Stepping Out of the Ring

What gives a dance staying power? What makes any work of art continue to be relevant over time? These are questions I pondered while revisiting Andrea Miller’s “Blush,” performed by her company, Gallim, at 92NY’s Harkness Mainstage Series this spring. Presented as part of “Women Move the World,” the first full season in 92NY's history centering female voices in the field of dance, “Blush” constitutes a signature work by a female artist of this generation with a distinct choreographic voice. Miller choreographed the 60-minute work in 2009 just two years after founding her company. The bold and scrappy optimism of that moment is still fully present in the dance. But the work has another stream of exploration─its darker side, perhaps more feminine─having to do with the human imperative for connection. These timeless themes and Miller’s knack for excavating a singular dance language to convey them give “Blush” an enduring magnetism.

Performance

Gallim: “Blush” by Andrea Miller

Place

92NY, New York, NY, April 2026

Words

Karen Greenspan

India Hobbs, Donterreo Culp, Marc Anthony Gutierrez in “Blush” by Andrea Miller. Photograph by Quinn Wharton

Set in a black box with a white tape strip lining the periphery like a boxing ring, the piece opens to a pensive, brooding score of three repeating notes. A single male, Marc Anthony Gutierrez, wearing black boxing shorts, his skin covered in white body paint, emerges from the darkness. Hunched over and crouching, he moves in starts and stops. Like an early human evolving to stand and walk erect, he struggles to straighten his spine. In a bold and vulnerable move, he manages to fully open his chest and explore the space beyond his confines, but then he reverts to his hunched, self-protective stance before disappearing into darkness.

Lights come up on three women in black, belted leotards (costumes by Jose Solis) also with paint-covered limbs and faces. In a striking unison section, they perform abrupt, defensive movements that exude combative tension. Maintaining a birdlike, triangular formation, they migrate from place to place by means of deep squats, back crawls, prone creeps, upright movements, and every other manner of locomotion. Three men creep in a side-lying position across the upstage border like a shifting landscape. The action is exquisitely framed by Vincent Vigilante’s mood-evoking lighting design that bathes each scene in shifting darkness and light.

A driving electronic beat and an illuminated string of golden spotlights across the back of the stage dial up the energy as the trio of men, now on their feet, travel through and around the three women. But they don’t engage with one another. Two women dance a tense duet. Leaning forward, they press their heads against the other’s as they circle their positions. After a primitive attempt at an embrace, they quickly return to side-by-side, self-assertive movements.

Donterreo Culp and Jamaal Bowman in “Blush” by Andrea Miller. Photograph by Manuela Medina

In a memorable tableau, two men approach dancer India Hobbs and swing her back and forth, until they swing her up to a standing pose─merely supporting her under her feet. Hobbs is lowered only to run and leap into another standing lift. This time she balances with each man supporting one foot with the palm of his hand. She proceeds to run and leap upside down and is caught mid-air. The daredevil abandon and arresting lifts combine to form unforgettable images.

The scenes organically move between pathos-filled unease, hard-edged self-assertion, and boisterous group fun and games that sometimes veer into cruelty. The merry-go-round of emotions comes to a mesmerizing apex in an 11-minute partner dance for two men. Every time I see this duet, I am reminded of its incredible power and beauty. In this performance, Jamaal Bowman and Donterreo Culp run together, clasping each other as they continually change positions. They run laps around the stage to the desperation-filled, repeating arpeggios that open Arvo Pärt’s “Fratres.” The seemingly endless run abruptly stops when Culp leaps into Bowman’s arms at the sound of a solemn, meditative chord on the piano. As the two men clasp each other and pause to look into each other’s eyes, you realize that this is the longed-for, human connection that has eluded everyone in this boxing ring.

The stage floor is suddenly filled with circular pools of light. Moving from pool to pool, the men dive over one another connecting in various poses and lifts in a push-pull of dependence versus independence. Their interactions are tinged with neediness, provocation, competitiveness, and tenderness. The raw physicality of two men dancing out-of-control, unedited emotions of interdependence is remarkable. They return to running laps, albeit with new relational variations—until one partner runs offstage. When the remaining runner notices his partner’s absence, he stops and sits down staring into the distance, waiting . . .

Gallim in “Blush” by Andrea Miller. Photograph by Manuela Medina

Miller ties it up neatly with an upbeat group unison in blinding lights to an indie rock anthem that oozes cathartic energy and spirited hope. Ramping up to full throttle, the dancers leap and punch a fist in the air. They take a few laps together and then break formality with casual banter and playful games until one dancer starts pulling up the tape from the downstage corner. The dancers find that they are no longer in the fighting ring as the stage goes dark. If it were only that easy.

Karen Greenspan

Karen Greenspan is a New York City-based dance journalist and frequent contributor to Natural History Magazine, Dance Tabs, Ballet Review, and Tricycle among other publications. She is also the author of Footfalls from the Land of Happiness: A Journey into the Dances of Bhutan, published in 2019.

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