Read more at choreograph.net.
Friday, April 30, 2010
choreograph.net
choreograph.net is an online journal growing a community of knowledge about how we recognise, cultivate and negotiate a state of dance in human and other systems. The desire is to facilitate a community of practice around a sense of choreography as a new and open metaphor.
Publication of Philip K. Dick’s ‘Exegesis’ is planned
Philip K. Dick’s ‘Exegesis’ Will Receive Two-Volume Release
by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, April 29, 2010
Flowers for "a Lunatic on Bulbs"
‘Emily Dickinson’s Garden,’ at New York Botanical Garden
by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, April 29, 2010
Rubin Museum goes all OUT in June
OUT in the Himalayas
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, Manhattan
Five Wednesday night events in Gay Pride Month focusing on gay, lesbian and transgender issues in the Himalayan region
Wednesdays, 7pm
Wednesdays, 7pm
For complete information, click here.
To purchase tickets by phone, contact the box office at 212-620-5000 x344.
To purchase tickets by phone, contact the box office at 212-620-5000 x344.
Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, Manhattan
Legendary Jamison at NJPAC
New Jersey Performing Arts Center welcomes Judith Jamison on Thursday, May 6 at 7:30pm:
Legacies & Legends: Judith Jamison
All seats $28
NJPAC’s new Legacies and Legends is a series of intimate conversations with artists, authors, scholars, entrepreneurs, and other special guests who have made significant contributions to the cultural, social, political and spiritual landscapes that impact our lives. For this installment in the series, we'll spend an intimate evening with Judith Jamison, the legendary dancer, choreographer and artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.
Slide Show: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Slide Show: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Genius at Work
by Dominique Nabokov, NYRBlog, New York Review of Books, April 28, 2010
by Dominique Nabokov, NYRBlog, New York Review of Books, April 28, 2010
The AALUSC perspective
African Ancestral Lesbians United For Societal Change:
Her Perspective in the LGBT Community
Join us as we look at AALUSC, her herstory, and her past and current role in NYC’s LGBT community. We will be joined by a panel of leaders in NYC’s Black Lesbian community to be followed by a Q&A and a community talkback.
Moderated by
Kim Ford and Desmond Rudder
Guest Panelists (List in formation):
Shawn(ta) Smith, Your Lesbian Librarian
Hanifah Walidah, Musician, Playwright and Co-Director/Producer of The awarded-winning documentary U People
Thursday, May 6, 2010 -- 6:30pm-9:30pm
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
*Refreshments provided*
Suggested donation $5. More if you can, less if you can’t but no one will be turned away.
Friends, Allies & Supporters are welcome!
We also need volunteers for: ticket sales, ushers, set-up & breakdown!
For more info contact Info: Kim Ford at kimford1@gmail.com
Her Perspective in the LGBT Community
Join us as we look at AALUSC, her herstory, and her past and current role in NYC’s LGBT community. We will be joined by a panel of leaders in NYC’s Black Lesbian community to be followed by a Q&A and a community talkback.
Moderated by
Kim Ford and Desmond Rudder
Guest Panelists (List in formation):
Shawn(ta) Smith, Your Lesbian Librarian
Hanifah Walidah, Musician, Playwright and Co-Director/Producer of The awarded-winning documentary U People
Thursday, May 6, 2010 -- 6:30pm-9:30pm
The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center
208 West 13th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
*Refreshments provided*
Suggested donation $5. More if you can, less if you can’t but no one will be turned away.
Friends, Allies & Supporters are welcome!
We also need volunteers for: ticket sales, ushers, set-up & breakdown!
For more info contact Info: Kim Ford at kimford1@gmail.com
Get in the Mix
New Dance Alliance's 25th Anniversary Performance Mix Festival presents experimental dance and interdisciplinary performance from New York City, across the U.S. and Canada and beyond. Performance Mix Festival 2011 application is on-line now and due (postmarked) June 1st.
