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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Day Six: Reach out!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

Here's one that--believe me!--already comes easy to many of you, but more folks and organizations could take advantage of it:

Reach out and send me your news! 

You can send your announcements by snailmail:

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody
PO Box 210, Cooper Station
New York, NY 10276

Or use the Contact Form on my main site.

If you already have my direct email address, you can continue to send your messages there.

While I cannot post every announcement--or attend every event--I will look at and consider all of the material I receive. Clear, detailed information makes my work easier. Include a website link for more information, and I can pass that along to InfiniteBody readers.

My selections are--of necessity--few, and I tend to program InfiniteBody according to my tastes, obsessions and whims. No disrespect; just my prerogative as a blogger!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Thanks!



Burnt Sugar/DANZ at BAC

Last evening, Summer Stages Dance/Baryshnikov Arts Center Artist Residency participants Greg Tate (music) with Germaul Barnes and Gabri Christa (dance) presented an invitation-only, informal showing of their improvisatory Burnt Sugar/DANZ project. In a music/movement jam called La Celestina, the trio continued earlier explorations of this question:
Why can't choreographers come together and create spontaneous new ensemble work the way musicians do?
Of course, they can. Of course, they did.

And given that most of the dance artists involved last night have sizzling dance skills and presence, that sugar was burning. Conductor Tate's ensemble--which included vocals by Latasha Diggs and Somi--hit some sweet spots at times, too. But the evening belonged to extraordinary, imaginative movers like Barnes and Christa and like Daniel Gwirtzman, Kyle Abraham, Ayo Jackson, Catherine Cabeen, Nejla Yatkin and Christian von Howard, who know how to get a groove going or take full advantage of whatever's already happening on the floor.

As in any improvisation, sometimes you hit it, sometimes you don't. But, in Burnt Sugar/DANZ, the entirety is fun, stimulating and a welcome experience of some exceptional performers exercising their creativity on the spot. So, if you hear of other chances to witness this project, jump right in!

burnt sugar...danz

some sugar
some solid pliability 
energetic calligraphy
hive gathers gestures 
sparrows call spasm
family movements
determined undetermination 
conducted spheres of action 
baton for music baton for dance 
mass of singularity
scampering steady chime 
dignified hectic traffic

(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Baba Montego Joe: an elder passes

Announced by Brooklyn's Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy

"Listen" the drums seem to call out
"We are looking for the Master to carry him home"

No news travels faster than the message
heard in the syncopated percussive
polyrhythmic patterns reverberating
in the name of a great man's passing


Baba Montego Joe, born Roger Sanders, a Son of Jamaica 
Transitioned on Monday, June 28th 2010

"That which is good is never finished." Kunia Proverb
About Baba Montego Joe, Council of Elder and Arts Faculty Member
Baba Montego Joe was a native of Jamaica, West Indies, well known in the music world as one of the foremost Afro-Caribbean percussionists. His professional performance experience spanned six decades and geographies that included the US, Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. He  worked with and recorded with such artists as The Fifth Dimension, Nina Simone, Herbie Mann, Abby Lincoln and Max Roach, Art Blakey and Dizzy Gillespie. He was also an instructor at Medgar Evers College and the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corp. (Youth Arts Academy).
With a vast reservoir of knowledge about the history and meaning of Afro-Caribbean music and his impeccable style and technique, Baba Montego had much to share. We are especially grateful that he was able to share his vast wealth of knowledge with our Ifetayo students over the past five years.
Words from Baba Montego:
"Being an elder at Ifetayo is like being in an African village. We are respected and get to help the youth grow spiritually." For the youth, Baba Montego has these words of encouragement: "Walk tall and try to abide by what it is you were taught at Ifetayo. Learn as much as you can in life and always be well-informed."
Please note: See update re: services. 

What are you reading this summer?

Poet Pamela Sneed, posting on Facebook, recently recommended Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes. I did a little searching for it and discovered that, in the US, Australia and New Zealand, it was published as Someone Knows My Name (W.W. Norton & Company, 2007)--an interesting title change.

