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Saturday, August 31, 2013

Call for applications: Fall Movement at Center For Performance Research

(November 7-9)

Center For Performance Research (CPR) invites applications from artists working within the various aspects of dance and performance as well as unique collaborations with the technological and visual art world to apply to present their work at CPR Presents: Fall Movement November 7-9, 2013.

DEADLINE: Monday, September 9, 6pm

For more information, click here.

Lofti Mansouri, 84

Lotfi Mansouri, S.F. Opera director 13 years, dies
by Joshua Kosman, SFGate, August 30, 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

Seamus Heaney, 74 [UPDATE]

Seamus Heaney, Irish Poet of Soil and Strife, Dies
Margalit Fox and James C. McKinley, Jr.The New York Times, August 30, 2013

Seamus Heaney’s ‘Journey Into the Wideness of Language’
by John Williams, The New York Times, August 30, 2013

Downtown school and presenter Dance New Amsterdam in crisis [with UPDATE 9/12]

News arrived yesterday of the sudden laying off of Dance New Amsterdam's entire staff as a result of failure to reach an agreement that would keep the 29-year-old educational and presenting organization going through bankruptcy and restructuring. This unanticipated development leaves not only staff, faculty, students and artist residents scrambling for alternatives but numerous dance troupes facing the challenge of securing new venues for upcoming performance seasons in which they had already heavily invested.

InfiniteBody will post links to reports and discussions of this issue and information on resources as these materials become available. Please forward your notes and announcements to infinitebody[at]outlook[dot]com or use the comments section here to share your thoughts, ideas and relevant information.

Thank you!

**********
Dance Center Seeks Help Keeping Doors Open
by Jacqueline Palank, The Wall Street Journal (8/29)

Dance New Amsterdam posts announcement on bankruptcy and closure (8/29)

Curtain Closes on Dance New Amsterdam
by Nadine DeNinno, International Business Times (8/29)

UPDATES

DNA raises $50,000, will remain open for business at least through next week. Click here for more information.

September 4 update from DNA:
First and foremost, we are working with the court and our landlord toward a definitive date on which we present a viable plan for DNA’s future. We hope to have that definitive date on or before Thursday, September 12, our next court date.
In the meantime, DNA will be fully open through the end-of-day on Thursday, September 12th. We’ll be running with a smaller administrative staff, but our faculty and modern guest artists will be here as usual.
Click here for complete text of update.

September 12 Update from DNA
Dear DNA Community, Today we have reached an agreement with our landlord, Fram Realty, that allows DNA to remain at its current location through mid-October, after which DNA has agreed to leave 280 Broadway.  However, Fram Realty has agreed, in good faith, to continue to listen to any viable proposals DNA presents to it. Our agreement is being documented and submitted to the Bankruptcy Court for approval. Classes and rentals will be running through October 13. Know that we continue to work on a solution to support the DNA teachers, students,  artist,  audiences,  etc.; but as of yet,  we have not been able to secure a partner or find another solution that would allow us to meet DNA's business responsibilities and remain at 280 Broadway. The DNA Community is more than a 280 Broadway space; it exists regardless of where we work, dance, teach, create, and perform. For our part, we will help keep the lines of communication open between teachers, students, artists, and community supporters while looking for ways to keep our programs alive.  In the meantime, please come take class and rehearse! With great respect and awe, Catherine A. PeilaExecutive/Artistic Director

Sathima Bea Benjamin, 76

Sathima Bea Benjamin, Jazz Singer and Activist, Dies at 76
by Nate Chinen, The New York Times, August 29, 2013

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Bill de Blasio for Mayor (VIDEO)

What do Harry Belafonte, Alan Cumming, Susan Sarandon, The Lady Bunny and yours truly have in common?

We're all committing to vote to make Bill de Blasio the next Mayor of the City of New York!

Watch this short video (1:45) and join us in pledging your vote.

Eric Fischl: Bad boy in retrospect


9780770435578  

Bad Boy–My Life On & Off the Canvas
by Eric Fischl and Michael Stone
(Random House, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0-7704-3557-8

reviewed by Deborah Feller
News and Views, DeborahFeller.com
August 25, 2013
Feelings lodged in my subconscious were driving my work toward a form of expressiveness that was raw and graphic and troubling–and sometimes cathartic…images would pop out that were increasingly recognizable both as people and things, avatars of my buried past. -- Eric Fischl

Dance artist Patrick Corbin: What is success?

