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A powerful and entrancing multi-genre collaboration, Dance brings together three minimalist pioneers in a tightly structured dialogue that conveys the elemental desire to move to music. Choreographer Lucinda Childs' meticulous, unaffected dancing; composer Philip Glass’ mesmerizingly ethereal soundtrack; and an engrossing visual décor and film of the dancers, created by the late conceptual artist and Connecticut native Sol LeWitt, combine to create a gorgeous and historically important experience.
The reconstruction of Dance was commissioned by the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, with additional support from The Yard, a colony for performing artists on Martha's Vineyard, Wendy Taucher, Artistic Director.
Dance by Lucinda Childs was made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts' American Masterpieces: Dance initiative, administered by the New England Foundation for the Arts.
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Sponsors: AT&T and United Illuminating
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June 14, 2010, 4:15 pm
Vasundhara Adukia wrote:
The Lucinda Childs concert was the ideal way to kick start the festival. It presented one of the most ancient arts – dance, in a completely different and unique form. The performance started out with images from Lucinda Childs’ own recital, approximately 30 years ago, and then the timelines blurred with the dancers performing live, her very own steps.
The energy and enthusiasm displayed by the dancers throughout the acts was boundless and their timing and synchronisation mind-boggling. Never letting the pace drop for even a second, they moved with such grace and agility that it was hard to believe that it wasn’t an illusion of some sort. I also really liked the music scored by Philip Glass which complemented the choreography perfectly.
The dancers started out slowly, steadily building momentum until they seemed like hazy images, spinning from one end of the stage to the other. The highlight of the concert was the merging of the screen figures with the live dancers which together presented a flawless image of beauty, vibrancy and creativity. Overall it was a captivating performance and an hour truly well spent.
June 14, 2010, 4:42 pm
Amrita Konaiagari wrote:
The Lucinda Childs dance concert was simply marvelous and absorbing. It began with a visual dance routine on screen and when the live performance started, I found it difficult to separate the two for the first few minutes. The blurred distinction was captivating and simply ingenious. The dancers took on the stage with such fluidity. Their movements were extremely synchronized starting out slowly and moving up to a crescendo. The music by Philip Glass matched every twirl, twist and turn. It was really interesting and very new for me to see this kind of mix of technology and dance. The dance was remarkable because the dancers maintained a consistency in stamina and energy level right from the beginning. There wasn
June 14, 2010, 5:31 pm
Helen wrote:
The dancers, in plain white costumes and very short hair, moved and functioned as notes. Their faces and movements were expressionless (really beautiful), and Glass’s music, as it always seems to me, was heartless, but the whole was somehow very moving.
June 14, 2010, 7:58 pm
Janna wrote:
This beautiful piece as a sketch of the mind’s inner workings is indicated by the rectilinear and sparse assemblage of dancers that travel downstage like a stream (and this is only act 1!). Watching each act is like watching the formation of an idea. Its great!
June 14, 2010, 8:08 pm
Willa wrote:
June 14, 2010, 8:26 pm
Molly Silverstein wrote:
“Dance” is an elaborate exercise that breaks down the act of dancing into its elemental form. The dancers vault across the stage performing series of apparently simple repetitions—though we shouldn’t think that they are ever stagnant—while video footage of dancers performing the piece in its original production in the 1970s envelops the stage. Philip Glass’s orchestrations thunder across the auditorium, transforming a beautiful piece into an epic poem. The marriage of dance, film, music illuminates the poetic elements of all three art forms. “Dance” embraces minutiae alongside the expected leaps and bounds, all the while exemplifying the enduring nature of dance and “Dance.”
June 15, 2010, 12:22 am
Natasha Nelson wrote:
This innovative combination of film, music, and live dance was simply brilliant. The dancers carried the phrases of Child
June 15, 2010, 4:51 pm
Willa Fitzgerald wrote:
“Dance” is a transformative experience that calls into question commonplace beliefs about performance. A completely three-dimensional event, “Dance” is not only an investigation of sound and movement but also of time and space. We watch as the original troupe of performers (filmed in 1979) flits in and out of the live dancers on stage, projected images from a different time and place easily established in the “now.” There almost seems to be a tacit communication and interaction between the live performers and the projected video as they give and take stage space and focus. I found myself marveling at the sheer technical precision required to synthesize such seeming interaction. The dancers with their adroit footwork seemed to transcend reality and meld perfectly with the alternate reality of the projected film.
The compositions of Philip Glass support and are supported by every turn of a foot and flick of a head – a sudden musical trill giving rise to a volley of perfectly executed twirls. The pounding repetitions of layered sound, though at first numbing, would give way to new sounds as they play again and again.
Each separate component of the performance is made up of distinct and simple parts. But when these components are expertly layered over and under and through one another, the experience is astounding. The gasps audible when the theatre was plunged into darkness between dances was evidence enough of that. A truly hypnotic experience, “Dance” is a treasure to behold, calling into question the supposed limits of a theatrical experience.
-Willa
June 16, 2010, 4:19 pm
Sandra Huang wrote:
DANCE is an intellectual experience.
June 25, 2010, 3:59 pm
Natasha Nelson wrote:
This innovative combination of film, music, and live dance was simply brilliant. The dancers carried the phrases of Childs’ choreography with unwavering stamina; Glass’ music generated strong momentum which the dancers met with equal drive and energy. The costumes and lighting were striking, and along with Sol LeWitt’s film, the forces fused to create an experience for the audience like no other.
June 28, 2010, 9:54 pm
Kate Maltby wrote:
This is a dance instillation masquerading as an optical illusion. Dance, choreographed by Lucinda Childs, was one of the first pieces to combine live dance performances with video footage. In this updated version, Child