Roslyn Sulcas, December 23 2007

CREATING a dance piece takes money, bodies, time and space. Since the last three imply the existence of the first, none of them are easy for choreographers in the United States to come by. But a number of pieces over the last few months employed a bare minimum of means to produce thrilling works that show how dance can powerfully focus attention on the essentials: the body, movement, human existence in a mysterious and unknowable world.

A whitewashed rectangular room at the Chocolate Factory in Long Island City, Queens, was the setting in September for Tere O'Connor's "Rammed Earth," a piece with an utterly bare-bones aesthetic that was also full of magic and beauty. The room was empty � pipes and radiators exposed, naked bulbs hanging from the ceiling - except for folding chairs, which audience members were asked to move to different vantage points three times.

But Mr. O'Connor transmuted dry, rigorous, minimal movement into rhythmically complex, textured encounters among his four superb dancers - Hilary Clark, Heather Olson, Matthew Rogers and Christopher Williams - to create a kind of poem of richness and emotional depth.

Claudia La Rocco, December 23 2007

"Rammed Earth" made sublime use of the Chocolate Factory's theater in September, but Tere O'Connor says his piece can work in many kinds of spaces. Let's test that claim. It will run at the Baryshnikov Arts Center next September, but why stop there? All manner of buildings should house this fluid, gripping quartet, which includes Hilary Clark, a dancer you can't see too often.

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