A first-person narrative of the life of a African Muslim girl captured and sold into slavery in South Carolina, it is exquisite and moving, with writing of original style and beauty, from its first, stunning paragraph. At 486 pages, it should keep me good company for a fair chunk of this summer!

I've just finished Frank Rich's poignant childhood memoir, Ghost Light (Random House, 2001) which--among other fascinating things--details the enormous love and drive, as well as the influence of family and friends, that went into his growing up to be a prominent theater critic (New York Times). Now, I'd like to find out just how this theater critic transformed himself into such a kickass political columnist! Recommended. 


Okay, so that's me. What are you reading this summer? Comment here and on Facebook!

I love Hazmat Modine!

No, that's not Matthew Modine. (Sorry, Matthew...)

Hazmat Modine's "River & Blues" (led by my multi-talented friend, Wade Schuman) at the River to River Festival

Thursday, July 8, 7pm-8:30pm (free)
Wagner Park, Battery Place and West Street, Manhattan

Get a taste of Hazmat Modine on BBC Radio 2 on July 5 on PAUL JONES -- RHYTHM & BLUES. Hear the broadcast live on bbc.co.uk/radio2 at 7pm UK time or play it at any time over the following seven days.

*****
And how about this?


Thursday, July 22, 7pm (free)
Castle Clinton, Battery Park, Manhattan
Antibalas (Spanish for “bulletproof”) is a high-energy and highly celebrated Afrobeat orchestra from Brooklyn. The band anchors this year’s Broadway hit FELA! with their musical direction and energetic instrumentalists, arranging and performing the music of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti and originals alike.
Get tickets (two per person) outside Castle Clinton, starting 5pm on July 22. First come, first served. 

Day Five: Tell a friend!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

I'm sure you've already read Day One's post and have started sharing InfiniteBody with your 5,000 Facebook friends. But what about sending a more personalized referral to your actual friend friends?

Simple enough: If you find a review, announcement, link or other item in InfiniteBody that might interest a particular friend, don't just email it. Send your pal a personal message recommending that he or she not only try out InfiniteBody but also subscribe. Say why you like it.


Day One: Caring is sharing!

Monday, June 28, 2010

To honor goddesses of Italy and Brazil

Two events presented by Alessandra Belloni:

Southern Italian Gypsy Music and Ritual Dance
Friday July 9, 9pm

Mehanata Bulgarian Bar
113 Ludlow (between Rivington & Delancey), Manhattan
212-625-0981
A fiery "journey" through the South of Italy featuring magic rituals and tarantellas used as music therapy and exorcism, healing chants in honor of the Black Madonna, lullabies, and love ballads, as well as original songs by Alessandra Belloni inspired by the rituals and rhythms of Brazil. Featuring Alessandra Belloni, vocals, percussion and ritual dance, drummer Vinnie Scialla, guest violinist Susan Aquila, acoustic and electric violin, guitarist Wilson Montuori.
Honoring the Sea Goddess: A Very Special Women Drumming and Dance Celebration
Friday July 16, 8pm

The New York Open Center
22 East 30th Street, Manhattan
212-219-2527
The concert is inspired by two geographically distant but thematically parallel traditions. Southern Italian and Brazilian purification rites and procession performed in the summer to honor the archetypical sea goddess. In Brazil she comes from the West African Yoruba culture and is called Yemanja, in Italy she is called the Black Madonna of the Sea (once called Aphrodite).
For further information on these and other events on Belloni's schedule, visit her website.

Listen to my 2007 Body and Soul podcast interview with Belloni (iTunes).

Day Four: Roll this blog!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

If you scroll down InfiniteBody's right column, right below the photo of the kitties, you'll find a long list of blogs--most of them dance-related and hailing from the origins of InfiniteBody as a dance blog.

Some of you out there, who enjoy InfiniteBody, also have Web sites and blogs--and blog rolls. But have you considered listing InfiniteBody?

