Gathering Moss

Casel also appears in his own work, Foible, but sparingly, as a visitor. He drops in for a solo that shows off his supple and nuanced dancing, he squares off with Craig Biesecker, and he sometimes offers a helping hand. But as a choreographer, he was able to see much of what he was making, because the heart of this dance is a community of four. When one falls, everyone looks. When one falls and starts shaking, he or she is helped up and calmed. Toni Melaas is often paired with Biesecker, while two women, Tracy Dickinson and Carolin Micklitz, work in felicitous counterpoint with them. A few everyday actions slip in: Melaas tidies Biesecker. Some gestures, like laughing or puffing on a cigarette, are offhandedly absorbed into dance steps. Casel's expert patterning of space, the juicy movement, the dancers' concern for one another, and the occasional accordion playing of Edward Ratcliff (the recorded music is by John Mackey) offer us a virtual village of individuals—enigmatic, yet fully present to our imaginations.

These choreographers apparently share a predilection for bizarre and not always helpful costumes. In various ways, Nicholas Petrou's for Loulaki, Marci's for Casel, and, especially, Stelios F. Stylianou's for Hassabi tricked up the dancers with such items as bibs of fringe, draped panels, and flying net attachments.