LGBT Legacies: Patrick Corbin

Former Joffrey and Paul Taylor dancer Patrick Corbin, artistic director of CorbinDances, recalls how his life and career led him to a realization about what really matters.

Video (9:04)

Thursday, August 22, 2013

Life on the Fringe: "Inexcusable Fantasies" [UPDATE}

Susan McCully

(now through August 25)

Say, do you know where you're going to be this Saturday afternoon? Specifically at 4:45pm? (Or, as I just learned, tonight at 7:30!) Well, I do.

You'll be in the East Village, at The Theater at the 14th Street Y, seeing Inexcusable Fantasies, a two-woman play written by Susan McCully and performed by McCully with Rachel HirshornInexcusable Fantasies takes up musings and memories from the perspective of an aging lesbian--one with humble charm, wired nerves and uproarious humor to burn--in a complicated relationship with her own fluctuating libido. Over seventy minutes, the tale spans several scenes, including one with a couple of rival job seekers nearly coming to blows over one's driving lust for Martha Stewart, the media empress painstakingly analyzed and finally deemed "just the perfect erotic blend of butch/femme in motion." Both actresses are gifted with deft physical and verbal adaptability--McCully, enormously so. Her total embodiment of a biker dyke trying to flex her powers of seduction is simply perfection.

This is one Fringe show that makes and keeps its promise, and I predict you're going to have fun.

You're welcome.

Director: Eve Muson

Last chance: See it Saturday, August 24 at 4:45pm. Get tickets!

WAIT, WAIT! There's a show tonight at 7:30, too!!!!

Theater at 14th Street Y
344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues, close to 1st), Manhattan
Entrance at the big orange banner (directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

Job Opening: Hampshire College seeks Assistant Professor of Modern/Contemporary Dance

Assistant Professor of Modern/Contemporary Dance
Hampshire College, an independent, innovative liberal arts institution and member of the Five College Consortium, invites applications for a full-time Assistant Professor of Modern/ Contemporary Dance to begin July 1, 2014.
We seek a dance artist/scholar actively engaged in the practice and theory of modern/contemporary dance with a record of excellence as a performer-choreographer and educator. Excellence in teaching modern/contemporary dance technique and choreography-composition at all levels of instruction is required. Desirable subfields include Laban Movement Analysis, dance science, and additional dance techniques. Other areas of interest such as experimental or site-specific choreography, dance in the community, and dance history and performance studies would be welcome. The ideal candidate will integrate technical, creative, historical, cultural and scientific dimensions of dance into his or her teaching, and will have a broad knowledge of current practices and discourse in dance. An MFA (or its equivalent) in dance is required. Applicants should demonstrate an aptitude for innovative undergraduate teaching and advising, and the ability to work effectively within a culturally diverse and multidisciplinary campus community. In addition to teaching, the successful candidate will be expected to choreograph/set work on students, serve as artistic director of dance concerts, mentor student choreography and research, collaborate on the vision, design and management of the Hampshire Dance Program and help advance the mission of the Five College Dance Department.
The Hampshire College Dance Program is a member of the Five College Dance Department, comprised of the programs at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke and Smith Colleges and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. This consortium makes the FCDD the largest dance program in New England. The FCDD curriculum encourages students to balance performance and creative studies with a broad understanding of the historical and cultural contexts of different dance traditions. They may shape their studies in either traditional or interdisciplinary ways, reflecting the wide range of career options and new directions of the contemporary field. The Department offers over 100 courses a year, numerous performing opportunities and a performing arts calendar equal to a major metropolis.
Hampshire College is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community and strongly encourages applications from minority candidates.
Candidates should submit via our website http://jobs.hampshire.edu: a letter of application with a statement of teaching and choreographic interests; CV; sample course syllabi; the names and email addresses of three references (at least two of which will be able to speak to teaching expertise) and web links to his or her professional choreographic and performance work (preferably to also include work set on student dancers).
Finalists might be asked for web links to samples of their teaching. No hard copies will be accepted. Review of applications will begin November 1, 2013 and continue until the position is filled.
www.hampshire.edu dance.hampshire.edu www.fivecolleges.edu/dance
Hampshire College is an equal opportunity institution, committed to diversity in education and employment. 
School of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies
Hampshire College
893 West St.
Amherst, MA 01002-3359
413-559-5361
Fax 413-559-5481

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Apply for the Fellowship for Utopian Practice