Robert Battle to Become Alvin Ailey Artistic Director
Robert Battle to Become Alvin Ailey Artistic Director
by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, April 28, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
von Stade's Carnegie Hall farewell
Frederica von Stade’s Farewell to Carnegie Hall
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, April 23, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
And just what are we trying to sustain?
Dance writing--whatever that is or we believe it to be--must change or die. And the dance world must turn its vast reserves of creativity towards effective public education, persuasion and marketing.
A recent town hall meeting, convened by Dance/NYC and drawing together some new- and old-media types, addressed these two issues and more. I would have been there, but I am still in Europe and currently in direct touch only with roiling issues of volcanic behavior, aviation policy and British politics.
That dance needs to step up its efforts to engage the strangely estranged American public is something I've been railing about for a long time. But the other matter--the survival of dance writing--seems unimaginable unless we start talking about what we mean when we talk about writing on dance, because different people mean and want quite different things. We also have to talk about values--what matters most in dance and in the way it is considered, assessed and reported.
Before I left for London and Paris, I heard that dance artists Christine Jowers and Cory Nakasue--both writers for Jowers's Dance-Enthusiast.com--would be attending and blogging about the town hall meeting. I'm happy to link back to their thoughtful reports in the hope that this will continue to stimulate fresh and energized discussion.
Please feel free to offer your own thoughts here and on Dance-Enthusiast.com, particularly if you attended this event.
Thanks!
Christine and Cory Comment--Solutions for Sustainable Dance Writing A Town Hall Meeting at the Joyce SoHo
A recent town hall meeting, convened by Dance/NYC and drawing together some new- and old-media types, addressed these two issues and more. I would have been there, but I am still in Europe and currently in direct touch only with roiling issues of volcanic behavior, aviation policy and British politics.
That dance needs to step up its efforts to engage the strangely estranged American public is something I've been railing about for a long time. But the other matter--the survival of dance writing--seems unimaginable unless we start talking about what we mean when we talk about writing on dance, because different people mean and want quite different things. We also have to talk about values--what matters most in dance and in the way it is considered, assessed and reported.
Before I left for London and Paris, I heard that dance artists Christine Jowers and Cory Nakasue--both writers for Jowers's Dance-Enthusiast.com--would be attending and blogging about the town hall meeting. I'm happy to link back to their thoughtful reports in the hope that this will continue to stimulate fresh and energized discussion.
Please feel free to offer your own thoughts here and on Dance-Enthusiast.com, particularly if you attended this event.
Thanks!
Christine and Cory Comment--Solutions for Sustainable Dance Writing A Town Hall Meeting at the Joyce SoHo
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Dede Allen, Pioneering Film Editor, 86
Dede Allen, Pioneering Film Editor, Dies at 86
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, April 19, 2010
Sunday, April 11, 2010
What the wind can't blow away
The following fascinating account has just come in from Dance Films Association and BAAD.
Julia and Joyce: The Story of Two Pioneers
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) presented on March 13, 2010 a world premiere screening of the documentary JULIA AND JOYCE: THE STORY OF TWO PIONEERS directed by Sonia Dumas, Trinidad and Tobago, 2009, 60M. The filmmaker and one of her subjects, Joyce Kirton, came from Trinidad to show their film, bringing their weather with them. Wild winds, torrential rains, and a blast of calm courtesy of their sunny, serene temperaments.
A window blew in on an actors class at BAAD! just before our master class in Afro-Caribbean dance was to begin. Fortunately the community center across the street from BAAD, The Point, welcomed us! Joyce Kirton regaled us with stories and insights about the dances we learned, as demonstrated by Sonia Dumas and accompanied by three masterful drummers. Along with Joyce came her brother and his wife from Florida, her sister from Texas, and two dancers from Toronto, all coming to NYC to show their love and support for Joyce.
Arthur Aviles and Charles Rice-Gonzalez hosted this event with admirable aplomb. Despite the disastrous loss of a window at BAAD!, the rains threatening to tear the house of BAAD! down, they served supper, and wine, replaced the window, put candles in all the windows by the time of the screening, and pulled in a crowd!
