Kinesis Project continues ‘Secrets & Seawalls’

Picture this: a fall afternoon spent on the beach watching dancers move in the sand as they navigate ideas of vulnerability. Sound like your cup of tea? Presenting Kinesis Project dance theatre’s Secrets and Seawalls, a collaborative project led by Artistic Director and Choreographer Melissa Riker and architect Lee Skolnick.

Secrets and Seawalls, a dance in two acts, is inspired by storms and disruption. Kinesis Project, a troupe that celebrated its 10th NYC season in 2015, began its work on the piece three years ago. It originally stemmed from questions about the integrity of NYC’s seawalls and the impact of weather.

Using methods of dance and architecture to explore weakness and power, the work premiered along the beach at Fort Tilden in Gateway National Park in 2015. Riker and Skolnick’s collaboration is apparent, according to The Dance Enthusiast. “The audience is coaxed along the promenade by the dancers who, like mischievous water nymphs, lure you to a graffiti-strewn concrete carcass where they are perfectly framed; dip diving through the building’s shell.”

Secrets and Seawalls is another in a long list of Riker’s large-scale outdoor performances. Audiences and critics have called her work “a Marx Brothers’ routine with soul” and “a movable feast.” The New York Times wrote her choreography is “comically acrobatic, gracefully classical, visually arresting.”

Hosted by The Rockaway Artist Alliance and National Parks Service in New York, now Secrets and Seawalls will once again return to the beach of Fort Tilden on October 16 at 1 and 4:30 pm. Audiences will meet at Rockaway Artist Alliance Gallery to be brought to the performance. For tickets, head to www.eventbrite.com.

Since 2005, Kinesis Project’s work has been experienced in San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Boston, Philadelphia, Vermont, Florida and of course, in New York City. The company has danced outside in sculpture gardens, at universities, and in over 30 surprise performances all over NYC and the tri-state area. For more information, visit http://kinesisproject.com.

Photos: Kinesis Project in Secrets and Seawalls, featuring dancers Michelle Amara Micca and Zachary Denison. Photos by Homer Frizzell (top and left) and Danielle Brock (right.)