A craving for Popkin

Since one of my dearest friends performs in Lionel Popkin's There Is An Elephant In This Dance--brought in from the West Coast and opened, last evening, at Danspace Project--I won't write a review. But I can urge you to go to see this delectable, dreamy, poetic, luminous thing, continuing tonight and Saturday at 8:30. Expect the unexpected!

Performances by Popkin and Carolyn Hall, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Peggy Piacenza. Original music by Robert Een, performed by Een with percussionist Hearn Gadbois and singer Valecia Phillips. Costumes by Jean Landry. Lighting by Kathy Kaufmann. Video by Kyle Ruddick and Cari Ann Shim Sham*. All deserve a shout-out!

Information and tickets or 866-811-4111

Olive Bieringa: Body and Soul podcast (UPDATE)

Olive Bieringa of The BodyCartography Project, based in Minneapolis, talks about plans for next month's SEEDS Festival of arts and ecology. Now set to launch its second summer at EARTHDANCE in Massachusetts, SEEDS is an international, interdisciplinary festival, forging connections between innovative artists and scientists.

Special update from Olive Bieringa: The curators and Earthdance staff are in the process of reshaping the festival in order to attune to the changes that are coming up. In the upcoming weeks leading up to SEEDS, we will modify the format. For more details, look at the website: www.earthdance.net/seeds, or call us at 413-634-5678. Thank you.

SEEDS
The BodyCartography Project


MP3 File [Play]

Battling boroughs step it up!

YouthNoise, in partnership with Nike, the New York City Department of Youth and Community Development, and the Global Youth Leadership Institute, is launching Step It Up: Battle of the Boroughs, a city-wide contest where dance teams from all five boroughs compete for up to $10,000 in cash and prizes, including a team grant, a Nike ID session in which the winning team will be able to design their own team shoe and the coveted NYC Battle of the Boroughs trophy to be featured on Gamechangers.com, YouthNoise.com/playcity, and Liveleadershipnow.org.

Heralded as the Super Bowl of dance competitions, the Battle of the Boroughs gives young dancers the opportunity to showcase their talent and encourages participants to declare a cause for their communities. Issues like Inequality, Education and Violence are among the few causes participants can declare to help support their communities.

The competition is organized in three phases. The first phase is auditions, in which teams register online, volunteer for a community service project and compete for the semifinals on June 4, 2009; the Battle Zone. The semifinalists that make it to the Battle Zone will create video PSAs that will be hosted on YouthNoise.com/playcity.  Finally, the teams chosen to move on will compete in the Battle of the Boroughs on June 30, 2009, where the final teams will create, develop and launch a borough-wide campaign around their causes and compete for the grand prize!

Young people from all over New York City now have the opportunity to participate in a one of a kind dance competition while representing and advocating for their surrounding communities. Register now for the Battle of the Boroughs and Step It Up for a cause to change your community!

Click here for registration information.

Chi Kung in the park

Practice Chi Kung with Laura Shapiro:

Saturdays at 10:30am in Central Park, starting June 6th
Sundays at 4:30pm in Prospect Park, starting June 7th

Often translated as "life force energy practice," Chi Kung uses separate gentle movements, specific postures and the breath to circulate and revitalize energy, improve balance and coordination, increase flexibility, and cultivate inner strength of body, mind and spirit.

The full benefits reveal themselves with ongoing regular practice. After the movements, postures and breathing become familiar, their repetition allows the nervous system and the muscles, the mind and the emotions to calm down. Releasing tension and busy-ness, the practice of chi Kung generates feelings of peace, harmony and well-being.

Laura Shapiro is a choreographer/performer with over three decades of experience teaching people of all ages and abilities. Recent work includes teaching for Fu Yu International Foundation, DOROT Wellness Program for Seniors, Center for Kinesthetic Education (children and adults), McBurney YMCA (adults 20s-80s), private classes for groups and individuals.

For further information, exact locations and directions, please contact 212-946-1537 or quicksilverdance@yahoo.com.

For weekly weather and location updates, please call 212-946-1537 on the Friday evening before the Saturday class, and on the morning of the Sunday class.

Tuition by donation, according to your ability to pay; suggested donation $15/class

Give me five minutes more...

Sasha Fornari (videographer, photographer) and Fabrice Calmels (drop-dead gorgeous ballerino), the guys behind 30 Seconds of Dance, bring you itty-bitty, teensy-weensy dance videos that are like those potato chips, you know, "Bet you can't eat just one!"

Check this out: 30 Seconds of Dance. And if you have any ideas for them, send your suggestions to 30secondsofdance@gmail.com.

When the going gets tough

Tight Times Loosen Artists’ Creativity
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, May 19, 2009

And how about that sound design!

Amazing N.Y. subway breakdancers caught on iPhone
by Dong Ngo, Crave, CNET News

Astaire way to paradise

The Astaire Awards ceremony features and presents honors to choreographers and dancers from the worlds of film and theater. This year’s event, hosted by Alan Cumming, is scheduled for June 1, (7:30pm) at The Haft Auditorium, Fashion Institute of Technology (7th Avenue at West 27th Street, Manhattan).

