http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/arts/dance/review-pam-tamowitz-ny-quadrille-joyce-theater.html 2016-09-28 23:22:34 Review: ‘NY Quadrille’ Opens With a Barefoot Delight In a program by Pam Tanowitz Dance, performers on the reconfigured stage of the Joyce Theater put on a suspenseful, lively show. === For the two weeks of “ Playgoers on both sides of the Atlantic will know theaters that are reshaped for almost every production; many dancegoers know spaces where the audience watches from two, three or four sides. But for the Joyce, one of New York’s most familiar dance theaters, this arrangement is entirely refreshing. The concept comes from the choreographer Lar Lubovitch, who has organized this “Quadrille” series such that four choreographers present world premieres on the reconfigured stage: Pam Tanowitz, RoseAnne Spradlin, Tere O’Connor, Loni Landon. “NY Quadrille” opened on Tuesday with And “Sequenzas in Quadrilles” rivets attention. These six dancers — Jason Collins, Dylan Crossman, Sarah Haarmann, Lindsey Jones, Victor Lozano, and Christine Flores — are all marvelously individual. Is there an American choreographer alive who makes richer use of bare feet than Ms. Tanowitz? She makes you feel the vitality and texture of each part of the foot — instep, toes, sole, heel. She also shows how the life of the foot becomes a source of energy for the whole body, and how it expresses wit. These dancers lie, sit, kneel — there are several memorable group descents to the floor — but mainly they’re upright; and though they use every part of the body, no part is livelier than those feet: traveling, jumping, hopping, turning, balancing, beating. Hops (taking off from and arriving on the same foot) are a particular delight here. When Mr. Lozano makes his entrance with several — rapid, forward — you feel the amazing spring of his instep; elsewhere Ms. Haarmann hops around one colleague as if assessing him before determining her place in a quartet. Like all these dancers, Ms. Haarmann makes admirable use of her eyes, focusing on colleagues and on points in space so that we always feel a mind at work. (One duet for her and Mr. Crossman overdoes this: They seem to do more looking at each other than dancing.) Late in the proceedings, Mr. Collins initiates a beautiful male trio (Mr. Lozano and Mr. Crossman join him) with a series of flowing full-bodied arabesques in which you feel the foot’s role as anchor. As the dancer changes arm positions, stops, turns and hops backward, you start to feel Ms. Tanowitz’s skill with complex phrasing; as the trio develops like an extended canon, you note her pleasure in complex patterning. Earlier, a superbly suspenseful duet for Ms. Jones and Mr. Lozano shows amazing variety of vocabulary and spatial focus. They dance as equals; they keep changing the space around them. You keep changing your mind about the connection between them. Suspense pervades all of “Sequenzas.” In each quartet, these dancers are a team, but with spontaneity built in; we can never tell how each foursome will cooperate. The music, featuring plenty of silence, seems to give cues and atmosphere to the dance without establishing any close correspondence of movement and sound. Here is one program of “NY Quadrilles” I would love to see again.