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“As the piece accumulates complexity and the movement expands…I am struck by how skillfully Koplowitz articulates the space…I want the dancers to keep at this longer so I can ponder human architecture and the witty illusion of harmony and cooperation in a space that resonates with our own restlessness.” Deborah Jowitt "All in all, though, the performance was both ambitious and appealing. This sort of undertaking is a major organizational challenge, yet it was presented as the kind of thing that might just happen serendipitously in a big, crazy town where art counts and imagination flourishes. I—and, apparently, the crowd that gathered and stayed—found it compelling enough to overcome the distraction of the day’s weather (temperature in the nineties, humidity that made your palms stick together when you tried to applaud). Most important, its premises proved to have staying power." Tobi Tobias, "While at times 50 dancers were simultaneously doing 50 different things, the structure Koplowitz used to build the piece established a consistent style. He started with an alphabet of movements drawn from the places themselves, then organized it according to the three main activities that happen on city stairs: work, play, and contemplation. This choreographic method resembles the regulating lines of a city’s urban plan, which, like the New York grid, creates a cohesive fabric from the disparate buildings that comprise it. Each stair-stage is an inverted amphitheater with the audience occupying the bowl, yet having the freedom to sit, stand, or walk away. Without the encumbrance of theater doors or ticket prices, each passerby chooses to stop and watch the vignettes of city life acted out on the stairs. Walking by those same steps the following week, they may remember the rolling bodies or the sea of arms that attracted them in the first place and sit down to watch the real action ofthe city happening below." |