Diagonals were key to “A Dance for Two.” The score was a recording of Caroline Shaw’s “Partita for 8 Voices,” an a cappella composition performed by Roomful of Teeth. It began with directional banter that resembled a mashup between an oral math quiz and square dance calling. A male voice mentioned “a red diagonal line from the lower left corner toward the upper right corner.” Jacobson sported just such an arrangement as she stood still in an asymmetrically draped crimson top and matching pants, ignoring all the introductory commands. Medina’s all black costume was also cut along the bias, with one diagonal of fabric slung across his chest like a sash. The geometric yet flowy costumes were by the minimalist French label Gauchère.  

The music and choreography maintained as tight a tension between sharpness and fluidity as the costumes. The singers went back and forth between humming, spiritual chanting, and staccato breathwork that was borderline simian at times. The dancing too contrasted frozen poses with liquid arabesque turns and slides. Medina gently pushed the inside of his elbows to initiate a rippling jellyfish effect. Both dancers repeated a tender wrapping motif, in which they collapsed and spirally hugged themselves. But they also engaged in stiff, semaphore-like port de bras as well. Sometimes they stood one in front of the other with arms jutting out like a four-armed Buddha statue.  

The passersby on the plaza were similarly stop and go, as tourists paused to take in some of the dance and then meandered away. Millepied wrote of this commission: "New York is a city that has shaped me as an artist—its energy, history, movement. To present at Rockefeller Center, a landmark deeply woven into the city’s rhythm, is an honor. Dance belongs in spaces where people gather, where movement echoes life.” He achieved his aim, as the dancing mirrored the pedestrians’ alternate loitering and bustle.