I joined Attack Theatre on the second leg of Assemble This, a series of improvisational performances at eight galleries, spaces and museums around the city. I would like to say I braved Pittsburgh’s snowy elements to attend, but the roads weren’t that bad. Traffic through Regent Square was, however, and, as a result, there were no parking places left in Pittsburgh Center for the Arts’ parking lots. (Actually it looked as if neighborhood residents took advantage of the plowed spaces.) I wound up at Ellis School and walked, whereupon I discovered that the PCA sidewalk hadn’t been shoveled.
As a result of all that, I was really late, but quickly warmed up to cellist Dave Eggar’s performance downstairs, full of spontaneity and good will, with percussionist Charles Palmer. Is there anything Big (as in talent) Dave can’t do? He took full advantage of the cello landscape — pizzicato (both guitar and upright styles), classical musings, pop, folk, soft rock, Latino. I loved the story about the airports and his question: Why does the cello, with its spear-like endpin, make it through security, when his rosin does not? Palmer sat on a box, which doubled as a drum, and had a few accessories to vary the accompaniment. The duo set the stage for what was to come.
I am probably one of the few to have seen Michele de la Reza and Peter Kope in their museum piece almost ten years ago. Some things remained the same — use three art works and have an audience to respond to a piece of art and determine where the performance will go.
At 30 or so participants, that made Attack bigger than Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre for the evening. And it made me realize that de la Reza and Kope have come so far since those Frick Museum days (although I’ll be able to make more of a comparison when they revisit the Frick on Friday).
Things were far more sophisticated and complicated, enough to frazzle my brain, let alone those of the performers, who, for the record, doubled the fun with Ashley Williams and Dane Toney. They began with an opening phrase and efficiently used a sandwich board to note changes. The audience was enthusiastic in its response to Will Giannotti’s untitled canon-like piece and the dancers and musicans layered several improvisation onto the existing format, including one where Williams would “rise” whenever Palmer played the triangle.
They went upstairs to a Google Earth piece, Connie Cantor’s “Mystery as the Seed of Liberation.” Eggar and Palmer had a fun time with some new musical elements. I don’t know if it was the electricity of the partnership, but the room got decidedly warm.
Last was the pristine picket fence/sky/water of Jason Lee’s “Studies in Modern Euthenics,” where the ensemble toyed with some new elements, including that cello endpin. Back downstairs, the viewers got to see the fruits of their labor. Maybe the phrases weren’t quite the same, but the spirit of it all was there. This was dance in the moment — moments of brilliance, moments of whimsy,moments of danger (de la Reza and Williams were climbing chairs and tables to “rise”), a couple of moments that had to backtrack, but all intelligently rendered to our delight. I was delighted to get a ride back to my car with the help of Attack’s general director, Donna Goyak. Attack always aims to please…
Well, onto the August Wilson Center tonight. If you’re coming, plan double the time to arrive at 7:30 and grab one of those hard-to-find parking spots. See you at the dance!
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