Dance Europe, WE ARE NATURE @ LAST FRONTIER NYC
[…], dancer and choreographer Kelly Ashton Todd and bassist Christiaan van Voorst van Beest appear below us on a lower rooftop. Todd, looking like a disciple of Pina Bausch, in a taupe nightgown, gathers branches to form a nest while the musician plays on. The two artists, who both are members of the immersive theatre show Sleep No More, are in constant synchronicity even as Todd traverses far from her counterpart. Inspired by bird migration, the work has a cyclical structure with Todd beginning and ending in a curled cat-like position.
Exploring the far-flung areas of the roof, the dancer grabs branches like a feral animal crawling in the shadows, shoulder blades glide off her spine. Working her way to the roof's edge, Todd perches herself like an egret. She nimbly etches her wispy limbs into the skyline behind her. VanVoorst van Beest responds to the precarious moment with hollowing, guttural sounds, as if they're coming from deep inside of his instrument. […]
While the work conjures the natural world, it effectively collides with the very entities that threaten it. Industrial plants hum and whir not too far away. Two giant bulbous structures ominously blink fluorescent green and red lights at The Newton Creek Water Treatment Plant. Cars honk as they careen down the nearby highway. Their cacophony interrupts the bassist's mellifluous sounds. The tension of these two worlds, coupled with the crises that the planet is facing, underscores just how much everything is hanging in the balance.