Application Deadline: September 17
Culture Push's Fellowship for Utopian Practice is a testing ground for new ideas that aim to create positive social change through civic engagement and horizontal learning opportunities. Through the Fellowship for Utopian Practice, Culture Push serves artists by providing creative, analytical, and logistical tools in the creation of truly transformative projects.
The Fellowship program is open to artists and other professionals working in any discipline who wish to expand the boundaries of their practice. Applicants are encouraged to review our organization’s mission before submitting materials.
For complete program information and application guidelines, click here.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

2013 PEN Literary Awards announced, ceremony planned for October

The 2013 PEN Literary Awards recipients include Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Katherine Boo, former Poet Laureate Robert Hass, acclaimed playwright Larry Kramer, co-editors of Mother Jones Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery, sportswriter and NPR correspondent Frank Deford, who will receive a lifetime achievement award, debut novelist Sergio De La Pava, as well as many other notable emerging and established authors.

Award winners and runners-up will be honored at the 2013 PEN Literary Awards Ceremony on Monday, October 21 at CUNY Graduate Center's Proshansky Auditorium, featuring Master of Ceremonies Andy Borowitz.

See more information and the complete list of 2013 award recipients here.

British dance program offers alternatives for at-risk youth

LEEDS JOURNAL
Giving Troubled Youth a Chance to Leap and Soar
by Katron Bennhold, The New York Times, August 14, 2013

Becoming Holland Cotter: poetry in words and images

Finding Poetry on the Page and, Later, on the Canvas
An Art Critic Is First Inspired by Words
by Holland Cotter, The New York Times, August 14, 2013

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Life on the Fringe: "Pussy"

Maura Halloran in "Pussy."
Photo Credit: Claire Rice
Maura Halloran in Pussy
(photo by Claire Rice)

(now through August 25)

Predictable double entendres abound in Pussy, a one-woman show on the ups and mostly downs of a bi-cultural lesbian affair, written and performed by Canadian-born, San Francisco-based actress Maura Halloran. Just short of an hour, the work leans heavily on character sketches and physical theater techniques, especially in the form of clever mimicking of feline behavior. Yes, an especially nosy cat--who stages one hilarious and pivotal intervention late in the story--is one of four characters the lithe and sly Halloran portrays. She also impersonates a sweet, vulnerable Canadian woman, her snobby, exploitative English lover and their watchful Russian landlady. Halloran's often uncomfortably sharp talent for the subtleties of psychic shifts and facial expressions are the main reasons to catch this otherwise modest production.






Pussy

Director: Claire Rice
Movement Director: Julianne Fawsitt

Upcoming performances:

Thursday, August 15 at 8:15pm
Sunday, August 18 at 3:30pm
Wednesday, August 21 at 2pm
Thursday, August 22 at 9:30pm

The Steve & Marie Sgouros Theatre
115 MacDougal Street (between West 3rd Street and Minetta), Manhattan
(map/directions)

For complete information on the 2013 New York International Fringe Festival, click here.

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Eddie Pérez, 77

Eddie Pérez, 77, Salsa Musician
by The Associated Press, August 13, 2013

The American literature of deracination

Subconsciously deracination probably has more to do with a desire not to have one’s visual field constantly invaded by inconveniently different faces—relationships that are fraught, unfixed, capable of producing equal measures of helplessness and guilt. But there is also, perhaps almost too easy to ignore, the question of scale—the scale our lives are measured against, the fundamental American desire to stand out on the horizon, alone with our thoughts, to be a figure against the visual field around us. -- Jess Row
White Flights: American Fictions Racial Landscape
by Jess Row, Boston Review, August 5, 2013

American Tap Dance Center plans its September Open Houses

Lynn Schwab, Chikako Iwahori and Max Pollak of Rumba Tap
at American Tap Dance Foundations' 2012 Tap It Out
(c)2012, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

welcomes you to its

September 2013 
Open Houses
Need a place to make noise? Put your feet to the beat! Come check out our studios, meet the faculty and take a sample class!
Saturday, September 7, Noon to 1pm
Wednesday, September 11, 4pm to 5pm
Sunday, September 15, Noon to 1pm

American Tap Dance Center
154 Christopher Street, #2B (near Washington Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

RSVP: shebach@atdf.org or 646-230-9564

And learn more about what the American Tap Dance Foundation has to offer, such as Tap Addicts Anonymous, a brand new tap dance ensemble for adult fast beginner and advanced beginner students, and Tap Talks/Tap Films, monthly presentations, panel discussions and special events engaging the tap community of dancers, historians, teachers, writers and choreographers. Click here.

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Dance Dr. King's dream on August 28



Let freedom ring!

Take part in the global celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech.

