Dance Festival on the Plaza @ Lincoln Ctr

Tonight was a colossal, out of doors happening on the Hearst Plaza.  Mark Dendy, OBIE winning choreographer, presented his world premier, "Ritual Cyclical" theatre project.  Dendy's 80 dancers performed to music by the grammy winning Kronos String Quartet, and Elvis.  The theatrical performance, or as I dub it, "the happening," had a befuddled start.  Where  to stand/sit was not apparent.  Where NOT to was made clear by the police.  Slowly, women in varying white costumes made their way through the crowd to the reflecting pond.  The women were dazed & amazed by the water; some walked right in. (An older lady got into the act, she was just crazed.)  A motley group of dancers, in various dress, (some military) joined, doing "their own thing." Dancers moved from the reflecting pool to the grove, drawing the crowd with them.  There, dancers in all blue, performed in precision, with their own tree to partner with & lay around.  A cute toddler said, "Mommy they're napping."   Dancers in formal evening attire began dancing alongside the Met (some climbed up the windows.)  A female soldier grabbed a male dancer with whom she brutalized, frisked, & tangoed while a lone soldier waved the Amer. Flag.  He was joined by other soldiers forming the image of the Flag Raising on Iwo Jima.  Male soldiers did a routine that was part vaudeville & part combat with fallen soldiers. These soldiers then did a Full Monty (almost) and danced to Elvis with one fallen soldier on stage.  Was "Ritual Cyclical" anti-war propaganda, American iconic culture or audience involved performance art?  I will say, "It happened, suddenly it just happened. You better beware of the happening." (Supremes) It's happening again @ 6PM Thursday.