With a plethora of available shows, New York is guaranteed to please any visitor interested in performances. As one of those visitors, I had the honor to view Parsons Dance Company perform at the Joyce Theatre while visiting New York on May 27th at an 8:00pm show. The artistic director, David Parsons, along with the general manager, Rebecca Josue, put together a beautiful show that showcased the company at its full potential. Dancers Sarah Braverman, Ian Spring, Elena D’amario, Geena Pacareu, Omar Román de Jesús, Eoghan Dillon, Zoey Anderson, Justus Whitfield, and Deidre Rogan were beautifully spotlighted by the lighting and stage crew. The stage crew consisted of Rebecca Josue as Stage Manager, Christopher Chambers as Lighting Supervisor, …show more content…
Choreographed by David Parsons to a piano and fiddle duet by Kenji Bunch, the dancers were outfitted by Mia McSwain in what I assume was solid black pants and short sleeved shirts. The dramatic lighting by Howell Binkley consisted of complete darkness except two side spotlights that illuminated about a marley-wide space across the stage. The concept of this piece was absolutely captivating, due to the fact that the audience was not watching full bodies perform on the stage. Instead, it showcased just the dancers’ two arms by the spotlights as they moved and articulated them to create shapes, waves, patterns, and other hypnotising movements. Hand Dance was all about creating an image with just their hands and arms rather than a storyline. I believe they also showed that a true performer obtains the ability to arouse curiosity in an audience by even the simplest of steps by using just their …show more content…
The dancers were outfitted in casual clothing by Mark Gieringer, almost resembling uniform business attire with black pants and a neutral top. There was simplistic lighting by Christopher S. Chambers consisting of a single spotlight on a male dancer and a dimmer overall lighting with occurred while the rest of the group was performing. Daniel was in fact choreographed by a member of the company, Omar Román de Jesús, who used an conglomeration of music artists including Thrupence, Max Richter, Scarecrow Blues Hip Hop, Gerson Orjuela, Hiatus, Angele Dubeau, David Darling, and Eve Kodiak. The dance began with just a male dancer sitting cross-legged downstage being spotlighted. He danced just sitting down the majority of the dance, but he was dancing with a sense of being trapped or in pain even. Eventually, other dancers joined him just walking and doing steps around the stage. After it ended, I was curious about the storyline due to the fact that I wasn’t quite able to grasp one certain concept. However, I read on the program book insert that it was in fact inspired by the choreographer’s experience in teaching a “sensory-friendly workshop” available to dancers that fall on the autism spectrum. Thinking back it makes sense and I see the connection due to the movements the male exerted