Dancers, Buildings and People in the Street1986

"A huge white tractor-trailer narrowly interrupts the progress of a plug of people crossing a busy Manhattan avenue. They back off barely to give it to the alley it needs to pass and continue mechanically on. This is the pragmatic choreography of the city, the great dance so much moving in such restricted space continually performs. This also is the opening sequence of DANCERS, BUILDINGS AND PEOPLE IN THE STREET, the title of which comes from Edwin Denby's profoundly incisive book of essays on the dance. The infinitely energetic visual display of the city has been a primary subject for Burckhardt's camera for over forty years. Here this display of New York textures and cross-sections is juxtaposed with the creation of a dance work, Jig Jag, by choreographer-dancer Douglas Dunn and his remarkable company. The natural humor and classically tender abruptness of their gestures and phrases are beautiful enlargements or details of, in human scale, in animal scale, body to body, the vectors of form and relation in the carefully eyed city life outside." "The tension between these two worlds is masterfully edited back and forth and builds to a lovely conclusion in the night." – Reed Bye.