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By Catherine Tharin
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Published on October 8, 2024
Big Dance Theater dancers. Photo: Erin Baiano
GIRL GROUP PERFORMANCES: ARLENE SHECHET X ANNIE-B PARSON
July 19 - 20 and September 27 - 28, 2024
Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY
Girl Group sculptures by Arlene Shechet
Choreography by Annie-B Parson
Created in collaboration with the dancers: Cecily Campbell, Elizabeth deMent, Natalie Green, Kashia Kancey, Brooke Ashley Rucker, and Jin Ju Song-Begin
Sound design by Tei Blow
Sound Supervision by Kwamina Binne
Stage Manager: Sara Procopio
Costumes by Arlene Shechet
Annie-B Parson’s work has grown over the decades in complexity and depth. A recipient of numerous awards, including a TONY nomination for her choreography in David Byrne’s American Utopia (the best dance on Broadway that I’ve ever seen), Parson, the co-founder of Big Dance Theater, presented ARLENE SHECHET X ANNIE-B PARSON at Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, N.Y. on September 27.
Dipping into her quintessentially spare, staccato pedestrian gestures and walks, this most recent offering references Parson’s emotionally reserved dances designed to express, without fuss, the heart of the matter. The collaboration with world-renowned sculptor Arlene Shechet is an understated yet sublime success. The choreographer and sculptor are perfectly suited as each conveys both toughness and femininity, characteristics thought to be incompatible.
Dancing around and on Shechet’s marvelous, giant Girl Group sculptures (2023 – 2024, approximately 20’ high by 30’ wide), situated on the hilly 500-acre landscape, six excellent women (girl?) dancers complement the personality of each of the six metal sculptures, their movement enhancing the sculptures’ gentle curves and openings, and stand-firm formidability. The overcast afternoon did not diminish the potent conversation among dancer, sculpture, and theatrical landscape. Weather, too, is part of the setting.
“Weather,” explains Shechet, “impacts the sculpture because everything changes.”
In the sun, the sculptures gleam. On this September day, the delicious colors are muted, but the experience is not.
The first dancing encounter, near the Museum Building exhibiting smaller Shechet ceramics, is with the dark green, compact Maiden May sculpture. A dancer sprawls on its base as another leans in. Dancer Jin Ju Song-Begin mimics the sculpture’s shape while lying on her back. A series of entrances and exits to the humming sound of Tei Blow’s accompaniment emerging from handheld speakers, brings the dancers into a horizontal line before they form a two-by-two phalanx. The grouped dancers march and scurry with a no-nonsense deliberation that recalls The Handmaid’s Tale, while a world of rhythms, facings, and interactions emerges within the forcefield of the sculptures.
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The costumes, by Shechet, feature different trouser and top shapes in varying shades of grey, white, and black. They have in common Superga sneakers and socks in the saturated colors of the sculptures, and gray aprons that hang front and back to the ankles. The dancers link themselves together by picking up and holding onto the edges of the aprons in front of them; the aprons are marked by the early drawings of each of the sculpture’s foundations.
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Dawn, in blush pink, provides a ledge on which the dancers sit. They stand and circle before performing a phrase of ruffling hands, foot flicks, skips, claps and arm chugs. From the azure Rapunzel, where they stack themselves into blocky shapes imitating the sculpture, they run with abandon down a long corridor of undulating hills. The first three sculptures are grouped nearby, while the fourth is a sprint away. Upon reaching the powder blue Bea Blue, a sense of mystery unfolds. Dancers hiding behind the sculpture emerge. Two jump over one, and a dancer is lifted from the grass. Single-file with aprons rolled in hand, they promptly proceed to the luminous, bright yellow As April, where the dancers, including veteran Big Dance Theater member Elizabeth DeMent, shimmy their shoulders as if relishing the memory of sun.
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The finale places the dancers side by side traveling down a long gravel road, each trailing glinting silver fabric. The audience watches from a rise. As if voyaging to the vanishing point, the dancers reach the sixth sculpture, Midnight, to commune in private with the partially seen, bold orange behemoth.
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