The dancer was drowning. Even the gentlest waves were too strong to step in the soggy sands of Rockaway Beach in the late afternoon.
Choreographer Trisha Brown’s 1971 work Leaning Duets II is a classic partner experiment in trying to balance while balancing. Pairs of dancers faced each other bound by a paddle contraption (a piece of wood attached to each waist and looped with rope) and leaned back on their feet.
the aim? To create opposite diagonals, create something like a V shape. And keep moving.
The beach poses particular challenges to such tasks. A steady wind was blowing. the waves were loud. And that sand! Before the dancers began to drift and swirl — the kind of subtle tremors that help make this seemingly simple dance captivating — the torso began to contort. Their diagonals were bent forward like commas. They almost fell on their side.
But that’s why the members Trisha Brown Dance Company I was at the beach to learn about the environment, not about the dances I had danced before. Starting this Saturday at 5:30 p.m. beach session seriesthe esteemed firm, takes over the coastline from 97th Beach to 110th Beach in a program highlighting a selection of works chosen for their way of interacting with the beach.
Due to the start time, high tide is a factor. Brown’s associate Carolyn his artistic director, Lucas, placed the dancers on spongy sand by design. “They have to understand that the earth doesn’t always hold them up,” she said, noting that the dancers are getting the hang of it. “Oh! The way she spins is amazing.”
The company announced its iteration, “Trisha Brown: In Plain Site” series — a version of the early non-proscenium production — never performed on the beach, anywhere in the world. Beaches are missed.
The moment the dancers, dressed in cyan blue surf tops and shorts, began to perform Brown’s choreography, the natural world burst open, revealing a sharper and more colorful focal point. It was like: Seagulls twirled around the dancers, and the dancers, perched majestically on the pier in Figure 8 (1974), made arcing patterns with their arms as if they were being televised. put out their wings.
The program concludes with a performance on a stage built on sand. These are his three dances: “Solo Oros” (1976), “Accumulation” (1971) and “Opal Loop” (1980). However, in the first half, the audience goes along with the dancers along the coast. The setting makes beach sessions casual in nature. But that’s more than an excuse to sit in the sun. It has become a touching late-summer tradition, where the wild and enigmatic nature of the experimental dance finds the missing twins on the beach.
Beach Sessions was created in 2015 by producer and Rockaway resident Sasha Okshteyn. Sasha Okshteyn had a dream to bring quality dance and performance to Rockaway Beach. But she also had another, more private dream. She wanted to set up a particular company, Trisha Brown, her dance company on the sands of Rockaway.
“Trisha’s site-specific work in the early ’70s was very innovative and made on the streets of Manhattan,” Okshteyn said of Brown, who died in 2017. Beach natural elements. “
Performances, including “Spanish Dances” (1973) and “Group Primary Accumulation” (1973), with dancers lying on the sand, would be looser than usual, Lucas said. “It’s a very playful piece,” she said. “That’s what’s beautiful about her early work and her Trisha’s playfulness and sense of humor.”
There’s a certain wildness to her choreography too, a slippery chaos bubbling beneath a surface so sophisticated that it’s attuned to the natural world.It was Ochstein’s idea to include “opal loop” A bright piece that usually envelops four dancers in a swirl of fog.
“I wanted to include meaningful work in the program along the waterfront,” Ochstein said. I wanted to reverse that and bring that piece out into the natural world. “
“Of course you can’t create artificial clouds,” she added.It’s all my fantasy They’re dancing on a foggy day of natural clouds. “
In a lecture demonstration at Jacob’s Pillow in 1987, Lucas recalls the moment when Brown suddenly uttered the words “opal loop, opal loop, opal loop, opal loop,” and spoke about the dance and, in a way, her Talking about dance philosophy — she dancing. It’s unpredictable, she said. The phrases are minutes long and don’t stop for yards or even slow down. “
Brown calls this period of her work The Unstable Molecular Cycle (1980-1983). It is based on her memorized improvisations and includes the postmodern masterpiece “Set and Reset”. In her “Opal Loop,” Brown says: It’s a fuss to perform, but it’s easier if you manage the momentum well. “
I remember Lucas, who played this piece, was conscious of how he could make Brown feel. “But it really wasn’t easy.”
For Beach Sessions, as with all of the company’s “In Plain Site” programming, the dancing remains unchanged. It becomes a choreographic experiment in choreography. Where is the best place for a particular dance? How do dancers move from one place to the next? As a moment of temporary transition Lucas included “Scallops” (1973) . In this piece, the dancers stand side by side and run to new positions to keep up with the line.
“We always try to keep the rigor of our ideas intact, even if the environment can make it difficult,” said Lucas. “But part of the fun is learning.” You’re like, ‘Oh, look at that beautiful place.’ And you start to realize that five people can see it. I have learned to stop looking at beautiful places that are not. So it really makes a big picture. “
Working outdoors can be challenging for dancers. Trees and insects can distract you. And you always have to fight the weather. However, dancer Patrick McGrath said:
“And it’s funny,” he added. “Some of the pieces fit so naturally you’d think she pretty much expected this. Sometimes the lines work better out of the wood.”
Such unexpected artistry is a source of surprise and delight at Beach Sessions. This season, along with the Rockaway Film Festival, Einstein on the Beach, directed by Robert Wilson and composed by Philip Glass, will screen at Urban Cinemas on Friday. “It’s interesting to think of the allegorical beach and the actual beach,” he said Okshteyn. “This is also her 1976 production, and many of Trisha’s early works were produced around the same time.”
As for bringing pieces of that world and its art, especially Trisha Brown’s company, to Rockaway? “Honestly, I’m still shocked they’re performing,” she said. Beach Sessions is an in-house project, and I hope it inspires other young programmers to do what they want if they stick with it.You can grow something yourself.”