I know that adding any particular blog or Web site to your list of favorites or recommendations is an entirely personal decision. So I'll leave you to make it and won't take it hard if you don't include InfiniteBody.

But, at least, give it a thought?

And if you decide in my favor, please remember that InfiniteBody is all one word, with capital I and B. It's not nearly as challenging a name as my own name--let me tell ya!--but often split in two.

SPECIAL NOTE: Please feel free to introduce me to your blog, too! If it's related to the arts (particularly dance), culture and any of the sorts of stuff you think I'd like, I'll certainly check it out and consider adding it to my blog roll or featuring it in an InfiniteBody announcement. Send your notices to me via my Contact Form.

Kaiser on a mission for the arts

Head of Kennedy Center Urges Arts Groups to Be Bold
by Kate Taylor, The New York Times, June 27, 2010

Arts in Crisis: A Kennedy Center Initiative is a program designed to provide planning assistance and consulting to struggling arts organizations throughout the United States. Open to non-profit 501(c)(3) presenting and producing performing arts organizations, the program will provide counsel from Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser, Kennedy Center executive staff, and approved mentors in the areas of fundraising, building more effective Boards of Trustees, budgeting, marketing, technology, and other areas pertinent to maintaining a vital performing arts organization during a troubled economy.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

About that powerful person

I love this tidbit from choreographer Miguel Gutierrez's "spring/summer spewsletter," recounting his encounter with a fellow 2010 Guggenheim fellow:
I TRIED TO EXPLAIN MY PROPOSED PROJECT TO A PLANT BIOLOGIST, WHOSE EYES SORTA GLAZED OVER. I GUESS EVEN THE INTELLIGENTSIA JUST WANT YOU TO TELL ‘EM THAT WHAT YOU DO LOOKS LIKE “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE...”
Yes, well, have you ever tried to adequately explain a Gutierrez piece to someone outside the loop?

Well...have you?

Precisely.

Congratulations on that fellowship, Miguel!

Miguel's new site

Miguel's upcoming gig at Mount Tremper Arts

Taps like a butterfly

Joe's Pub welcomes the world-renowned tapdancer Roxane Butterfly

Saturday, July 31, 9:30pm
Underground tap-icon Roxane Butterfly comes back to New York with a brand new collaboration featuring the music of pianist Frederique Trunk, to offer an evening of contemporary tap, ethno-jazz and spoken-word. The two French-American women will join their talent to reflect on their experiences as women, perpetual immigrants and lovers of life. This two years-old collaboration started as a co-production of Central Art Process, a multi-disciplinary artists collective based in Barcelona and has toured Italy and Spain. With Hilliard Greene on bass.
425 Lafayette Street (near Astor Place), Manhattan

Day Three: Subscribe!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

Day Three: Subscribe!

I'm sure that a bunch of you and your pals dip into InfiniteBody whenever I post a review of your show or one of your friends' shows or an announcement of personal interest to you. But what if you miss something else that might be useful or fun?

Subscribe to InfiniteBody and never miss anything!

All you have to do is click the nifty orange button (upper right, above the Twitter button) to subscribe with your favorite RSS reader (Google Reader, Bloglines, Newsgator, RSSOwl, what have you).

Or click this link.

Or type this address--http://feeds.feedburner.com/infinitebody--into the subscription box of an RSS reader.

Now each item posted to InfiniteBody will be delivered to you as soon as it's published. Easy peasy.

Thanks!

Day Two: If you see something, say something!

Day One: Caring is sharing!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Day Two: If you see something, say something!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

Day Two: If you see something, say something!

When I launched InfiniteBody back in March 2007, I could not have imagined accepting comments. I was used to various Internet discussion groups with their flashpoints and flame wars and had found myself in the middle of a number of them. I noticed that blogs that were open to public comment sometimes drew their unfair share of weirdos and haters. Not for me.

After a long time, I changed my mind and added a moderated Comments feature to InfiniteBody (as well as to my other blogs--hummingwitch and starlight-sensitive).

Although I sometimes get strange messages, which are easily rejected, for the most part, I get few comments of any kind. I'd like that to change!

