InfiniteBody Honor Roll 2024

 InfiniteBody Honor Roll 2024

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

 

Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Wicked

You know who this is.

  

Kali Reis,True Detective: Night Country

Origin's Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor

Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown

 

Kōji Yakusho, Perfect Days

Doechii

Artists, I thank Spirit for your lives.

I wish you the recognition, respect, support, and care you need,

for you give us so much.

Stay strong in 2025!

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Good Grief  (Netflix)

Good Grief, written and directed by Daniel Levy, streaming on Netflix

Each of Us A Desert, by Mark Oshiro (Macmillan, 2020)

Yungchen Lhamo – One Drop of Kindness (Real World Records, 2023)

Artist Firelei Báez: I Consider Myself a Filter | Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Hear, by Ogemdi Ude, Out-Front! Fesival 2024, The Center, January 13-14

King in the Wilderness, directed by Peter W. Kunhardt, 2018, streaming on Max

 

Choreographer Samar Haddad King, APAP showing

 

Heather Christian's Terce: A Practical Breviary (photo: Maria Baranova)

Gathering, by Samar Haddad King (Yaa Samar! Dance Theater), work-in-progress showing for APAP at The Center for Ballet and the Arts, January 16 

Okan (band), Elizabeth Rodriguez: vocals, violin; Magdelys Savigne: vocals, percussion (website)

Jeremy Dutcher (musician) (website)

Beverly Johnson: IN VOGUE, directed by Josh Ravetch, 59E59 Theaters, January 21

Origin, directed by Ava DuVernay

True Detective: Night Country, directed by Issa López, streaming on Max

Terce: A Practical Breviary, written, composed and created by Heather Christian, directed by Keenan Tyler Oliphant, January 24-February 4

Aristotle Thinks Again, directed/choreographed by Dan Safer, Great Jones Repertory, La MaMa, January 25-February 4

¡Fenomenal!, Rompeforma 1989-1996

¡Fenomenal!, Rompeforma 1989-1996, with Merián Soto and Viveca Vázquez, The Dance Historian Is In, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, January 31

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants, by Robin Wall Kimmerer (Milkweed Editions, 2015)

Joan Baez: I Am A Noise, directed by Karen O'Connor, Miri Navasky, and Maeve O'Boyle, streaming on Hulu

The Vince Staples Show, Episode 2, directed by Ben Younger (2024), streaming on Netflix

Motaz Azaiza Captured Gaza’s Suffering. But ‘Nothing Changed.’ by Mona El-Naggar, Neil Collier and Mark Boyer, The New York Times

All of Us Strangers, directed by Andrew Haigh (2024), streaming on Hulu

Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders (2023)

What We Hold, by Jean Butler, Irish Arts Center, February 14-March 3

Dune: Part Two, directed by Denis Villeneuve (2024)

Anatomy of A Fall, directed by Justine Triet (2023), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Black Cake, created by Marissa Jo Cerar, directed by Natalia Leite (2023), streaming on Hulu

The Zone of Interest, directed by Jonathan Glazer (2023), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

"The Shape of My Impact" by Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Mouths of Rain: An Anthology of Black Lesbian Thought, edited by Briona Simone Jones, The New Press (2021)

Damsel, directed by Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (2024), streaming on Netflix

Shirley, directed by John Ridley (2024), streaming on Netflix

Cowboy Carter, by Beyoncé (2024)

Harlem (2021-2023), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show, directed by Ari Katcher (2024), streaming on Max

 

Susan Muaddi Darraj's Behind You is the Sea

Behind You is the Sea, by Susan Muaddi Darraj (Harper Collins, 2024)

Ripley, directed by Steven Zaillian (2024), streaming on Netflix

Tig Notaro: Hello Again, directed by Stephanie Allynne (2024), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

20 Days in Mariupol, directed by Mstyslav Chernov (2023), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Japanese Tea and Ritual Room —卯月Uzuki (April), by Maho Ogawa with Carolyn Hall, Annie MingHao Wang, and Tomoko Hojo, JACK, April 19-20

