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Liminal Dance

Dance has always captivated me, but it very rarely grips me in the same way as the other things I like to watch—horror movies and cult documentaries—do. Julia Antinozzi’s new work, “Time Piece,” however, had me on the edge of my seat in a somewhat similar way, wondering whether the uncanny feeling in my chest was indicative of what would come next.

Performance

“Time Piece” by Julia Antinozzi

Place

Pageant, Brooklyn, New York, September 18, 2026 

Words

Sophie Bress

Antinozzi is a notable emerging artist—she was part of New York Live Arts’ Fresh Tracks residency cohort in 2024, made Dance Magazine’s prestigious “25 to Watch” list in 2025, and has received fellowships from Triskelion Arts, the New York City Ballet–affiliated New York Choreographic Institute, and more. “Time Piece” premiered on September 17 at Pageant, the Brooklyn-based, artist-run experimental dance space that has recently been captivating some of the city’s top dance critics. 

“Time Piece” began with an unceremonious blackout, silencing the din of audience chatter that had, until that point, filled the space. The lights came up on five of the cast’s six dancers, each holding a slightly unusual position as an ominous, ambient track by the musician and composer Ryan Wolfe played. “Time Piece,” at first, built interest through stillness—the longer the audience waited for movement, the more the intensity grew. 

With the start of their duet, the dancers Sienna Russo and Paulina Meneses were the first to break the kinetic silence. Their costumes, a white leotard and practice skirt combo designed by Reid Bartelme, gave them the appearance of ballet academy students, but Antinozzi’s movement—a precise, postmodern deconstruction of classical ballet technique—brought a distinct maturity. 

“Time Piece” is filled with dichotomies like this. Everything is precise and held, yet arabesques are extended just to the tipping point and perfect single pirouettes are landed in overexaggerated fourth positions. Each step is performed with the razor-sharp clarity honed by ballet students across the globe—and also with the pedestrian attitude that gives postmodern dance its understated gleam. As it progressed, “Time Piece” leaned deeper and deeper into the chasm between ballet and postmodern dance, the liminal space that exists in there, and the eerie feeling it can create.

Pageant itself is a sort of liminal space. It’s located two floors above a beauty supply store in East Williamsburg and, from the outside, it's so unassuming it’s hidden. Inside, it’s just a room, longer than it is wide, with some interesting angles made by both walls and curtains in order to accommodate its entryway and makeshift wings. It’s a transient space, animated by the dance that fills it—and it’s a space that has ostensibly been many other things before becoming Pageant.

As the piece continues, it hints at narrative—and certainly at relationships between the work’s distinct characters. Meneses and Russo’s duet is first usurped by Dasol Kim and Kelsey Saulnier, dressed in flowing chiffon gowns reminiscent of the attire of Greek goddesses. Then Leah Fournier, clad in a shiny black tracksuit, is joined by Stuart Singer in a simple black tank and bike shorts. 

When they’re not dancing, the dancers are observing. The gaze they place upon their fellow castmates is unnerving in its mix of intimacy and curiosity. It’s similar to the way I looked at “Time Piece” as a whole—it was both familiar and entirely new, like déjà vu.

Sophie Bress


Sophie Bress is an arts and culture journalist and dance critic. She regularly contributes to Dance Magazine and Fjord Review, and has also written for the New York Times, NPR, Observer, Pointe, and more. 

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