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The Dance Enthusiast Hits the Streets: Movement Research at Judson Church

By Deirdre Towers/Follow @deirdre.towers on Instagram
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Published on February 2, 2015
Photo: David Gonsier

Not A Review of Robert Daniel, Homes Maynard, Gerald Casel, Gwen Welliver, Anya Cloud and Eric Geiger

Venue: Judson Church

Date: January 19, 2015

Choreographers: Robert Daniel, Homes Maynard, Gerald Casel, Gwen Welliver,

Anya Cloud and Eric Geiger

Dancers: Arletta Anderson, Kristen Bell, Christina Briggs-Winslow, Rebecca Chaleff, Peiling Kao, Parker Murphy, Stuart Singer, Claire Westby

Composer/Performer: Tim Russell, Jake Meginsky

Pictured above: Gerald Casel's Splinters in our Ankles. From L-R: Parker Murphy, Arletta Anderson, Peiling Kao, Christina Briggs-Winslow, Kristen Bell (seated on cushion), and Rebecca Chaleff (seated in chair).

“In Fingertips Toward Floor, Head Follows or The Lazy Sexy Peepshow, we take on epic-ness, elegance, being lazy-sexy (but more lazy than sexy), intelligent recklessness, and reversibility. Love and trust are to this work.” So said the program about a duo performed by Anya Cloud and Eric Geiger, one tall, one short, both with amble shoulders and fetching behinds celebrated as framed in black fabric.

While a long line was forming around the block for the 8pm performance, I snuck in to catch some of the tech rehearsal. I caused a momentary spasm of panic when I asked a question. “You know we can have no reviews.” “Yes, yes, I understand,” I replied to a very skeptical staff member. With judgments suspended at NYC’s venerable home for public experimentation, Judson Church, Monday night free series protects its creators who come from far and near to test their ideas.

In the case of The Lazy Sexy Peepshow, the work has been performed since 2013. Performed with more flesh, a bit more recklessness and slyness in 2015, you can see an excerpt:

Gerald Case, a Juilliard School graduate, had come in from California, as did Eric Geiger, to present excerpts from his Splinters in our Ankles, an evening-long work-in-progress that explores cultural amnesia in the Phillipines. This group dance was Inspired by the folk dance Tinikling and what was forgotten about the contexts of its creation. In an interview, Casel said, “When you’re taught it as a child, it’s a happy dance, but I discovered that it was created during the time of slavery and the Spanish colonizers used it as a punishment.”

Gerald Casel's Splinters in our Ankles. (from L-R) Tim Russell (composer), Kristen Bell, Rebecca Chaleff, Arletta Anderson, Parker Murphy, Peiling Kao, and Christina Briggs-Winslow (dancers). Photo: David Gonsier

Another duet created by Sarah Lawrence faculty member Gwen Welliver was presented as a work-in-progress excerpt – What a Horse.  Robert Daniel Holmes Maynard performed Ave Bambi / the last rites, a section of a larger work, "influenced by pop culture, trance cults, drag queens, and the religion of the nightclub.”