Imagination: A Manifesto, by Ruha Benjamin (W. W. Norton & Company, 2024)

Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination (Twentieth Anniversary Edition), by Robin D. G. Kelley (Penguin Random House, 2022)

Prentice Penny's Black Twitter: A People's History (photo: Disney/Andrew Walker)

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca at The Joyce Theater, April 23-28

Ahead of the Curve, directed by Jen Rainin and Rivkah Beth Medow (2020), streaming on Netflix

El Niño, by John Adams, The Metropolitan Opera, 2023-24 season

Black Twitter: A People's History, directed by Prentice Penny (2024), streaming on Hulu

Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow, directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb (2024), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

Stax: Soulville U.S.A., directed by Jamila Wignot (2024), streaming on Max

Two Weeks Inside Gaza’s Ruined Hospitals, by Samer Attar; video by Alexander Stockton and Amanda Su, The New York Times

Pacita Abad. Detail. Marcos and His Cronies (1985-95)

Pacita Abad, MoMA PS 1, April 4-September 2

Heroes, by John Scott, La MaMa Moves, May 30-June 2

Hit Man, directed by Richard Linklater (2024) streaming on Netflix

Chaka Khan: Tiny Desk Concert, NPR Music, June 11

Purlie Victorious, by Ossie Davis, directed by David Horn, PBS Great Performances, streaming May 24-July 19

MoviePass, MovieCrash, directed by Muta'Ali (2024), streaming on Max

Remembering Gene Wilder, directed by Ron Frank (2023), streaming on Netflix

 

Andrea Gibson's poetry: You Better Be Lightning

 

You Better Be Lightning, by Andrea Gibson (Button Poetry, 2021)

Hacks: Seasons 1-3, streaming on Max

Where Olive Trees Weep, directed by Zaya and Maurizio Benazzo (2024) (https://whereolivetreesweep.com/)

Bad Faith, directed by Stephen Ujlaki and Christopher Jacob Jones (2024), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

El Paisa, directed by Daniel Eduvijes Carrera (2023), PBS Short Film Festival

Boca Chica, directed by Ai Vuong and Samuel Diaz Fernandez (2024), PBS Short Film Festival

 

Colman Domingo (left) and Clarence Maclin in Sing Sing

Documentary series on champion Simone Biles

Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar (2023)

Simone Biles Rising limited series, directed by Katie Walsh (2024), streaming on Netflix

Skywalkers: A Love Story, directed by Jeff Zimbalist (2024), streaming on Netflix

Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lakhpa Sherpa, directed by Lucy Walker (2024), streaming on Netflix

 

Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color

 

Teresa Palmer and Matthew Goode, A Discovery of Witches

Brujas: The Magic and Power of Witches of Color by Lorraine Monteagut, PhD (Chicago Review Press, 2022)

Milton Nascimento & esperanza spalding: Tiny Desk (Home) Concert, NPR, streaming from August 7

Daughters, directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton (2024), streaming on Netflix

Lift, directed by David Peterson (2022), streaming on Amazon Prime Video

A Discovery of Witches (2018-2022), streaming on Netflix

The Bear by Andrew Krivak (Bellevue Literary Press, 2020)

Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies, Brooklyn Museum, September 13-January 19, 2025

Get to Know the Misunderstood Canada Goose, directed by Karsten Wall, New York Times Op-Docs

 

Shogun's Hiroyuki Sanada (left) and Anna Sawai

 

Shogun limited series (2024), streaming on Hulu

Robert Smithson at Dia: Spiral Jetty by SandenWolff (2024)

Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala at Asia Society through January 5, 2025

My Book-of-the-Year from Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Penguin Random House, 2024)

The Outrun, directed by Nora Fingscheidt (2024)

Apple Killed Albums. Now It Wants to Rank Them, The Culture Desk podcast with Wesley Morris and Eric Hynes, The New York Times

