DIVERS ALARUMS, DECEMBER 29, 2015 : HELEN SHAW'S BEST SHOWS OF 2015 - the ones that should come back
"Scotty Heron and Brendan Connelly are both such uninhibited Chaos Muppets that when they take the stage for their hilarious junkshop tribute to Martha Graham and Aaron Copeland, you’re often deeply concerned about the health of their sound equipment. Connelly tootles, blasts and sighs his electro-noise score on a deconstructed clarinet; Heron flings himself around in pointe shoes or heels or a Graham-ian stretchy tube o’ fabric; the two clamber over each other like a pair of puppies figuring out for the first time they have legs. It seems like mayhem, and then beauty asserts itself—classic and anarchic and enlivening at once, the perfect expression of vernal riot." read more
Infinite Body Blog, December 15, 2o15 : Appalachian Spring Break
"Heron's centerpiece work as Graham is a thing of mystery and scrupulously contained drama, gorgeous in its own way." read more
MNARTISTS.ORG, JULY 31, 2015: DIGGING UP THE GHOSTS OF MODERN DANCE
Scotty Heron Dance Brendan Connelly Music
"While the aesthetics of Apaplachian Spring Break is contemporary, the ethos is early post-modern. Digging up the ghosts of early modern dance is not pressing to me, but Heron and Connelley's performance convinces me that there is plenty there to uncover." read more
Mnartists.org, june 24, 2013 : LIGHTS UP A TRAGEDY
"...The work was screamingly funny and demented, but as I thought more about the piece, it also became an object lesson in looking." read more
bellyflop magazine, oct 9, 2012 : heron and hauert like me more like me
"Improvisation is also a subject of the piece. . .It demands that Hauert and Heron share a language (dance), it demands they know it well and it demands them to be fluent in it. Good job that they are." read more
new york times, july 30, 2010 : denim, nudity and a lot in between
"A capacity audience at Dixon Place greeted the 55-minute premiere of “Smithsoniansmith,” by Scotty Heron and Hijack Dance, with cheers so prolonged that the performer-creators returned to the stage to take more bows than the casts of some Broadway plays do."
CULTUREBOT, AUGUST 4, 2010: Scott Heron & Hijack Dance's Smithsoniansmith at Dixon Place
"This is a dance piece developed by three artists with a strong choreographic vision and performed with balls-to-the-walls energy: it’s rough, visceral, doesn’t belabor technique, and keeps the audience thoroughly entertained throughout the roughly hour-long performance." read more
Ambush Magazine, February 2, 2010 : some times at the all ways
"Much as I admire Heron's imagination for creating this visually stunning and viscerally tickling extravaganza, I was most impressed with his delicate, highly polished skills as both a modern and ballet dancer as well as his terrific talents as a mime..." read more
NEW YORK TIMES, DECEMBER 6, 2006 : DEFYING LANGUAGE BUT EAGER TO CONVERSE
"It's hard to know what to say...other than it was one of the most enjoyable, language-defying performances I've seen in a long time." read more
NEW YORK TIMES, OCTOBER 28, 2005 : AN EMBRACE OF THE ABSURD
"Mr. Heron dots his performance space with everything from oversized cupcakes to a billowing steam machine to the composer Corey Dargel. . . Somehow it is heartbreaking, utterly frivolous and very funny..." read more
village voice, november 1, 2005 : of various princesses
"Scott Heron introduces himself with fanfare, albeit ironic fanfare. This postmodern clown stumbles down the aisle disguised as a box of dental floss; an offstage hand pulling out a length of floss induces erotic ecstasy... Terrible and entracing!" read more
dance insider, october 2005 : nightmares of flossing with heron
"The details of his slapdash aesthetic and visual foolery beguile. At the same time, he chews the scenery with an abandon that creates underlying anxiety... These are shamanic rites using structure and necessity as girders within apparent anarchy." read more
minneapolis observer, may 2004 : elegance and obstruction
"Scott Heron is a boldly "impure" movement artist, a genre- and gender-bender..." read more
NEW YORK TIMES, april 17, 2001 : a singing gator, a pesky lemon
"Exploding across the tiny Dixon Place stage in its most relentlessly manic and twee moments, ''Tender'' felt like being trapped in a broom closet with Jerry Lewis for the whole telethon. But just as one was about to give up, Mr. Heron would grab some prop and become a brilliant and surprisingly lovable performance artist." read more
dance insider, april 25, 20o1 : queer faerie circus
"...This Queer vaudeville ludic Dada is the kind of adrenaline melee that made the East Village famous, before it became a frat house strip mall..." read more
village voice, april 25, 2001 : it's been strange
"He enters as a cranky old man pushing a table, then turns into a jerky hoofer who is also a hilariously incompetent magician. A trick knife, a fake mustache, surprising costume changes, a lip-synching dinosaur puppet, and taped counsel on fisting are some of the evening’s features..." read more
paper magazine, april 2001 : acrobatty - heron marries dance & performance art
"His dances are amalgams of skill and absurdity, overlaid with a rich sense of humor. First you admire his technique, then he makes you laugh..." read more
village voice, april 18, 2000 : vision shifts
"Like an aborted tour through one of those moist, short-story Southern towns where everyone's an eccentric...You feel maybe the journey has worked a miracle." read more
time out new york, march 30, 2000 : heron chic
" Scott Heron sees the world through a special set of eyes. Or perhaps he's just invented a universe of his own liking. His beautiful dance-theater works, with their extravagant costumes and sets, create a dreamy, surreal paradise or a frightening hell..." read more
village voice, february 4, 1997 : all kindsa rites
"Heron has cast himself as explorer in a bizarre world that subjects him to transformations; or perhaps he's in charge of a topsy-turvy Mass. I like speculating on him as a wacky/serious pomo Jungian Martha Graham sort of fellow... There are hints of holy water and grave-wrappings being pulled off and magic spells and primal screams. High intelligence mates with cosmic nuttiness." read more
village voice, october 19, 1993
"In a more benign and probably boring world, Scott Heron might be a standard Ballet Boy. With his lean and linear physique, sharply detailed face, and willfully neat feet, the dark-haired performer cuts a figure both aristocratic and disciplined. But Heron keeps careful pace with the sometimes gross imperfections of his world, presenting an elegantly rendered suite of indelicate points..." read more
New york native, october 26, 1992 : upstairs downstairs and in my lady's chamber
"The grave and slight young man played, by turns, the very vertical dancer--especially when balancing a log-like hat--the testy, argumentative performer--sometimes snarling at an alter-ego on video--and the wry cross-dresser--matter of factly describing the subltle scheme of his drag, all the while daringly and expertly balancing, in and out of his heeled pumps, on a tight rope..." read more
new york times, march 9, 1992 : angelic lunacy and tortured dreams
"...A showcase for Mr. Heron's angelic lunacy. Looking often like a stick-figure as he moved..., long thin limbs prodding crookedly, Mr. Heron first appeard as a solem high priest of sorts... Mr. Heron lolloped and leaped...and grimaced with the fierce abandonment of the innately shy..." read more
high performance, fall 1991 : the scott heron show
In this meticulously constructed show, every detail was loaded... Riveting and tragicomic, he consumed existence in huge gulps and distilled a wisdom of sorts, believing that love and courage will somehow transcend the decimation. read more
