vip in the city

Sunset salsa

At Wagner Park after work tonight to catch a couple of sets by the Latin Giants of Jazz, the 15-member orchestra best known for backing the late Latin bandleader Tito Puente.

An impromptu dance area opened up, and soon the floor was filled with couples, swishing and spinning into the late summer sunset.

Click for the video:

Tags: dance, Financial District, jazz, salsa, Wagner Park

Fuerzabruta

Fuerzabruta, the new original work from the Argentine creators of De La Guarda, has made it to New York City after successful runs in Europe and South America. Originally slated to run until February 18, the show has been extended through June 29, 2008.

Like its high-flying predecessor, this show has no real narrative; rather, it’s a series of set pieces, backed by thumping loud music, flashing lights, moving sets, and quite of bit of audience participation. Over 65 minutes (no intermission), the audience was led through various dance/acrobatic performances that were unconventional, sometimes sexy, sometimes a little violent. Hence: “brute force.” Assorted crew members herded us around the Daryl Roth Theatre into standing positions from which we could watch the scenes unfold from different perspectives.

To open the show, a long treadmill was rolled out into the center of the theater, parting the audience. Tethered actors walked and then ran along the rapidly moving belt, dodging moving objects, and smashing through cardboard walls. Paper everywhere!

The somewhat cranky New York Times reviewer likened one segment, for which we were screened in as a pair of women suspended on wires raced over a foil curtain, to “being inside a giant Jiffy Pop.”

Another scene featured a man and a woman flying through the air, trying to connect, but separated by a large, rotating silver sail, as the entire contraption was manipulated with cables by a trio on the floor. Groups of actors danced with wild abandon on stage and then among the audience, as sheets of pressed-powdery material crashed over heads, scattering white clouds through the space.

The highlight of the show was the much reported upon segment where the stage floor was set directly above the audience. With heads craned back, our view was through an immense clear-bottomed swimming pool filled with shallow water, raised high and then gradually dropped from the ceiling to within arm’s reach (and kissing distance) of the audience. A bevy of scantily-clad female performers stood, rolled, cavorted, belly-flopped and flirted through the Mylar; I cringed with each thwack, half expecting the thin material to give way, but apparently, it’s stronger than it looks. Their languid movements created mini-waves rippling across the surface overhead. The overall effect was quite remarkable, and it were these scenes which remained most vivid in my mind: the effect of the colored lights reflected through the water, and the sight of wet bodies pressed within millimeter’s reach, yet ultimately untouchable.

You can watch videos on the main Fuerzabruta site; both The New York Times and New York magazine websites have posted gorgeous slideshows of the action. For an amateur eye’s view, check out my flickr set.

To close out the evening, a DJ in a barrister wig rallied the audience into a dancing frenzy as water poured down from the sprinklers overhead. At Fuerzabruta, you’ll emerge coated in white powder, almost certainly sprayed with water, and possibly covered in debris. But just go with it. Later that night, as I prepared for bed, I noticed the small trail of confetti that I had left on my way to the bathtub and just had to smile.

Tags: dance, Daryl Roth Theatre, Fuerzabruta, performance, shows