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IMPRESSIONS: DANCENOW 2024 at Joe's Pub Hosted by TruDee
By Miranda Stuck
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Published on September 23, 2024
Jamal Jackson and Brion Vann. Photo: Whitney Browne
Host: Deborah Lohse as TruDee
Production Manager and Lighting Designer: Amanda K. Ringger
Production Stage Manager: Randi Rivera
Assistant Stage Manager: Saúl Ulerio
Artists: Amber Sloan, Jane Comfort and Company, TAKE Dance, Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Claire Porter/Portables, Nicole Vaughn Diaz, Cori Marquis, Symara Johnson, NVA & Guests featuring Christian Warner & Annie Morgan, Katie Workum and Weena Pauly, Tsiambwon M. Akuchu, Dmitri Peskov and Meghan Wall
Run: September 4-7, 2024
Review Date: Wednesday, September 4, 2024
“This is a joy bubble,” exclaims Deborah Lohse as host ‘TruDee’, introducing the 28th annual season of DANCENOW at The Public Theater’s Joe’s Pub. This cabaret-style performance series is a dual celebration of seasoned DANCENOW choreography combined with a collection of 24 new artists’ premieres across four evenings. In the intimate club, round tables are filled with guests drinking and dining, some guests less than a foot away from the stage. The noise level simmers when Lohse appears in head-to-toe hot pink with sparkling blue eyeshadow, announcing the show ahead of us.
Fast and furious, this opening night program showcases twelve consecutive premiere works with no intermission other than an entertaining presentation of TruDee’s beginner tap performance. She shuffles and marches confidently, sparkling in sequins, dripping jewelry, and tap shoes accessorized with large pink bows. As Trudee dances, a projector lights up above the stage, cuing the audience to take part in a karaoke song about love. TruDee’s unapologetic, exuberant interludes glue the evening together with comedy and audience interaction.
Autumn Moon, a soothing duet choreographed by Take Ueyama of TAKE Dance and set to music by Chopin, opens the show. In neutral-toned colors, dancers Kristen Bell and Corinna Lee Nicholson own a sense of calmness, slowly building momentum parallel to the pace of the music. The movement vocabulary is full with parallel shapes, counterbalance, and weaves between partner work and syncopated phrasing. A solo performed and choreographed by Amber Sloan follows. Titled Stańczyk, it refers to a famous Polish court jester. Sloan, wearing a collared-white blouse and navy sailor shorts sits tentatively in a chair as Vladimir Martynov’s opera "The Beatitudes" seeps into the room. Sloan, abstract in her expression and movement, performs jagged weight shifts and blank stares. Appearing fearful and fragile, while simultaneously attempting to impress the people around her, Sloan’s solo feels like an awkward game of hide-and-seek. Her raw expression of emotion is memorable.
Changing the pace of performance comes a duet from Jamal Jackson Dance Company featuring Jackson himself and dancer Brion Vann. With a movement vocabulary of street styles, modern dance, and West African dance, the entire duet follows Jackson’s a capella rhythmic sounds. Jackson and Vann execute intricate footwork, stepping and traveling in semi-circles across the intimate stage. The dancers, engaged with each other, seem less concerned about the audience and more interested in the sheer enjoyment of dancing together.
NVA & Guests featuring Christian Warner & Annie Morgan perform a duet, Cry Wolf, filling each other's negative space with smooth, continuous floorwork and expansion. This is followed by Monster Mourning, a distinctive comedic vocal and dance duet channeling girlhood and friendship. Weena Pauly and Katy Workum sing, interjecting each other’s thoughts as they braid their hair into pigtails. Two duets follow, Tsaimbwom Akuchu of TMA Dance dances with Fabian Zuniga in a pairing infused with elements of contemporary forms and breakdancing. Clepsydra, performed by Cori Marquis and Carolyn Cryer dressed in bright white, is laidback and repetitive.
Another work which expands the perimeter is Blushing Cherry, featuring Symara Sarai who uses the entire floor of the pub. Sarai, in a wide frilly skirt and boots, acts, dances, and yells in her self-choreographed and directed work. “I’m quiet, shy, different,” says Sarai, right before she tumbles backwards across the stage ending up in an upside-down headstand. “Clap if you think I’m a star.” Sarai breaks the fourth wall in the best way possible, grabbing the room’s attention and laughter in her firm grip.
Frío, frío, frío, choreographed and performed by Dmitri Peskov and Meghan Wall, is more of an act than a dance, intersecting dialogue between English and Spanish. Wall and Peskov interrupt each other, pleading with the audience to take part in their song. The evening concludes in chaos and impulse with a performance from Jane Comfort and Company. In business attire , the dancers whirl around Marquis, who appears caught and conflicted in the middle of the circle.
DANCENOW at Joe’s Pub is a quintessentially New York experience. Like the shining city it resides in, this energetic series celebrates diversity, multiple genres of art and artists, and the vitality of live performance. Is there any better way to start the dance season?
