Mystical Feet Company

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“SECRET OF THE POSSIBLE ” ran in December 2022 at the 14th Street in the East Village New York City. It was a Co-Production between LABA/14th STREET Y and Mystical Feet Company

 A cast of All-Nite Dancers, quirky prancers, thespians and soul-chanters, tune-strummers and transformers, passionate dreamers and moon lovers invite you to trip into worlds beyond the beyond - with sweet 'lil dance routines and a dab of shmaltz on the side! 

Conceived and created by Yehuda L. Hyman in collaboration with the company
Performed by Hallie Chametzky, Aviya Hernstadt, Aria Roach, James Harris,
Matthew DeCostanza, Henry Winslow, Madelyn Wansong, Oksana Horban,
William Catanzaro and Yehuda L. Hyman

Live Music Performed and Composed by William Catanzaro
Lighting Design by Philip Trevino - Sound Engineering by Jesse Timm
Stage Manager/Light Board, Isaac Goldbaum - Assistant Stage Manager, Liam Riordan

Ran at Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 East 14th Street, NY, NY, December, 2022.

Secret of the Possible" is a contemporary dance/theater adaptation of three short mystical Jewish tales originating from 18th Century Eastern Europe: Poland and Ukraine.  In the first tale, "Effect" a group of poor, young students undertake a perilous journey to visit a mysterious and controversial storyteller. The second tale, "The Merchant of Mezeritch," follows a wealthy merchant who has everything, then suddenly has nothing. The tale offers a secret recipe: what to do when the "bottom drops out." The third tale, "This is the Time to Dance" is a comical journey that begins in tragedy but ends in a joyous, swirling, community celebration. It's message is simple and clear:  "This is the time to dance!"

Our troupe of dancers, actors and musicians worked through-out the almost three years of the pandemic to develop this work: rehearsing on Zoom, and through two artist's residencies on Governor's Island, curated by The West Harlem Art Fund and finally, in-person in dance studios around NYC.

"Secret of the Possible" premiered December 15, 2022 and ran through December 23 at the Theatre at the 14th Street Y, in the East Village, NYC. The cast included Hallie Chametzky, Aria Roach, Aviya Hernstadt, Henry Winslow, Madelyn Wansong, James Harris, Matthew DeConstanza, Oksana Horban, William Catanzaro and Yehuda Hyman.

DANCE WRITER/REVIEWER ROBERT JOHNSON wrote in “The Dance Enthusiast:”

Words are useful for telling stories, but some stories — ah! Some stories can only be told by dancing. For instance, there’s the mysterious little tale that Hallie Chametzky and her friends encounter in “Effect,” the first episode of Secret of the Possible. Yehuda Hyman’s Mystical Feet Company presented this marvelous collection of dance-theater miniatures inspired by Martin Buber’s collections of Hassidic folklore, on December 19, at the Theater of the 14th Street Y.

Although that first story is brief — only 24 words long, so we’re told — it has staggering powers. Chametzky, Aria Roach and Aviya Hernstadt, three young housewives in the Pale of Settlement, are willing to risk everything to hear it, hoping it will illumine and transfigure their colorless existence. Defying their families and courting disaster, the three conspirators sneak away in the dead of night to make a forbidden journey, travelling to Mezeritch for an interview with the charismatic story-teller known as the Maggi (Henry Winslow). This awe-inspiring figure casts a spell over them, leading them through a dance that has the force of a revelation, making the women laugh, roll, and jump for joy.

Travelling to Mezeritch, however, has presented serious obstacles, and on the way home the women’s rash outlay of lies and bribes lands them in trouble. When they are arrested, the officer naturally demands to hear the Maggid’s story. So, Chametzky tells him. Striking her forehead with the back of her hands and swooning, she clutches the Maggid’s precious insights to her chest. “I’m not a dance fan,” the officer answers drily. Of course, he isn’t; and so, the joyous revelation will remain closed to him.

Hyman is the star of the evening’s second episode, “The Merchant of Mezeritch.” Here we are treated to the story of a businessman, a practical fellow who admits to an obsession with compasses. On a compass, North is always North; South is always South; and the two can never meet. Our businessman doesn’t like vague “in-between” spaces; and on this practical foundation he builds a financial empire selling schmaltz and buttons from a cart. Alas! He will lose every penny of it when he falls under the Maggid’s spell. 

Portraying the businessman, Hyman’s expressive face twitches and stretches. Confronted with the prospect of utter ruin, he hiccoughs dyspeptically and slurps from an invisible glass of tea. Then he falls into a trance-dance shivering and prancing, circling and falling, his body and his whole world overthrown. Under the Maggid’s guidance, the businessman has arrived at a place where concepts like North and South no longer have meaning, where opposites are reconciled and the world is whole again. (Religious historian Mircea Eliade describes this place, and the coincidentia oppositorum, in his book The Two and the One.) Bereft of his material wealth, Hyman’s character stands at the gates of true wisdom. He could only have arrived here by dancing.

By now, the audience has also attained a kind of ecstasy observing the simple but ingenious means that Hyman employs to spin these delightful yarns. Props are few; words carefully chosen; and the dancers’ bodies freely expressive. William Catanzaro’s sound-score is also essential, supplying both evocative melodies and sound effects like the clip-clop of horses’ hooves, and the voice of an off-stage character in the evening’s third episode, “This Is the Time to Dance.”

The “in-between” space where Hyman takes us in Secret of the Possible is part dance, part theater, and part story-telling, giving enormous scope to an audience’s imagination.

Robert Johnson, “The Dance Enthusiast,” January 23, 2023

WATCH VIDEO CLIP BELOW!

Choreography by Yehuda L. Hyman
Dancers: Madelyn Wansong, Henry Winslow, Aria Roach, Oksana Horban, Hallie Chametsky
Live Music: William Catanzaro
Additional Percussion: James Harris & Matthew DeCostanza
Recorded Music: "Let's Dance" performed by Giora Feidman
December, 2022, Theatre at the 14th Street Y, NYC.