Summer Snapshot: Catherine Gallant Dance - An Absurd Vice

This outdoor performance was a unique experience for me since the site was just outside the building where I live at 91st and Third Ave. Imaginary theatrical happenings always unfolded in my head amid the years of walking through and around the tree lined pedestrian block (one of only a very few in NYC).

Since the space is considered a “street” by the City of New York I didn’t need a permit or any other special permissions to hold a performance there. (I guess any thing goes in the middle of the street.)

The best thing about the event was that people who I had known for years from the laundry room and elevator came by to check it out. Just before we began, one neighbor was so taken by the idea that he asked me to hold the start time for five minutes so he could run home and get his video camera. OK, I thought the more video taken the better. Why not.

Little did I know that he is an imaginative artist/filmmaker/editor who took the footage and worked it into a really fun movie with his own take on my idea. It was a great moment of random confluence which is what outdoor art can offer to performers and audiences alike.

Credits:
Video shot by Alice Klugertz and Jim Hines
Video editing and post production by Jim Hines web.mac.com/jameshines
Choreography by Catherine Gallant with the dancers
Funds from Manhattan Community Arts Fund of LMCC
Dancers of Catherine Gallant/DANCE
Billy Blanken
Michelle Cohen
Noah Damer
Rob Fernandez
Catherine Gallant
Chriselle Tidrick
Francesca Todesco
Melissa Rodnan
Jason Bowell