From New York Times, 6/24/2010:
Getting carried away is the whole point of “Dancing in the Sky: Creative Movement for Kids on the High Line,” a 45-minute program Ms. Bell will lead on Saturday for children 8 and older… She said participants could get more inspiration by watching other people on the High Line and “stealing gestures from them.” As well as introducing a wry bit of performance art, that approach will teach that pedestrian activities needn’t look pedestrian. “There doesn’t have to be a separate vocabulary for dance,” Ms. Bell said.
–Laurel Graeber
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From NYFA Current, 10/29/2009:
Bell… hosts a recurring series of events at her home in Queens that she calls “show and tell” evenings, during which a handful of artists share their works in progress and receive critical feedback from an assembled audience. “Part of the impetus for having people over to my house was to see how people would deal with this space that I use every day, in this very domestic way, by inviting them to utilize it differently,” she explains, recalling a recent show-and-tell evening for which sound artist Daniel Neumann designed a piece specifically for her railroad apartment, using its architecture and the event attendees to guide his composition. “It’s a really exciting time, a time when you feel like the current is about to change,” says Bell, who personally hopes that the more capitalistic model framing dance and art will shift toward a greater emphasis on process rather than product.
–Anna Wiener
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From Brooklyn Based, 8/6/2009:
One of the smaller grants at the last FEAST, Work for Pay, is a personal fave as well. Artist Lydia Bell is using the money to hire unemployed or under-paid artists for a performance piece. Like FEAST, the project itself rethinks sustainability and funding within the arts. I think it is an excellent use of resources and I love the way it reaches outward; by funding this project, she is in turn funding other artists. It is an amazing process to see.
–David Perez
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From NY Art Beat, 6/19/2008:
On Saturday afternoon at…[1 Grattan], Lydia Bell choreographed a two-hour movement installation. The three-person performance seemed to express the activity of miscommunication. Their engagement both accidental and intentional, the characters moved around the space acknowledging each other, and then receding back into their own activities. A suspended clock at the center was indirectly pushed and pulled. These types of performative open studios seem slightly unorthodox as there is no saleable piece; however this activity lends itself to the spirit of the festival and of the neighborhood itself. There is a constant relationship between sight, sound and a visceral reaction to the work.
–Alex Callendar
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From BushwickBK.com, 6/11/2008:
One of our first scheduled stops on Saturday was at 1 Grattan for Lydia Bell’s “If at All,” an installation of movement and sound. The 30 minute piece was performed in a continuous loop… I have been following Lydia’s work since she moved to Bushwick a year ago and she is now happily ensconced in her gorgeous part-time rehearsal studio. Keep an eye out for more from her — word has it that her work will be featured in a group show at English Kills soon. …The three amazing performers (Lena Bui, Khalia Frazier and Owen Roberts) moved through the space and soundscape with unbelievably stellar focus. Lydia’s aesthetic is beautiful, grounded and so thoughtful — highlighted perfectly by Paul Rome‘s sound creation of displaced found sounds and instrumentation.
–Anna D’Agrosa
