I’m on the perennial hunt for the artistically unexpected. 

An ideal that’s as practical as it is ideological.

Case in point:

While watching a play, no matter how freaking interesting, attentions can always wander (we’re human). Which is why a striking moment of the unanticipated can act as a jolt of energy to reengage meandering minds.

Case in point:

The one-handed cartwheel in american (tele)visions at New York Theatre Workshop. While the production’s blocking is by no means naturalistic throughout, the cartwheel still stands out as a physically choreographed movement unlike the rest, without defying the established bounds of the character’s truth (the cartwheel is a believable action for her character).

And my audience gasped!

As for myself, it reinvigorated my sense of observation; an inspired recommittal to the piece, if you will.

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Body Through Which the Dream Flows at The Tank upped this aerobic ante with some…no-handed cartwheels (otherwise known as an aerial; you learn something new)!

Which is an unfair comparison, given its ensemble of actual gymnasts.