, a male partner appears from inside. At first they romp, in separate solos until they connect in a grapevine step. They back up away from the house as a woman in black appears; then four join her; then two more, as the three watch. A new community is born,  but from the same house. 

Soon, a dancer appears with a smaller version of the house, also lit,  placing it in front of the larger one. A neighborhood is forming. Surprisingly then, a group of characters exit the large house: a drag queen, a clown, more fun and delinquent characters, yelling and screaming as they dance and parade their uniqueness in and around the others. 

Lastly, a smaller house appears in front, as the dancers begin glorious unison movements, side to side prances, walking forward from back to front, jumping over rolling bodies that obscure their path, but continuing anyway. Nothing will stop this committed group! This tour de force dance seems to be saying that… as we evolve and open ourselves to a wider community and world, our house gets smaller as we welcome all to the party. What a heartfelt and needed encouragement from Inger as we continue to shape our values and community at large.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Mary Seidman