Ali Wong: Single Lady, directed by Ali Wong (2024), streaming on Netflix

 

Skeleton Architecture's improv (photo: Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Prelude 2024: Skeleton Architecture, CUNY Graduate Center, October 16

For Day of the Dead, a Burst of Flowers to Honor the Departed, directed by Cesár Martinez Barba, Op-Docs, The New York Times, November 1

Conclave, directed by Edward Berger (2024)

Anora, directed by Sean Baker (2024)

Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard (2024), streaming on Netflix

The Piano Lesson, directed by Malcolm Washington (2024), streaming on Netflix

Wicked, directed by Jon M. Chu (2024)

 

Marlon James

Colman Domingo in The Madness

Ebony Obsidian (l) as Lena Derriecott King (r) in Netflix's
The Six Triple Eight

GNX by Kendrick Lamar (PG Lang and Interscope Records, 2024)

Get Millie Black limited series, written by Marlon James (2024), streaming on Max

The Madness limited series, directed by Clement Virgo (2024), streaming on Netflix

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. (Crown, 2020)

The Brothers Sun, directed by Kevin Tancharoen (2024), streaming on Netflix

Louder: The Soundtrack of Change, directed by Kristi Jacobson (2024), streaming on Max

Yacht Rock: A Rockumentary, directed by Garret Price (2024), streaming on Max

somebody somewhere , directed by Jay Duplass, Robert Cohen, and Lennon Parnham (2022-24), streaming on Max

Doechii: Tiny Desk Concert, NPR Music, December 6

Mandalas: Mapping the Buddhist Art of Tibet, Metropolitan Museum of Art, through January 12, 2025

Jamie Foxx: What Had Happened Was..., directed by Hamish Hamilton, streaming on Netflix

Maria, directed by Pablo Larraín (2024), streaming on Netflix

The Equalizer, Seasons 1-3, streaming on Netflix

The Six Triple Eight, directed by Tyler Perry, streaming on Netflix

Kieran Culkin & Colman Domingo | Actors on Actors, Variety (2024), streaming on YouTube

Ronny Chieng: Love to Hate It, directed by Cameron Barnett (2024), streaming on Netflix

A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold (2024)

The Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross (2024)

REVIEW: MMC’s Fall Repertoire 2024 features work by Jazelynn Goudy

Dance artist Jazelynn Goudy (photo: Kenzo Matese)

 

This black-and-white photo portrait shows dance artist Jazelynn Goudy, a Black woman wearing a light-colored jacket over a light-colored top. She has a spill of dark locks down the right side of her face. She looks directly into the camera while framing her face with her hands—capping her forehead with her left hand and holding her chin between the thumb and forefinger of her right hand.

 

Fall Repertoire 2024

Dance Department

Marymount Manhattan College

Theresa Lang Theater

December 5-7, 2024

This past week, the Dance Department of Marymount Manhattan College (MMC) presented its Fall Repertoire 2024. I caught Program A–choreography by Aaron Loux, Molissa Fenley, Tamisha A. Guy, and Jazelynn Goudy, an MMC assistant professor. Each work deployed large ensembles of student dancers streaming across MMC’s Theresa Lang Theatre, and each found ingenious ways to carve that modest space into complex, shifting layers and levels of abstract activity.

Loux’s San Quentin draws inspiration from the unorthodox work of Henry Cowell, an American composer arrested in 1936 under California’s anti-sodomy laws and incarcerated at one of the nation’s most notorious prisons. For the MMC performance, pianist George Lykogiannis played Set of Two Movements, one of the pieces Cowell created during his years at San Quentin, time during which he continued to compose work, teach music students, and even conduct the prison orchestra. This backstory, though, does not prepare you for Loux’s sunburst of choral movement, a perfect partner to music expressive of audacious tenacity and transcendence. 