So, if you see something, say something!

If you've seen a show that I've reviewed, drop a note with your own take on it.
Post an announcement about a similar upcoming event of interest to InfiniteBody readers. Start a (respectful) discussion about any issues appropriate to this space. Or just say Hi! and introduce yourself as a reader of this blog. I know who some of you are, but I don't know all of you.

Go ahead and post a comment, even about old blog posts! It will be great to hear from you anytime!

To Post A Comment on InfiniteBody

Just look for that purple rectangular box at the bottom of each post, then click on the 0 comments link. (Note: When you are viewing a single blog post, you'll find the Comments invitation link under the purple box, not in it.)

You'll be taken to the Leave your comment page where you can write what you like, sign in with the identity of your choice, set up email tracking of comments, preview your comment and, finally, post it.

As noted before, all comments are moderated. So there will be a bit of lag time before it appears on the site.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Day One: Sharing is caring!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Day One: Sharing is caring!

Every day for the next several days, I will post a note highlighting one simple way in which you can show InfiniteBody blog some love!

Day One: Sharing is caring!

Check the purple rectangular box beneath each InfiniteBody post, and you'll see a new Google Blogger feature--a strip of little buttons you can use to share any IB post via your choice of:

  • email
  • Blogger
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Google Buzz

And I certainly hope you'll share whatever you enjoy and find valuable on InfiniteBody!

In addition to this new feature, please note that every Blogger blog, such as this one, has a general Share link at the top strip of the blog (on the left side). Use that link when you'd just like to let folks know that they should check out InfiniteBody!

Thanks so much for your support!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Visa hold-ups cause OBVSC/Portuondo cancellation

Update on an earlier InfiniteBody post

The magnificent Omara Portuondo and Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club® will not be appearing at tonight's Celebrate Brooklyn gig in Prospect Park due to visa issues. This appearance will not be rescheduled.

The festival will still host tonight's planned opening act, flamenco dancer Nelida Tirado, at 7:30, followed by a screening of film director Wim Wenders' documentary Buena Vista Social Club. For more information on this and other festival performances, click here.

In the meantime, please enjoy:

Fondly do we watch...

See Bill T. Jones on Channel Thirteen tonight at 8pm, discussing his latest evening-length work, Fondly Do We Hope... Fervently Do We Pray, inspired by the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln.

The interview will be repeated this Sunday on SundayArts on Thirteen at noon, on WLIW on Sunday at 3pm and again on WLIW on June 29 at 10:30pm. It will also be available online at WNET Thirteen’s website at this link

For more details about the company's July 15-17 performances at Lincoln Center Festival, click here.

Stay in line, children!

Have any of you heard about this Pride March regulation?

"Due to heightened security, Marchers will not be allowed to leave and rejoin the march AT ANY POINT along the route. Exceptions are for restroom breaks. See your Marshal for a Bathroom Pass. This ticket must be shown to the police who will allow you to rejoin the March. This ticket must be returned to your Marshal. NO EXCEPTIONS."

I found this at the bottom of an invitation to march with the People of Color contingent, and I wonder how many people have actually heard of these new restrictions.

If you have or have not comment here or on my Facebook profile page--I'm friendly; just ask!--and weigh in with your opinions.

Thanks!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New at UCLA Live

Heading to LA?

There's a totally classy new website (and a season announcement with great folks like John Cale, Taj Mahal, Richard Thompson, Alice Coltrane, John Waters, Lucinda Childs and David Sedaris) for UCLA Live. Check it out!

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

July 8-11

Dance New Amsterdam (and other locations)
280 Broadway (near Chambers Street)

Stage performances will feature a diverse array of professional bellydance artists. Participants of all experience levels will have the opportunity to perform in open-stage nights at local bellydance hotspots, along with live bands from New York’s vibrant local Middle Eastern music scene. The conference is co-directed by Ranya Renee and Anasma Vuong, both professional bellydance teachers and performers.

