Fall–ing over–for Dance

Everyone loves a spectacle. And the “Fall for Dance” festival at New York City Center last Thursday became no exception to that rule.

As I stepped into the already packed theatre, I was fully prepared to become more “cultured” as the night went on. However, when I first opened the night’s playbill, I quickly began to fear what was to come. And the night’s first performance, XOVER, performed by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, did nothing to dissuade these fears. Although the dancing seemed as expected—incredibly intricate and expressive, of course—it was the piece’s accompaniment that worried me so: a wild conglomeration of coarse sound effects that seemed meant to grate against the “cultured” ear. At the very least, it made a large group of people around me quite uncomfortable (if that was a intentional, A+!), and at the very worst, I don’t believe that I’m the only one who feared the possibility of nightmares that night, or the only one that was often picturing a frantic escape down the side aisle. Still, despite the piece’s propensity for making the audience shake—be it from fear, or silent laughter—it successfully kept the crowd questioning the (wait for it) complete spectacle of experimentation in the arts.

The next piece in the line-up was, thankfully, just what was needed to maintain the audience’s faith in the night. Gallim Dance, with their performance of I Can See Myself in Your Pupil, kept the audience rapt from start to finish, but less out of awe than sheer curiosity. The piece’s ability to tell a story through huge, vibrant, freeing movements allowed each dancer to have a sort of individual character, that seemed to speak in isolation to the audience. This, along with the absolutely irresistible accompanying music—assorted songs by the group Balkan Beat Box—left me (and others) falling over from incredulous laughter, but in the best way: we all wanted more, and they didn’t hesitate to deliver. The performance was a perfect example of a dance piece successfully relating to the audience (which, in hindsight, seems odd, because it seems that the moves themselves, when taken out of the routine’s context, become nothing more than just movements; as a whole, the piece left many—including myself—very satisfied…and much more reassured of the direction the night was taking).  The piece’s fervor became a beacon for the rest of the night, giving the other groups—Madhavi Mudgal with her intricate dancers, and the glowing Miami City Ballet—a successful introduction that both reassured the audience, and made them want more.