The New York Times printed a story on the same day as the screening and class on Trinidadian dancer Mike Quashie who was known as The Limbo King in the sixties. Susan Quist, a long time friend of Mike Quashie who hung with Jimi Henderson, Lou Reed, and Led Zepellin, brought Mike to the screening. Also at the screening were Sonia's teachers from NYU, Phyllis Lamhut, Pat Hall and Pam Patrick.
The film JULIA AND JOYCE:THE STORY OF TWO PIONEERS looks at aspects of the Trinidad and Tobago dance world and its local and global impact through the eyes of two local dance legends--Julia Edwards and Joyce Kirton--in an attempt to capture some of this history. These two women, now in their seventies, have collectively contributed over 110 years of dedicated, pioneering work to the dance community of Trinidad and Tobago. Between them, they have been instrumental in the preservation of and innovation in countless traditional dance forms, and their commitment to dance is echoed in the accomplishments of the many dancers and choreographers of the generations that have come after them.
For more information on the film, contact Sonja Dumas at: aguawaterleau@yahoo.com.
Julia and Joyce: The Story of Two Pioneers
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!) presented on March 13, 2010 a world premiere screening of the documentary JULIA AND JOYCE: THE STORY OF TWO PIONEERS directed by Sonia Dumas, Trinidad and Tobago, 2009, 60M. The filmmaker and one of her subjects, Joyce Kirton, came from Trinidad to show their film, bringing their weather with them. Wild winds, torrential rains, and a blast of calm courtesy of their sunny, serene temperaments.
A window blew in on an actors class at BAAD! just before our master class in Afro-Caribbean dance was to begin. Fortunately the community center across the street from BAAD, The Point, welcomed us! Joyce Kirton regaled us with stories and insights about the dances we learned, as demonstrated by Sonia Dumas and accompanied by three masterful drummers. Along with Joyce came her brother and his wife from Florida, her sister from Texas, and two dancers from Toronto, all coming to NYC to show their love and support for Joyce.
Arthur Aviles and Charles Rice-Gonzalez hosted this event with admirable aplomb. Despite the disastrous loss of a window at BAAD!, the rains threatening to tear the house of BAAD! down, they served supper, and wine, replaced the window, put candles in all the windows by the time of the screening, and pulled in a crowd!
The New York Times printed a story on the same day as the screening and class on Trinidadian dancer Mike Quashie who was known as The Limbo King in the sixties. Susan Quist, a long time friend of Mike Quashie who hung with Jimi Henderson, Lou Reed, and Led Zepellin, brought Mike to the screening. Also at the screening were Sonia's teachers from NYU, Phyllis Lamhut, Pat Hall and Pam Patrick.
The film JULIA AND JOYCE:THE STORY OF TWO PIONEERS looks at aspects of the Trinidad and Tobago dance world and its local and global impact through the eyes of two local dance legends--Julia Edwards and Joyce Kirton--in an attempt to capture some of this history. These two women, now in their seventies, have collectively contributed over 110 years of dedicated, pioneering work to the dance community of Trinidad and Tobago. Between them, they have been instrumental in the preservation of and innovation in countless traditional dance forms, and their commitment to dance is echoed in the accomplishments of the many dancers and choreographers of the generations that have come after them.
For more information on the film, contact Sonja Dumas at: aguawaterleau@yahoo.com.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Emeline Michel in free performance at Rubenstein Atrium
Emeline Michel
With special guests Buyu Ambroise and Pauline Jean
Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium
Thursday, May 20, 8:30 P.M.
With special guests Buyu Ambroise and Pauline Jean
Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium
Emeline Michel is the reigning queen of Haitian song, beloved for combining traditional rhythms with social, political, and inspirational content. A captivating performer, she is a member of a new generation of Haitian musicians who emphasize complex themes, conscious lyrics, and a broad palette of musical styles, including the native Haitian compas, twoubadou and rara along with jazz, rock, bossa nova and samba. The New York Times called her a “dancing ambassador with a voice serene and warm like a breeze.”
