The Art of Composing Dance

The Art of Gerald Casel as choreographer reaches much further than the cutaneous surface of the gestures and phrases pieced together to create work. Based on the three pieces performed at Afternoon at LIU, Seep, Exit Skeleton, and Eventual (after Merce) Casel appears to craft his work in such a way that innovatively invites movers, musicians and audience alike to engage in the visual existence of dance as truth sayer.  The works created a visual wash of dancers moving in and out of space, in and out of focus, exchanging ideas and virtual communications beyond what could be claimed through words alone. Dance as an art form continues to live vibrantly through the work of Gerald Casel.

                In “Seep” Casel weaves 4 dancers in, out, around, and through each other during the course of the dance as the audience witnesses the transformation of the space into a black kaleidoscope of movement. The phrasing begins in a wash of lights and a staggered purview of uniformed dancers poised to any given moment. The individual moment was paid special attention to in the complex partnering grazing the spectrum of phrases gallantly breathed throughout the space.  In witnessing the array of movement spanning the stage, one is graced with witnessing not a group of phrases pieced together but rather the ideal of learned material that is beyond the descriptions of these words. These words are not an attempt to describe the work or even what the work meant. Rather my words are an attempt to describe what it was like to witness the depths of works that reach beyond that of what is understood by the common word.

The fixed focus of Exit Skeleton was only surpassed by the highly attuned nature of Da-Da- Dance. Da-Da-Dance, made up of Eun Jung Choi-Gonzales and Guillermo Ortega Taunus, performed Exit Skeleton with such fine tuned awareness of each other, the space, and focus that one would almost think they were 2 in the same. While this might not make sense in words, it makes perfect visual sense.  Moving both together and apart the duet generates an even keeled flow of movement and gestures that propel one into an intrinsic melody that doesn’t come from the music. In fact the song that is played is only a background sound in which to wash over the ears. It is easy to let go of it watching the duet wash across the stage like a tide rolling upon the beach.

Eventual (after Merce), is where the kaleidoscope becomes very clear. Dancers come and go so fast in the pacing of the piece, one wonders about the cohesiveness or through line of it all.  The attention to focus and space and the motif’s that become more and more evident through the development of the piece generate glue that, while not at first apparent, demonstrates an unspoken communication between both dancers and live musicians. The vibrant sounds responded directly to the movements that were translating the stage into Eventual (after Merce). In response the dancers moved with an attentive nature that bolstered the viewer into ethereal world in which anything could happen at any given moment and the colors could change at the drop of a dime. Later it is learned that Eventual was a structured improvisation using phrases and motifs from other works and the musicians were also riffing off of each other.  The performers focus and attention barely hinted at any lack of material. The performance came off as a well rehearsed and well informed piece. Just as Seep and Exit Skeleton.