Bebe Miller Company 2025-03-28 | "Vespers, Reimagined" (2025)

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery, Danspace Project @ 50

DARKROOM HOLY

As I entered the Sanctuary of St. Mark’s Church and claimed my seat, I was met with four larger-than-life figures; a doubled video projection of Bebe Miller and Linda Gibbs performing Vespers from 1982. Stark guardians of the threshold I had just crossed over.

Six performers came into view as the lights lowered. The dance revealed itself like the development of a photograph—making the invisible visible through an intricate series of events.

Miller’s spliced monologue shared snippets about “Downtown Dance” back then, some people I know and some I do not: Ish carried his mother over his shoulder who was funny, Gus Solomons Jr.’s distant fierceness, and something about “coolness”. Then a description on how to avoid slipping in jazz shoes. I can relate.

Voices came into being from the Church’s gallery above. K.J. Holmes' singing bathed the audience. The second unidentified voice was not in exact harmony. I learned later it was a recording of Gibbs. A quest of matching a print with its negative.

Back down to the earth of the hardwood, moving clusters dispersed energy as ensemble, duets, and eventually solos. The gestures resembled the capture of an apparition on film. The gatekeepers who greeted me came back into existence.

The sudden agitation of red. A flash forward to the sirens I encountered on my post-show walk along 8th. The intensity of the stage lights sculpting the flying directions of the performers’ limbs. Percussionist Hearn Gadbois’ pulse amplified their realness.

Seated silhouettes layered the looping video projections, which were doused out one by one. A lost family portrait returning me to the now of it all.

Our standing ovation was an AMEN for this Friday night’s prayer. It was Needed.