Joining Michel are jazz vocalist Pauline Jean and saxophonist Buyu Ambroise, both known for their sophisticated compositions blending traditional Haitian roots with contemporary sounds.
Target® Free Thursday performances start at 8:30 p.m. FREE admission; no tickets required. Seating is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For more information, click here.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Springing down to Spring Downtown
The Lower Manhattan Arts League invites you to Spring Downtown--a new, multi-venue series of affordable events including dance, film, music, theater, visual arts and much, much more.
In response to the economic challenge of the times, LMAL's organizations have banded together to produce and host fiscally-sustainable arts events. They include:
In response to the economic challenge of the times, LMAL's organizations have banded together to produce and host fiscally-sustainable arts events. They include:
Blue Coyote Theater Group
3-Legged Dog/3LD Art & Technology Center
Access Theater
Battery Dance Company
Children's Museum of the Arts
DCTV
Dance New Amsterdam
Dixon Place
Soho Rep
The Flea
HERE
For a schedule of events and more information, visit this site.
Trisha Brown: back to the future
Who can take a couple of dance works from 1994 and 1980 and present a show that looks springtime fresh in 2010?
Better still, who can present a concert where the audience leaves the theater to find the dance continuing in a breathtaking, pre-dusk sky?
Trisha Brown. That's who.
Even the sky cooperates with this woman--salutes her--with glowing, wispy layers of winglike clouds stretched across its perfect blue.
You know how guys used to yell out stuff like "Eric Clapton is GOD!!!"?
Trisha Brown is GODDESS!!!
If you can get in, see her company now at Baryshnikov Arts Center (through Sunday evening), with two alternating casts in performances of If you couldn't see me (1994) and Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 (1980).
I saw Dai Jian's elegant performance of If you couldn't see me--a poem to the articulate expressiveness of the back, in which the dancer reaches, scoops, swings, undulates, twists and swerves, never once turning to fully face the audience. But, from previous performances, I can also recommend Leah Morrison's sensuous, authoritative reading of this marvelous solo.
In the rarely-seen Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503, dancers emerge like a serene flock of gulls from billowing clouds of mist. Beverly Emmons's lighting adds a soft, celestial glow, and the only sound is the shushing and gasping of Fujiko Nakaya's cloud machine. BAC's Howard Gilman Performance Space offers audiences the good fortune to be fairly close to the dancers--I saw the good-looking quartet of Jian, Elena Demyanenko, Tamara Riewe and Nicholas Strafaccia; the alternate cast is Morrison, Straffacia, Laurel Tentindo and Samuel von Wentz.
Happy 40th Anniversary to the superb Trisha Brown Dance Company!
Better still, who can present a concert where the audience leaves the theater to find the dance continuing in a breathtaking, pre-dusk sky?
Trisha Brown. That's who.
Even the sky cooperates with this woman--salutes her--with glowing, wispy layers of winglike clouds stretched across its perfect blue.
You know how guys used to yell out stuff like "Eric Clapton is GOD!!!"?
Trisha Brown is GODDESS!!!
If you can get in, see her company now at Baryshnikov Arts Center (through Sunday evening), with two alternating casts in performances of If you couldn't see me (1994) and Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503 (1980).
I saw Dai Jian's elegant performance of If you couldn't see me--a poem to the articulate expressiveness of the back, in which the dancer reaches, scoops, swings, undulates, twists and swerves, never once turning to fully face the audience. But, from previous performances, I can also recommend Leah Morrison's sensuous, authoritative reading of this marvelous solo.
In the rarely-seen Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503, dancers emerge like a serene flock of gulls from billowing clouds of mist. Beverly Emmons's lighting adds a soft, celestial glow, and the only sound is the shushing and gasping of Fujiko Nakaya's cloud machine. BAC's Howard Gilman Performance Space offers audiences the good fortune to be fairly close to the dancers--I saw the good-looking quartet of Jian, Elena Demyanenko, Tamara Riewe and Nicholas Strafaccia; the alternate cast is Morrison, Straffacia, Laurel Tentindo and Samuel von Wentz.
