MANHATTAN — Elizabeth Streb’s "action heroes," as her dancers are called, transformed the Park Avenue Armory’s vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall Wednesday night into a giant avant garde acrobatic playground.
STREB Extreme Action Company’s "Kiss the Air!" brings high-flying, seemingly death-defying, moves to the Armory through Dec. 22. In the work, dancers attached to bungee cords soar over the audience and a pool of water. The evening also involves ziplines, ladders, trampolines, hoops and other props that help the troupe test the limitations of the human body, including a 21-foot ladder on which nine dancers attempt to balance for a piece called "Ascension."
"Everyone wants to be in the bungee piece 'Kiss the Air' because it looks like so much fun," Fabio Silva, the company’s associate artistic director, told MetroFocus. "In fact, it is one of the hardest pieces to endure. The harness hurts your hips, your ribs, it prevents you from breathing, it squeezes your organs, it torques you and makes you want to vomit."
She continued: "It looks bouncy and light and the performers do it so well and it's one of the most deceiving things I've ever seen. … It's grueling."
Other pieces include "Human Fountain," in which 16 performers leap from a 3-story scaffold to create a human version of Las Vegas’ Bellagio Fountain. In "Falling Sideways," dancers use ramps to hurl themselves past the audience.
After Streb's performance, the Park Avenue Armory, at 643 Park Ave., near East 67th Street, is ending its season with another major site-specific performance.
The Merce Cunningham Dance Company's final performances after 60 years will run from Dec. 29 to Dec. 31. Called "Park Avenue Armory Events," the series draws from collages the company has mounted in unusual spaces around the world over the last six decades, including two in the drill hall, a 1983 performance and a 2009 public memorial for the legendary dancer and choreographer Cunningham.
