Vencl Dance

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A new year!

“Changing Places” Vencl Dance from chris young on Vimeo.

This video is nine minutes from the hour long dance we hope to tour.
Credits run at the end.

Dance Review – ‘Nearly Ninety’ – Merce Cunningham at 90 – Meanings Still Pour From Movement – NYTimes.com

“The two factors that make “Nearly Ninety” exceptional, though, remain the choreography and the performances. Mr. Cunningham’s dance imagination actually appears more fertile than ever before. Onward!”

By dance critic Alastair Macaulay.
Nearly Ninety (minutes long) seemed that way to me too.  I saw the final Sunday afternoon performance.  The set lacked only sequins.  ”Pour” is exactly the right word here.
This is two pages long.

Merce Cunningham, Visionary Choreographer, Dies at 90 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com

By dance critic Alastair Macaulay
This is very informative and very well written.  It is 4 pages long.

Choreographer-Dancer Merce Cunningham Dies : NPR

Look at Pond Way.  It was choreographed in 1988 and is 22.35 minutes long.  This is not a clip.

“Pond Way can be described as one of Cunningham’s ‘nature studies’ where the movement evokes birds, animals or landscapes. It is a lyrical, contemplative and sensuous piece, with the movement, according to Cunningham, being reminiscent of the game of skimming stones over a pond, which he loved to play as a child. The production is further enriched with a backcloth from the visual artist Roy Lichtenstein and a soundscape by Brian Eno.”       ……NPR

Margaret Gosden has posted photos from the Concert on her blog,

SNAPSHOTS, VIDEO and SHORT FILM: CHANGING PLACES by Susan Vencl

Changing Places is an hour long abstract work to Pulitzer prize winning composer Steve Reich’s 1970 masterwork, Drumming. Five women kaleidoscopically define space by creating points, lines and planes within it. Stillnesses and place-to-place movements join to generate configurations which overlap, punctuate and dissolve into each other. The place changes.

This dance began simply, in 2005, with the urge to move. Intricate stepping patterns and evocative movement knots gradually emerged and seemingly organized themselves into distinct families. By 2006 this dance had its own roots, both structurally and materially strong. But then inexplicably all work stopped for almost a year, until finally by chance the choreographer found Drumming. This music so enlivened the movement material that the choreographer felt forced to accept its challenge. So it is the twin gifts, the gift of the particular piece of music itself and the gift of finding it that in the end has brought about Changing Places.

To this effort lighting designer Mike Riggs brings knowledge of the work of composer Steve Reich and of light artist Dan Flavin, as well as his team, sound engineer Nathan Leigh and costumer Sidney Maresca. Dancers all new to Vencl Dance, are Lisa Bostwick, Erin Pellecchia, Sara Roer, Julia Sabangan, and Lindy Schmedt.

Tickets $15/$12, are available at the door at 212-388-9563 or at susan@vencldance.org. Take the 1, 2, 3, A, C or L to 14th street; walk west to Hudson Street, south to Bethune, and west on Bethune to 55 (Westbeth).

Photo by Amanda Embry

Lindy Schmedt 
Photo by Erin Pellecchia

Julia Sabangan
Photo by Erin Pellecchia from her Impromptu Collection

Photo of Sara Roer by Erin Pellecchia, from her Impromptu Collection