Eye Candy: Saya Woolfalk

Saya Woolfalk, A Ritual of the Empathic, 2009. Studio Museum in Harlem/Performa 09.

Courtesy the artist. Photo: Ray Llanos.

Artist Saya Woolfalk and choreographer Melanie Aceto recently presented A Ritual of the Empathic, a project for Performa 09, at the Studio Museum in Harlem. A Ritual is the first dance piece in Woolfalk's ongoing body of work called "No Place," and a fantastic addition.

A Ritual expands the fictional narrative of No Place -- a future where people are part-plant, part human -- to include a group of women called the Empathics. They believe that No Place is a future worth inhabiting and, through their gestures, try to conjure this utopian land in the present day.

Five women dressed in a Teletubbie array of Lycra suits performed this modern dance piece against a minimal white backdrop flecked with green stars. Underscoring Woolfalk's child's play aesthetics, the padded flooring beneath the dancers resembled a giant puzzle mat. Intermittent projections of plant shadows and costuming that appeared to sprout leaves evoked the central storyline. Aceto's choreographic adaptation of yoga and Pilates postures was unmistakable, but in this setting the poses seemed other worldly.

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All images courtesy the artist; photographed by Ray Llanos.