For Going to the Sun, set to music by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Fenley has crafted both an exaltation of nature and a lament for the natural treasures we’ve lost and continue to lose. The work was inspired by Montana’s Glacier National Park and the ice and waterways of Greenland, all threatened by climate change. Where Loux’s ensemble visualizes the exuberance of Cowell’s unusual music, Fenley’s orderly precision of placement and movement paints a detailed, awe-inspiring landscape–one of cold, pristine beauty and fragility. In Breaking the Mold, Guy similarly floods the stage with dancers, often bunched and moving in unison abstract patterns. Yet, Guy’s vision requires more fluidity and taffy-stretchiness within and among bodies in various configurations–-a quartet, a quintet, a solo, duet, and so forth.

All three works posed respectable challenges of technique, coordination, and expressivity for their performers. By and large, those tests were met. But then came Goudy’s Divine Flight–or, as she prefers to render the title, D vIne fl~ight. Please imagine what my keyboard can’t recreate: a lowercase d nestled within the lower-left corner of that uppercase initial D.

Scene from Divine Flight (photo: Molly Ouret)

Performers: Foreground: Charlene Longchamp, Alyssa Marten, Ariadne Viloria, Kelly Dresner, hidden: Isabelle Julien, Background: Elias Colado

Charlene Longchamp (darker skin dancer) dressed in white pleated sheer linen pants, and an orange shear top, falling backward with arms in the air into the arms of Isabelle Julien (hidden) Alyssa Marten, wearing an orange sheer top, white athletic pants, a glittering net covers half their head: Ariadne Viloria (upstage) Orange top and White bottoms, Kelly Dresner in a white top with a thin strap and pinkish red button. All are in a deep shallow lunge with arms extended toward Charlene, who is falling. 

Elias Colado, Purple sleeveless top, and white bottoms in mid-spin bent position, arms crossed.  

It immediately became clear that Goudy’s piece had taken pride of place, and rightly so, as the program’s closer.

This ensemble piece is grounded in real-life intimacy, in the love and intense complexities between Goudy and her older sister who, just over a year ago, died of lymphoma. If, unaware of this history, you happened to watch D vIne fl~ight, you might question the sequence in which dancers lift and port a wooden bier over which an immobile body is stretched. Nothing else in the look of the work hints at death or provides death any platform. This work celebrates the rigor and exhilaration of Black dancing, evoking the rhythmic, percussive stylings of West Africa and the Black Midwest. By doing so, Goudy, unexpectedly and magically, unified the intent and spirit of the program’s previous dances, boosting their relevance.

In the world Goudy envisions, the colors of vitality fill the stage, a backdrop projection suggests hazy memories of urban neighborhoods, and the bustling choreography declares ”Life is here. Life is abundant. We are an abundant and generous people.”

Danced with powerful release and rippling joy by the students, D vIne fl~ight is, at once, a tribute to a loved one, a fever dream, and a statement of victory. For us, the living, it is the continued flow of life into a future we make because we can.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

InfiniteBody, December 8, 2024

Thank you to Body and Soul's guest speakers!

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (photo: selfie)

A smiling Black woman wearing headphones and a turtleneck sweater sits in front of a bookcase (partial view). Her chin rests on her left hand.

I'm taking a moment to express my deep gratitude to the many respected artists and educators who have contributed to BODY AND SOUL podcast since its revival in December 2022, sharing experience, knowledge, insights, passions, and what keeps them awake at night. These guest speakers have included:

Ziiomi Law
Lisa La Touche
María de los Ángeles Rodríguez Jiménez
devynn emory
Maxine Montilus
Kayhan Irani
Brinda Guha
Travis Knights
Judith Sánchez Ruíz
Daphne Lee
Stephanie Skura
George Emilio Sanchez
Cory Nakasue
Elena Demanyenko
Megan Curet
Samar Haddad King
Ricarrdo Valentine
Iquail Shaheed
Tamisha A. Guy
Catherine Kirk
Italy Bianca
Kate Mattingly
Thomas Ford
Stephan Koplowitz
Heather Robles
Vicky Shick
Rebecca Fitton
Dr. Nina Angela Mercer
Olaiya Olayemi
Bhumi B Patel
Melanie George
Valencia James
Alexandra Beller
Daniel Phoenix Singh
Petra Kuppers
Katrina Reid

If you haven't listened yet, dip into this treasure trove now!

