Gerald Casel Dance in "Fluster and Plot"

Photo by Ho Chang

Gerald Casel Dance in
Fluster and Plot

April 22-24, 2010

Danspace Project @ Saint Marks Church
131 East 10th Street • New York, NY 10003 • info: 212-674-8112

Ticket information:
Ovation Tix

I got to see Gerald Casel Dance at St Marks Church in the E. Village on opening night. I don't want to say too much about the performance so here are a few words about his two premieres of Fluster and Plot.

Fluster
Danced by Gerald Casel, Nicholas Strafaccia, and Samuel Von Wentz
Despite three male dancers dancing in this piece, the movements had a very light and playful feeling. No sound came from their feet. A deliberate nonchalant quality approach to each movement. The carefree "skipping through a field" was enhanced by the sound by Matthew Meade and Kyle Olson, there were sounds of wind chimes at one point. My favorite moment came during Casel's mini solo segment, his solo had a lot of weight bearing dynamic punctuated by dragging of the legs, deep lunges, long drawn out pauses in deep plié. The music changes that occurred created a different environment and the movement became heavier, more partnering, more contrasting dynamics in level changes, speed, and overall feeling. Casel really found a narrative within this abstract piece entirely using movement patterns.

Plot
Danced by Na-Ye Kim, Megan Madorin, Toni Melaas, Omagbitse Omagbemi, and Isadora Wolfe
This piece felt very calculated and heavy with movement patterns that are repeated, manipulated, and then the original phrases are manipulated so that it looks different but similar. Unlike the men, the women were very grounded in their bodies from the very start of the piece. The entire piece was punctuated by breaks at the hip, shoulder, and elbow and filled with drawn out pauses fast choreographed twitches.