David Appel presents "Off the Shelf" (a bookstore project)
Company:
David Appel
Off the Shelf (a bookstore project) returns!
Three seasoned performers again enliven an out of the ordinary space
After its well-received premiere in early May, Off the Shelf (a bookstore project), instigated and shaped by choreographer David Appel, returns on Sunday July 19th to the P.S. Bookshop, 76 Front Street, in Brooklyn. Performances of the four approximately 15-minute-long sets will take place at 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, and 3:30pm, with breaks in between each. Admission is free, though donations for the participating artists are welcome. For more information call 718-222-3340.
Off the Shelf is about the intertwined processes of creating and experiencing new short pieces in a very different milieu—a bookstore. But instead of merely presenting previously-made dances in an uncommon space or treating the entire store as a site-specific landscape, we bring the pieces into being as self-contained episodes that veer between having a lot or little to do with the literary richness amidst which they appear, while foregoing many of the dynamics of a more conventional theatrical setting. Yet this work does surface surrounded by books: an environment that undeniably influences the movement and how it is shaped and perceived in unexpected ways. Using diverse combinations of composed and improvised dancing, and weaving in original and encountered text, these longtime artists (dancers David Appel and Darla Stanley, and actor Eric Chase) fashion movement solos and duets, solos with self-generated spoken words, and improvised collaborations between the dancers and the actor serving as “reader,” who brings alive excerpts from books chosen at random. All of this underpinned and spiced by the curious smaller and more intimate moving that Appel has been cultivating and refining for some time.
David Appel is a choreographer and performer whose work has been presented in a wide range of contexts and situations throughout North America, Europe, and in Mexico since 1973. While primarily following his own path, he has also performed along the way with Simone Forti, City Dance Theater of Boston, several dance/music collaborative and improvisation groups, and many other individual artists in a variety of media. Appel has received a number of grants and awards, among them three NEA Choreographers Fellowships, and has been invited to festivals in both the United States and abroad. He is especially interested in relationships between the body’s capacity to be more subtly articulate, the ways we find to move together, and our connections to and within the world around us. [www.youtinydancer.com]
P.S. Bookshop is a used and out-of-print store, buying and selling books in Dumbo since 2006. A traditional local bookshop, it reflects the character and interests of its neighborhood, offering a superb selection of architecture, design, art and photography books. It also caters to younger readers providing a comfortable children's area for reading and other educational activities. The daily traffic of books coming in and selected carefully promises a constant sense of joy and surprise for patrons encountering the out of the ordinary titles.
Share Your Audience Review. Your Words Are Valuable to Dance.
Are you going to see this show, or have you seen it? Share "your" review here on The Dance Enthusiast. Your words are valuable. They help artists, educate audiences, and support the dance field in general. There is no need to be a professional critic. Just click through to our Audience Review Section and you will have the option to write free-form, or answer our helpful Enthusiast Review Questionnaire, or if you feel creative, even write a haiku review. So join the conversation.
