Review: “Impressions of The BEAT Festival’s ‘Crossing Over'”
“Everyone snaps to attention; Thresholds created by Ximena Garnica and Shige Moriya of LEIMAY, reminds us that the pall of death hangs over this place. A few paces later, we congregate in a circular pit as an opera singer intones an eerie, dire melody. Spotlights flash on, five of them, illuminating men and women standing on mausoleums. They are like paper doll cutouts, arms pasted to their sides, expressions stony. One pitches backwards, and then another and another as the lights blink off and on. Under the cover of darkness, these dancers scramble into standing positions to repeat their death dives. Chaotic flops replace these board-like falls before the lights turn off for good. Dying, whether a straightforward plunge or a violent tumble, ends the same — in darkness.”