I’ve been to the Felt Room twice. I went on opening night and listened to the talk and was highly confused by what was going to happen. I went in with a best friend and we were extremely terrified by all of the breathing sounds. We stayed for 5 minutes, holding hands the entire time, making distressed faces to each other that neither of us could see. Our eyes never got a chance to adjust, either, so we relied on the rare flash of light to tell us who was in the room.

The second time was better. We went in and decided we would stay for much longer. We also didn’t stand right by the curtain, but rather went straight to a far corner of the room. There we sat down and began our experience. It was possible to see a little this time since the very small amount of light from behind the curtains gave the dancers outlines. As we sat, steadily they began to migrate towards us. One stopped above my friend and grabbed the wall and shook violently while quickly breathing. For a while, I equated the dancers to creatures from a horror movie that won’t see you if you keep still. But after a while, I realized I was safe in there.

My favorite thing about the Felt Room was some of the subtle things I noticed as I watched. I liked the fact that whether I was there or not, the dancers would still be dancing. I could move, I could stand, I could sit, I could experience it however I wanted to. I could also leave, and I did eventually leave without watching the entire performance. Another thing I liked about it was the anonymity of the dancers in the darkness. I couldn’t tell who they were unless they got very close, which did happen. Only when they started wiggling on the floor and came right up to me and pushed off of my legs could I recognize my dancer friends. Then as they wiggled away, they melted back into the darkness. It reminded me of an old painting where all of the characters in the painting were completely unknown to me. Eventually, the lights steadily began to come on as the dancers moved to the center of the room and moved as a group. To be honest, I didn’t like the light part as much as the darker part. I preferred the mystery. I did leave during this part since I had somewhere to be, so I didn’t get to stick around for later dark parts, unfortunately.

One of my favorite moments of my second time there was when I noticed there was one audience member in the corner of the room and four or five dancers wiggled over to the corner he was in and writhed against his legs. He only moved until they had been there for at least a full two minutes. It was pretty hilarious.

Ben Clark