|
|
|
|
Skybetter and Associates
March 25, 2010 -- Joyce Soho, New York I admire artists that can both intellectually stimulate and flat out entertain in the same evening. Skybetter and Associates continually get my applause and respect for this and more. As a company that can generate poignant, emotional experiences while being abstract enough not to spoon-feed audiences, Skybetter and Associates manages to deliver an evening ripe with layers to be peeled back, enjoyed, reflected on later, and enjoyed again at a deeper level of intimacy. Each performance of choreographer Sydney Skybetter’s sensual and accessible work is an experience, a collective meditation, and a gentle communal journey into what it means to be human together. There is an elegance to his work, a formality that is never stifling or unyielding, but always welcoming, inviting, and soothing. Many of his pieces (like “Potemkin Piece”) involve performers observing one another, offering audiences yet another vantage point to the emotional landscape they are creating.
Sydney performed the 2nd solo and his breathtaking elegance was matched with an easy strength, clear focus and total abandon. Skybetter moves like a current of air, reverently, expansive, direct but with no need to be forceful. He has a delightfully unperturbed way of moving; no mater how fast paced or violent the movement, he rides it easily, nonchalantly, like a surfer cresting a wave. Bergan Wheeler in the third solo was quietly seductive, perfectly snake-like, and undulatingly intense. Her dynamism as a performer is evident as soon as she takes the stage. Whether in group or solo work, her passion, mastery and presence are deeply felt. Especially pleasing is Skybetter’s use of subtle contrast in movement. With “Cold House you Kept,” the constant interplay of angles and softness created tension between conflict and resignation. Strikingly different from that was the new “Fuge State,” a fun, upbeat, sprightly quartet with a surprise ending too pleasing to ruin with words.
In “The Laws of Falling Bodies,” the trust that naturally evolves from this type of relationship allowed each dancer to literally give their bodies to the space around them, falling sometimes into arms that rushed to meet them and sometimes into the floor alone. With each submission, each exhale into gravity, my heart ached a little more. However, not all heartache is negative. The beauty of surrender, the softness it takes, emotionally and physically, to yield life, to circumstance, to another, is a testament to the human spirit. With this visually arresting, complex and physically unrelenting work, Skybetter celebrates and exposes what it means to be human, and reveals yet another layer of his own response to the richness of life.
|
|
about us • writers' guidelines • faq • privacy policy • copyright notice • advertising • contact us |
by Cecly Placenti
Threading smoothly through the 4 group pieces presented this evening were 3 related solos titled “The Personal” in which soloists executed expansive, rigorous movements in a paradoxically confined circle of light. Kristen Arnold, in the first solo, was captivating in her internal dialogue made manifest, arresting in the gorgeous moving architecture of the choreography. Her solo was a love affair with sound and breath, a kaleidoscope of folding, caressing limbs. Her sinuous movements as she wrapped and un-wrapped the space, seeming to lean on the very air around her, and were a call to retain a memory, raise a ghost.
As a group, the 7 dancers have found familial expression at its finest. Each dancer stands out as an individual yet fits perfectly into the collective group dynamic. The performers know each other, explore deeply through movement the emotional and tangible facets of day to day living, and so are able to create work that is rich with layers of meaning and identifiable points of contact. It is why going to see a Skybetter and Associates performance is so deeply satisfying, why it feels like a night out with close friends.