Now in its second year, Little Island’s outdoor performance series at The Amph is one of the best things about summer in NYC. Perched at the edge of the Hudson River, on a temperate evening in August just after sunset there is no better place to be. The producers commission new work—often enigmatic—that leaves you feeling you’ve just seen something that will never be repeated. “Seven Scenes” is no exception. A collaboration between Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber, both formerly of Batsheva Dance Company under Ohad Naharin, and the musical duo, Caroline Shaw and Danni Lee Parpan, who call themselves Ringdown, the work draws on the push-pull dynamic of the tango. With seven dancers, the hour long piece is fast moving, its characters one minute seducing, the next, slapping a hand away. 

In a duet, Alexander Bozinoff lays Payton Johnson onto the floor, then lifts her into a vertical split. Downstage in silhouette, two men move in a close ballroom embrace. They prize a balletic style of angular low leaps and pointed feet that puts me in mind of Jose Limon. A love triangle forms when Johnson leaps into their arms.

Bobbi Jene Smith looks like a Greek peasant woman in a simple black dress and Mary Jane flats. She uses her long streaming hair to dramatic effect in a duet with Johnson, while the other dancers pace the perimeter of the stage like fighters deciding when to enter the ring. When she drags a square café table onto the stage, Danni Lee Parpan begins to sing an acapella version of Willie Nelson’s “Crazy.” Smith and Schraiber, a couple in real life, enter a contentious and sexy duet. They sit across from each other at the table, holding hands, then snatching them away. They embrace at table’s edge with a suggestive bump and grind.