By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
DOWNTOWN — One New York City choreographer is using harps and faerie costumes in lower Manhattan to create a modern reinterpretation of the traditional Irish voyage tale in four free performances this week.
Christopher Williams’ new dance excerpt from "The Voyage of Garbhglas" puts a modern dance twist on the sixth- and seventh-century adventure tales called Imramma, in which "curious characters, like saints, heroes, or outlaws" are set adrift in boats with no oars and come across strange, magical lands, according to Williams.
Part of the River to River summer arts festival, Williams’ dance is being performed each afternoon at 12:30 p.m. through Thursday at the Irish Hunger Memorial site in Battery Park City.
"I chose this site specifically because, to me, it’s as if this strange and unknown land had dropped down in the center of lower Manhattan," Williams said of the memorial site that serves as a stage for his dancers.
Williams’ overriding inspiration for "The Voyage of Garbhglas" is rooted in early northern European mythology and adapted to the physical layout of the memorial site on Vesey Street.
"There are three sets of characters in this piece and in the Irish Hunger Memorial there are these three sets of fields indicating the potato furrows," Williams said of the three levels of grassy area in the memorial site.
The River to River Festival has taken place in lower Manhattan each summer since 2002 and features free dance and music performances as well as evening movie screenings in an effort to revitalize the neighborhood after 9/11.
