Tanowitz Dance: A Bright, Bold Deconstruction

Choreographer Pam Tanowitz presents "Pastoral," a UK premiere that eschews dark, hazy stages for a bright, clean aesthetic, offering a literal and figurative sense of white space. This production is a distinctive collaboration involving New York choreographer Tanowitz, Pulitzer prize-winning composer Caroline Shaw, and artist Sarah Crowner.

Shaw's score deconstructs Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony," blending live reed instrumentation with orchestral recordings and ambient city sounds. Tanowitz mirrors this by dissecting and reassembling dance phrases with wit and precision, nodding to mid-century abstraction with flattened lines and symmetry. Crowner contributes a floor-to-ceiling curtain and a vast canvas in shades of green and pink, creating defined spaces within the minimalist set.

The performance emphasizes sparseness and "thinking space," with challenging choreography executed without fanfare. Visual and auditory elements create fleeting impressions, like dancers picnicking in a painted scene or a jarring red square interrupting the pastoral idyll, symbolizing potential threats to nature. This dance is a curious and engaging conversation between three distinct artistic voices.