Dance the Dream is a global flash-mob dance on August 28. Find out how you can participate: Click here.

Performing queer: Dan Fishback offers workshops at BAX

Dan Fishback, NEEDING IT: solo performance and queer community
Dan Fishback

NEEDING IT
Solo Performance & Queer Community

a workshop series with Dan Fishback

October 1 to November 19, Tuesdays, 7pm-9pm
Students will develop solo performances based on their personal obsessions and political impulses, all the while exploring the recent history of queer performance in New York City.  Performance artist and instructor Dan Fishback will work closely with students to move beyond conventional notions of “self-expression” and “autobiography” to something more primal and satisfying.  Using traditional queer performance as a reference point, students will be encouraged to find new artistic language to stage their most vital urges.  The final session of this eight-week class will be a semi-public live performance where each student will present finished work for invited guests and for each other.
Eligibility
Students of ALL races, genders, ages and sizes are encouraged to apply. Students must be prepared to work on assignments outside of class.  All students MUST attend every session.  Students do not have to identify as queer, as long as they identify as being part of a queer community.
Application deadline: September 1

For complete information, including application instructions, click here.


Friday, August 9, 2013

"Say It Out Loud" gathering will examine performance and issues of race

Say It Out Loud: Owning Whiteness, Performing Engagement

November 1, 5pm to November 4, 3pm

at Earthdance retreat center

in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts
a weekend of performance, discussions and hands-on workshops led by the makers of Any Resemblance (Jen Abrams, Maria Bauman, Barbara Bickart and Matthew Tennie) and Urban Bush Women guiding us to grapple compassionately and constructively toward the making of socially engaged art and multidisciplinary performance.
This intensive provokes questions about blackness, whiteness and different forms of otherness in America with the intention of growing our capacity as allies for a racially equitable society.
For complete program and registration information, click here.

Rubén Blades at Lincoln Center Out of Doors


Rubén Blades
(photos above and below by Darial Sneed)

After four decades in music, just how big a superstar is Panama-born salsero (and actor, activist, lawyer, politician) Rubén Blades? Well, if you already know his work, you know the answer. But, if you don't, check out this note I received from the Lincoln Center press office the day following Blades' Wednesday night appearance at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell:
By the way, we just got the official head count from LC Security and it's 10,000+ -- -- that includes people in the official seating area, plus crowds in the back section of the park going all the way to the Koch Theater and spilling over a bit on to Josie Robertson Plaza.  There were also folks standing and listening from the sidewalk of West 62nd street, but these were not included in the count. 
Yes. Sure enough, despite threat of rain--a threat never made good on--there were people stretched back from the park's entrance barriers as far as my eyes could see. Many had been waiting there for hours. They were let in, a handful at a time, and then the trickle stopped--no more admitted. I had never seen anything like that at a Lincoln Center Out of Doors show.

Similarly, the line for the women's restroom was ridiculous, made bearable only by the way a spirit of solidarity and wicked humor tends to break out in these situations. After my more than half-hour wait, I just barely made it back to my seat to hear Blades well into his first number, "Plástico," with Roberto Delgado Orchestra, Panamanian musicians making their US debut.

Blades with Panama's Roberto Delgado Orchestra
(photo by Darial Sneed)
Getting their shots
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Dancing had already broken out in the aisles with salsa dancers of different ethnicities exchanging partners and displaying intricacies of personal style--a delightful visual accompaniment to the stage show. With few moments of lilting effervescence, Blades' set hewed to a sober, steady roll--his vocals sliding over the disciplined brass, percussion and keyboards of the orchestra. No eye-candy or sonic flash whatsoever, just a baseline for a reliable Everyman storyteller and his tales of social and political realities--in songs like "Decisiones," "Caína," and "Amor," the last, written as his mother was succumbing to cancer--and his sharing of comfort and wisdom.

I want to share with you one of my earlier and most fervent Rubén Blades obsessions--"Cuentas del Alma," a Latin jazz piece from Escenas (1985). So much do I love this song--a curiously soaring reflection on abandonment and bitter loneliness--that I'm going to share two versions of Blades singing it with different bands. Here's the first.

For the second, you'll have to go here.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors continues through this Sunday, August 11. Click here to enjoy more wonderful--and free-shows.

Lincoln Center Plaza fountain
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Gail Levin, 67

Gail Levin, Documentary Filmmaker for ‘American Masters,’ Dies at 67
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, August 8, 2013

Karen Black, 74

Karen Black, Versatile Character Actress, Dies at 74
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, August 8, 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

Kongar-ol Ondar, 51

Kongar-ol Ondar, a Master of a Vocal Art, Dies at 51
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, August 4, 2013

To heal, you have to move your body!

