Týnek’s Busy Bees, Reviewed by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

So pleased to run guest-blogger Eva Yaa Asantewaa's take on Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre’s latest offering, Apian Way. Info on opportunities to see Apian Way this summer are provided at the end of this review and here.

Herewith, Eva's commentary:

Týnek’s Busy Bees

Once a public bathhouse, Brooklyn Lyceum–conveniently located right above Park Slope’s Union Street subway station—remains appealingly unvarnished and down-to-earth. So much of New York is steadily succumbing to sky-high glass. So we’ve got to cherish these old structures–low to the ground and brick-based and all-embracing. Brooklyn Lyceum hosts cultural events of all kinds, including dance, and Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre’s recent season could not have been better placed.

A little café tucked by the front door. A friendly staff. An intimate house with great sightlines from every seat. Hey, maybe you could ask for more, but then the Czech-born dancer-choreographer Dušan Týnek would be the guy to give it to you. Like the Lyceum, Týnek keeps things low, maintaining a comfy relationship to the ground. What his choreography lacks in aerial fireworks, it makes up in clean yet intricate design and performances with real oomph and focus. He and his exquisitely-trained dancers–including Alexandra Berger, Ann Chiaverini, Matthew Dailey, Eden Mazer, Elisa Osborne and Aaron Walter–achieve the sure freedom of well-crafted, expert movement minus the arrogance of Icarus.

The program, continuing on Tuesdays and Thursdays through June 26, reprises the 2007 ensemble piece, Fleur-de-lis, set to music by Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, and offers the world premiere of Apian Way, set to Bach sonatas and partitas and inspired by the social interaction of bees. Týnek, a student of the natural sciences who strayed and got snared by dance, has been following reports of the disappearance of commercially-raised, crop-pollinating honeybees. The work doesn’t really get into that conundrum; Týnek is the kind of fellow whose work shows rather than tells. But it is perhaps the blending of his dancers’ humble humanity and their bee-like energy, moves and clusterings–arranged with Týnek’s sharp vision–that give the work its power to touch the heart. One is reminded that bees, our hardworking neighbors, do fly but not like raptors. They love the flowers of the earth, and–like Týnek’s performers--they keep it real.

See Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre at Brooklyn Lyceum, June 17, 19, 24 and 26. All performances are at 7:30pm. Subway: M/R to Union Street.

For further information and advance ticketing, visit www.brooklynlyceum.com. For more information about Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre, visit www.dusantynek.org.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody dance blog
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com