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IMPRESSIONS: Beth Gill's “Nail Biter” at NYU Skirball
By Sarah Cecilia Bukowski
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Published on April 22, 2024
Photo by Maria Baranova
Beth Gill, Choreographer
Performers: Maggie Cloud, Jennifer Lafferty, Jordan Demetrius Lloyd, Marilyn Maywald Yahel, and Beth Gill
Jon Moniaci, Composer
Baille Younkman, Costume Designer
Thomas Dunn, Lighting and Scenic Designer
Krista Smith, Associate Lighting Designer
Madison Ellis, Production Stage Manager
Michelle Fletcher, Manager
Voice: Falu, Emily Eagen, Jeremy Lydic, Peter Sciscioli
Thrown Materials: Peter Kerlin and Jon Moniaci
Choir: Abby Ahmad, Ray Barr, Frank Bolton, Karen de Chabert, Layla Cobrinik, Hannah Fairchild, Louise Guerin, David Luther, Dan Morrow, Gabby Sherba, Netania Steiner
In memoriam: Rose-Marie Menes & Gus Solomons Jr.
black stage
white light
shift shift
shift
notquitedarkness
notquitesilence
notquitestillness
heels click clack
one rib sideways
shins lit by shins
coattails and beret
a flash of red lining
intimations of a face
a hand swallowed by an inky silhouette
a hum in the whoosh
a wail in the hum
a tone in the wail
devoured
digested by an acid whine
demolished by a minor avalanche
the destruction and assembly of unseen objects
seen only by their sound
metallic ringing
paper folding
making
unmaking
remaking
in
notquitedarkness
notquitesilence
notquitestillness
in flickering color
in clinical magenta
in thick blackness
ghostly retinal afterimages float
sharp shadows eclipse slithering symmetries
violent precision and tender contortions
sinuous tactility through susurrant fingertips
hands hold air
body
self
other
all
a vain attempt to contain their spilling out
the horror and inevitability of revelation
in
notquitedarkness
notquitesilence
notquitestillness
galloping clattering gogo boots
legs bared like lethal weapons
a stomper
a sorceress
feet beat out mythic presence
hands and eyes joined in predatory vigilance
back arced to receive the boom of the drum
a victorian girl drawn from nightmares
long black braids flying
a specter
an exorcist
unfazed in the face of violence
her perfect arabesque wags lazily
a choir of angels intones the divine
as one angel dances with her shadow
she approaches the void
slips inside
prowling white twyla slippers and crew socks
sparklepanties boyish tee crown of curls
a sprite
a menace
she ripples the surface
curls into the curves of her body
slips from her grasp
a charming brat with one shoe left
who are they?
self-contained figments
in chance overlaps of worlds
marked by traces of white clay
the residue of memory
opulent ruin
insidious haunting
where
color is music
movement is texture
sound is landscape
in
notquitedarkness
notquitesilence
notquitestillness
