Golden Touch

Ingrid Silva’s expression is calm, the side of her mouth upturned a few degrees, as if she’s delighting in the reception of her own joke. Her arms hang loose at her sides as she stands in sous-sus and her partner Elias Re dips her to the side to peer out at the audience around a long gilded panel.

Performance

“Echoes on the Wall” by Ingrid Silva

Place

Carvalho, Brooklyn, New York, NY, July 10, 2025

Words

Rebecca Deczynski

Ingrid Silva, Elias Re, and Vinícius Freire in “Echoes on the Wall” by Silva. Photograph by Quinn Wharton

“Echoes on the Wall,” Silva’s choreographic creation developed in collaboration with gallery artist Rosalind Tallmadge and her installation Pareidolia, is a playful, site-specific work that debuted in June as part of Carvalho’s 2025 summer performance series. Through the 20-minute piece, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s Silva and Re, along with New Jersey Ballet’s Vinícius Freire, weave through the intimate space around Tallmadge’s burnished gold tapestries made of organza silk and silvered mirror mica. They are accompanied by an original score—a largely percussive arrangement that combines strings, synths, and keys at varying tempos—which influences the tone of each sequence: some are jazzy and playful, others more sinuous and contemplative.

Carvalho’s performance space is intimate, and audience members stand around the entire perimeter of the space when the dancers enter and situate themselves along three different walls; they are barefoot and carry their shoes (ballet flats for all, plus an additional pair of pointe shoes for Silva) with them, placing them to the side.

The piece begins with Silva, Re, and Freire moving into the center of the space. Together, they create different geometric shapes with their bodies, especially as they work through a floor sequence that quickly breaks the fourth wall: one dancer begins by clapping a rhythm, and the others follow. The dancers make eye contact with audience members, bidding them to participate in the ritual with them. This moment, while small, is intentional. When dancers perform at eye level to their audience, the latter lacks the anonymity they can find in a traditional theater setting. “Echoes” confronts the reality of its setting, welcoming the audience not just as spectators, but as participants.

Ingrid Silva, Elias Re, and Vinícius Freire in “Echoes on the Wall” by Silva. Photograph by Quinn Wharton

As the piece progresses and its pace picks up, the dancers put on their shoes while “on stage” and move through complex partnering sequences. Re and Freire lift Silva above their heads as she brushes her legs up and together, both knees bent. They find different ways their bodies may intersect: Freire kneels so Silva may step up onto his back to reach a higher vantage point, from which Re may hold onto her waist, flipping her 360-degrees as she propels her legs forward.

The dancers’ movement often seems to originate from their backs. They frequently roll their shoulders to allow an arm to unfurl forward or breathe into a yawning cambre. This kind of fluid motion is a staple of the graceful Silva’s lexicon, but she breaks up these lyrical moments with looser, pedestrian passages. The dancers may walk, or even run, from one sequence to another. When Silva switches to wearing her pointe shoes, she does so sitting in the center of the space, typing her ribbons quickly but calmly, double checking that their ends are adequately tucked in before she steps up into a bourrée.

En pointe, Silva leans into more classical movement as she dances with Re. He lifts her into an arabesque and holds her hand upright as she chaînes across the floor, but these moments give way to more contemporary ones, as Re supports Silva as she leans back and alternates extending her legs, one long and one bent, moving forward on the box of her shoes. When this avant-garde walk leads Re and Silva behind one of Tallmadge’s tapestries, this is the moment at which the ballerina leans back out, smiling mischievously at her audience.

Elias Re in Ingrid Silva's “Echoes on the Wall.” Photograph by Quinn Wharton

This is not the only interaction the dancers have with the burnished gold panels that hang throughout the space. They pass through them, stand in front of them, peer through them, and sail their arms around them contemplatively. Near the end of “Echoes,” the trio shifts into a run, the dancers weaving through the intersected space, pausing whenever one of them suddenly claps. It appears to be a game of sorts—one that pushes them to move with abandon as they occasionally slide on the floor.

Silva’s choreography combines the three dancers in all possible combinations: each has their own solo time, Re and Freire share impressive moments of unison, and Silva dances with both men separately and together. At the close of the piece, though, the dancers find themselves moving as one. There is a playful looseness to their movement as they dance in direct response to the synth-driven melody of the score. It’s a powerful moment of togetherness which the piece builds to from its start. But the dancers only share their exact movements for a handful of measures before they break apart again, set on their own course of action, their energy bouncing off one another, indeed, like an echo.

Rebecca Deczynski

Rebecca Deczynski is a New York City-based writer and editor publishes the newsletter Thinking About Getting Into. Her work has appeared in publications including Inc., Domino, NYLON, and InStyle. She graduated from Barnard College cum laude with a degree in English and a minor in dance.

comments

Featured

REVIEWS | Karen Greenspan

Mishima’s Muse

Japan Society’s Yukio Mishima centennial series culminated with “Mishima’s Muse – Noh Theater,” which was actually three programs of traditional noh works that Japanese author Yukio Mishima adapted into modern plays.

Plus