The Smallest Country

duo improvisation

The performers enter the stage empty and build an evening length work from the first moments and gestures. Cassie Terman and Shinichi Iova-Koga play in a highly physical realm that includes sound and language to explore an often surreal and dreamlike, yet utterly immediate world together. Comic dilemma, the pathos of human frailty, passionate engagement and associative narratives are woven into a cohesive, wild, delicate, and unpredictable whole. Performances reveal human experiences that are both archetypal and modern, intricate while steeped in simplicity.

NEW YORK TIMES

DANCE REVIEW | CASSIE TERMAN AND SHINICHI IOVA-KOGA
Wry Wit and Cello Scrapings With Subtlety Always Afoot


By JENNIFER DUNNING
Published: January 9, 2006
"The Smallest Country" was a perfect name for the evening of improvised physical theater presented by Cassie Terman and Shinichi Iova-Koga on Friday night at the CRS studio on Fourth Avenue. The hourlong program, presented by Dharma Road Productions, began with Mr. Koga and Ms. Terman slipping quietly through the audience and into the pocket-size performing space. They stood still, watching each other for a few moments as the merest hint of a wry smile began to show on Ms. Terman's piquant face. Gradually and wordlessly, the two created a complex relationship onstage, as lovers, perhaps, who knew that they must never marry.
Mr. Koga, a neatly put-together Butoh dancer, and the fuzzy-haired Ms. Terman, who trained in physical theater with Ruth Zaporah, were best when they were most subtle... delicately funny, revealed in a simple walk across the stage or a contretemps over a folding chair and a noisy radiator.
Witty intermittent words, sounds and cello scraping added to the vivid goings-on, which ended with a magical bit about bubbles. Mr. Koga and Ms. Terman are sure, charismatic performers. The sturdily subversive Ms. Rosenbaum is an inspired choice of accomplice. May the three soon perform again together.