LISTEN HERE:
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/eva-yaa-asantewaa

or here:
https://open.spotify.com/show/6rwqny2GMb43jImKhCj1sh

BODY AND SOUL: Katrina Reid: Mercury Rx--Review, Redo, Renewal

Katrina Reid (photo: Kiya Marie Schnorr)

The headshot of Katrina Reid, a dark-skinned Black woman with very short and very blonde hair, is outside in a park, looking into the camera with a confident smile.

 

Listen to Katrina Reid: Mercury Rx--Review, Redo, Renewal

on my Body and Soul podcast here.

 

Katrina Reid (photo courtesy of the artist)

A photo of Katrina running down an empty street. Only the back of her body is visible, one leg is kicking back in a stride, and her arms are fully extended behind her. There are lush trees and verdant grass on both sides of the road, and her black shadow appears below. The sky above is blue, bright, and full of fluffy white clouds.

Katrina Reid (photo by Tia Byington-Noll)

A black-and-white photo of Katrina hanging and twisting from a ladder that is attached to a building outside. She is holding on with both hands. The camera’s focus is from above, and she has white protective markings painted on her face. Her eyes are closed and her brows are furrowed in contemplation.

Katrina Reid (she/her) is a dancer and choreographer who crafts art projects rooted in improvisation, experimentation, and storytelling. Select presentations of her work include the Queens Museum, ISSUE Project Room, the Knockdown Center, Current Sessions, DoublePlus/Gibney Dance, AUNTS, the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Florida A&M University, and Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX). As a collaborator, Katrina explores performance across dance, theater, music, ritual, and film. Most recent projects include [siccer] by Will Rawls, and the upcoming Spectral Dances by Jonathan González, as well as past works by David Thomson, Third Rail Projects, Kevin Beasley, Emily Johnson, Okwui Okpokwasili and Peter Born, Marguerite Hemmings, and Megan Byrne, among others. Learn more at katrina-reid.com.

BODY AND SOUL: Petra Kuppers: How to go on a crip drift

Petra Kuppers (photo: Tamara Wade)

Petra Kuppers, a white queer disabled cis woman of size with yellow glasses, shaved head, pink lipstick and a black dotted top, smiles up to the sky, arms outstretched, embracing the world. Her mobility scooter’s handlebar is visible at the bottom of the image. She is in front of a multicolored wall: purple, pink, yellow and orange.

Listen to Petra Kuppers: How to go on a crip drift

on my Body and Soul podcast here.

Becoming Fossil in Venice (photo: Edward Smith)

Petra, with her mouth wide open, her collaborator and wife Stephanie Heit next to her, and a number of community participants all dancing in the light of Becoming Fossil, a community dance video about climate emergencies and resiliences. The screen shows a color-shifted close-up of a fossil coral.

Crip Drip Performance Meditation in Venice (photo: Edward Smith)

Petra in the light, eyes closed, with volunteers holding bags of salt crystals to hand out once the audience lines up.

Petra Kuppers (she/her) is a disability culture activist and a community performance artist. She
grounds herself in disability culture methods, and uses somatics, performance, media work, and
speculative writing to engage audiences toward more socially just and enjoyable futures. In these
pandemic years, she’s been engaged in crip drifts: working with human and more-than-human
others outdoors (or through dream journeys online), exploring interdependence, listening, being-
with, and complex joy.

Her latest academic study is Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters
(University of Minnesota Press, 2022, open access). Her fourth poetry collection, Diver Beneath
the Street, investigates true crime and ecopoetry at the level of the soil (Wayne State University
Press, February 2024). She teaches at the University of Michigan, and is a 2023 Guggenheim
Fellow.

