Yanira Castro’s Paradis in Brooklyn Botanical Garden
http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/yanira-castros-paradis-in-brooklyns-eden/1350/
Pictured: (front to back) Peggy H. Cheng, Luke Miller, Shayla-Vie Jenkins. Photo by Yi-Chun Wu.
Site-specific dance works have a long history in New York, but amazingly, none have taken place in the lush eden of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden untilParadis, performed there last weekend by Yanira Castro/A Canary Torsi. Timed to coincide just as twilight knelt into darkness, the work began with Peter Schmitz isolated in the Desert House, a glass and metal birdcage. The audience was directed to ring the windows to watch; music was plinking live piano (Michael Dauphinais), piped in via walkie-talkies attached to ushers’ belts. There wasn’t much for a white-suited, zombie-like Schmitz to do—freezing in poses, occasionally darting down the dirt path that circled the exhibit of desert plants, raising his hand in a fist or shaking them at an unseen ghost. But it set a tone of isolation and anomie.
