"Revival," June 26, Metropolitan Opera House

POSTED: Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 9:04 PM

Filed Under: Arts Dance

Hidden City

Take a look at that ocean-like, blue tarp spread out across the floor of the Metropolitan Opera House. Beneath that ' where the orchestra used to play ' people go to service each Sunday, in a very clean, proper room that looks wholly unordinary. Crazy, right?

Little facts like this were obviously half of the fun of Hidden City's final performance, Revival, put on by Group Motion Dance Company in the opera house that lyricist Oscar Hammerstein's granddaddy built. (Another one: We had to wear hard hats while climbing the dusty, decrepit stairs leading to the show.)

In fact, as impressive as it is, that photograph up top does little justice to how haunting the place is, or how beautiful it is because it's falling apart, not in spite of it. I'm not trying to be gothic ' it's just that all the discoloration, cracked paint and hanging beams make for some gorgeous imagery. Check out more images here for a better look.

As for the actual performance? Tasked with making a set out of stairs (the dancers couldn't perform on the original stage), Group Motion created a show that worked about as often as it clearly didn't. It started off slow, featuring lots of unimpressive moves up and down the stairs, and seemed to limit the dancers' true talents at times. But there were some truly great moments, too: In an ode to the fact that the opera house once hosted sporting events, the dancers moved basketballs around their bodies in elegant, mesmerizing ways. And the mere fact that the dancers could keep count during a 40-minute show that was accompanied mostly by ambient music is, well, impressive.

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