The 15th annual WestFest Dance Festival took place from May 1-4 at Westbeth Artists Housing with four nights of performances at the Martha Graham Studio Theater on the top floor of Westbeth. But the super popular (free) highlight was two afternoons of site specific dance performances on Saturday and Sunday all over the Westbeth campus. www.westfestdance.com.
Visitors enjoyed guided tours, led by a Westbeth resident, who moved each group from site to site: the community room, the basement sculpture studio, the flea market spaces, the roof, the hallway, the stairwell, the lobby. About 15 resident volunteers led the tours that stepped off on the half hour.
Sponsored by the Westbeth Artists Residents Council (WARC), the long running WestFest was founded by choreographer Carol Nolte, (artistic director/ curator.) Nolte works with two other curators who produce the festival, along with the president of WARC. www.westbeth.org.. “The 15 year success and beautiful growth of WestFest into a vibrant annual dance festival in the West Village is a wonderful testament to the arts at Westbeth,” said Nolte.
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I worked as a tour guide again this year. It was fun but can be stressful. We did a run through on Saturday morning, although we just basically went to the sites. We didn’t see the full performances until we were actually guiding the tour.
I was grateful we had nice weather, unlike the year it poured both days.
With about 30 eager people in my group, we needed two elevators to get to the different locations. I flashed back to the time half my group got stuck on an elevator for ten minutes, but luckily that did not happen this year. I wrangled my group up and down multiple elevators, stairwells, and hallways, referring to the directions and notes on my clip board. I livened up my tour with stories about the weird lay-out of our hallways.
I told my group that prior to the Martha Graham Dance Company occupying the studio on the top floor of Westbeth, it had been home for many years to the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. I recalled sharing the elevator with the famous choreographer, who was in a wheelchair but still going to work.
When we were in the basement, I showed them the black line where the water rose during Sandy. (11 feet!) I mentioned how artists lost their work in the flooded basement. The underground hallway was lined with posters of Westbeth events. “I love drag bingo,” I gushed as we passed the poster with drag queen Paige Turner in her big wig and pink and white dress.
As we waited for the elevator, I invited questions from my group.
“How long have you lived in Westbeth?” 28 years this summer.
“How long were you the waiting list?” 10 years.
“How many people live in Westbeth?” That one stumped me but I indicated there were 384 apartments of various sizes.
Visitors were impressed when I took them onto the roof with its great views and I thought how lucky I was to live here. I was happy and relieved when my tour ended safely back in the lobby and everyone clapped and thanked me. They had enjoyed the adventure and I had completed my assignment, until next year!
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But as I led the tour, I wondered about the curation of this aspect of the festival. How does it work? “Each year our team receives applications from choreographers and companies all over the city, country and world,” said Dylan Baker, (producer/curator.). “Along with a selected guest curator that changes year to year, our team reviews the applications with a focus on how the applicant might approach creating a new piece for our site specific festival, All Over.”
“We’re not picking an already done piece to be presented as is; we are choosing an artist that will create something new inspired by the space itself,” explained Baker. “The curatorial meeting is always lively as we each have very different opinions, so our discussions can last for hours. Many factors weigh in on who the final selection will be, but in early January we announce the final eight choreographers who will be featured in the festival.”
“WestFest does an incredible job of creating an environment where artists feel safe to explore and be creative,” said Ellie Kusner, Performing Arts Chair, Westbeth Artists Residents Council. “Choreographers remark on how this helps them stretch their imagination and see the possibility in each space. One dancer confessed that the physical decay and overall grittiness of the sculpture studio was initially a bit off-putting, but she quickly saw how much strange artistic potential the space held and embraced it all.”
“Some of the audience have seen these tours for years,” continued Kusner. “But others have never encountered anything like this. One guest had only seen dance in conventional, proscenium style theaters and the All Over tour completely altered their understanding of dance and the infinite ways it could be shared.”
“WestFest highlights so much of what makes our Westbeth community wonderful,” she concluded.
