Spoleto Festival USA – New York's Gallim Dance

Dance Review – Jun. 3, 10

Reviewed by Paula Citron

A highlight of Spoleto Festival USA is Gallim Dance, under artistic director/choreographer Andrea Miller. The company burst onto the New York dance scene with its debut show in 2007. Let’s hope a Canadian presenter brings this company north ASAP.

Miller’s choreography is total physicality as bodies hurl through space – but they hurl for a reason. Her full-length piece
I Can See Myself In Your Pupil is all about human insecurities. Her seven dancers are not grand-standing. Rather, they are beside themselves in their frustrations, both emotionally and psychologically. Physicality is a form of expression for playing out their inner demons and desires.

At the same time, Miller can create slow motion movement patterns that haunt the psyche. Her choice of music is fabulous, from medieval sacred songs, to Balkan folk fusion, to contemporary industrial.

I Can See Myself In Your Pupil is dance that is fresh, daring and provocative.

Spoleto Festival USA continues until Jun. 13.

Gallim Dance
Gate Theatre, Dublin
Erik Friedlander
Spoleto Festival USA
Charleston SC, May 28 to Jun. 13