Shadow Baby

A new work by Maya Lee-Parritz

After Maya Lee-Parritz's "Shadow Baby," at Pageant in Brooklyn through June 6. I first came across Lee-Parritz when I wrote about her collaboration with Jodi Melnick “Água Viva,” based on the Clarice Lispector stream-of consciousness novel. She has this immensely appealing, slippery, highly specific, intrinsically-rhythmic way of moving. "Shadow Baby" is like that, too, super dynamic and precise and bursting with energy; but also sly and tender and a little funny. The dancers keep stopping to rest, leaning against each other, and then launching into buoyant, percussive, bounding phrases of movemet. Their bodies make interesting shapes, and hteir legs and arms swing, freely but with precision; sometimes it almost looks like the Charleston, or like a tendu exercise, but not really. It's bracing to watch. The wonderful dancers are Cayleen Del Rosario, Rachel Gill, Dorchel Haqq, Lucienne Parker, and Time Bendernagel. Lee-Parritz (in silver warmups) joins in toward the end, adding a splash of style and attitude. I'll write more about it soon.