Dance Works in Progress Featuring Liz Gerring, Shannon Gillen and Abby Zbikowski at 92nd Y - WOW!

The Harkness Dance Center May 4, 2018 "The Body in Action" featured 3 Dance Companies' works in progress under the direction of 3 choreographers/artistic directors:  Liz Gerring, Abby Zbikowski and Shannon Gillen.   This was an intimate and exciting exposure to the choreographers' creative process and the demanding rigors required of the dancers.  Gillen said her piece "Superbloom" was inspired by the sudden burst of flowers & vegetation in AZ where she lives that surface immediately following a rainfall & shortly thereafter wither & die.  Having this concept it was discernible in the dancers vibrant largess of movements followed by listless & shriveling motions.  Zbikowski spoke about her dance bio and that of her dancers and their collaborations.  The 4 consecutive sections were performed without pause and unaccompanied by music.  The two dancers wore sneakers that added discordant squeaks to their frantic darting which felt like a rigid aerobic exercise.  Gerring's "Field work-in-progress" was the more complex and stimulating choreographed piece.  She shared her thought process & problem solving in terms of controlled spatial relationships, tautness and repose.  "Field" was far & wide the most developed and engrossing work.  The 6 dancers (for a work being developed for 7) showed amazing strength and graceful control.  The panel following the dancing part of the program included Gerring, Zbikowski and one of the dancers.  Listening to the choreographers question each other's intentions and struggles was an incisive master class into the undertaking of expressing their motives.