Restoring the Body: Bessel van der Kolk on Yoga, EMDR, and Treating Trauma (audio 51:23)
Krista Tippett, On Being, July 11, 2013
Human memory is a sensory experience says psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk. Through his longtime research and innovation in trauma treatment, he shares what he's learning how bodywork like yoga or eye movement therapy can restore a sense of goodness and safety. And what he’s learning speaks to a resilience we can all cultivate in the face of the overwhelming events that after all make up the drama of culture, of news, of life.

Theater work examines life of WikiLeaker Manning

Whistle-Blower Has Inspired a Welsh Troupe
‘Radicalisation of Bradley Manning’ Hits Home in Edinburgh
by Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, August 4, 2013

Support your local artists!

‘Buy Local’ Gets Creative
by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, August 4, 2013

Sunday, August 4, 2013

Arts journalists, critics invited to "Speaking Circus": contemporary circus in perspective

You’re fluent in theater and dance. You speak Beckett, Pinter, Graham and Ailey. But what about circus? Is the only circus-ease in your vocabulary “clown” and “three-ring”?

invites you to

SPEAKING CIRCUS

An exploration of ways to think about the contemporary circus.

Inspired by Unpack the Arts (the European Residency Programme for Cultural Journalists), Speaking Circus will follow a contemporary circus performance with discussions and presentations about contemporary circus history, disciplines and influences.  The primary focus of this event is a half-day long seminar. You are encouraged to view the performance the previous evening, as it will be referenced in some of the panels.

PRESENTERS

Joe Melillo (Executive Producer at BAM), Duncan Wall (author of The Ordinary Acrobat), Karen Fricker (theater critic and professor at Brock University), Mary Rose Lloyd (Director of Artistic Programming at The New Victory Theater), Monique Martin (Director of Family Programming at City Parks Foundation), Lotta Vaulo (Managing Director of Circus Info Finland), members of the Race Horse Company and Suzi Winson (founder of Circus Warehouse).

WHEN AND WHERE

Presentations, discussion and lunch

Wednesday, August 21, 10am-3pm

New 42nd Street® Studios building
229 West 42nd Street, LuEsther T. Mertz Board Room, 9th Floor, Manhattan
(map/directions)

***

Performances by Race Horse Company, AcroArts, FAQ, Bindlestiff Family Cirkus andHybrid Movement Company

Tuesday, August 20, 7pm

Wednesday, August 21, 7pm

Marcus Garvey Park
Madison Ave, East 120th Street to East 124 Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

***

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY CIRCUS?
Contemporary Circus refers to any performance that uses traditional circus skills to emotionally, intellectually and viscerally engage audiences. It is extremely popular in Europe, Canada and Australia - and now the U.S. is catching up. We haven’t seen this much enthusiasm and innovation in American circuses since the Ringling Brothers started traveling by train. A massive scene is happening right under America’s feet and Circus Now wants to give you the scoop.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Unpacking contemporary circus in Europe: A call for writers

Unpack the Arts is a European project that provides residencies for cultural journalists in the context of twelve major festivals programming contemporary circus. The goal of the project is to facilitate the circulation of knowledge and experience, to develop the critical discourses of its participants, and to further the role of the media within the circus arts and contemporary society. Cultural journalists, critics and chief editors from any form of media can apply for the project. 
For comprehensive information, click here.

Application deadline: August 23

Jamel Shabazz: Documenting rap's history

Rappers of Old, Through a Lens of History
‘Jamel Shabazz Street Photographer,’ a New York Portrait
by Nicolas Rapold, The New York Times, August 1, 2013

Grammy winner Robert Glasper prepares "Black Radio 2"

Robert Glasper Releasing Sequel to Grammy-Winning ‘Black Radio’
by Nate Chinen, The New York Times, August 1, 2013

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Ana "Rokafella" Garcia: The making of a break dancer

View video interview segments with 


on

Dancer (etc.) Shawn Renee Lent never gives up

Am I A Dancer Who Gave Up?
by Shawn Renee Lent, Shawn Renee Lent, July 30, 2013

Plans for massive arts center to rise in Hudson Yards

City Allots $50 Million to Arts Project Tied to Bloomberg Allies
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, July 31, 2013

Mick Farren, 69

Mick Farren, British Rock ’n’ Roll Renaissance Man, Dies at 69
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 31, 2013

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