Four performers wearing black pants and shirts and bright red sneakers traverse the field singly or in various groupings, frequently making full crossings. They walk, run, leap, kneel, roll about, and sometimes just stand still, arms stretched wide, taking in the vastness of the open space. There is a quiet drama when Paul Hamilton adopts this wide-armed stance facing upstage. He descends into a held grande plié staring out at the unmown fields seeming to stretch time. Then he moves on, leaping a short diagonal, rolling in the grass, and standing to perform a windmill action with his arms. He looks toward the entrance point and with his gaze welcomes Sperber to join him in the big space.
They make their way back to their entrance point and each pick up a large black banner. Crossing the field with the purposeful energy of band majorettes, they whip the banners in giant arcs in rhythmically coordinated patterns. The range of sounds as the fabric snaps through the air from its dynamic manipulation creates a unique soundscape amidst the grass, trees, sky, and expanse.
As the two exit, two more dancers (Emma Judkins and Dorchel Haqq) replace them. The vocabulary expands with a quick flicking motion followed by a gentle arm swing and rebound. Only the sounds of the natural environment and an occasional distant train accompany the dancers as they perform their established movements and explore different spatial relationships with each other.
The quartet proceeds to pick up large black cowbells. Crossing the field back and forth, they swing their arms, ringing the bells, echoing sounds like a church bell tower at the hour. Although the work has a durational bent, interest builds with new geometric floor patterns—a four-square in the central space and the new sound, along with the movement required to produce it. In a reductive turn, they suddenly stand in place just swinging their arms to continue the sound until the pendular arm motion comes to a rest and the bells are silent.
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