Within This Dust

Among the images published in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, one of the most controversial was Richard Drew's photograph of a man falling between the twin towers. Taking as inspiration this picture and all it came to represent, Smallpetitklein's thoughtfully executed triple bill is not only a beautiful piece of dance, an elegy to the estimated 200 people who died in this way on 9/11, but also a sensitive reminder that theirs was a situation any one of us could have faced.

In Embers, leaves of pure-white paper fall one by one from a bundle in Marta Masiero's clutch. Later she tosses and turns in the endless mass, singling out several pages and pressing them flat, each as individual in its shape as a person.

The tragic beauty of S/HE continues to haunt long after it has finished. Masiero and Tom Pritchard evoke a deep sense of loss in this duet that sees them mirroring, gliding, lifting and balancing weightlessly against one another.

Finally, Falling Man uses text from Tom Junod's 2009 Esquire article on Drew's famous image to echo movement that suggests not only the freedom of flying but also the terror of falling. There is a moment when, lying prostrate, an unseen force pins Pritchard's legs and arms back. At the utter mercy of the elements he rides this wave peacefully for a few moments. When it passes, and he falls flat again, it seems that whatever circumstances came together to cause it, he has had his moment of grace.