Dance

When dance is a site for cultural exchange, works like Tiempo by Argentinean choreographer Dario Vaccaro provoke audience members to think about their daily life from another perspective. How do we, as New Yorkers, conceive of time? The piece, performed in August at Queens Theater in the Park and La Guardia Community College and to be repeated here this weekend, opens with six dancers writhing on the ground to Luciana de Oto’s electronic music, which completely lacks rhythm. As her buzz develops distinguishable beats, dancers rise from the stage to execute rhythmic movements. Their ballet-influenced steps are interrupted by Vaccaro, doing sharp, robotic movements entirely on the beat. The other five swing their legs back and forth, like pendulums ticking along with the clocks in the score. We recognize ourselves when Vaccaro crashes into the moving crowd of dancers wearing ties. The speed and rhythm of everyday interactions are portrayed as the pace of the score accelerates. Nevertheless, the abstract nature of Vaccaro’s work allows us to write our own understanding of time onto the choreography.