Manitoga hosts top company
First, the Howland Chamber Music Circle in Beacon books renowned pianist Emanuel Ax. Then, Manitoga schedules the Trisha Brown Dance Company, a premier troupe, for four outdoor performances this weekend.
Dance events have occurred twice before on the grounds of Russel and Mary Wright’s singular property, which prominent landscape architect Ian McHarg called a “temple to ecological design.”
Mary died before the home’s completion, but her input to the project is considerable. Russel built the house and sculpted the grounds, moving boulders around and creating a pool in a former quarry. He also groomed the surrounding 75 acres by blazing trails and constructing stone stairs.
Attendees at the 90-minute performances on Saturday (Sept. 21) and Sunday will take a short hike to Mary’s Meadow, a grove that accommodated the initial season of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival.
There, the ensemble will perform six routines taken from a show titled In Plain Site that presents selections from Brown’s early works, including “Leaning Duets I” (1970), “Leaning Duets II” (1971), “Sticks” (1973), “Spanish Dance” (1973), “Figure Eight” (1974) and “Locus” (1975).
Then, everyone walks a grassy path to the area around the house, called Dragon Rock after the quarry wall’s shape. That’s when the company will perform what is perhaps Brown’s most famous work, “Raft Piece” (1974), where four dancers lie flat on individual flotation devices and try to synchronize their bodies in silence — what the company calls “accumulating gestures in unison.” “Raft Piece” consists of 29 gestures.
“It requires great internal phrasing, even if you’re on your back,” says Carolyn Lucas, the company’s associate artistic director. “There’s a consistent phrasing or rhythm so the dancers have to click into that motor and stay together.”
Unlike a stage or terra firma, currents determine the final shape of “Raft Piece,” in this case created by a waterfall that feeds the pond.
“That provides nice nuances,” says Lucas. “It’s rigorous for the dancers, who may drift away from each other and lose visual contact. The goal is to stay in unison as much as possible.”
She recalled a time when two rafts floated away from the main performance. “Audience members followed them and expressed concern, but I knew they would be fine,” she says. “It’s always the luck of the draw with this work, but whatever happens will be beautiful.”
Most of the pieces unfold in silence. “Figure Eight” is performed to the sound of a piece of a stick striking glass, like a metronome. The soundtrack of “Spanish Dance” is Bob Dylan’s “In the Early Morning Rain” and in the finale, “Accumulation” (1971), dancers gyrate in unexpected places accompanied by “Uncle John’s Band,” by the Grateful Dead.
Brown’s early breakthroughs took dance out of concert halls into museums and other public spaces. Later, she choreographed for the proscenium stage, creating nearly 100 movement pieces before her death in 2017. She “forever changed the landscape of art and redefined what dance could be,” says Lucas, singling out “Man Walking Down the Side of a Building” (1970).
When the performance shifts to the area around the house at Manitoga, viewing spots will include the dragon’s nose near the water and a moss-covered overlook known as the Martha Graham Girls Grove, named for the dancer and choreographer and the trees that twist in the wind.
Manitoga is located at 584 Route 9D in Philipstown. The performance, which will be held rain or shine, includes a moderate hike with uneven ground, bridge crossings without handrails and 40 stone steps. Tickets are $50; as of press time, only a few remained. See visitmanitoga.org.