Happy 40th Anniversary to the superb Trisha Brown Dance Company!
Tap, tap, tap...checking, checking...
presents its Second Annual SOUND CHECK: A Tap Dance Journey
April 14-18
Wednesday-Saturday, 8pm; Saturday & Sunday, 2pm
at Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street, Manhattan
Reservations: 212-924-0077 or www.dtw.org
(For information and reservations for the Thursday, April 15 benefit--including performance and pre-show champagne toast reception--call ATDF at 646-230-9564.)
Producer Tony Waag, director of American Tap Dance Foundation, announces the second annual SOUND CHECK, a tap concert series with the singular purpose of highlighting the vast breadth and scope of tap, from improvisation to new choreography, solo to group dances, classical to rhythm tap. With a cast of choreographers that includes Brenda Bufalino, Barbara Duffy, and Tony Waag; direction by Waag and Bufalino, and musical direction by Bernice "Boom Boom" Brooks, SOUND CHECK brings together the musical feet of an eclectic cast, including:
Tony Waag
Brenda Bufalino
The New American Tap Dance Orchestra
Harold Cromer
Harold Cromer
Barbara Duffy and Company
Cartier Williams
Ranya Renee (Middle Eastern dance)
Aurora Reyes (Flamenco dance)
with musicians Jonny Pieffer (piano and melodica), Charlie Tokarz (reeds), musical director Bernice "Boom Boom" Brooks (drums), Basilio Georges (guitarist/singer)
Tony Waag debuted his new concept, SOUND CHECK, last year with the goal of developing and presenting conceptual tap works--dances that use story lines or dramatic themes, involve a more theatrical process, even include singing and acting.
The program will also feature two major Bufalino revivals: The Haitian Fight Song and Buff Loves Basie Blues, both created for the American Tap Dance Orchestra in the 1980's.
Completing the program will be two films: the new Footage by Waag and "remixed" segments from Bufalino's classic tap dance documentary Great Feats of Feet.
Cartier Williams
Ranya Renee (Middle Eastern dance)
Aurora Reyes (Flamenco dance)
with musicians Jonny Pieffer (piano and melodica), Charlie Tokarz (reeds), musical director Bernice "Boom Boom" Brooks (drums), Basilio Georges (guitarist/singer)
Tony Waag debuted his new concept, SOUND CHECK, last year with the goal of developing and presenting conceptual tap works--dances that use story lines or dramatic themes, involve a more theatrical process, even include singing and acting.
The program will also feature two major Bufalino revivals: The Haitian Fight Song and Buff Loves Basie Blues, both created for the American Tap Dance Orchestra in the 1980's.
Completing the program will be two films: the new Footage by Waag and "remixed" segments from Bufalino's classic tap dance documentary Great Feats of Feet.
For more information about this and other programs of the American Tap Dance Foundation, click here.
Struggles of Harlem's famed art school
Harlem Art School’s Tax Records Foretold Its Demise
by Trymaine Lee and Russ Buettner, The New York Times, April 8, 2010
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Malcolm McLaren, 64
Malcolm McLaren, Impresario and Rock Music Manager, Is Dead
by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, April 8, 2010
by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, April 8, 2010
Dance Psychology
Dance Psychology
a blog looking at dance and dancers through the lens of psychology
Peter Lovatt, PhD, is a psychologist and dancer based at the University of Hertfordshire, where he heads the Dance Psychology Lab. Dr. Lovatt trained in ballet and theatre dance and worked as a professional dancer before taking a B.Sc. in Psychology and English, M.Sc. in Neural Computation and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology. He continues to dance every day and carry out research into the psychology of dance.
Dance/NYC: A site for sore eyes
Something new has been added: Dance NYC.
I'm thinking that Reviews and Counter Critiques will probably shape up to be my favorite, most-visited page--but only if you participate. So, go there!
I'm thinking that Reviews and Counter Critiques will probably shape up to be my favorite, most-visited page--but only if you participate. So, go there!
