Have It Your Way in the BK. Brooklyn, not Burger King, Dumbo! (Weekend Adventure Part 2 of 2.)

My sister must be one of the busiest people that I know. Between being a Pilates teacher and a dancer she has a seemingly endless schedule and an amount of stamina and energy usually reserved only for triathlon athletes. I get to see her frequently enough but due to our competing schedules, don’t get to see her dance as often as I would like to.

Feeling full of excitement and energy after my gallery hopping on Saturday, I boarded the spacecraft known as the F train to journey to the planet Brooklyn. Okay, that sentence came across as completely snobbish and it wasn’t supposed to be that way. I wish I knew Brooklyn better, and when I go I think it is amazing, just don’t make it very much; therefore the reference to outer space.

Happy that I didn’t get lost, I excited the train with Ben Fold’s blasting through my ipod giving me that “no worries” Brooklyn attitude. The gods of perfect timing brought my friend Libby and I together immediately as I excited the Subway and we walked toward the waterfront, melting all the way.

The area of Dumbo is so cool with its giant brick warehouses, funky little restaurants, and diverse crowd but most importantly its nude sunbather by the water. Okay, okay, take out the nude sunbather and then you have the coolest part. Carson’s performance was down right by the Brooklyn Bridge in an old triangular brick structure that was part of a series of abandoned buildings. Looking out over the water and complete with “Pocahontas” weeping willow tree, this small park is my new hideaway.

(I guess this is totes cool in Brooklyn? We couldn't tell if it was a man or a woman but I am sure they would be happy to have a picture on a blog.)
Still melting, Libby and I took our seats to witness some of the most enjoyable performance art I have ever seen. Like I was talking about with my gallery observations earlier, performance art tends to seem very cliché and silly to me most of the time. In an effort to be deep, often the randomness factor explodes, along with my head. I had read in Time Out that this piece, “82 Decibels” by Larry Keigwin (AND my friend Nicole Wolcott) was one of the recommended events of the day. Would it live up to that?!

(The space before being invaded.)

Sitting along with about 60 or so curious spectators, I knew something was going down when suddenly girls in black (tipped off by my sister’s presence) starting filtering into the audience. All of a sudden the girl right next to me began shouting into her cell-phone, which began a ripple effect of the rest of the performers emerging from the crowd doing the same. What followed was an explosion of energy that used every brick and corner of the performance space pictured above. A comedic observation of the insanity of city life (complete with taxi and subway sections) the piece was a compact 25 minutes filled with enough energy to power Brooklyn. Normally things I would see as ridiculous, everyone standing screaming into the audience for example, were a charming and often hilarious release that sometimes we all need in the city.

(Carson, short with dark brown hair and dead center in the pic, does a little theraputic screaming with the gang.)

Breaking into pop hits at times (i.e. Journey’s “Small Town Girl,” a personal guilty pleasure) helped keep the mood light and the movement never became repetitious. The group of dancers and pedestrians (as the press release said) all seemed to have a great time running through this adult playground of a performance space they had. Carson was beautiful as always, and I was so happy to be able to see some exciting new dance. The final performance is on Tuesday at 6 and it is beyond easy to get to! I highly recommend it.

(My favorite pic of the day. Carson is in the middle of the handstand group looking sassy, even upside down.)
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