Liza Minnelli will present a lifetime achievement award to film director and choreographer Stanley Donen (Singin’ In The Rain, On the Town). Other scheduled presenters include Savion Glover, Bebe Neuwirth and Geoffrey Rush.

Performances from nominated choreographers and dancers include “Electricity” from Billy Elliot and Martha Plimpton and cast performing “That Terrific Rainbow” from Pal Joey, as well as tribute performances to Clive Barnes and Stanley Donen. There will also be performances from select nominated films including “Bollywood Girl” and “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

Nominees were selected by Sylviane Gold (Theater Columnist for Dance Magazine), Anna Kisselgoff (former Chief Dance Critic of The New York Times), Wendy Perron (Editor in Chief of Dance Magazine), Linda Winer (Chief Theater Critic of Newsday) and Damian Woetzel (Former Principal Dancer, New York City Ballet). The producers of the 2009 Astaire Awards are Patricia Watt and Ron Glucksman.

BEST BROADWAY CHOREOGRAPHER NOMINEES

9 to 5: Andy Blankenbuehler
Hair: Karole Armitage
Billy Elliot: Peter Darling
Guys and Dolls: Sergio Trujillo
Pal Joey: Graciela Daniele

BEST FILM CHOREOGRAPHER NOMINEES

Mamma Mia: Anthony Van Laast
Slumdog Millionaire: Longines Fernandes
Center Stage Turn It Up: Aakomon “AJ” Jones
Make It Happen: Tracy Phillips
Fados: Patrick De Bana and Pedro Gomes
High School Musical 3: Kenny Ortega
Were the World Mine: Todd Underwood

BEST FEMALE DANCER NOMINEES

West Side Story: Karen Olivo
Rock Of Ages: Angel Reed, Katherine Tokarz, Savannah Wise
Guys and Dolls: Kearran Giovanni
You’re Welcome America. A Final Night with George W Bush: Pia Glenn

BEST MALE DANCER NOMINEES

Billy Elliot – role of Billy: David Alvarez, Trent Kowalik and Kiril Kulish
Billy Elliot – role of Michael: David Bologna, Frank Dolce
White Christmas: Jeffry Denman
Pal Joey: Matthew Risch

Information and ticketing or 212-868-4444 or 877-238-5596

DASH up to Harlem

DASH (Dance Arts Studio Harlem) founder Nathanael Buckley and co-founder Stefanie Nelson invite you to a community gathering of artists who live and/or work in Harlem (and surrounding areas) and who are in need of space, resources, a local community of artists and more.

On June 1 (8pm), meet at Havana Central, 2911 Broadway (at 114th street).

More information on DASH

Motion? Yes. Mavericks? Uh...

By the end of last year's presidential campaign, the perfectly blameless word maverick was left standing around in shredded underwear, a glazed look in its eye, nobody willing to give it the time of day. And I'm thinking that dance fans might do well to be skeptical once again whenever they see that word used to characterize and promote dancemakers. I'm thinking that, particularly, after a respectable, pleasant but not earthshaking hour at La MaMa Moves festival which sampled the work of several choreographers designated as "Mavericks in Motion."

In motion, they certainly were. But there were only a couple of moments that made me sit forward, and they belonged to Bergen Wheeler (dancing in Sydney Skybetter's The Personal and in her own Lone) and Kim Jones (partnered by Edgar Cortes in Cortes's Lagri Mar).

Jones and the Portuguese-born Cortes both hail from Graham backgrounds, and the romantic Lagri Mar gives them plenty of Graham-like archetypal gravitas and glamour to chew on. And Jones gives herself over to glamorous dancing like nobody's business.

Wheeler's the dark-haired, compact, incredibly supple dynamo who regularly takes Skybetter choreography--a striking combination of angularity and flow--to stratospheric levels because she's got not only exacting skill and focus but undeniable star quality. Bringing up the rear in Skybetter's Schubert suite of four solos, she is literally a precise, perfect art song in motion. Then, without much of a pause, Wheeler returns to launch a two-part solo of her own creation. Lone's first segment--set to Verdi's "Chi il Bel Sogno Di Doretta"--actually rocks steadier than her rocking out to Led Zeppelin's "Ramble On" but, at the end, her audience rightly greets her like the rock star she is.

There's still more La MaMa moving to see, from tonight at 8pm through Sunday at 8pm. If you're lucky, you'll catch Bergen Wheeler on Sunday night's program. Also, the "American Hybrids" program, running through Sunday looks fresh, promising, even potentially mavericky, with works by Monstah Black and Nicholas Leichter, Minneapolis's HIJACK/Kristen Van Loon and Arwen Wilder, and Bessie-Award winner Tom Pearson. And generations of Cunningham dance artists will take the stage from May 29-31.

