Photo above by Peter Smith: Out of Thin Air: Lightness
Press articles in the form of previews and reviews are included within the entries for individual dances in the “Work” section of the website. Included below are review extracts.
REVIEW EXTRACTS:
“Though Fogel tackles a mightily abstract subject — modern physics — in her ‘Out of Thin Air: Lightness,’ she makes it comprehensible and diaphanously beautiful in her choreography, bathed in a Milky Way glow by scenic designer Kasia Mrozewska and lighting designer Cole. Who knew a physics lesson could be lyrical? In words, and through music and movement, Fogel and her gauzy white-clad dancers make it so. The dance stops, rather than ends, but the atoms keep dancing in our heads for a minute after.” Susan Nisbett, The Ann Arbor News
“In the gem of a concert by Jessica Fogel and Dancers, Fogel often used music in traditional ways, but she also intriguingly used music as a framing device for the entire concert....The whole effect was uncommonly dramatic and theatrical. Part of the success of the frame piece is that it surrounds some unusually good dances, of remarkable range." Amanda Smith, Dance Magazine
"Unusually engrossing works...For 'Enfield in Winter', to a score of the same name by David Borden, four projectors were used to project four rectangles of light onto the back wall...While the projectors gave one view, the dancers themselves gave another, more flowing view of the same work. The two together produced an exceptionally pleasing and attractive whole." Doris Diether, The Villager
"Theatrically bold and eloquent" Linda Small, Dance Magazine
"The dance pieces were particularly impressive. As just one example, Diane Thome's 'Unfold/Entwine' choreographed by Jessica Fogel, intricately recombined nine dancers into various groups and roles, the music corresponding, (not too literally!) with a variety of gestures and flow of energy.....Recurrent gestures in both dance and music hinted at large-scale structure." Computer Music Journal
We Will Meet Again in Petersburg is "a stunning juxtaposition of poetry, history and gesture" Judith Newmark, theater critic, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Jessica Fogel's 'Connoisseurs of Chaos' derived from the scientific theory of disorder, making chaos look like fun." Jack Anderson, The New York Times
"The best of the new works was Jessica Fogel's 'Broadloom'...'' Jack Anderson, The New York Times
"Like its music, 'Quickenings' was multilayered, sleek, mesmerizing." New York Native
" 'Quickenings' was a pretty and impish group work that had the flow and shimmer of its score by David Borden." Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
“Two excerpts were presented from Jessica Fogel's sensitive and provocative 'People in the Sun', a 1987 work that examines not just the paintings of Edward Hopper but intriguingly, his relationship with his wife and model. Set to churning music by David Borden, the piece manages to create separate but inseparable worlds for the paintings and what they depict." Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times
“The strongest piece in the [Ann Arbor Dance Works] concert was the last, 'Woman with a Pearl Drop Earring'....With Fogel, the audience got their perk at last." Sally Sommer, Dance Magazine
"If one were to pick favorites, Jessica Fogel's 'Woman with a Pearl Drop Earring' would be right up there for its finely crafted visual delights." Marianne Rudnicki, The Ann Arbor News
"An air of freshness radiated from Fogel's new work, 'The Path Between' ..." Joann McNamara, The Ann Arbor News
"Topping the evening was Jessica Fogel's 'Pastorale,' a delightfully witty and original work embodying pastoral elements." Joann McNamara, The Ann Arbor News
“[Dance for Eighteen is] a haunting and visionary work." The Ann Arbor Observer
"[Dance For Eighteen is] a moving piece....The energetic dancers, the colorful, theatrical costumes, and the striking configurations make this an exciting dance from the start." The Michigan Daily
"The glow in Jessica Fogel's newest work, 'The Only Way Around,' comes from the wit of its conception and its superlative execution by Amy Drum, David Genson, Christine Knight, Sarah Messer and Matthew Rose. As a pileated woodpecker zaps through a tree on video, the dancers also try to "get through"--both literally, as when Rose faces a football-like squad opposing his passage, or when a phalanx of dancers menace him with folding chairs they snap open and shut like alligator jaws; and metaphorically, as when, in response to Genson's question, "Do you love me?" Knight goes off on a monologue that skirts the issue magnificently." Susan Nisbett, The Ann Arbor News
"Jessica Fogel's 'Kaddish', the piece de resistance of this 13th annual September Dances.... takes its title from the Jewish prayer of mourning and derives from a large ensemble work, 'Dance for Eighteen'....Danced by Fogel, who opens the piece with a rending of cloth, and closes it by sitting serenely, holding an egg, in a chair that has been overturned and then righted, the work is a distillation of grief and a reaffirmation of life's continuity." Susan Nisbett, The Ann Arbor News