⁠www.petrakuppers.com

⁠ht⁠⁠tps://wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814351116/diver-beneath-the-street/

https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/eco-soma 

BODY AND SOUL: Daniel Phoenix Singh: True change from the roots

Daniel Phoenix Singh (photo: Metro Arts)

 

Daniel Phoenix Singh performing Vasanth

Daniel Phoenix Singh is seen in one of the performance poses of his syncretic blend of Bharata Naytam and Modern genres of dances. His two hands are spread open like the petals of a lotus flower, his arms are in a long diagonal, reaching into space while he is spiraling his upper body in contrast to his lower body. He is wearing dark blue pants with turquoise blue pleats on the sides. 

Listen to Daniel Phoenix Singh: True change from the roots

on my Body and Soul podcast here.

 

Daniel Phoenix Singh has worked in higher education, the field of dance, queer communities, South Asian communities, and in arts practice, policy, and funding at local and national levels. His identities lie at the intersection of his queer, antiracist, South Asian, immigrant, artist, and advocate roles in the various communities he inhabits. 

He acknowledges the complicity and internalization of colonial and racial oppressions in his life and works hard to approach issues from an anticolonial and antiracist perspective. He has been influenced by the work of Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (aka Periyar | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periyar), Rabindranath Tagore, Arundhathi Roy, Toni Morrison, and particularly Justin Laing (http://hillombo.net/about/) who work from intersectional frameworks. 

In his dance practice, Daniel was mentored by Pamela Mathews as curiosity took him from computer science to a dance major in college. He is deeply grateful to Lorry May, Harriet Moncure Williams, and Karen Bernstein for helping shape his choreographic voice. Madhavi Mudgal and Leela Samson in India have broadened his perspectives on the space Indian dance forms can occupy both within the body, in the pedagogy, and field of dance. 

He is a single parent to amazing twins who have been his foremost teachers and test his improvisational skills every day.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielphoenixsingh/

BODY AND SOUL: Alexander Beller: Mindful recuperation

Alexandra Beller (photo: The GingerB3ardmen)

 

A curly-haired red-headed white woman with green eyes and an inviting smile

 

Alexandra Beller (photo: Judith Stuart)

 

A dancer standing in a one-legged balance, holding a single egg

Listen to Alexandra Beller: Mindful recuperation

on my Body and Soul podcast here.

  

NOTE: For a glossary of Laban terms mentioned in this episode, click here.

Alexandra Beller, Artistic Director of Alexandra Beller/Dances, (2002-present), was a member of the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company member from 1995-2001. Alexandra created over 50 original Dance Theatre works, presented at theaters throughout the US and companies in Korea, Hong Kong, Oslo, and Cyprus. She has created dance theater works for over 45 universities throughout the US.

Alexandra currently choreographs predominantly for Theater. Credits: Off Broadway: Sense and Sensibility (Sheen Center, Judson Gym, Folger Shakespeare Library, American Repertory Theatre, Portland Center Stage), (Helen Hayes Award, Lortel Nomination, IRNE Best Choreography), The Mad Ones (59E59), Bedlam’s Peter Pan (Duke Theatre), How to transcend a happy marriage (Lincoln Center Theatre), Regional: Two Gentlemen of Verona (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival), As You Like It (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, Folger Shakespeare Library), The Young Ladies of... (Taylor Mac), Chang(e) (HERE), Current: Antonio’s Song (CATF, Milwaukee Rep), Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) (La MaMa, and touring), Directing/Choreographing Macbeth. She wrote and directed an adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream for 92Y.

She was on faculty at Princeton 2015-2022 and teaches at The Laban Institute for Movement Studies, HB Studios, UWM grad program. Alexandra holds a BFA/Dance, MFA/Choreography, and CMA (Certified Movement Analyst).

www.alexandrabeller.com

www.alexandrabellerdances.org

www.praxispace.com