Company and schedule details and ticketing

Box office: 212-475-7710

Papa, don't preach

David Dorfman's Disavowal, running through Sunday at Danspace Project, is a sprawling mess--except when it isn't--and it's an understandably well-intentioned sprawling mess. Let's put it this way: Disavowal doesn't want to be just dance; it wants to be something on the order of a parlor game, a dance concert, a '70s encounter group and an after-performance community meeting all sort of wrapped into one unruly package that spills out well beyond its announced hour length.

The passionate Dorfman brought us the Weather Underground-haunted and rousing underground in 2006, and I do get why he'd want to create this new piece in the way that he did--"to make innovative, inclusive, entertaining, poetic, movement-based performance with a radically humanistic socio-political slant…viewed and experienced by all populations…to foster discussion, debate and change." I'm Black Caribbean, queer, pagan and artistic in America and decidely to the left of Barack Obama. I hear Dorfman erupting fiery social issues all over Disavowal--in the midst of some slam-bang dancing by an ensemble that even The New York Times will have to acknowledge as being remarkable--and splashing that hot lava all over everyone in attendance.

Some of these issues are societal or communal in nature, but they still come down to matters of interpersonal relationship, individual power or powerlessness, the pecking order in a hierarchy, mental manipulation, and the dangerous psychological unpredictability of leaders and of followers. Dorfman started out thinking about militant slavery abolitionist John Brown--who, today, FOX News would surely call a homegrown terrorist--and came to this. Somewhere in the middle of Dorfman's process, the specificity of Brown morphed into Disavowal, which is not so much about Brown as it seems to be about Dorfman and about, well, about people.

Dorfman does certain things very, very well. As was true in underground, his rambunctious but tightly-organized (not messy) group choreography conveys energy like nobody's business; you feel the coalescence and sweep of a movement, and I mean that in the political sense of the word, but feel free to take it in the more familiar sense, too. He and his dancers can instantaneously deal any card from the deck of emotions and often blur the escalating transition from one emotion to the next in a seriously scary way. That gives their one-to-one interactions street cred, the disturbing ring of the familiar.

Dorfman takes a big risk in pushing his audience around in the service of his intentions, and I can't say, in all honesty, that his methods worked well for me. From the moment I set foot inside St. Mark's Church, I was being told where to go, what group of people to sit with, what to do--for instance, I was made to join an in-progress card game that was totally new to me--when to stand up, when to clap along in rhythm. At one point late in the proceedings, after quite a bit of this, like a handful of other folks, I refused to budge. I was asked, with subtle condescension, "Do you need help?" If I had not been worn out from a long day, I might have snapped back, "What part of No don't you understand?"

I kind of get what Dorfman was doing, since his "character" in Disavowal--who seems to enjoy calling himself and being called "Papa"--is a lurching, volatile control freak who drills and mistreats the loving, sensitive, pliable dancers in his charge. The audience gets a relatively small taste of what it's like to be in a space created and ruled by this over-inflated balloon of a man, this Papa.

So dominating is he, that the Katrina flood of his arbitrary whims--set in motion by his surrogates, his performers--rages past the performance space onto the risers where we, innocent bystanders, have long attempted to disavow our connection to whatever it is we're staring at. Okay, David, I get it.

But while I get the strategy, I found its execution awkward, overblown, increasingly predictable and tiresome as well as literally tiring. It certainly didn't warm me to the idea of staying around an extra half-hour or so to discuss the issues raised by the work with the artists and my fellow sufferers…I mean, my fellow audience members.

But if Dorfman gets useful discussions out of this, if audience members are genuinely spurred to insight and change--as opposed to merely being triggered and irritated--well, then, good on him.

David Dorfman Dance in Disavowal at Danspace Project, now through Sunday, 8:30

Information and ticketing

Healing the Dancer

Third Annual Healing the Dancer Seminar
June 8, 2009
10 am-1 pm

The New 42nd Street Studios
229 West 42nd Street, Manhattan

Hosted by Bebe Neuwirth
Founder of The Dancers’ Resource of The Actors Fund

And featuring key-note speaker Virginia Johnson
Newly appointed Artistic Director of Dance Theatre of Harlem

Presenters:

Sandra Foschi, Physical Therapist, Nutritionist
Bradley Jones, Psy. D., LCSW, Psychotherapist, former dancer

Guest speakers will offer insight and discussion on dancer physical and emotional wellness. Obtain information and resources for accessing health insurance and health care, financial wellness, and support from community agencies/organizations.

This seminar is FREE and open to professional dancers and those who serve them.

Contact Alice Vienneau, 212.221.7301 ext. 261 or avienneau@actorsfund.org for more information.

Sprenger rocks 'em

Here's a quick recommendation: Megan V. Sprenger/mvworks, concluding the run of ...within us this week at Performance Space 122. This hour-long work's benign beginning--why, it could be a downtown cocktail party without the cocktails!--swiftly gives way to controlled chaos within a tight environment that the troupe has obviously come to know very well. They have to know it--and one another--quite well, for there's risk for themselves as well as for us, the audience, observing from the very unsafe space they inhabit. Forget the fourth wall; this dance rocks you hard, sometimes comforts you with a touch, never lets you off the hook. You look but rarely from the privilege and luxury of distance. It sent a chill up my spine. I'm still rattled by it. I never come right home and sit down to write about a piece, but here I am, right now, writing to you.

Sprenger's valiant performers are Tara O'Con, Maria Parshina, Alli Ruszkowski and Richert Schnorr. Her team, cooking up this visceral/emotional experience, includes Joe Levasseur (lighting), Jason Sebastian (sound design and composition) and Brad Kisicki (set design).

...within us continues with 7:30pm performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and a 5:30pm performance on Sunday.

Information and ticketing

Listen to my May 11th interview with Sprenger for Body and Soul podcast.

Michelle Obama: arts advocate

In New York, Mrs. Obama Praises Arts as Vital to U.S.
by Rachel L. Swarns, The New York Times, May 18, 2009

Amazing! The First Lady had the same itinerary as my wife and I have today to celebrate her birthday! Why couldn't she have been born on the 18th? :-D

Dancing on parade

The Saturday weather held up and so did a lot of happy feet--club dancers, rollerskate dancers, Latin dancers, hula hoop aficionados, burlesque ladies, youth marching bands and more--for the 2009 NYC Dance Parade, all along the route from Broadway and 28th Street to Tompkins Square Park.



All photos (c)2009 Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Click on any photo to see it larger.

Sofian's "Secret Sky"

To knowledgeable fans of Oriental/Middle Eastern dance--and we are legion, although a marginal subset of dance followers--Anahid Sofian is one of the art's crown jewels. Veteran dancer, choreographer, artistic director and instructor, she has maintained a studio in New York since 1972, training some of the best in the business, and formed her company three decades ago. This artist remains, in a competitive, economically-challenged and always-changing field, not only a survivor but an exemplar.

Last evening, I had the privilege of watching Sofian perform a new suite of works--Toward A Secret Sky--sketches, improvisation, new choreography--at her small studio in the Flatiron District.

Sofian was joined by musicians Haig Manoukian (oud), Michael Hess (kanoun) and Shane Shanahan (percussion) who filled the interludes between her solos. I particularly enjoyed the sinuous chiming of Hess's lines and the unearthly sensitivity of Shanahan's pliant fingers flying and skittering over the skin of his drums. These interludes tended to be a tad moody and lulling, stretching the show out and draining the room's energy. A little of this trio would have gone a long way. But, then again, costume changes for a mainly one-woman show? A tricky situation!

Guest dancer Carlos Fittante--artistic director of BALAM Dance Theatre--partnered Sofian in an expressive duet in conventional modern dance style, executed to perfection. (This was an unexpected aesthetic swerve, but Sofian's early training included modern dance with Bella Lewitsky and Erick Hawkins.) But all other works on the program were short solos--some dramatic, some simply charming; folkish, trance-y, cabaret-like, solemn or ritualistic--set to an exciting range of recorded music and performed with Sofian's characteristic focus, refinement of carriage, precision of step and magical veilwork.

I remember when Sofian first sent word that she was planning this evening and mentioned that it might be the last time she'd present anything of this kind. I hope she has since changed her mind, and last night's admiring audience would surely agree.

More information: Anahid Sofian Studio

Japan's Umeda in black & white

Tokyo's celebrated Hiroaki Umeda opened his production--Hiroaki Umeda: Solo dance, light, sound & video--last evening at Japan Society. If that title sounds pedestrian and unwieldy--and it does--it is, nevertheless, completely accurate. The talented soloist has created all aspects of both works in the show and considers each of these aesthetic elements to be the equal of every other.

In the roughly 20-minute-long Adapting for Distortion (US premiere), Umeda turns himself into a human barcode, initially standing still while sharp, parallel lines are projected against his body and the darkened stage. Gradually, he introduces a twist here, a dip there, and there a tilt or a roll of the head. He builds these subtle movements into cool, minimalist, high-tech hip hop while piercing, grating electronic sounds accompany changes in the patterns of the lines of light, ending with a pulsating grid. It should be no surprise that Umeda was a photography student before succumbing to dance, late, at the age of 20.

Umeda's body and remarkably smooth dancing are easier to see and appreciate in Accumulated Layout (New York premiere), although, here, he once again plays unconventional games with light and darkness. At the opening, he's rooted in place, holding his shoulders stiffly as if they were a tilted hanger dangling his clothes at an angle. He lets his arms go crazy (or Krazy!, as Japan Society might have it).

Umeda has made of dance a total theater under the control of his photographer's eye. He certainly has new tricks to teach American hip hop dancers seeking fresh ways to translate their skills to the concert stage.

Hiroaki Umeda: Solo dance, light, sound & video concludes Japan Society's Beyond Boundaries: Genre-Bending Mavericks series tonight and tomorrow at 7:30. Click here for information and ticketing.

Yatkin: Breaking through barriers

Visit dancer-choreographer Nejla Yatkin's elegant and informative new Web site for details on The Berlin Wall Project, her tri-part commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall:

• a short “dance-on-camera” film in collaboration with filmmaker Mike Rogers
  

• a site-specific installation about the Wall to be performed the day of the anniversary at two gallery spaces at the Goethe Institute in New York City in collaboration with photographer Astrid Riecken
  

• a touring dance concert work to be performed in New York City, Washington, DC and Los Angeles

Billy, Billy, Billy!

Tonys Approve One ‘Elliot’ Viewing for 3-Way Vote
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, May 13, 2009

Williams's saints go marching in

Do not, do not, do not miss Christopher Williams's The Golden Legend, running now through Saturday at Dance Theater Workshop. Do you need me to say it one more time? Do not!

Sell something, if necessary, and buy a ticket, if you can still snare one.

But be well-prepared for an unusually long, ritualistic night: three hours (including intermission), of which the first half is, without question, the more necessary and the more miraculous. And be prepared for something a lot more like opera than "downtown" dance: high pageantry, larger-than-life characters, lush, imaginative costuming, sacred music and song, performed live to thrill the ear, program notes with almost the size and heft--and contents--of a hymnal. And, of course--as befits a ceremony of martyred Christian saints--simmering eroticism and rampaging violence.

I will fault Williams only for this: falling so in love with the 13th Century legends of his host of male saints that he can't let go of some of them for the sake of the rest. There are a couple of these guys whose sections are winning solely for the sweetness of the puppets (St. Giles's nurturing doe, St. Jerome's injured lion) literally trotted out to interact with them. The second half of the show included too many longish segments that made me glance at the gradually dwindling number of not-yet-occupied saints chairs at the side of the performance space and note that that dwindling number wasn't dwindling nearly fast enough. But, all that aside, there's much to enjoy about this work, and I was knocked out by the large, generous vision of it.

Williams has a cast of often legendary performers to kill for who, naturally, keep getting killed off, one legendary way or another. (You can read the complete list--and much, much, much more--in the program notes. In fact, forget conversing with your friend; you'll need time to study up.) For now, let me just tip my cap to a handful of noteworthy among the saintly company: David Parker, a chipper, childlike St. Thomas of Canterbury dancing among a chorus of executioners; John Kelly, as the anchorite St. Anthony Abbot, beset by tiny, hellish puppets and swishing his hips to the pealing of a bell like some Orientalist's vision of a bellydancer; Jonah Bokaer, handsome St. Sebastian, staggering with a back full of arrows yet nobly pushing back against crotch-rubbing killers who pelt him with words like "cunt" and "sissyboy." These expert players conspire with Williams to bring an affecting humanity to their legendary characters.

Tonight, Dan Hurlin will moderate a post-show talk with the artists. On Thursday, dance critic Nancy Dalva will welcome early-comers to a pre-show Coffee and Conversation at 6:30pm.

Get more information and those all-important tickets here.

Obama announces NEA head

Rocco Landesman, Broadway Producer, to Lead National Arts Endowment
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, May 12, 2009

In Balanchine's shadow

Burdened by Balanchine: Ballet Must Make Room Onstage for More Than One Genius
by Sarah Kaufman, The Washington Post, May 10, 2009

And what about our invitations?

Set the Dial for AM 1600
by Rachel L. Swarns, The Caucus, The New York Times, May 12, 2009

Way fabulous!

And I love that the Obama family loves the Alvin Ailey troupe. I just hope they'll look around a little and embrace even more of what dance has to offer!

Tribute to Frankie Manning, May 21

Tribute: Frankie Manning

PBS (WNET Channel 13, New York City) will broadcast a special tribute show about Lindy Hop master dancer Frankie Manning on May 21 at 10:30pm.

The documentary features the last major interview of Frankie Manning before his death, as well as precious archival footage of his dancing from the 1930s to 2009 in New York and other spots around the world. The legendary and phenomenal Swing dance scene from “Hellzapoppin” and a
phenomenal duet with his 76-year-old son Chazz will also be featured.

Megan V. Sprenger: Body and Soul podcast

Choreographer Megan V. Sprenger joins me to talk about ...within us, her new, evening-length production at PS 122, May 17-24 (Tues-Sat at 7:30pm; Sun at 5:30pm).

Company information at Megan V. Sprenger/mvworks

Further information at Performance Space 122 -- or 212-352-3101

MP3 File [Play]
[Play]

Àngels Margarit Barcelona

Twine, a Cello and a Shadow Cat
by Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, May 10, 2009

I saw this show, too, last Friday at Baryshnikov Arts Center. But when it concluded ("At least it was over"), I found myself pretty drained and without much interest to write about it. So, I'm letting the Times do the heavy lifting today. I wonder, though, if Àngels Margarit had been a homegrown artist presenting the very same thing at, say, a Movement Research Judson night or at The Kitchen, she might not have gotten a more supportive response from the Times. Just a thought...

