Healing Together

Gibney Company’s season at the Joyce Theater was full of common threads, promising beginnings, and lingering energy. Thematically, the evening seemed to center around tricks of the light, comments on the individual and the collective, and—perhaps most meaningful in our current moment—communal healing.

Performance

Gibney Company in Medhi Walerski’s “Silent Tides,” Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s “On Contemplation of Wailing,” Lucinda Childs’ “Canto Ostinato,” and Mthuthuzeli November’s “Vukani”

Place

The Joyce Theater, New York, NY, April 8, 2026

Words

Sophie Bress

Gibney Company in Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s “On Contemplation of Wailing.” Photograph by Julieta Cervantes

The program opened with “Silent Tides,” choreographed by Medhi Walerski, the artistic director of Ballet BC. A single beam of light bisected the back of the stage horizontally. As the beam began to slowly move, a single dancer, Madison Goodman, emerged. In her body, the internal and the external met—she tuned into the movement of her blood and heart, but was also pulled through the viscous, unrelenting world. Slowly another figure, the dancer Zack Sommer, became visible behind the blinding light beam.

The pair dove in and out of each other's embrace, as if pushed and pulled by a forceful current. But there always remained a sense of separation—they couldn’t quite get as close to each other as they would have liked. “Silent Tides” ends with a blackout just before the dancers make it into each others’ arms.

Lounes Landri and Tiare Keeno in Medhi Walerski’s “Silent Tides.” Photograph by Julieta Cervantes

The next work, “On Contemplation of Wailing,” a world premiere from renowned choreographer (and founder of the company Urban Bush Women) Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, charged the space. Created for eight of the nine company dancers, “On Contemplation of Wailing” conjures images of a cooperative, connected community. In the beginning section, the dancers almost resembled the multitude of cells comprising a single organism. They moved totally as one—if not always in unison of movement, in unison of spirit.

As the dance progressed and distinct persons emerged, the movement of the individual continued to reverberate through the collective. The dancer Tiare Keeno repeatedly shook violently—evoking an image of anxiety, sadness, or some awful combination of the two—and her individual pain was always softened in the arms of the whole. The work ended with a simple, yet stunning, tableau: the cast of dancers in a circle surrounding an above light, almost like a group communing around a fire. It looked like a simple moment, but this type of weight-sharing is more complex than it seems. They held one another by the arms as they leaned out, relying on the group to apply just enough tension and force that everyone could stay upright.

Lounes Landri and Tiare Keeno in Lucinda Childs's ”Canto Ostinato.” Photograph by Julieta Cervantes

After intermission, the evening continued with Lucinda Childs’ 2015 “Canto Ostinato,” a company premiere that also marked the beginning of Childs’ five-year tenure as Gibney’s new resident choreographer. A multiplying set of vertical light bars bisected the back of the stage as Childs’ precise, intricate movements filled the floor. Childs’ is a style that continues to reveal new multitudes—once revolutionary, it is now classic. It felt like the company—and Childs herself—were on the brink of something new as they took their curtain call.

Gibney’s Joyce program ended with South African choreographer Mthuthuzeli November’s “Vukani.” November is both a choreographer and a dancer of renown, and this particular piece pulled from his South African heritage, fusing South African Xhosa dance with street and contemporary styles. The work depicted communing with one’s elders, but the movements themselves did not feel harmonious. Instead, the many disparate elements pulled the eye back and forth, rendering true communion with the work difficult.

“Vukani,” to its detriment on this particular program, had a similar lighting strategy as “On Contemplation of Wailing,” which gave a similar feel. It was hard to shake the image of Zollar’s work when the ensemble returned to the stage together. Her movements and the energy they created surely permeated the theater even after everyone had gone home for the night.

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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