Descent's Dare on a Stair: Noemie Lafrance in New York

Descent, choreographed by Noémie Lafrance in collaboration with soloist Celina Chaulvin; original score by Brooks Williams, lighting design by Timothey Coffey; sound installation by Maxime Rioulx. November 2002, Stairwell B, City Court Building Clock Tower, New York.

 

"Descent is and was a truly challenging project given the space we are working in (stairwell) and the media we are working with (dance). Transporting the 'theatre' to this location transformed our relationship to dance, from its point of departure (the body) to its point of arrival (your eyes). Our bodies are constantly confronted and influenced by the architecture that our society erects. As we reflect on how we interact with the environment we built for ourselves, movement speaks of space."

—Noémie Lafrance

The young choreographer of Descent, the Canadian Noémie Lafrance, situated her latest work in a stairwell. The charm of the dance began with its simple equation of concept and a familiar architectural form. Located within a public space—Stairwell B of the City Court Building in downtown New York, a landmark architectural treasure located at Lafayette and Leonard Streets—Descent created an itinerant situation for its viewers in a building locally known as The Clocktower. It may be familiar to visitors who have discovered it by accident, like Lafrance herself, enroute to or from the Clocktower Gallery, in the clock tower aerie of the building, an early PS 1 space still in use today as artist studios. The stairwell's roomy vault cascades down twelve floors in a gorgeous spiral lavishly composed of marble steps and cast iron banisters that form distinctive hairpin turns at the landings.

Descent's setting in the twelve-story stairwell certainly was what attracted its audience. Cued by a guide to stop along the way down, the viewers' hands often securely gripped the banister while their gazes were directed into the void. As in classic cinematic sequences shot from vertiginous perspectives or into mirrors, the desire to look was mixed with fear of falling—this time in actual space. A proscenium thus strictly defined by the stairwell sight lines nonetheless offered provisional views, changing constantly as a member of the troupe guided the audience down another flight and caused it to reconfigure in new banister-clutching packs. Twelve young female dancers often formed mesmerizing patterns that echoed the symmetry and depth of the stairwell. Vignettes took place on the landings from time to time, yet even on these flat levels the choreographer found a way to rock the audience's collective sense of safety. Lafrance further loaded the piece with partial nudity, props, and behaviors that increased the voyeuristic tension. Yet in its structural control and nods to balletic convention—there were two principals in addition to the twelve fairies—Descent expressed an attachment to tradition. Deeply invested in feminine stereotypes, Descent risked taking a fresh and witty approach to their residual presence in a contemporary dance. Terrible puns on "gravity" reverberated apace in the many metaphorical associations of the title and the liberating way different props were tossed over the edge of actual and implied "levels." Descent was sweet, funny, sexy, thrilling, delightfully reckless at times. Perhaps it was profound.

The audience learned upon assembling at the top floor that they would descend the stairs while the dance took place below and above them; they would arrive at the ground floor exit by the close of the piece. A member of the troupe in street clothes was introduced as the guide they should follow and imitate—look down, look up, halt, continue. In a state of expectant suspense, the audience then passed through a doorway to the most dramatic exit stairwell, so far, in New York. Sound and void served as curtain and orchestra vamp at the beginning of Descent. Assembled one step per viewer and tightly pressed against the banisters, the collective downward gaze...