​Fall For Dance Festival 2017 @ New York City Center

There is always so much to choose from at the annual “Fall For Dance Festival” at New York City Center.  In just one of the five programs offered, the lineup included Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgard in Streams (US premiere) by Andonis Foniadakis, Abraham.In.Motion in Kyle Abraham’s Drive (Fall For Dance commission/world premiere), Sara Mearns and Company Wang Ramirez’s No. 1 (Fall For Dance co-commission/world premiere) by Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang, plus Ballet BC in Bill (2016) by Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar.  The hit of the evening was Abraham’s Dive, but a close second was Eyal and Behar’s Bill.  In Dive, through the smoke-filled stage, each dancer’s undisturbed calm came through in sequence after sequence of funk and skill, Abraham-style.  They are people on the streets, hanging, dancing to really good music and checking in with each other to see what’s up.  Abraham really knows how to tell a story, and with Dan Scully’s lights, it’s a perfect match.  Eyal and Behar’s outer-worldly, wild and wacky Bill aptly closed the evening with equal parts of metered cool and quirky scenes—strobe lights, intermittent screeching from the dancers, and here too, a lot of choice tunes.  In both, first-rate technique meets casual cool. More please!