- The Brooklyn Rail, Siobhan Burke, March, 2011 | READ ARTICLE - The New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, January 30th, 2011 | READ THE ARTICLE - The New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, January 27th, 2011 | ARTICLE AVAILABLE SOON - New York Times, Roslyn Sulcas, December 7th, 2009 | READ THE ARTICLE - The Village Voice, Deborah Jowitt, December 5th, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, December 4th, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - The Brooklyn Rail, Evan Namerow, February, 2010 | ARTICLE AVAILABLE SOON - Dance Critic and Blogger, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, December 7th, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - Gay City News, Brain McCormick, November 26th, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - New York Times, Claudia La Rocco, March 28, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - Dance Critic and Blogger, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, March 28th, 2008 | READ THE ARTICLE - New York Press, Christopher Atamian, June 2nd, 2006 | READ THE ARTICLE Paris, The Dance Insider, Paul Ben-Itzak, September 28th, 2005 | ARTICLE AVAILABLE SOON - The New York Times, Gia Kourlas, May 13th, 2005 | READ THE ARTICLE
“Spellin’ Flashhhh Lightsssss…What follows is a true experiment, funnily and frighteningly absurd, in distortions of body, voice, and light…Alien as this animal is, I feel a sudden affinity for him, in his non-committal limbo.”
“What must it be like to rocket between politically conscious queer cabaret and a commune in the rural South? You see these shifts in Mr. Thompson’s physicality, which marries arch deconstructions with a particular ferociousness; you can pet him, but he isn’t housebroken…It’s hard not to be glad for Mr. Thompson’s smartly manic outbursts. Here’s to dancers being heard, not just seen.”
“Hooray! — the marvelously singular Layard Thompson.”
“The strongest piece came right at the end — Layard Thompson’s “Verb-alll…lalala…trasshhhh” offered a compelling alternation between fey and feral…the inner logic of his tightly wound performance carried conviction enough.”
“Layard Thompson, is into exploring identity, which he does with the uninhibited gusto of a wild child and the calculation of a savvy artist…The piece could certainly be call self-indulgent, but Thompson’s every crazed move is both calculated and layered with wit. Whatever you may think, you can’t take your eyes off him.”
“Fey and bewitching, Mr. Thompson shifted disconcertingly between a self-conscious overtly sexual presentation and an abject, ferocious sort of wildness that had him picking at his body and yowling.
“Thompson’s blend of self-consciousness and sexual posing, thrusting, and high-pitched screeches was smart and engaging. The audience was covered in a sea of plastic bags by the piece’s end, but Thompson was too riveting to notice.”
“Thompson. The boundary-less Id that crashed the party.”
“Layard Thompson, beloved nature queer…”
“Inscrutable gestures and made-up words were offset by Mr. Thompson’s fierce concentration, suggesting a compelling inner logic. His babble was nonsense: his art is anything but.”
“Performance, if done right, is shamanism…Thompson gives us the shocks that catch laughs in our throats and make us wonder if those flimsy seats we’re sitting on might give way and slip us into the chaos.”
“To watch Layard Thompson interpret Deborah Hay is a minor revelation, an experience which reminds one of the integrity and intellectual promise that contemporary dance once held.”
“Of the three shows I’ve caught in the opening weeks of the Paris season, only one has been worth writing home about, and he’s probably already home: Deborah Hay’s 2004 solo “The Ridge,” as interpreted by one of the 20 dancers from all over the world who commissioned it, New Yorker Layard Thompson, who accomplished more in one very proscribed art gallery space than veteran choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and pretend choreographer Raimond Hogue achieved working on two of the largest stages in Paris, at the Theatre de la Ville – Sarah Bernhardt and the Centre Pompidou.”
“The highlight was Layard Thompson performing Deborah Hay’s The Ridge…The Ridge is full of eccentric twists and turns that rendered Mr. Thompson — with his malleable body and sparkling red shoes — part-creature, part-human.”