LARSEN C

Christos Papadopoulos makes his U.S. debut at the brand-new Powerhouse International
Arts Festival, presenting Larsen C: a visually chilling piece that explores change and control.

Larsen C gets its name from an iceberg, the size of Delaware, that broke off the Larsen C ice shelf in 2017. The questions guiding Papadopoulos’ piece are “What lies beneath the tip of an iceberg? A form constantly shifting and transforming, dissolving into itself. We could ask this of our own bodies too—how much control do we really have over what lies beneath?”

Questions are reflected in the dance as we see bodies connect, break away, and come together again. In the darkness, we see a small glowing white light. Light gets brighter and brighter until we can finally make out a man’s bare back squirming. His back moves like soft serve, moving subtly from one side to another, occasionally with a quick, sharp jolt.

The stage transforms, revealing a grey, dim plane casting a shadow of the dancer’s body on the wall. Rather than take steps, the dancer glides with his feet, never leaving the floor. Later, the ensemble comes together and forms a single unit that moves and acts in unison.

At times, they break apart from one another and hide in the dark corners of the stage.
Near the end of the performance, the lights fade completely, and fog begins to envelop
the stage and audience. Finally, light appears, and we are met with the illusion of the night sky on the stage.

One by one, dancers enter, and it looks as if the sky is separating the upper and
lower parts of the body.Lighting designer, Eliza Alexandropoulou, creates a marvelous illumination spectacle.

The manipulation of lighting to create images like a night sky or making a man’s back appear as a white, floating orb is genuinely thrilling. You do not want to miss Christos Papadopoulos’s Larsen C.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Frankie Lehr