City/Dans Melinda Ring, with Martin Kersels X May 13-15, 2010 [Thu-Sat] 8:00 PM Admission: $18 ($12 for members) Choreographer Melinda Ring pulls inspiration from conceptual artist Dan Graham's film "Rock My Religion," which connects the ecstatic dances of groups like the Shakers with rock and roll. Channeling raw attitude and rapturous energy, X pushes toward a communal catharsis, merging the formal and the ecstatic. For X, Whitney Biennial artist Martin Kersels will transform St. Mark's Church, capitalizing on the verticality of the space by suspending a kinetic chandelier (or as he calls it, 'a charm') above its center. Kersels's labors in the balcony create an incidental soundscore, turning the legendarily acoustically live sanctuary into a single enormous sound machine; below dancers Talya Epstein, Maggie Jones, Molly Lieber, Marilyn Maywald, and Antonietta Vicario boldly generate an equally dynamic physical force-field. X is made possible, in part, with funds from the 2009-2010 Danspace Project Commissioning Initiative with support from the Jerome Foundation. X is also supported by Friends of Special Projects the Gerald Oppenheimer Family Foundation and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.