Paralleling his allegorical depictions of post-modern cityscapes in drawings and stage-set-like structures, Pablo Bronstein combines baroque dance with a work-like attitude to ordinary movement that...

Paralleling his allegorical depictions of post-modern cityscapes in drawings and stage-set-like structures, Pablo Bronstein combines baroque dance with a work-like attitude to ordinary movement that is remniscient of the pared-down aesthetic of 1960s minimalist choreography. The straightforward practice of walking is convoluted, in his piece, by the mannered swirls and turns of a ritual pas-de-deux. For PERFORMA07, Bronstein will create a complex multi-part Plaza Minuet in four postmodern lobby spaces in downtown Manhattan. Within the everyday pedestrian activities of the working city, balletic poses crystallize temporarily, in a sequence of continuously revised tableaux vivants. Bronstein's combination of languages and styles re-connects the highly specialized tradition of ballet, as it was investigated by Balanchine and his peers uptown some 50 years ago, with the contrasting, simultaneous history of the radical "downtown scene".

Text courtesy of Catherine Wood