Audience Reviews >

AUDIENCE REVIEW: Liz Gerring

Company:
Liz Gerring

Performance Date:
Saturday Oct 15

Company
Liz Gerring

Show / Event Name
She Dreams In Code

Performance Date
Saturday Oct 15

Venue / Location
Baryshnikov Arts Center

Your Occupation:
Dance Lover/Teacher

Last time you moved your body:
walking up the stairs to the computer...

Have you ever seen this company/ before?
Tell us a bit about your history with this group/performer?
 Liz and I were waitresses together what seems like one million years ago! we served spaghetti and talked about art.
actually the waitresses at that restaurant were some of the smartest women I ever met.

Why did you go to the show? What did you expect to see?
 I went because I had the free date. I wanted to see Liz's work as it has been raved about in the NYTimes... wanted to see for myself what she was doing..I don't really go with expectations. I go to take in the experience. I go to play. Also, I had seen rehearsal and  loved the movement ...I wanted to see how the work would change in performance....and it was Saturday night aka date night..!

What was your favorite moment(s)? What inspired you?
 So many things inspired me.. I loved the athleticism of the dancers. I loved that the movement was so simple...almost like movements you see in kids games, but the dancers and Liz of course took it to a new level . In fact, I remember a particular lunge sequence that i am trying to add to my work outs because not only will it make me more fit, but it is fun and challenging as hell... I can't do it the way Liz's company can. I am amazed how choreographers/dancers can- with the use of quality, and timing, and positioning in space,  give such every day movement new meanings... .... I liked the play of the video with the dance and the music...it took me to new places... my mind darted back and forth from one element to another... I liked that. That darting, that play, it is what going to the see things is all about...new ways of thinking, playing...  

Describe as plainly and as specifically as you can what you actually saw. We are going for description without judgement.
There is no need for complete sentences, phrases and word lists are fine. You can describe these elements or anything you can think of: the artists, the kinds of movement, the qualities of the movement, the use of the stage/space, the musicality/timing...
 lunges , frog like jumps, spinning out of control movement, sudden stops...slamming into the floor
jigs coming out of nowhere ...fanciful
many entrances and exits ...always keeping my eye moving...
interesting couples. emerging...groups falling away...
then slow slow slow dreaming adagios ...stories bubbling up and disappearing... a romance...yes no? maybe so? 
many changes in dynamics... dissolving, careening, spinning, hurling, BLAM, stop , slow and dreamy, languid,floating

Do any images, colors or feelings pop into your head when you think about this show?
 rain drops nature dreams
a painting coming to life...and telling me to jump into it
seeing the interior of someones thought process...
run on sentences...i thought the dancers seemed like run on sentences...sometimes slamming into each other sometimes gliding..I mean that in a great way
poetry
swinging on a Calder mobile. 

Describe any or all of these elements: music, lighting, the venue. - How did they contribute (or not) to your enjoyment of this performance?
 the music...sound... was intriguing and inviting- fluctuating from an atmosphere to something I could hum and dance-- to a more familiar speaking voice ...
loved that everything went in and out of reality or realities....yet it felt so natural...
that is what I enjoyed about the evening in total...this feeling that this "fiction" Liz presented on stage was vaguely familiar yet of course it wasn't...
kind of deja vu?
the video was also wonderful and similarly traveled from being real images to just color... 
I remember the first image of color was so absorbing. I thought it resembled Monet's Water Lilies in feel...you know if Monet lived today and was a video artist.
I loved being at BAC..first of all because I actually saw Baryshnikov...and was just to shy to say hello...Secondly because I was close but not too close to the action. I could see the dancers expressions and yet take in the patterns and the whole picture.
the action of the stage. The dancers were beautiful. It is 

Would you like to see this performance / company again? Would you recommend it to a friend?
Why or why not?
 Yes... I enjoyed this evening.
I felt as if my mind took a vacation and living and working in New York City well,
that is a splendid thing.
I would bring friends especially friends interested in abstract art, modern painting, I think they would enjoy Liz's work... 
also my theater friends, also designers...
there is much for every sense  in this piece
and also I have visions of teaching some of the movement to groups... because it is has a very human every day game quality to it...and then showing them the fully performed piece...and how it evolves... Liz would you like to hire me as an art educator for your group? I 'm available...

What would you like to have seen more of? Less of?
 Actually I was thinking afterwards, I wish that there was someway I could bottle that dance and bring it home with me. but I can only remember. 
I really enjoyed some of the performances too. Hadn't noticed the mystery and the interpretation so much in rehearsal.. performance heightens the magic.

If you could, what would you ask the choreographer / dancers?
I would like to ask the performers what they think while they are out there and how it differs from one show to another? I would like to ask them how they connect the piece together...how it changes for them...from the beginning of the process to the performance...
and of course I am interested in the notion that a dance when newly created is not really at its finished state. What do they think about that idea?
For example if Liz and Co could perform this for a whole year, I wonder how it would change? What elements would change? Do the pieces change as the dancers life experience changes...and bodies change? Would Liz want to change anything? 
This is what interests me so much about dance work....I think dances are never really done or over... they happen , are happening, and then are put to sleep and may be woken up. What I saw on Saturday night will never happen again. It was a unique moment in time. A Gift.