CENTRAL PARK FIELD #4 (2020)

Choreography: Alison Cook-Beatty
Music: Philip Glass — Glass: Violin Concerto No.2 “The American Four Seasons”
Dancers: Eight
Costumes: Ali Taghavi
Film: Ellen Maynard

Supported by Dance/NYC’s Coronavirus Dance Relief Fund.

“Central Park Field #4”, in both setting and form, reflected the shattering of the New York dance community during the early months of the Covid-19 pandemic. A site-specific work, the baseball field location was a direct consequence of the shutting down of indoor artistic venues, while the choreography keeping the dancers 6-feet apart was the manifestation of social distancing. The piece was created near literally in the shadows of the Central Park field hospitals, and the beginning segments explored the melancholy and despair of isolation experienced by the survivors. However, as the fall brought a temporary reprieve from the worst conditions, her work presents a transformative resolution. Even socially distant, it shows New Yorkers enduring the isolation with energy and stamina, in Ms. Cook-Beatty’s most physically draining choreography of her career.

This site-specific work has been restaged for the theater.