JANS MARTENS

Review by Celia Ipiotis

Demanding and exhilarating, those are two words that might describe The Dog Days Are Over 2.0 by Belgium artist Jan Martens at NYU SKirball. A recreation of the dance’s 2014 iteration, the high intensity aerobics,  and fanatically repetitive jumps made one wonder if there was a cardiologist in the wings ready to revive a depleted performer. 

A dance of endurance, Dog Days lasted just about 80 minutes and only  broke the high voltage repetitive rhythm near the end when everyone switched into swingy leg kicks front and back. Two thirds of the way in, classical guitar music surfaced. The sound clicked into the innate beat created by the squeaky sound of the shoes and so, for a few minutes, the relentlessness was subdued, and then, it was back. 

At times, colored lights designed by Jan Fedinger passed over the dancers dressed in a variety of work-out outfits styled by Sofie Durnez. People bounded forward, back, side to side; passed one another, lineed up and spread out in the mathematically designed formations.

And in the end, the energy they generated filled the auditorium.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis