Pina Bausch obituary, New York Times

Pina Bausch, German Choreographer, Dies at 68
by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, June 30, 2009

Pina Bausch (1940-2009)

This summer of shocking losses continues... A great vision, a fiery artist, she made a stage unlike any other...

Pina Bausch, German choreographer and dancer, dies
by Chris Wiegand, guardian.co.uk, June 30, 2009

Worst place on earth to be a woman

A Broken U.N. Promise in Congo
by Eve Ensler, The Washington Post, June 30, 2009

Miguel still being Miguel

Here's the second part of Miguel Gutierrez's remarks from Widening the I, June 29, 2009:

genius is all around you, Part 2

"Ruined"

Highly recommended: Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning, Ruined, a drama of cruelty and human resilience, set in the chaos of civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Under the direction of Kate Whoriskey, the cast--in particular, Portia (Mama Nadi) and Russell G. Jones (Christian)--give memorable and deeply affecting performances, fully embracing the play as they are embraced, supported and well-served by it.

Running now at Manhattan Theatre Club at New York City Center
Schedule and ticketing information

Links to information on issues raised by Ruined

Miguel being Miguel

The unsigned (?) blogger at Widening the I has this distillation of what, as I know from personal experience, must have been a lengthy, wide-ranging and rollicking conversation with dancer-choreographer Miguel Gutierrez. I can't wait to see Last Meadow!

Smearing with Miguel, part 1
from Widening the I blog, June 27, 2009

Maxwell's back

After a Pause, Maxwell's Music Is Set to Play
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, June 28, 2009

Apollinaire Scherr reflects the Moon Walker

Moon Walker
by Apollinaire Scherr, foot in mouth, ArtsJournal, June 27, 2009

Egos on display

'Rogues’ Gallery - The Secret History of the Moguls and the Money That Made the Metropolitan Museum'
by Amy Finnerty, The New York Times, June 24, 2009

Happy Pride Day!

Saving Afghanistan's cultural treasures

Precious Works From A Perilous Land
by Roberta Smith, The New York Times, June 26, 2009

Kate Weare: As good as it gets

Yes, summer's here, and there's certainly a lot of fun stuff going on around town, including the last bits of the 2008-09 dance season. But make time for Kate Weare Company, which concludes its run at Danspace Project tonight at 8:30. Most dance runs are way too short, and thank Goddess I didn't miss this one!

Weare is our fierce poet of contemporary dance movement, our bold painter of the complex landscape and volatile atmospherics of relationships. She's showing two works at Danspace, both winners--the world premiere of Lean-to, set to a beautiful score played live by Michel Galante & Argento Chamber Ensemble, and the New York premiere of Bridge of Sighs. Weare's grounded inventiveness and exemplary craft--study up, all you cocky, aspiring dancemakers and some of you cocky veterans, too!--are more than matched by the astonishing depth of her dancers' expressive talents. You don't get much better than the likes of Leslie Kraus, Adrian Clark, Douglas Gillespie and Jennifer Nugent, dancers I could watch all day, any day.

So, get there, tonight. The information's all here.

Klinkenborg tribute to Michael Jackson

Editorial - Appreciations - Michael Jackson
by Verlyn Klinkenborg, The New York Times, June 26, 2009

I walk the High Line

High Line Park photos (c)2009, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
See more at Picasaweb.

Video about The High Line, New York City

In triplicate

How bizarre to join the line at the Women's Room near Prospect Park Bandshell last evening and overhear one woman saying to another: "Ed McMahon. Farrah Fawcett. Michael Jackson." I come from people who say, "Deaths come in threes." So, my ears perked up. What the hell else could she have meant?

I'd just come off the subway from Manhattan. No radio. No iPhone. Only an iPod Touch out of range of WiFi. Celebrate Brooklyn's publicist brought it up, though, somewhat tentatively: "Did you hear anything about Michael Jackson dying?" I said, "Whoa! This woman in the restroom...!" A friend of his came by and confirmed the story. We stood around, talking about what a cute kid the young Jackson had been. That nose, adorable. Why couldn't he see that?

I made a call, left a message for my wife. Called a friend who cried, "I heard!" before I even got one word out. Later, the woman sitting next to me in the press area kept babbling away about Femi Kuti's dancers--even during the opening act's set--and refused to listen to anything about the loss of Jackson. "I'll cry when this show is over."

She had a little camera with her, boasted of chatting up Angelique Kidjo, who I adore, and who was circulating in the crowd. She much prefers Youssou N'Dour, Salif Keita, Baba Maal and Femi Kuti, of course, saxophonist/vocalist son of Afrobeat's illustrious warrior, the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti. I love 'em all.

Mostly, though, she worships Femi Kuti's trio of dancers, whose ebullient shimmying is a truly a cause for wonder. "Can you guess which is my favorite?" she later asked me during a brief moment of rest at her seat. I guessed correctly, and she trotted back to one corner at the edge of the stage, leaving me to enjoy the show. At last!

Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity (which included Vernon Reid on guitar, Bernie Worrell on keyboards, and vocalist Amayo from Antibalas) opened the evening with some chugging Afro-Brazilian-funk-rap, which I liked well enough. Kuti's set, though, was a marvel of discipline, swing and energy--and not just because of all that powerful shimmying. Kuti follows his father's example in not merely playing for you but enlisting you in his army, and I happily signed up.

Kuti lyric quote of the night: "You better ask yourself why the richest countries have the poorest people." Yeah.

Here's a good article on Kuti by Saby Reyes-Kulami in Seattle Weekly (June 9, 2009):

Femi Kuti Pushes Afrobeat Into the 21st Century
The son of a genre pioneer brings hip-hop, soul, jazz, and brevity to the mix.

Cotter: Ensor at MoMA

James Ensor - At MoMA, Nighmares of Gruesome Beauty
by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, June 25, 2009

Pareles: The paradox of Michael Jackson

An Appraisal - Tricky Steps From Boy to Superstar
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, June 25, 2009

Leichter rocks his Joyce debut

I know a thing or two or two thousand about "As" and "Another Star"--a couple of back-to-back numbers from Stevie Wonder's 1976 album, Songs in the Key of Life. Mainly, I know what it's like to slap that vinyl down, play these two songs to smithereens and, further risking delirium, try to make a dance to them, too.

"As" starts off as typically smooth, bubbly Stevie before the man shifts into his hard-pumping roaring, and moralizing, mode. In Free the Angels (2001), choreographer Nicholas Leichter and his company members and guests get the initial melodic sinuosity right, and the dancers' flowing entanglements are enjoyable. But there's something obsessive about "As"--and the people who love it--and that obsessive insistence, if you're going to follow it closely, doesn't allow a lot of room. So, after a while, the dance becomes an exercise in finding ways to throw dancers together just to visualize the rhythm. The inventive Leichter manages to make it through "As," starting fine but with diminishing effectiveness. We soon see that there's little new to learn about Wonder's music here as it stretches on and, since the dancers are completely at its mercy, all we learn about them is that they sweat really hard for Leichter.

I used to love how "Another Star" starts up with absolutely no break after "As." Breathless! But it's impossible--just impossible--with a manic, even angry rhythm even more driven than "As." Watching Leichter's troupe work through this number, I began to hear something that bothered me. Wonder's music, although upbeat, sounded flat, compressed, tight, airless. The choreographer seemed to lose control of making movement and the overall stage picture creatively interesting, instead bowing even more to the music's dictates and to an audience's desire for more and more spectacle.

And, believe me, last night's Joyce audience desired and ultimately rewarded the spectacle. These dancers--of which, tall, watery, gorgeously guesting Will Rawls was the most unforgettable--danced the hell out of the song. Can't argue with that.

Let me say it another way: Leichter is blessed in dancers. He is, himself, a brilliant one. And now he has a crew that matches his own ability to make us sit up and take notice. His choreography, though, which often draws heavily from youth culture and has accessible, popular pizzazz, could use some substance, some sense that it is about and drawing on something of consequence. It's time.

So, along comes Killa, Leichter's world premiere, an ensemble working eight segments to music by MIA, Basement Jaxx, Lionrock and Monstah Black. Black--in a singing, dancing Trickster role--appears to preside over the piece. I'm impressed by the look and lyrics of his initial man-hopelessly-caught-in-a-huge-web number. I love his subsequent bust-out flamboyance--particularly how he bravely and quite skillfully prowls and prances atop the hoof-like wedges strapped to his feet. Killa is colorful, tuneful, marvelously danced by the company and guests, and that will be enough for most viewers. But, I have to say, I wish I came away with a stronger sense of Leichter's intention, of some emphasis and coherence. What's going on here, aside from crowd-tickling flash? Does Black's character--and his relationship to the other performers--have meaning? A meaning that we should understand and care about?

See nicholas leichter dance at The Joyce Theater, Friday, June 26 (8pm) and Sunday, June 28 (2pm and 7:30pm).

Information and ticketing

Theater: Do women freeze out women?

Rethinking Gender Bias in Theater
by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, June 23, 2009

Cookin' in The Kitchen

It's a Shim Sham shame if you did not get to see, just to name a few, Sarah Reich, Michaela Lerman, Jason Samuels Smith and--be still, heart--Tamango, tap's sly master of grace and fluidity, cooking up a mess of tap dance at The Kitchen. All that plus the irrepressible MC-ing, storytelling, opinionating, mesmeric performing and overall moral leadership of Harold Cromer, who commanded the night like a five-star general. Can we maybe seriously pressure curator Rashida Bumbray to schedule this Shim Sham jam more than just once per season? Not enough. Not nearly enough joy in our lives these days.

Figuring out safe skating

Science Takes to the Ice
by Pam Belluck, The New York Times, June 22, 2009

Art museums take creative action

Reshaping the Art Museum
by Robin Cembalest, ArtNews, June 2009

Galleries face crisis

This Summer, Some Galleries Are Sweating
by Dorothy Spears, The New York Times, June 21, 2009

Happy Solstice!

Wishing everyone a grand Summer Solstice, and thanks, once again, for your kind support of this blog and podcast!

Bright blessings,
Eva :-)

Ali Akbar Khan, 87

Ali Akbar Khan, Sarod Virtuoso, Dies at 87
by William Grimes, The New York Times, June 19, 2009

Elizabeth Zimmer on the death of dance criticism

The Crisis in Criticism: The Economy, the Internet and the Death of Dance Writing
by Elizabeth Zimmer, In Dance, June 2009

Beyond hip hop

Is Hip Hop Dance the only Dance Style for People of Color?
A panel discussion
Sunday June 21, 3-6pm

A panel discussion exploring the perceptions of dance in mainstream society, especially in respect to dancers of color

Other issues to be discussed are: How is dance perceived outside urban centers? Why are there so few for-profit dance companies? Within whom/what organizations does the power to grant money reside?

Panelists:

Germaul Barnes (dancer, teacher, choreographer, anthropologist)
Christal Brown (choreographer, educator, dancer, writer, activist)
Edisa Weeks (dancer, teacher, choreographer)
Darryl Hell (Moderator)

Location: The Purpose Lounge - "A Legacy of Freedom" -- Chashama Gallery, 112 West 44th Street (between 6th Avenue and Broadway)

Additional information or email s6kmedia@gmail.com

John Kelly + Joni Mitchell = !

John Kelly has opened Paved Paradise Redux: The Art of Joni Mitchell--the revival of his stunning cabaret-style impression of the great singer/songwriter--for a limited run at Abrons Arts Center, now through June 27. Take it from this fervent Joni fan, If you've already seen Kelly do his Joni, go back; it will do your heart good. If you've never seen it, now's the time. This is one brilliant artist crossed with another, brilliance squared, and we cannot have too much of that today.

From the romantic, gawky, kinda strange girl in a white tablecloth lace dress singing her increasingly sophisticated art songs to the dramatic, weary, chain-smoking, blue Joni of Act Two, Kelly gets voice, posture, sensitivity, goofiness and even the occasional toothy flash absolutely right. Nice song selection, too, among which "Woodstock"--winkingly re-purposed as "Wigstock"--and other numbers like "A Case of You" and "Down to You" are virtuoso performances, and not just for Kelly's able scaling of steep notes. When Kelly really feels a song, you hear deep into it, and these are songs worth hearing and savoring.

Tickets

On August 6, The River to River Festival presents Kelly's Songs for A Shiny Hot Night: The Joni Mitchell Songbook at Castle Clinton, 7pm. For further details, click here.

Yatkin launches discussion series

Goethe-Institut New York hosts Nejla Yatkin: Words on the Wall--a free, public discussion--on Monday, June 19, 6pm.

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, internationally recognized choreographer Nejla Yatkin is working on a new group piece entitled Dancing with the Berlin Wall. As part her creative process, Ms. Yatkin will be conducting monthly discussion groups on The Wall and our experience of it at the Goethe-Institut Wyoming Building.

The series will continue on July 31, August 21, September 25 and October 30.

Goethe-Institut New York Wyoming Building
5 East 3rd Street (between 2nd Avenue and Bowery), Manhattan
212-439-8700

BAC Flicks to screen Trisha Brown film

BAC Flicks will present Shot Backstage (1998), a film by Trisha Brown on Monday, June 29, 7PM.

This film will offer a rare view from the wings of Trisha Brown's haunting piece For M.G.: The Movie, performed by the Trisha Brown Dance Company and will be followed by a Q&A with Ms. Brown and a reception sponsored by Les Trois Petits Cochons.

Tickets ($10) or call 212 279 4200

BAC Flicks, presented in partnership with La Cinémathèque de la Danse (Paris), is a new series featuring culturally significant films and rare cinematic treasures, with special guest speakers included as part of each presentation. This series is made possible with support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in New York.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Steet, Manhattan

Sizzlin'!

A must-see from 30 Seconds of Dance!

Salsa Dancers Cristian Crespo & Gaby, Part 1

Andrea Del Conte passes

"Dance can only enhance one's body and spirit. I find that without dance, my spirit is less lively and my appetite for living not as vibrant. However, after a rehearsal, class or performance, life takes on a different hue and is always very bright." -- Andrea Del Conte

Friends and colleagues of Andrea Del Conte--award-winning flamenco dancer, choreographer and teacher--are mourning her death from cancer, yesterday, June 16. Her service will be held this Friday, June 19, at 10:30am at St. Stephen's Church, 151 East 28th Street (between Lexington and Third Avenues), Manhattan.

Del Conte was an internationally recognized performer, choreographer and teacher. Born in Rochester, New York, she began studying classical ballet at the age of four. English choreographer, Anton Dolin, “discovered” her at a performance of the Nutcracker (Eastman School of Music Theater) where she danced the Spanish Chocolate variation. He strongly encouraged her to pursue Spanish dance. Ms. Del Conte began her studies in Spain soon after in Madrid. Her early training was with Paco Fernandez and Carmen Mora in Madrid and Mariquita Flores and Estrella Morena in New York City.

Ms. Del Conte performed with the companies of Maria Alba, Estrella Morena and the New York City Opera. In l975 she created her own one-woman show which she performed at Repertorio Espanol (NYC). It was this program that set her apart as a solo performer and impeccable narrator.

Over the past 30 years, Ms. Del Conte spent an extensive amount of time living and studying in Spain. Besides directing and choreographing for her company, she taught in New York City at Lotus Music & Dance Studios and was recognized as one of New York City’s most important flamenco teachers. Her teaching was based on giving students a solid background in technique and structure of the dance form. She received Attitude Magazine's Ethnic Dance Award for 1996 and the 1997 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Award for excellence in teaching. Ms. Del Conte received the 2004 ACE Outstanding Life Achievement Award for a Career in Dance and was on the dance faculty of Long Island University, Manhattanville College, Penn State University, Beaufort, South Carolina Arts Residency Program and guest teacher for the Nevada Ballet and Cirque de Soleil in Las Vegas.

Michelson's "Dover Beach"

Here's a link to my review of Dover Beach by Sarah Michelson for Dance Magazine.

Aviva Davidson: Body and Soul podcast

Aviva Davidson, Executive and Artistic Director of Dancing in the Streets, talks about Hip Hop Generation Next 2009, a celebration of global hip hop culture, with upcoming events in July and August in Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx.

Details at Dancing in the Streets

MP3 File [Play]

Elementary school arts ed lagging

Music and Arts Instruction Lags, Study Finds
by Sam Dillon, The New York Times, June 15, 2009

L. Tarin Chaplin remembered

Arts administrator and writer Bonnie Sue Stein reports that "the renowned choreography teacher Tarin Chaplin passed away recently. Tarin co-authored the seminal texts The Intimate Act of Choreography and The Moment of Movement, and taught choreography at universities around the country including Julliard, Suny Purchase, Penn State, Middlebury, Goddard and many others." Here is a notice from Brittany Brown Ceres's blog, Performing Arts Classroom: In Memorium: L. Tarin Chaplin, 1941-2009‏

New cultural center for Harlem

The Dwyer Cultural Center Springs to Life in Harlem
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, June 14, 2009

Together for survival

Lower Manhattan Arts Groups Seek Safety in Numbers
by Christopher Isherwood, The New York Times, June 10, 2009

St. Ann's will lose space

St. Ann’s Warehouse Is Looking for a New Home
by Patrick Healy, ArtsBeat, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Film criticism in cyberspace

Everybody's a Movie Critic: New Web Sites and Online Readers Chime In
by Michael Cieply, The New York Times, June 12, 2009

World Science Fest 2 opens in NYC

Science Fair in the Cosmic Capital of the World
by Dennis Overbye, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Music and Science, Reunited in a Swarm of Ants
by James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

World Science Festival -- June 10-14

Fela! set for Broadway

‘Fela!’, Musical About Afrobeat King, Ascends to Broadway
by Patrick Healy, ArtsBeat, The New York Times, June 11, 2009

Review of FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance

Review
FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance
Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa
(Re-posted from DanceMagazine.com)

“FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance” featured short solos performed by daughters of Africa and her diaspora—Bebe Miller, Dianne McIntyre, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Carmen de Lavallade, and Senegal’s Germaine Acogny—taking to the stage long past what mainstream American society considers to be the optimum age for a dancer and, to be frank, the optimum age for any woman. In celebrating its 20th anniversary, 651 ARTS chose to honor the tenacity and continuing achievements of these artists.

They hail from different aesthetic milieus. Miller’s career, for instance, burgeoned amid New York’s “downtown” avant garde, while de Lavallade trained with Lester Horton and has graced Broadway, opera, and film. Yet each has questioned the status quo of her art and her time, forging a legacy of creative engagement to inspire generations to come.

In Rain (1989), a modest rectangle of lawn grass becomes Miller’s set and silent partner. Dressed in red velvet, the dancer stretches her arms out wide, as if enjoying their reach. Backpedaling towards this plot of land, she contemplates it, tenderly runs her hand over it, sprawls before it in a tomboyish way, and dances an enigmatic pattern that nevertheless seems to radiate the pride of new ownership. Her solo made me think of wildly overlapping ideas such as the cultural and historical relationship of African and African American people to land; the relationship of dancers to space; and the manicured, altered nature of being roughly cut from one’s native context and planted in an unfamiliar place.

Acogny’s untitled work-in-progress, choreographed with Pierre Doussaint, appears to meditate on journeying. It opens with promise: a declaration that “We need women presidents de la Republique in Africa!” But Acogny’s meanderings are upstaged by Fred Koenig’s surreal and lovely video, and the piece will benefit from compression and focus.

McIyntre (premiering If You Don’t Know Me) and de Lavallade (in Geoffrey Holder’s The Creation from 1972) both served up lessons in elegant, authoritative comportment and command of space, all with minimal fuss. The McIntyre piece is an homage to artists she respects and wishes we knew better. De Lavallade’s storytelling in words and motions offers a saucy illustration of the Biblical take on how our world came to be and could make a believer out of Darwin.

By comparison, Zollar’s Bring ‘Em Home, inspired by the displaced citizens of New Orleans, felt humble. Zollar, lying on the floor, seems able to do little more than wave the white handkerchief clutched in her fingertips. It evokes, at first, surrender, then memories of people signaling for help from the roofs of their flooded homes. But the piece moves towards exuberant celebration and, returning for her bow, Zollar gave us a firm assignment: Go online, sign the petition, bring New Orleans’s diaspora home.

The Turning World (88)

Holocaust Museum Shooting: Don’t Racists Ever Get Tired?
by Sherrilyn A. Ifill, The Root, June 11, 2009

TaskForce at work

Watch these short documentaries on the rehearsals for Liquid Landscapes by director/choreographer Stephan Koplowitz and TaskForce, his site-specific touring dance company. In this special project in Plymouth, UK, TaskForce will collaborate with local guest artists to present eight free public site-performances that take place in historically, culturally and ecologically significant spaces (June 20-28).

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

FLY: FIve First Ladies of Dance

Here's my recent Dance Magazine review of "FLY: FIve First Ladies of Dance," which featured Bebe Miller, Germaine Acogny, Dianne McIntyre, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar and Carmen de Lavallade, presented by 651 Arts at Kumble Theater for the Performing Arts.

The Turning World (87)

Tiananmen Square Scars Soldier Turned Artist
by Andrew Jacobs, The New York Times, June 4, 2009

30 seconds of dancing on water

The guys from 30 Seconds of Dance take to Crown Fountain in Chicago's Millennium Park for this attractive solo featuring Kathleen Thielhelm.

Naomi Goldberg Haas: Body and Soul podcast

Today, I visited with Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances for a Variable Population--fifteen dancers who range in age from mid-20s to 80s--at a rehearsal for the premiere of Fanfare at the Whitehall Terminal of the Staten Island Ferry. This twenty-minute work will utilize the terminal's bright, spacious and rather busy waiting room for 12:30pm and 1:30pm performances on June 15, 17, 19, 22, 24, 26 and 27. Subways: #1 to South Ferry, 4/5 to Bowling Green or R to Whitehall Street.

Admission is free. Just take the stairs or escalators up to the waiting room and look around!

Fanfare is a presentation of Sitelines 09, the summer site-specific performance series produced by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council as part of the River to River Festival.

Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances for a Variable Population

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Sitelines

River to River Festival

MP3 File [Play]

Traditions, Inventions, Exchange

Baryshnikov Arts Center and Danspace Project are co-presenting a new tri-part video/sound installation by Molly Davies and Iki Nakagawa, Traditions, Inventions, Exchange, on the 6th floor of BAC, now through June 11.

A vibrant, fluid interweaving of reflections in imagery and words, Traditions, Inventions, Exchange draws from the experiences of dancers and presenters who took part in the Triangle Arts Program (Indonesia/Japan/US) in the mid-1990s. I attended part of the special programming at BAC on Saturday--a great opportunity to see good portions of the three longish sections of TIE.

Unfortunately, the roundtable panel of artists, indifferently moderated, was less than illuminating, and no time was set aside for audience questions that might have probed a bit deeper and opened up richer information. I'm still not sure, from what I heard, what was fertile, significant and lasting about the interactions and experimental research among the TIE participants. What's more, the follow-up "informal gallery walk with Davies" turned into a DIY affair since Davies resisted the idea of offering anything as structured as a guided tour of the installation. Instead, she just urged us to go look and listen.

I get the point of the laidback, non-hierarchical philosophy of the American participants--Steve Paxton, Nancy Stark Smith and others--but this special event could have used a sharper outline, a firmer shape, a little--yes, even hierarchical--direction. After I took in my fill of the installation--treasuring, especially, the flying geese and pecking shore birds and the breathtaking dancing of Kota Yamazaki, a shaman of movement--I found myself longing for more of the actual air of New York's beautiful day. I slipped away before the concluding live performance, which featured Sardono W. Kusumo, Polly Motley, Diane Madden, Paxton and Yamazaki and was probably wonderful.

You can visit Traditions, Inventions, Exchange during gallery hours, 11am-6pm, through this Thursday. If you'd like to be strictly linear about it and watch the entirety of all three looping sections, give yourself a couple of hours. Otherwise, you can certainly enjoy mixed/matched bits and pieces of TIE, as you please.

Baryshnikov Arts Center

An Alpert Award for Reggie Wilson

Hearty congratulations to dancer-choreographer Reggie Wilson, winner of the 2009 Alpert Award in Dance. Wilson, and frequent collaborator Andréya Ouamba of Senegal will present the premiere of The Good Dance -- Dakar/Brooklyn during this year's BAM Next Wave Festival.

2009 Alpert Award in the Arts

Just lounging around

Editorial Notebook - The Best Seats in Times Square
by Eleanor Randolph, The New York Times, June 7, 2009

So, let's see...scores of ugly lounge chairs and bright orange cones replace a swath of the normal traffic flow. Folks sit down in the middle of Broadway and look around at the buildings and one another. Okay, tell me again, why am I supposed to get excited about this?

Tony winners

2009 Tony Award Winners
The New York Times, June 8, 2009

Headlong wants you!

Headlong Performance Institute (HPI) is a pre-professional dance and theater training program in Philadelphia, accepting applications for the Fall 2009 semester. Our next application deadline is June 15th, and we'll be notifying applicants by June 19th.

How will you know if the Headlong Performance Institute is a good fit for you? You don't have to be a dancer, an actor or formal artist to enjoy learning how to push your inner elements. And if you're not frightened silly at the prospect of exploring the corners of these very elements, then this may just be the challenge you're looking for.

Headlong Performance Institute is where professionals working on the cutting edge of American experimental theater and dance work with students in a small group setting to learn about movement, collaborative creative spaces and how to tune your body and mind to be your most creative.

The program is open to undergrads (for credit, the semester counts as 300- or 400- level courses through Bryn Mawr College) and post-bac students and is based in South Philadelphia. All program expenses (except living expenses) are included in tuition and include tickets to performances throughout the semester, throughout the Philadelphia area.

For more information please visit our website and get in touch. We want to hear from you!

Carella's salon

I think Dalia Carella was channeling Dorothy Lamour last night at the tiny White Box Theater of 440 Studios, flower in hair and everything, at least for Turkish Roman and Near Eastern Contemporary Dance, two girlishly cute solos that demonstrated her fastidious muscular control. It's tempting to go macro with these types of movements, to wow the crowd. It's harder and less obvious--and, it turns out, more crowd-wowing--to make these movements small, keeping energy close, like silver electricity racing through one's veins. Carella does this very well and with a movie star smile that tries to convince us that it's no trouble at all. It's plenty trouble.

She's also capable of elegantly channeling Ruth St. Denis, as she did in Destiny, a sculpted solo inspired by fado, the lamentful music of Portugal. But as an artist noted for straying across cultural boundaries with abandon, she's hard to label. From Near Eastern to flamenco, from Bollywood to Roma dance, from ballet to salsa, Carella has absorbed the finer points of the world's most flavorful dancing. I've no doubt she's still learning, still picking up and tucking things away in her satchel. Wonderful! Except when it comes to convincing a presenter to take you on. So, she self-produced her evening in this less than optimal space, calling it a salon and showing off not only her admirable skills but also the performing and choreographic talents of members of her Dalia Carella Dance Collective.

The resulting mixed bag offered much to appreciate, especially the economical use of time in the service of the idea of a dance. Hannah Nour's self-made solo Yearning, Davey "Mashala" Mitchell's handsome performance in his MotherEARTH, and Carella's Oulid Nayli, an ensemble based on Berber women's dances, show that their creators understand the focusing, illuminating power of just enough.

The Mad Marionettes, an awkward satirical ensemble by Carella, was the only piece that overstayed its welcome. In this dance, as well as the company's two-part premiere--Stepford Jives and Miss Manners Has a Meltdown--Carella uses contemporary dance movement and broad theatrical style to take on the issue of what it means for a woman and, surely, for a woman dancer, to be under male gaze and male control, and what it would mean to bust out from under. While the idea is far from new, Carella manages to perk it up in the newer work with attention to sharpness in all things, from movement to imaginative costuming, reminding me, in a way, of Monica Bill Barnes, another exacting maker of often exquisite, humorous dance theater.

So, with Carella, you get a little bit of everything--a fair amount of it of good value. She's an old-school entertainer that way, a rarity in these days. Let's hope she'll find a presenter with an all-embracing worldview to match her own.

The next move is yours: DFA challenge

Take the Dance Films Association What Moves You? 48-hour challenge: Create a dance film, 4 minutes or shorter, reflecting your take on some aspect of the news of the day. DFA's contest rules are designed to keep this project accessible to all, regardless of budget. Collaborate and keep it simple.

Submission deadline is July 20 (7am). Three cash awards will be given: Gold Award for Choreography/Direction ($500), Bronze for Idea ($250) and Silver for Performance ($100). For complete details and submission instructions, click here.

Artists, have your say!

Are you an artist with something to say about "how and why art is made" and "how it is sustained?" Aynsley Vandenbroucke of Mount Tremper Arts invites you to contribute an essay, video, drawing, poem or other creative piece that can be posted online. For full information and submission instructions, click on Artists on Making Art.

Daria Faïn's alchemical process

Daria Faïn's will teach six classes in Internal Alchemy as a Motor for Performance, Tuesdays and Thursdays, June 2-18 (10am-Noon).

These six classes will explore the transition between spring and summer involving the correlation between liver and heart and the correspondences with the senses, the emotions and the body systems in sympathy with these two seasons and two organs.

Faïn provides a rigorous practice that opens and strengthens the body/mind symbiosis and leads the student to experience the internal and the external at once. Her movement approach works within the mutual influences between behavior and environment. It is supported by her longtime practice and study of the Chinese 5 Element Theory, the Alexander Technique and architecture. By engaging the core body and its energetic resonances, one can find full embodiment in stillness.

Location: CSV Cultural Center, 107 Suffolk St, 2nd Floor, Manhattan. B,D, F, J, M, V, Z trains

Please arrive before 10am. There is no buzzer. If you are late, call 718 450 1356 to be let in.

Fee: $16/class or series of 4 for $55

You can register online through this link for Paypal. Click on the donate button, and type $65 in the amount box.

Drop-in students are also welcome.

If you are a dance student and have financial difficulties, please contact Daria Faïn to make some arrangements with her: daria@prosodicbody.org.

Possibilities of internship financial plans are available.

Please note that the Tai Chi workshop scheduled for this weekend is cancelled.

Places to go, people to see...

You're in New York. You really shouldn't lack for something to do at any given moment. But, just in case, here are some ideas...

Last night, Camille A. Brown & Dancers hit the floor at Joyce SoHo and, let me tell you, you don't want to miss the chance to see these performers from the Ailey and Ron K. Brown troupes and other companies. Camille A. Brown, an enormously talented dancer, has dropped onto the dancemaking scene like a whirlwind. If you've seen her solos or the delightful Groove to Nobody's Business ensemble, which is on this program, you know that her work, while intricately detailed, has the power to project to the farthest reaches of an ample space. Well, just imagine that energy up close and personal. In addition to The Groove, Brown is showing the premiere of Matchstick (a men's ensemble piece); 1 Second Past The Future, a work-in-progress collaboration with the wonderful J. Michael Kinsey; and an excerpt from her defining 2007 solo, The Evolution Of A Secured Feminine. Other program highlights include an astonishing performance by Kyle Abraham in his premiere solo, Untitled Mixtape Phase 1 and Francine E. Ott choreographing and at the helm of Need to Be Needed (2009). It's a long show but such a rewarding one, I didn't mind. The run continues through Sunday evening. Curtain times are 8pm all nights in addition to a 3pm matinee on Sunday. Tonight's show will be followed by a Q&A led by Abraham. Tickets, if not already gone, will go quickly. Don't snooze.

Rock of Ages. A guilty pleasure. If you always loved loud, big-hair arena rock--or even if you didn't but you do love a good laugh--you should have fun with this rollicking mashup of Spinal Tap and Hair with nostalgia--or nausea--inducing songs by the likes of Journey, Foreigner, Whitesnake and Pat Benatar. Believe it or not, Chris D'Arienzo's book actually patches these indelible tunes together into a credible, hilarious story, helped mightily by the fantastic performances of Constantine Maroulis, Amy Spanger, Mitchell Jarvis, Adam Dannheisser and James Carpinello, the core group of an entertaining cast. At the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

next to normal is a musical about a dysfunctional family with a mom who's mentally ill. Do I still have your attention? Yes, I said a musical, a gorgeous one. And, dance folks, it's a very movement-driven, physically-expressive thing. You'll see what I mean. Don't argue. Just go order your tickets now. Alice Ripley is God. Seriously. And the rest of the cast ain't bad either. This powerful show will grip you. Take a few tissues. At the Booth Theater.

