Birds in Brooklyn

I came to the performance a little bit after it had began and the employees told me to enter quietly as it was very still and tranquil in the auditorium. When I sat and looked at the stage what immediately struck me was the diagonal black monolith extending from the stage floor to the ceiling. Combined with the lighting, the monolith had a profound impact on the entire aesthetic of the dance and its presentation. I thought the black foil texture of the screen in the back of the stage almost itself looked like an oil spill, although I do not know if it was intended to look like one. Knowing that the dancers were mimicking the movements of birds definitely helped in establishing some context to what they were trying to convey. When one dancer moved the others followed, just like when one bird flies away from a group and all the others seem to follow. My favorite moment of the performance was when the dancers suddenly exploded into a frenzy, with loud music in the background and the feeling of desperation that accompanied the image in the back of the bird unable to fly. The performance relied heavily on the quieter moments but balanced it nicely with volume, particularly with the chants of the women.

I thought the performance, while not necessarily the most entertaining or fun performance to watch, did a good job of expressing the raw feelings and concepts that climate change will exacerbate. Birds were given personality and placed in a struggle that was visible and expressed in performance, a form palatable to the average person.