Noticing Katherine Ferrier
Here are two samples of exquisitely lovely writing from dance artist, designer and blogger Katherine Ferrier:
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Sasamoto will take her "2010" turn
Join Aki Sasamoto and Culture Push for an experiential workshop at 2010, the Whitney Biennial:
Friday, April 16 -- 7:30pm
Free with Museum admission, which is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays from 6-9 pm; there are no special tickets or reservations.
My Turn invites artists to create programs for the Whitney’s public that are an extension of and informed by their own artistic processes and methods. Taking their contributions to 2010 as a point of departure, six Biennial artists explore key aspects of their practice to create distinctive evenings of performance, discussion, demonstration, and engagement.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Let's hear it for--and from--Feld & Gregory
San Francisco-based Words on Dance--a series featuring live conversations with prominent dance artists--presents a New York City event this month: Eliot Feld in Conversation with Cynthia Gregory.
Monday, April 26--7pm
Location:
Paley Center for Media
25 West 52nd Street, Manhattan
Admission: $25/$15 Paley Center members
Reservations: 212-621-6600
For further information, click here.
Danspace Project's blog
Did you know there was a Danspace Project blog? Okay, me neither. But here it is, and I think you'll like it!
Monday, April 5, 2010
Shake your body down!
Book Review: Hot Stuff: Disco and the Remaking of American Culture
by Alice Echols, The New York Times, April 4, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Ford has a better idea
Ford Foundation Grants to Aid Art Spaces and Housing
by Stephanie Strom, The New York Times, April 4, 2010
Looking art in the eye
Marina Abramovic Faces Strangers Eye to Eye, for Art
by Jim Dwyer, The New York Times, April 2, 2010
Sharing is caring!
Something new has been added!
Please notice the cool green SHARE THIS button underneath each post. That's there to make it quite easy for you to share InfiniteBody posts with your friends and colleagues via email or any of slew of social media services. Your help in getting the word around and increasing InfiniteBody's reach is essential.
So start sharing!
And, while you're at it, don't hesitate to use the other widget buttons on this blog: Comment, Subscribe via RSS, Click to Contact Me, Follow Me on Twitter and, of course, Donate!
Thanks!
Please notice the cool green SHARE THIS button underneath each post. That's there to make it quite easy for you to share InfiniteBody posts with your friends and colleagues via email or any of slew of social media services. Your help in getting the word around and increasing InfiniteBody's reach is essential.
So start sharing!
And, while you're at it, don't hesitate to use the other widget buttons on this blog: Comment, Subscribe via RSS, Click to Contact Me, Follow Me on Twitter and, of course, Donate!
Thanks!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Ancient days and modern snack food
A quick note of recommendation for Michi Barall's colorful, amusing romp, Rescue Me (a postmodern classic with snacks), directed by Loy Arcenas and presented by Ma-Yi Theater Company at SoHo's Ohio Theater. There's much fun in this nutty, century-crossing, meta-adaptation of Euripedes's Iphigenia in Tauris--and I'm not just talking about the pop music and half-time snack food. (But thanks for the goldfish crackers!) Eighty minutes fly by in a haze of fun.
Among Barall's fine, eight-member cast, David Greenspan (a droll/imperious Artemis/Athena) and Leon Ingulsrud (as an Elvis-like King Thoas) give outstanding interpretations as playwright and company blur the line between then (ancient Greece) and now. Our Iphigenia, Jennifer Ikeda--who is 34, single and hates her job--works too many distracting Meryl Streep mannerisms, perhaps. But her open, childlike chemistry with her courageous brother Orestes (played by dancer-actor Julian Barnett, the production's choreographer) is convincing and heart-melting. Barnett's choreography, by the way, and his own whirlwind dancing in this show are among his best career achievements. Both are aptly versatile and expressive.
Rescue Me through April 18 at Ohio Theater
66 Wooster Street (between Prince and Broome Streets), Manhattan
BTJ+DTW. Who's next?
