“Sissy” is a story within a story within a story—chaotic, absurd, and charmingly funny. Rowlson-Hall first caused a stir in dance circles when she choreographed for the television series, “Girls” in 2012, and she is known for her film and music video work. “Sissy” is her first project for the stage. The humor is smart. The writing is tight. The dance sequences make the show come alive. 

A talented ensemble of six dancers lend their Broadway, commercial, and physical theater credits to the project: Jesse Kovarsky, Nando Morland, Aliza Russell, Ida Saki, Jacob Thoman, and Jacob Warren. In our first glimpse of them, Kovarsky, in sweats and hoodie, balances upside down atop Warren’s shoulder. They stand still like that for an impressive length of time—a kind of single branched tree—while the Director invites the residency participants to: hug a tree; how does your mom hug a tree?; now become this tree. 

The residency performance setting is a rock quarry. Fittingly two of the dancers somersault onto the stage as craggy bouncing boulders. A gigantic inflated beach ball rests on set throughout the evening. When Saki, who is visibly pregnant, presses herself against the beach ball, she becomes a dream-like symbol for Sisyphus shouldering the load as he rolls a massive boulder uphill for all of eternity. It’s an apt metaphor for the question that is at the heart of “Sissy”: As women—women artists, in particular—how do we find balance among the competing priorities of motherhood, money, aging parents, and career? Case in point: The Director leads the residency with a baby propped on her hip, and spends a pause in rehearsal on the phone discussing her father’s apparent psychotic break.