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet

Alonzo King's LINES Ballet, on tour from San Francisco, concludes its Joyce Theater run tomorrow, Sunday evening, with an 8pm show. King's company not only proudly reflects the diversity of today's America, it glories in the beauty of the individual dancer--especially the male of the species--rewarding dancers by doing everything possible to make them look very, very good and spotlighting pliancy and virtuosity. King seems to be more about challenging these marvelously capable performers than truly challenging his audiences. When it comes to us, I think he just wants to love us up. He just straps us in and gives us the ride of a lifetime.

I preferred King's Dust and Light, a suite to music of Corelli and Poulenc, over the program's second piece, Rasa, a suite to Zakir Hussain's tabla music. The latter work has none of the gnarly, fast-twitch complexity found in Dust and Light. It looks like it was made by a very different man, one much less fussy or in more of a rush to finish a big, important piece. And, unlike its predecessor, it feels repetitious and every bit as long as it is, and then some. At best, it makes you want to turn your thinker off and just enjoy the hummingbird bodies of the dancers.

Dust and Light's title, music, milieu and shifting relationships possibly suggest something about being a spiritual being having a physical experience--or something like that, maybe. In this piece, King's inventiveness keeps the viewer on mental alert and highly entertained, and dancers like David Harvey, Ricardo Zayas and Corey Scott-Gilbert dazzle, standing out in a mighty impressive crowd.

The economy...sigh! If today's audience was any indication, you should be able to secure tickets for LINES at the Joyce.

Here's a wonderful video excerpt of a pre-concert talk by Alonzo King at the 2008 Stern Grove Festival.

Contractual dust-up

Contract Disputes in Dance - Pavel Zustiak and the 92nd Street Y
by Claudia La Rocco, The New York Times, May 8, 2009

Alexandra Beller/Dances at Abrons

The word "overwhelm" comes to mind. At one point in Alexandra Beller's new egg--an imaginatively metaphoric fantasia on her experience of being a new mom--the dancer-choreographer shares the stage with dozens of eggs. Let that stand in for much of what happens in this solo with assistance: It's an impossible, absurd, delicate, dangerous and exhilarating situation. And Beller's performance is just that, too: impossible, absurd, delicate, dangerous and exhilarating. It's also a performance that, for anyone seeing Beller for the first time, will tilt the mind towards the impossible, absurd and so forth. Beller is famously lush, pillowy, curvaceous of physique, quite unlike the stereotypical dancer--especially the female of the species--and I bring this up because this largeness informs so much of what makes her dance theater gracious and distinctive.

There is, simply, a lot on offer and of the kind that's rare in contemporary "downtown" dance. The other new piece on her Abrons Arts Center program--what comes after happy--not only takes on the complex topic of the American (and, as shown here, often self-involved and desperate) pursuit of happiness, but it takes it head on through spotlit vignettes and sharply-observed, often wickedly humorous character studies that could have been plucked out of a Broadway show and with performers with big auras, gutsy personalities and the skills that kill. Add to that Beller's free and freeing, lavish and explosive choreographic style. It's an outrageous and quite diverting dish and, although it runs a tad longer than it might, when it finally gets to where it's going, you find yourself in a sweet and gorgeous place. I won't spoil that moment for you--since I hope you'll go and take a look for yourself--but I will guess that Beller's motherly concern extends not just to her own child but to her dancers as well.

Alexandra Beller/Dances concludes its season with performances tonight and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 5pm.

Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand Street (at Pitt Street)
212-598-0400

Sharing is caring

Along with the handy-dandy Comments link beneath each post, there's a brand new email icon. Click on it, and you'll be able to easily forward that post by email to a friend!

Try it out and, as always, thanks for all the ways in which you're helping to make more people aware of InfiniteBody and Body and Soul podcast!

Eva :-)

Economy got you down? Get up!

New Economy Smack Down

Wednesday, May 13, 7pm
FREE with RSVP, plus cash bar

Galapagos Arts Space
16 Main Street
Corner of Water Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn
F to York, C/E to High Street, 2/3 to Clark Street

Hosted by Robert Elmes, Galapagos Art Space, and Jennifer Wright Cook, The Field

Don’t be brought down by the economy, instead usher it in with an evening of lively debate, truth-telling, and prophesizing. Join us to wrestle with the urgent issues and uncertainty that confront the performing arts community. A two-part panel of arts and business leaders will help set the stage for this impromptu evening of possibility.