Bill T. Jones, Dance Theater Workshop to merge
by Miriam Kreinin Souccar, Crains'sNewYorkBusiness.com, April 2, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Zambrano's "Soul"
Hey! Just heard that my review of David Zambrano's Soul Project (Danspace Project, January 21-23) has been posted online at Dance Magazine's site. Click here and scroll down a bit to read it!
The sum of zero
Dancer-choreographer Kathy Wasik's fantasia on the number Zero--in a two-piece evening by the same name at Triskelion Arts--sent me on a search for fun facts about the ubiquitous and useful numerical oval.
Did you know, for instance, that a null pointer is a pointer in a computer program that does not point to any object or function? Or that in classical music, 0 is very rarely used as a number for a composition: Anton Bruckner wrote a Symphony No. 0 in D minor and a Symphony No. 00; Alfred Schnittke also wrote a Symphony No. 0? Or that in lattice theory, 0 may denote the bottom element of a bounded lattice? [Thank you, Wikipedia!] What the dickens is lattice theory? Will this be on the test?
From childhood, I've loved individual numbers (and letters) as symbols and entities with something very much akin to their own personalities and force. An instinctual Kabbalist type thing, I guess. I appreciate Wasik's idea of communing with Zero--surely the most buoyant, elusive and intriguing of numerical personalities--throughout her solo, Zero. The piece has its moments of visual pleasure and of whimsy, but I can't say I got it or took away much from the willowy, resilient Wasik's dancing--a long, dream-like performance in which her movements might be a bit too lovely and technically-controlled to speak up for her and her presumably visionary intentions.
On the other hand, Learning to Fall--Wasik's mysterious solo for beautiful Cara Liguori--is a much more cunning study. It uses the power of silence, chiaroscuro lighting (by Andy Dickerson) and carefully selected movement to focus attention. We zoom in on the exacting way Liguori readjusts one wrist with her other hand. She takes her time. She appears as one eternally suspended, touching her face, her hand or her shoulder while her mind seems to dwell elsewhere. Even the dance's ending seems to float in front of us, never landing.
Zero continues tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm at Triskelion Arts, 118 N. 11th Street (3rd Fl. R), Williamsburg, near Bedford Avenue L station
Google Map directions
Reservations
Did you know, for instance, that a null pointer is a pointer in a computer program that does not point to any object or function? Or that in classical music, 0 is very rarely used as a number for a composition: Anton Bruckner wrote a Symphony No. 0 in D minor and a Symphony No. 00; Alfred Schnittke also wrote a Symphony No. 0? Or that in lattice theory, 0 may denote the bottom element of a bounded lattice? [Thank you, Wikipedia!] What the dickens is lattice theory? Will this be on the test?
From childhood, I've loved individual numbers (and letters) as symbols and entities with something very much akin to their own personalities and force. An instinctual Kabbalist type thing, I guess. I appreciate Wasik's idea of communing with Zero--surely the most buoyant, elusive and intriguing of numerical personalities--throughout her solo, Zero. The piece has its moments of visual pleasure and of whimsy, but I can't say I got it or took away much from the willowy, resilient Wasik's dancing--a long, dream-like performance in which her movements might be a bit too lovely and technically-controlled to speak up for her and her presumably visionary intentions.
On the other hand, Learning to Fall--Wasik's mysterious solo for beautiful Cara Liguori--is a much more cunning study. It uses the power of silence, chiaroscuro lighting (by Andy Dickerson) and carefully selected movement to focus attention. We zoom in on the exacting way Liguori readjusts one wrist with her other hand. She takes her time. She appears as one eternally suspended, touching her face, her hand or her shoulder while her mind seems to dwell elsewhere. Even the dance's ending seems to float in front of us, never landing.
Zero continues tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm at Triskelion Arts, 118 N. 11th Street (3rd Fl. R), Williamsburg, near Bedford Avenue L station
Google Map directions
Reservations
Found on Facebook
We're fools whether we dance or not, so we might as well dance. (Japanese Proverb)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
This is your brain on books
Next Big Thing - Literary Scholars Turn to Science
by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, March 31, 2010
Rave on, dancers!
