Ben Munisteri. - Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church-in-the Bowery, New York, NY - dance reviews

Dance Magazine, July, 1994 by Gary Parks

When was the last time you went to a performance and "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida" boomed out of the sound system? Ben Munisteri's Acid Psalms, which premiered during the engagement he shared with Matthew Brown at St. Mark's, begins with this Iron Butterfly standard, then moves on to include music by Sly and the Family Stone, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin. Suddenly, I was in high school again.

Munisteri wasn't in high school when acid rock was throbbing through America's temples. (He's twenty-eight.) So his treatment of the music reflects a nostalgic view of the era, though not a dishonest one. Acid Psalms dispenses with the blood, sweat, and tears, concentrating instead on how groovy it was to be a flower child. Dressed in Steven Powsner's bell-bottom costumes, Munisteri and four mod companions (Edna de Beer, Kristin McNutt, Kathryn Tufano, and Lisa Wheeler) pose, lunge, and spin before collapsing in a pile.

Munisteri's strict choreographic structure, a succession of trios and duets framed by an opening solo and a concluding ensemble dance make Acid Psalms more than ju a ea trip. He doesn't really have enough movement vocabulary to sustain the piece - Acts of Fusion and Winter, also on the program, were similarly afflicted - but Munisteri's got the spirit and he's got the technique, and the piece really rocks. Presented the same weekend as the Joff rey's pricey, ponderous Billboards, the sleek Acid Psalms gave more bang for the buck. Never trust anyone over thirty.