PANELISTS

Cultural Stakeholders and Gatekeepers:

• Moira Brennan, Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund
• Heather Hitchens, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
• Aaron Landsman, Thinaar/ Elevator Repair Service (ERS)
• Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, The Lost Notebook
• Brian Rogers, The Chocolate Factory Theater

Cultural Entrepreneurs:

• Rachel Chavkin, Theatre of the Emerging American Moment (TEAM)
• Miguel Gutierrez, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People
• Jeff Hnilicka, Funding Emerging Arts with Sustainable Tactics (FEAST)
• RoseAnne Spradlin, RoseAnne Spradlin Dance
• Jon Stancato, Stolen Chair

This event is co-presented by The Field and Galapagos Art Space as part of The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund.

Information about ERPA

Michelle Boulé: Body and Soul podcast

Michelle Boulé is a choreographer, teacher and performer well-known for her work with cutting-edge dancemakers such as John Jasperse, Miguel Gutierrez, Donna Uchizono, Beth Gill, Doug Varone and Deborah Hay. She is also a certified practitioner of BodyTalk, a fascinating bodymind healing modality which we discuss in today's podcast.

Michelle Boulé's blog

Nurture Day Open House
Nurture New York
Thursday, May 7 (4-8pm)
$30 for one of various mindbody modalities, including BodyTalk; $25 for 2 or more. See Nurture New York Web site for details. Drop in: Reservations not required!

Nurture New York, 1123 Broadway, Suite 1205, Manhattan (at 25th Street); 212-580-2689

The BodyTalk Center Web site

(c)2009, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

MP3 File

92nd Street Y: Dance Books at Noon

Meet Marian Horosko, former member of the New York City Ballet, as she discusses her newest book, Dancer's Survival Manual, in the 92nd Sreet Y's newest series, Dance Books at Noon. Free!

Friday, May 22, 12pm

92nd Street Y
Buttenwieser Hall, 2nd Floor
Lexington Avenue (92nd Street)
212-415-5500

Contreras: Learning from Balanchine

Monday, May 18 (6pm)

What I Learned from Balanchine: An Evening with Gloria Contreras

This free program will feature reminiscences of Gloria Contreras, from her New York days to her role as Mexico's leading choreographer of classical dance. Maestra Contreras's new book, What I Learned from Balanchine: Diary of a Choreographer, was published in Autumn 2008 by Jorge Pinto Books Inc.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan
(212) 870-1630

"Billy" leaps ahead of them all

‘Billy Elliot’ Leads Tony Nominations
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, May 5, 2009

Review: Trisha Brown Dance Company at BAM

Trisha Brown Dance Company
by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, Dance Magazine, May 2009

Killa dilla

Click here to watch Nicholas Leichter and his company nicholas leichter dance rehearsing for the world premiere of Killa, a celebration of the diaspora of dance music, featuring music by M.I.A., Basement Jaxx, Lion Rock and guest artist Monstah Black. This production's ensemble will include performers from Wayne State University (MI) and Sacramento State (CA). Coming to The Joyce Theater, June 24, 26 and 28.

Singing the body prosodic

Movement Research presents
Two PROSODIC BODY events

The Prosodic Body - Language as a Somatic Practice

HOW DO WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE AND WHAT TO SAY AND DO BY USING THE SAME BRAIN ALL AT ONCE?

Monday, May 4, 5pm -- Free

Judson Memorial Church Gymnasium
55 Washington Square South, Manhattan

Conceived by and moderated by Daria Faïn and Robert Kocik

As part of the Studies Project Series, choreographer Daria Fain and poet Robert Kocik will engage neuroscientist André A. Fenton in a dialogue about the multiple types of memory and the mental representation of space and experience. In particular, the focus will fall on the brain's polyglotism--the coordination of multiple processes by rapid 'switching' or 'doubling up.' The dialogue will wend its way into a consideration of language. Perhaps some light will be shed on the unanswerable question 'is language acquired or hardwired?' Kocik will trace a broader physiology of language by involving the hypothalamus, glands and organs. Faïn will attempt to extend the findings into movement by experimentally acting out the questions and conundrums surrounding the hippocampus as presented by Fenton.

André A. Fenton is a neuroscientist at SUNY Health Science Center at Brooklyn. His research focuses on spatial memory and the hippocampus as model structure for understanding all parts of the brain. His SUNY team is responsible for the recent discovery of a very promising 'memory molecule'.

Movement Research at the Judson Church

The Phoneme Choir
by Daria Faïn Robert Kocik
Monday, May 4, 8pm -- Free

Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, Manhattan

The Phoneme Choir is an orchestrated performance of the forty phonemes that are the English language's most basic structural units. Speech sounds such as vowels and consonants are examples of phonemes. In performance, The Phoneme Choir will bring the subtleties of our language to life through a musical composition of sound, rhythm, unison, and discord. As philosopher Rudolf Steiner wrote, “The entire universe is expressed when the alphabet is repeated from beginning to end.” This is the second public presentation of The Phoneme Choir, a work that Faïn and Kocik are developing through the Movement Research Artist In Residence. Faïn and Kocik conducted a series of four workshops leading up to this performance.

Tablao Flamenco in Queens

Centro Español de Nueva New York presents Tablao Flamenco--a series of once-a-month, live flamenco performances in a nightclub setting, located in the heart of Astoria, Queen’s business district.

