Moving to the Beat

As a passionate lover of underground arts and culture, I really, quite frankly, don’t get out enough. As I choose to launch a career as a freelance writer, entrepreneur, and music producer/DJ, I believe it’s essential for me to expose myself to as much art and culture as I possibly can right now – really, to marinate in it, so to speak. Since I was a young child, I have been an artistic free-thinking spirit, and I can hardly believe that I have the opportunity to get to honor this part of myself now as I move forward into the next phase of my life.

Although it’s something I can no longer pursue, for much of my life I was a serious dancer. I studied it professionally on and off throughout my childhood and adolescence, and was a work-study student at a New York City dance studio in my early twenties. Dance has always been a huge part of my life, and, truly, my life’s calling. I sustained several injuries that precluded my continuing to express myself through dance today, but it will always be my first and truest love.

Watching dance is a pleasure that I still relish today. However, I have been disappointed by many of the current dance world’s offerings. A lot of today’s modern dance seems to be conceptual and cerebral, unconnected with the visceral intensity and meaning that touches me so deeply in great works of choreography. Those works which are not cerebral are downright unfocused and incoherent. I saw a performance of Armitage Gone! Dance at Summerstage last year set to a jazz score by Vijay Iyer, and I nearly fell asleep. The dancers might as well have been lounging around their kitchen table.

That’s why I was so energized and ecstatic, last year, to discover Young Soon Kim’s vital White Wave Dance Festival. These performances are held at intervals throughout the year, some by donation, some for a fairly standard price tag of $30 or so per performance. I usually go to the one held during the weekend of the DUMBO Arts Festival. Kim’s performances host assorted works by the East Coast’s best rising choreographers, some of whom travel from several states away (and some from even further; I met one group from Colorado!).

The vibe is definitely downtown. The performances are held in a no-frills space that looks like it should be in the West Village, circa 1960. The works range from mediocre to downright transcendent, and while none of them really rival the work of, say, Paul Taylor (naturally), they are all vibrant with energy and inspiration. And I have actually seen one that I would not be surprised to see on a Lincoln Center stage (just so you know, it was “What More?”, by a choreographer named Joe Celej who dances for Elisa Monte).

Definitely check it out if you’re into dance. Warning: You’ll see a lot of duds. But it’s definitely worth it, cuz you’ll see some diamonds, too. And diamonds, quite frankly, are all too rare in today’s dance world. Unless you can catch a Paul Taylor performance. ;)

www.whitewavedance.com