In the mood for something more on the quiet side? There's Mesa 2.0, a lovely collaboration by Tom Pearson (2008 Bessie Award winner), Louis Mofsie and Donna Ahmadi at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, near the tip of Manhattan at One Bowling Green. As described by its makers, "...this contemporary dance was borne from shared travels in the Southwest and examines what it means to be urban Indians, specifically New Yorkers." Twenty minutes. Performed with heart and beauty. Admission is free. Second and final showing is tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm.

So that's what you're doing this weekend. Agreed?

Me? I'm seeing Dalia Carella's show tonight at 440 Studios, heading out to Hoboken tomorrow for a friend's art exhibit, and trying to find some clear time to attack the mound of books building up in my reading basket.

Have a good weekend! Hope to see you next Tuesday at DTW!

Talk about new media

NOTE: Start time corrected: 7:30pm

Come to Dance Theater Workshop's Lobby TALKS on Tuesday, June 9 (7:30pm), a free event open to all. In The New Media of Dance (not in performance), organizer Chase Granoff and a host of new media types will delve into new issues raised by the dynamic intersection of dance, dance criticism and cyberspace.

Panelists will include Caleb Custer, Director of Marketing, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet; Marlon Barrios Solano, creator of dance-tech.net and DANCE TECH/The Program; Andy Horwitz, Founder and Editor, Culturebot.org; Claudia La Rocco, Performance critic, WNYC's Art.Cult blog; Kristin Sloan, Founder, The Winger, Director, New Media, New York City Ballet; Ryan Tracy, Counter Critic; and yours truly!

I hope to see you there!

Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street (7th-8th Avenues), Manhattan

City fest to celebrate Muslim culture

Festival for New York, That Muslim City
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, June 5, 2009

Charities explore new options

Duke Foundation Reaches Out to Arts Groups
by Stephanie Strom, The New York Times, June 3, 2009

Chapel/Chapter: Home to Harlem

Chapel/Chapter, a spectacular Bessie Award-winning work by Bill T. Jones, is coming home to Harlem Stage Gatehouse. Created for the Gatehouse and presented in 2006 during the theater's inaugural season, the hour-long piece returns for a brief run, June 11-14.

To follow Friday's performance, Jones has planned a special edition of Harlem Stage's Breaking Ground with Bill T. Jones community dialogue series, featuring Terence Dougherty, General Counsel for the ACLU, and Patricia J. Williams, James L. Dohr Professor of Law at Columbia University, who will address issues of judgment and redemption reflected in Chapel/Chapter.

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at 135th Street), Manhattan

Thursday through Saturday, 7:30pm
Sunday, 3pm

Click here for further information, directions and ticketing, or call 212-281-9240, ext. 19/20.

Tickets 20% off for Harlem residents and HS members

Risa Jaroslow seeks administrator

Risa Jaroslow & Dancers seeks an energetic, organized self-starter to serve as Company Manager.

Risa Jaroslow & Dancers (High Tide Dance, Inc.) creates electrifying dance that both challenges experienced dancegoers and welcomes new audiences. The inclusion of people of different ages, backgrounds and skills in our dancemaking process adds richness and complexity to our work, while building new audiences for dance. More information about the Company can be found on its Web site.

Responsibilities, to be carried out in consultation with the Artistic Director, may include:

• Write grant narratives and budgets, report on funded grants, research new funding opportunities

• Cultivate individual donor base, track individual donations, write and produce annual letter, maintain donor database, coordinate annual benefit event and silent auction

• Manage all aspects of Company performances

• Draft yearly budget, track monthly cash flow, handle accounts payable and receivable

• Create and implement marketing strategies, including new media initiatives (Facebook, YouTube, etc)

• Provide administrative support to the Board of Directors

• Prep content for website

• Maintain office space, answer email, provide general administrative support for Company activities

An ideal candidate will have excellent writing and communication skills, be a good multi-tasker, work well independently, and move easily between planning and implementation. Comfort in both PC and Mac environments and with the MS Office suite essential. Familiarity with Quickbooks, Giftmaker Pro, Photoshop, iMovie and iDVD a plus. We prefer a candidate with 3-5 years of non-profit management experience and familiarity with New York City dance funders.

This is a part-time position. Compensation commensurate with experience.

Send resume and cover letter to Risa Jaroslow at 917-922-0936 or risajaroslow1@gmail.com