Growth and Decay
“Meanwhile”
CARVALHO
Brooklyn, NY
August 8, 2026
Since its summer performance series began, CARVALHO, a contemporary art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, has carved out a special place in the city’s art scene. By combining dance with large-scale installation, curator and gallery founder Jennifer Carvalho has successfully given a gallery home to some of the dance world’s most exciting talent—and seems to have drawn in new dance audiences in the process.
CARVALHO’s latest offering, a duet performed by Martha Graham Dance Company principal Lloyd Knight and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancer Jacquelin Harris, took place inside Nicole Rossi’s Desire Path, an installation composed from live flora and fauna that’s been allowed to bloom and decay over the course of the summer. On the evening of August 8, Desire Path took on the look of a late summer hillside—green stems topped by browning blooms, surrounded by brittle, dry grasses.
The dance, international choreographer Andrew Skeels’ U.S. debut, also spoke to the theme of durational change. Just as guests who had revisited the gallery over the course of the summer may have witnessed Rossi’s installation shift, audiences who attended one of the four performances of Meanwhile surely witnessed the relationship between the two dancers grow and change. Though Meanwhile unfolded over just 20 minutes, Skeels’ choreography suggested a much longer thematic progression.
The work’s first movement, full of choppy hand gestures, was largely performed seated and kneeling. Though their entwined position suggested familiarity, the relationship between the two dancers felt deliberately stilted—they were trapped by each other and held back. They were with each other but not working together.
For the next two movements, Harris broke away from Knight—and her movement did too. Unbound, she was able to find the motion of her whole body. Seemingly free to feel and express, the choreography took on an ease that had been lacking while she was in Knight’s embrace.
As Harris was dancing, Knight interacted with the installation, brushing against and smelling the dried blossoms. As Harris’ solo came to a close, though, his began. As she noticed him, he began to move with more abandon, breaking free in much the same way as she just had.
Movement four brought the dancers back together, but kept with their newfound quality of release. As they sat amongst the foliage, facing each other, legs entwined, they dove in and out of each other’s arms with ease, like they knew just where the other wanted to go.
The music shifted again, and suddenly Harris was trembling up and down her entire body. It was a moment when, just in her shaking, she captured an element of the human experience that is often difficult to capture without corporeality. It was anxiety, heartache, that moment when your body reacts before your mind can catch up. In Knight’s arms, her shaking stopped. Next was his turn to shake, to collapse under the weight of something. She supported him as he fell.
As the work drew to a close, the two dancers found each other’s rhythm again. Now they’re strong, whole, and triumphant together. Knight, on the ground, grabs the arm of the standing Harris and she slides over his body. Later, he lifts her overhead, blooming as the plants around them wither. Together, they’ve captured life’s seasons of growth and decay.
copyright © 2026 by Sophie Bress
