Even though I have no formal background in dance and movement doesn’t hold me back from saying if a production is good… ‘Touch’ is more than just good.

Even though I hold no formal background in any kind of dance or movement training, I was captivated by the movements of the artists and watching their facial expressions at times focused with contentment and stillness with eyes that appeared to be mystical and spiritual.

There were moments where I felt that my breath and heartbeat were also keeping time to the majestic harmony of the striking visual images on the back scrim coupled with the passionate vocalists. The sound of periodic water and waves lapping against the shore reminded me of the healing power of water.

Truthfully, I might have thought that watching this production on a computer screen might make me feel distantly remote from the action, but that didn’t occur here at all. I watched with bated breath as many of the 36 artists with whom I could possibly connect on the screen.

“This production, again, offered a solid juxtaposition of dance style in comparison with the Swedish production. I noticed many elemental styles of jazz, some tap, modern and swing.”

Written, directed, and choreographed by the industrious and passionate Yehuda Hyman, “THE MAR VISTA: In Search of My Mother’s Love Life” is a comical, semi-autobiographical dance-play hybrid that ultimately gets lost within its dizzying breadth of aspirations.

Separation-individuation is one of life’s most difficult passages: it is completed successfully by most; however, more than might be suspected remain in the mire of adolescence all their lives. Prepubescence is supposed to erupt in adulthood – adults emerging where clingy parent-dependent pre-teens once held sway. It is a passage equally traumatic to boys as it is to girls, but in “Dance Nation” currently running at Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater, playwright Clare Barron chooses to focus on this process from the point of view of “pre-pubescent” girls. The trope chosen to immerse the audience in this time of trauma is the extended metaphor of the dance studio.

Windrush is a poignant and thought-provoking piece, but its inclusion in this Mixed Programme of other contemporary works presents a Phoenix that appears divided in the direction it wishes to take itself in.