“Play Time imagines the hustle and bustle of the city’s white-collar workers, minus the hustle. Not that the dancers moved without urgency. Set to a score commissioned from Solange, the piece ponders what would happen if the tenacity we reserve for maximizing profits instead pointed toward the corporeal necessity of play, towards the body’s ability to flutter with joy and whimsy when unmoored by the vagaries of capital.”

“In this lively, jazzy composition, a repetitive and dreamy concoction featuring a persistent back-and-forth between piano and horns, the dancers were continually propelled through space and then pulled back into stillness. Legs struck the air in sync with the sounds of cymbals. The title wasn’t off the mark.”

“The 16-minute piece’s joyously excessive choreography demanded every second of the viewer’s attention. Moving to plucked double bass, pentatonic descending chords on the piano, and little bells, the dancers kept things light and slinky, flicking their arms and legs as if they were tickling tendrils.”

“Throughout “Signs,” Reisen moved her dancers about the stage expertly. There were quotes from several NYCB repertory staples, but Reisen made everything her own.”

“Almost as quickly as she’d left, Reisen found herself back in NYCB’s studios—this time, at the front of the room, with the dancers following her instructions.“

“In the end Reisen leaves behind the romantic push and shove. Seated alone on the floor in the glow of a single light, she acknowledges a pause more than a determination to go it alone. Completing the metaphor in the titling, Rising Water peacefully subsides rather than ends.“

“There is a certain unavoidable buzz around being the youngest to accomplish any given thing, but she is approaching the situation with a surprising equanimity.“