Looking for something free to do this weekend? Looking for something that doesn't require opening your eyes? The New York Public Library is hosting dance group Dana Salisbury and the No-See-Ums this Saturday at 2 pm—and if you go, you'll be blindfolded as the dance goes on around you!
The group will perform “Bark,” one of their original “unseen dances.” Audience members are blindfolded, and spend the next 45 minutes or so with the performers dancing around them while making noises, and occasionally moving them around the room. One woman described the performance to WNYC: "I began getting sounds that sounded alien. And then, of course, the rushing and touching, and I felt as if bugs were flying in my ears...At one point, it felt as if I was surrounded by souls, sort of hovering softly around me."
Salisbury said she was inspired to create the "unseen dances" after reading articles on blind people and non-visual perception. On their website, she describes the performance: "Under-used sensory resources are called up. Touch, hearing, smell and balance bypass language. Defenses are undermined by dislocation. Vulnerability creates permeability and makes for work that is close-to-the-bone and personal." You can check out "Bark" for free at the Andrew Heiskell branch in Chelsea on Saturday, at the Webster Library on the Upper East Side on March 19, and at the 115th Street branch in Harlem on Saturday, March 26.
