Photo by Nir Arieli
Author: Oberon
Wednesday December 3rd, 2025 – Ephrat Asherie Dance teamed up with composer/pianist/Grammy award-winner Arturo O’Farrill for Shadow Cities, a vivid marriage of music and movement. Seven dancers and a quartet of musicians filled the hour-long run time with elements of breakdance, waacking, hip hop, and house.
Ms. Asherie won a Bessie Award back in 2016 for Innovative Achievement in Dance. Mr. Arturo O’Farrill and his colleagues moved thru the varying moods and rhythms of the music giving the show an immediacy that seemed to envelop the enthusiastic audience and carry us on a joy-ride that ended up feeling way too brief.
David Dalrymple’s costume designs showed off the sneaker-footed dancers in multi-coloured everyday wear, and lighting designer Kathy Kaufmann created an array of moods, incorporating shadowplay and projections of colourful squares. Boxes serve as furniture, props, and things to be tossed about.
The Company dancers are Ms. Asherie, Manon Bal, Ron “Stealth-1” Chunn, Teena Marie, Val “Ms Vee” Ho, Eriko Jimbo, and Dorren “Moglii” Smith. From the start, I was not always sure which dancer was dancing at a particular time; their photos in the program were very small, and of course my eyesight is not what it once was. At one point, I was pretty sure that the Company’s ‘swing’ dancer, Matthew “Megawatt” West was onstage. Suffice it to say, the all danced divinely…including some passages that felt like improv.
As the house slowly filled up, I was surprised to find a lot of ‘seniors’ in attendance. I had been expecting more young people, even to the point where they might stand up and start dancing along with those onstage. Instead, silence reigned – apart from frequent bursts of applause and a lively ovation at the end.
Music and dance played equal parts in the evening’s success. Composer Arturo O’Farrill is a superb pianist, and Juan Carlos Polo’s a terrific percussionist. The versatile Larry Bustamante took up different wind instruments in the course of the evening. Eduardo Belo is probably the only double-bassist I’ve ever seen who doesn’t stay anchored to one spot. He moved about the space, mingled with the dancers, and did some steps himself – all whilst displaying his bass-playing expertise. At times, his bass seemed to become his dance partner.
The curtain rises, and for a few moments, silence reigns. The bass is heard, joined by the drummer and pianist. The music calms as a questing woman moves among her fellow dancers. A silhouette segment is visually striking. The lighting goes red, introducing a shadowdance.
Animalistic sounds lead to an animated, jazzy trio. Mr. Bustamante showed us it’s possible to play the flute and sing at the same time. There are solo dances, and fleeting duets,and passages where everyone dances in sync. The music continues to draw us in: a percussion solo, and a piano interlude with a distinctly Baroque appeal. The sax goes wild, the pianist reaches into the case to pluck the strings, the flute gets jazzy. The dancers respond to these sounds as if the music is emanating from their souls.
A finale seems to have been reached, but then the pianist takes up a fresh theme. The boxes, which have been a part of almost every scene of the work, are now stacked to resemble a towering skyline; a spotlight casts their shadow onto the backdrop. We are reminded that we’re in a city where dance – and music – never sleep.
~ Oberon
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