The Next TiMes both brings us into the future and holds us firmly in the present. Described not as a performance or a concert, but as a “multimedia disability arts experience” by Kinetic Light, the nearly two-hour-long experience presents “access as art” from the second you enter through to the end of the final bow.
Masked up and walking through the doors of New York Live Arts, I am immediately greeted by a sensory table stocked with props, fabric swatches, and squares of marley flooring. I feel my way through the table; sequins drag across the surface of my palms, and I plunge my hand into a bowl of feathers, which will later fall from the ceiling near the end of act two. Information about a sensory room, audio description, and other access offerings is shared by a welcoming team of access doulas and staff members.
Kinetic Light’s Alice Sheppard and Laurel Lawson are joined by Tatiana Cholewa and Kayla Hamilton as they emerge under larger-than-life silver “hats” adorned with 360 degrees of long silver foil fringe that invokes a certain kind of space-age kitsch. As the dancers twirl beneath the metallic fringe, a portal appears in the immersive projection, cast onto multiple surfaces upstage and emerging from the wings, thrusting us into an alternate universe somewhere between now and the not-so-distant future. Josh Loar’s distinctly futuristic score conjures a sense of nostalgic timelessness, though at times its shimmering vibraphones and swooping synths veer into familiar, predictable retro-futurist clichés.
No matter where in time we are, The Next TiMes is somewhere further in the future.
The First Act oscillates between an otherworldly space, where dancers roll, turn, and flick across the stage like birds in flight, and forays into line-dance-infused grooves and undulations. At times, these layers floated unmoored, leaving me searching for more.
The second act opens with a sense of curiosity and vitality I was hungry for in the first act, standing out as a defining moment of the night. Lawson appears, delicately balancing an extra-large floating ‘bubble’ on the surface of her palm as she darts between a maze of bubbles affixed to the marley floor. Sheppard, Hamilton, and Cholewa burst onto the stage, kicking, nudging, and plucking the bubbles across the floor, sending them gently off into the wings.
A duet between Sheppard and Lawson erupts into conflict, resolving with Sheppard being pulled from her wheelchair and left alone on stage. In what rises as another highlight of the evening, Kayla Hamilton emerges as a force of care, unrolling a large reflective sheet onto the floor. After dipping her toe in the ‘water,’ Hamilton launches into a gooey and propulsive solo atop the reflective ‘pond.’ The others slowly inch their way onto the stage like rocks being rolled by the tide. Hamilton perches herself atop a fellow dancer with a laid-back yet charismatic shrug that breaks the 4th wall. The first act is steeped in space-age aesthetics, while the second act allows humanness to break through–most vividly in this section through Hamilton’s small, but warm, interaction with the audience.
The performance ends with a duet by Sheppard and Lawson, who make amends for their previous clash, tenderly moving together beneath a blanket of falling white feathers. With a final embrace, the lights fade to black and the universe of The Next TiMes gently softens back into reality.
The second act fully embraces a tender dynamism that the first act floats around. By the end, The Next TiMes thoughtfully builds an immersive futuristic vision with grounded sensory, tactile, and deeply human experiences.
The Next TiMes, Kinetic Light, New York Live Arts, Oct. 9-11.