In keeping with American Bolero Dance Company's mission, Tablao Flamenco presents a variety of Spanish dance styles, with emphasis in Andalusian flamenco and Spanish classical dances, performed by various rotating local and international artists.

Upcoming:

Fri, May 15, 2009, 8:30 pm
Fri, June 12, 2009, 8:30 pm

Centro Español de Nueva New York
41-01 Broadway, 3rd floor
(at 41st Street)
Astoria, Queens

Ticketing and further information: (718) 3... (917) 2....

Founded by Gabriela Granados, American Bolero Dance Company's mission is to preserve and present the many forms of Spanish dance and music. ABDC repertory encompasses classical and folkloric Spanish dances, escuela bolera, zarzuela and flamenco. Its Spanish Dance School holds adult and children's classes in Astoria at Centro Español, where ABDC also holds a a series of monthly performances.

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, concluding its run today at Time Square's New Victory Theater, has long been one of my favorite troupes of any discipline, offering an unvarnished, powerful brand of flamenco dance, guitar and song. But that doesn't mean that Martin Santangelo's world-renowned company is above making a few missteps.

Despite New Victory's own modest size, the theater managed to dwarf Santangelo's production, and S. Benjamin Farrar's tenebristic lighting scheme nearly obscured much of it. I wanted to liberate the company from its setting, scrape the awkward darkness away from these familiar faces. I longed for Theatre 80, the teeny-tiny East Village hall where Barrio and her colleagues usually make their Manhattan stand, proximity and lighting invoke an intimate tablao, and audiences feel the passion in every cell.

Even at Theatre 80, I would have found this show wanting. The program notes for the opener --Camino, a world premiere by Santangelo--allude to the struggles of refugee children and to the work of a UN agency that provides protection and aid. One could say that much of flamenco expresses human pain and, often, a proud, stubborn heroism in the face of life's unpredictable challenges. Although the allusion is sincere, any connection between flamenco and refugee children is not clearly reflected in this presentation. And, though New Victory specializes in family-oriented, kids-friendly companies, I wonder just how much the small children attending this show could grasp of either the culture of flamenco or Santangelo's stated inspiration.

Noche Flamenca still packs great value. The blending of guitarists Salva de Maria and Eugenio Iglesias is as rich, warm and dreamy as ever; Manuel Gago and Emilio Florido, royal lions of flamenco song, continue to go from strength to strength. Dancer Manuela Vargas--earthy in form and manner, sometimes a Fury--turns the simplest pivot into a matter of gathering focus and contemplation. And, most of all, Barrio's dancing seems to become more pliant with every performance, transcending technique to infuse every solo or duet with character, drama, color, life. Heart's blood is in everything she does.

Since Noche Flamenca devotes itself to a pared-back purity, the reliability of each artist becomes paramount. The troupe would not be able to hide weaknesses behind a glitzy, pumped-up theatrical production. Which, uncomfortably, brings me to guest artist Manuel Reyes, ideal for a flamenco Riverdance.

Reyes--wiry, intense, dramatically bald-headed--has absolutely drop-dead perfect technique. Sad to say, he's not a good fit for Noche Flamenco. He is like a piece of steel dropped down in a field of wildflowers. While admiring his sharp line, his crisp attack, even the choreographic sass of his farruca--De Aquí, de alli, de hoy, de ayer--I was alienated by the fact that he fails to radiate genuine feeling. (And Reyes's De Aquí is a very, very long dance to watch if you're not having a good time.) Watch him dancing beside Barrio in their alegrías duet and see who is just delivering the steps and who is the more giving, creative interpreter of choreography.

In past seasons, the company has benefited from great male dancers like Antonio Jimenez "El Chupete" and Alejandro Granados, each, in his own way, a rivetting soloist and a worthy match for powerhouse Barrio. This loyal fan hopes Santangelo will bring them back.

Read my July 2008 review of Noche Flamenca's El Mar at Theatre 80.

Dunham's 100th: I love a parade!

The late Katherine Dunham’s 100th birthday (June 21) is fine occasion for a celebratory parade. So, plan to be at West 79th Street Boat Basin (Central Park) at 10am, or somewhere along the parade route towards Symphony Space (Broadway at 95th Street).

At noon, the theater will host an outdoor program with drummers, dancers, dignitaries and the release of 100 doves and, at 7pm, a full concert with eight dance troupes. Admission to the evening show is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Invited guests include original Dunham Dancers, Alpha Omega Dance Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre, Charles Moore DanceTheatre, Fred Benjamin Dance Company, Joan Peters Dance Company, Katherine Dunham Children’s Dance Workshop, Louis Johnson Dance Theatre, PHILADANCO and Dr. Glory Van Scott’s Youth Theatre.

Parade participants and volunteers are requested. For further information, contact Melony McGant at (212) 712-6559 or drgloryvanscottproductions@yahoo.com.