Dance as narrative at New York performance festivals

Gia Kourlas wrote that January’s performance festivals in New York offered wide-ranging views of how bodies — more than words — can tell stories, with several works blurring the line between dance and theater across venues including N.Y.U. Skirball, the Brick Theater and Performance Space New York.

She highlighted Mario Banushi’s wordless drama “Mami,” presented at N.Y.U. Skirball, as a piercing example: a depiction of motherhood that begins with a young woman giving birth, often with performers stripped of clothing, and which shifts expectations about who nurtures while emphasizing the passage of time.

At the Brick Theater, Isa Spector’s “Real Estate,” part of the Exponential Festival, was described as a domestic fantasy in three movements in which Ari Dalbert and Sheldon Donenberg perform a slippery drama told through text and movement; Spector’s work uses witty wordplay and choreographic miniatures to explore yearning.

Key Topics

Culture, Mario Banushi, Mami, Isa Spector, Real Estate, Nyu Skirball