America: Put Your Game Face On!
Battery Park City is a picturesque waterfront along the Hudson River where tourists from all over the world come to walk along the promenade or take a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. This pleasant New York gathering place is also the site-specific stage for “Game Face” choreographed by Monica Bill Barnes.
The actual production in the expansive Battery Park City was difficult to find. After wandering around this pleasant park looking for the performance site, I found myself in the midst of what seemed like the normal New York summer mix of sunbathers and tourists. I was still surprised to see these "tourists" and "sunbathers" start to move in sync to Elvis Presley music shortly after I arrived. Elvis, who's up there with George Washington as one of the biggest American icons of all time, certainly added a quintessential American feel to the performance.
Two women dressed like tourists, one wearing a foam Statue of Liberty hat, began convincing someone from the audience to take pictures of them posing with the real statue behind them. At the same time, the sunbather, jogger and park ranger started moving together to Elvis’ beat. As all of this was happening, people were still walking by and going into the nearby bathroom unaware that something unusual was going on. At the end of the first song, the woman wearing the Statue of Liberty hat was lifted and taken away.
Then, on a small bridge above the audience, dancers appeared moving to "Jailhouse Rock." Well, I suppose it's all part of America's game face.
Suddenly, some of the dancers changed costumes to appear in old-fashioned, white debutante dresses. Out of nowhere a woman with a bicycle and microphone came out singing along to Elvis' "Fools Rush In" while the woman in the Statue of Liberty hat was carried out again. Perhaps the song was a sly reference to America's invasion of Iraq. The debutante dresses could have represented America’s naiveté and privilege.
For the finale, all the dancers began running around with American flag with kites tied to their heads. Once they were out of sight, the announcement came over the loudspeaker: "Elvis has left the building."
As a work of choreography, the movement throughout the performance was very subtle and seemed to take inspiration from everyday people passing through the park. In some cases, people just walking by did not even notice that a performance was going on. There were a few spurts of jumping unison when the performers actually started to look like dancers.
One could say that "Game Face" was just a fun, silly bit of theatrics set to Elvis Music, serving as light entertainment for the people leisurely walking around Battery Park City. On one level, that is exactly what it was. However, when the woman in the Statue of Liberty hat was lifted and carried about so everyone could focus on her, I thought of America's shifting glory, as I sat in the shadow of the actual Statue of Liberty in the Hudson River.