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Director's Cut

Yellow caution tape dangles from the doorway to the Jerome Robbins Theater and ropes off every row of seats. Not only have we entered the Baryshnikov Arts Center space, we’ve also crossed a portal directly into the world of “Sissy,” Celia Rowlson-Hall’s new dance-theater production, where a troupe of interpretive dancers is in residence at an Elks Lodge, unaware that the building is slated for demolition. We, the audience for “Sissy” are also the audience for a performance created by the Director (played by Zoë Winters) of the residency. A hard-hatted, hazard-vested demolition crew worker (played by Lucas Hedges) is surprised to find the building occupied and insists we wear protective hardhats, a stack of which he hands out to folks in the front row. A dance ensemble serves as Greek chorus for the Director’s personal story, delivered in monologue fashion to the audience during rehearsal breaks. Everything—rehearsal, residency performance, and demolition—skids to a halt when a paleobotanist (played by film-star Marisa Tomei) shows up to claim protected status for an endangered plant species. Phew! It’s a lot to juggle in 80 minutes without intermission.

Performance

Celia Rowlson-Hall: “Sissy”

Place

Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York, NY, April 24, 2025

Words

Karen Hildebrand

Ida Saki (foreground) Jacob Thoman and Nando Morland (background) in “Sissy” by Celia Rowlson-Hall. Photograph by Atsushi Nishijima

“Sissy” is a story within a story within a story—chaotic, absurd, and charmingly funny. Rowlson-Hall first caused a stir in dance circles when she choreographed for the television series, “Girls” in 2012, and she is known for her film and music video work. “Sissy” is her first project for the stage. The humor is smart. The writing is tight. The dance sequences make the show come alive. 

A talented ensemble of six dancers lend their Broadway, commercial, and physical theater credits to the project: Jesse Kovarsky, Nando Morland, Aliza Russell, Ida Saki, Jacob Thoman, and Jacob Warren. In our first glimpse of them, Kovarsky, in sweats and hoodie, balances upside down atop Warren’s shoulder. They stand still like that for an impressive length of time—a kind of single branched tree—while the Director invites the residency participants to: hug a tree; how does your mom hug a tree?; now become this tree. 

The residency performance setting is a rock quarry. Fittingly two of the dancers somersault onto the stage as craggy bouncing boulders. A gigantic inflated beach ball rests on set throughout the evening. When Saki, who is visibly pregnant, presses herself against the beach ball, she becomes a dream-like symbol for Sisyphus shouldering the load as he rolls a massive boulder uphill for all of eternity. It’s an apt metaphor for the question that is at the heart of “Sissy”: As women—women artists, in particular—how do we find balance among the competing priorities of motherhood, money, aging parents, and career? Case in point: The Director leads the residency with a baby propped on her hip, and spends a pause in rehearsal on the phone discussing her father’s apparent psychotic break.

Celia Rowlson-Hall's “Sissy.” Photograph by Atsushi Nishijima

Celia Rowlson-Hall's “Sissy.” Photograph by Atsushi Nishijima

The dance sequences are visually rich, with Saki as a striking and lyrical soloist. At one point she’s chewing gum and stops to blow a bubble, then tosses the gum like a baseball player hitting a ball out of the stadium. In a duet with Russell, the two women introduce a white inflated ball. When they toss it into a net hanging high off the rear wall, it hangs like a moon over the quarry. The 6 foot 6 tall Warren carries the giant striped beach ball on his head, conjuring the image of Atlas, holding up the earth.

More symbolic dream imagery features a topless, pale Russell who becomes Venus de Milo after her plaster arms fall off. A sequence made with aircraft marshalling wands turns the flat red lights into a series of broken digital clock LED readouts.    

In the final scene, we come back to the actors for an emotional resolution. Hedges, the hard-hatted tough guy, tells the Director that he also was once a dancer. He learned by watching Michael Flatley on television when he was a kid, and his dad called him a sissy. At Winters’ encouragement, he hops into a shy Irish step dance in baggy jeans and clunky work boots, smiling broadly. Winters and Tomei join him, and soon the entire cast is on their feet dancing a jig. Not only can Rowlson-Hall keep a lot of storyline balls in the air, she lands on a much appreciated hopeful note. 

Karen Hildebrand

Karen Hildebrand is former editorial director for Dance Magazine and served as editor in chief for Dance Teacher for a decade. An advocate for dance education, she was honored with the Dance Teacher Award in 2020. She follows in the tradition of dance writers who are also poets (Edwin Denby, Jack Anderson), with poetry published in many literary journals and in her book, Crossing Pleasure Avenue (Indolent Books). She holds an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Originally from Colorado, she lives in Brooklyn.

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