Question for choreographer Faye Driscoll:
What on earth did you do to your dancers to get them this way?
Now, hold on: That is not a hostile question.
In fact, I think it's a question a lot of envious choreographers might want to get answered, because Driscoll's effectiveness in her new piece, There is so much mad in me, is almost totally due to the blasted-open vulnerability and bravery of her nine performers.
Let's name them, right off the bat: Lindsay Clark, Lily Gold, Michael Helland, Jenny MaryTai Liu, Tony Orrico, Jacob Slominski, Adaku Utah, Jesse Zaritt and Nikki Zialcita.
These guys are astonishingly good, and each gets pushed forward in ways that bring out his or her breathtaking power. Each one seems capable of a full course of possibilities--from delicate sparks of thought and expression flickering across their faces to full-tilt rage, and even the rage comes in 47 varieties. Doubt me on that last one, and I'll tell you to just watch one of Slominski's characters brutally intimidate his colleagues--and at least one audience member, too--and see what secrets his subsequent facial and bodily movements reveal not only about his perverse pleasure in instilling fear but also his childish petulance and repressed hysteria.
The work--charging through 75 minutes in which you never relax enough to worry about the time--is a seamless collage of intense scenarios depicting extreme, mind-pounding, mind-blowing experiences. Sounds like fun? Well, don't trust elation; it quickly turns to terror. And nobody does "quickly" like Driscoll and her crew. This rapid slippage and the ambiguity of just about everything you're seeing reach out past that so-called fourth wall and wreak havoc with your own body-mind continuum.
How do you really feel about the disturbing things you're watching? Not the funny moments--of which there are a goodly amount--but the exploitation, the oppression, the violence? You'll be sitting with that. Yes. This is one of those dances that examines you every bit as much as you examine it. I wish it wide presentation throughout America.
There is so much mad in me runs through Saturday evening with 7:30pm shows at Dance Theater Workshop. Last night's show was sold out. Best of luck. Click here for tickets to one of this season's top premieres and performances.
What on earth did you do to your dancers to get them this way?
Now, hold on: That is not a hostile question.
In fact, I think it's a question a lot of envious choreographers might want to get answered, because Driscoll's effectiveness in her new piece, There is so much mad in me, is almost totally due to the blasted-open vulnerability and bravery of her nine performers.
Let's name them, right off the bat: Lindsay Clark, Lily Gold, Michael Helland, Jenny MaryTai Liu, Tony Orrico, Jacob Slominski, Adaku Utah, Jesse Zaritt and Nikki Zialcita.
These guys are astonishingly good, and each gets pushed forward in ways that bring out his or her breathtaking power. Each one seems capable of a full course of possibilities--from delicate sparks of thought and expression flickering across their faces to full-tilt rage, and even the rage comes in 47 varieties. Doubt me on that last one, and I'll tell you to just watch one of Slominski's characters brutally intimidate his colleagues--and at least one audience member, too--and see what secrets his subsequent facial and bodily movements reveal not only about his perverse pleasure in instilling fear but also his childish petulance and repressed hysteria.
The work--charging through 75 minutes in which you never relax enough to worry about the time--is a seamless collage of intense scenarios depicting extreme, mind-pounding, mind-blowing experiences. Sounds like fun? Well, don't trust elation; it quickly turns to terror. And nobody does "quickly" like Driscoll and her crew. This rapid slippage and the ambiguity of just about everything you're seeing reach out past that so-called fourth wall and wreak havoc with your own body-mind continuum.
How do you really feel about the disturbing things you're watching? Not the funny moments--of which there are a goodly amount--but the exploitation, the oppression, the violence? You'll be sitting with that. Yes. This is one of those dances that examines you every bit as much as you examine it. I wish it wide presentation throughout America.
There is so much mad in me runs through Saturday evening with 7:30pm shows at Dance Theater Workshop. Last night's show was sold out. Best of luck. Click here for tickets to one of this season's top premieres and performances.
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