As Tom Waits soulfully croaked, it's “Closing Time.” A middle-aged man dances in a galley as the 2021 workday staggers to a 5 P.M. halt. Shirt, jeans, red runners, headphones, the dancer dances unselfconsciously, a spot-lit quiddity in a white room. No intro: let's pretend this dancer has kids. Let's name them Audrey & Leland for good reason. As daddy dancer dances he makes Audrey & Leland curl into ringlets of shame, like the daddy jokes he performed around friends or the hopefully more. Shame! “Is he trying to impress them? Why does he have to speak, exist, dance!?” Daddy dancer moves; he sure does! He's not trying to impress with his moves, he's trying to feel, or turn inward to escape from the straightjacket of thinking or, he's just dancing in a world of pretend, scheduled & awaiting an audience. Daddy dancer is in a gallery where pretend pretends to be true. The art objects are beside the point & pivot of daddy dancer's fantasy. THIS IS NOT REAL! This is after hours, when screens are black rectangles, powered off so the body can turn on--turn you on. The dancer turns on his heel. The dance is a daddy dance. It's a dance of one when the couple is just a memory. Everyone looks on. No big show, just shuffles & taps & the clicking of fingers, something Audrey & Leland love most of all. When the dancer giddies up after a click of his fingers he almost takes off. Almost. But the floor is this dancer's stim. He is a sweeping brush brushing on the spot, marking a spot, religiously, not venturing beyond the mime closet of his masturbation. He dances; erect; alone. This is a pretend private dance gone public. The public watch from the gallery window--window shopping for a connection. They get sweet & sad & that thing they call pathos. Daddy dancer is wired! Not wirelessly wired! Shame! Shame again!! He wears red All Stars. His phone rings. The fantasy stops. He acknowledges the audience in a gesture of soft modesty that breaks hard on WALL No. 4. Retired from NCAD, artist Kevin Atherton dances performance art light-footed, like Houdini minus the endurance & chains. This is it!