Over the course of three days of intensive instruction, students will participate in workshops with fifteen teachers whose styles run the gamut of the bellydance genre, from modern Egyptian to hip-hip fusion and Gothic. 

Conference registration is available for single day and three-day packages; tickets may also be purchased separately for the evening theatrical performances. 

For more information, to register or to purchase show tickets, click here.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

One vision of "Paradise"

Thelma Hill Performing Arts presents:

A Ramp to Paradise

by Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion

Thursday, June 24, 7:30pm

Long Island University's Kumble Theater
One University Plaza, Brooklyn (directions)

Commissioned by THPAC and based on a short story by its Executive Chairman, Alex Smith, A Ramp to Paradise chronicles the life and times of the famed and predominantly black gay New York City underground 1970s and 1980s dance club Paradise Garage.

With special guest artist, Wendell Cooper

Choreography by Kyle Abraham in collaboration with dancers; additional choreography by Wendell Cooper

Post-show talk back with the choreographer and a panel of special guests:

Conrad Neblett, Together In Spirit
Fred Pierce, DJ
Divinah Payne, The Record Pool & West End Records

Tickets

After-party for Souls of Our Feet: People of Color Dance Festival:

Jelani Lounge
507 Waverly Avenue, Brooklyn (between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue)
718-230-5227 or 718-857-5227

A move towards arts center for Ground Zero

At Ground Zero, a Step Forward on Performing Arts Center
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, June 21, 2010

Share/Save/Bookmark

Monday, June 21, 2010

Sunday, June 20, 2010

YouTube makes a way for Asian Americans

Share/Save/Bookmark

Unexpected Harmony
by Josh Kun, The New York Times, June 15, 2010

Friday, June 18, 2010

Celebrate Summer Solstice with Noor Theatre

Join Noor Theatre and theater artists from the Middle-Eastern community for a Summer Solstice Party on the rooftop of The Delancey.

Monday, June 21, 6:30-9:30pm
168 Delancey (between Clinton and Attorney Streets), Manhattan
212-254-9920

Noor Theatre is dedicated to supporting, developing and presenting the work of theatre artists of Middle Eastern descent. As a vital presence in the theatrical landscape, we aim to create exceptional work that transcends cultural boundaries and speaks to all people.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Strange actions

Click here for my Dance Magazine review of Isabel Lewis in Strange Action at Performance Space 122.

Phipps presents a Li'l more

A few days ago, I wrote about an impressive trio of performers at WOW Café Theatre, including a young woman who calls herself Li'l T. Under her other name, LaTonia Phipps, she presents her own show, Fishing in Brooklyn, tonight at Manhattans's LGBT Center.

This solo spoken word/movement piece--accompanied by drummer Arthur Toombs, Jr.--is inspired by people who have touched Phipps's life, most notably, her mom who died of cancer when Phipps was only 10. Just an hour but, even so, incredibly speedy, Fishing in Brooklyn guides us on a geographical, cultural and emotional journey with major stops along the Black/Afro-Latino diaspora. With physical bravado that belies her willowly frame and strong skills in mimicry, Phipps easily transforms herself into numerous characters in the adventurous life of one young "Tia Lite." Not only a nimble playwright and performer, she is a force of nature, and one can readily see the determination and commitment with which she survived early loss to become a multi-talented artist.

Fishing in Brooklyn
Directed by Libya Pugh and choreographed by Anthony Wills Jr.

Tonight at The Center, 208 West 13th Street (between 7th and Greenwich Avenues), Manhattan, 212-620-7310

Tickets

Murder, she danced

"Do you think you could ever murder someone?" asks choreographer Pat Catterson, with her brand new piece, There is No Conclusion. The story of a "true and unusual Lesbian relationship," this work is set to music by Elodie Lauten, Julia Wolfe and Pauline Oliveros.

Join Catterson and her company in this--uh-oh!!--audience-participation experience at Judson Memorial Church, Friday and Saturday, June 25 and 26 at 8pm.

Judson Memorial Church
55 Washington Square South, Manhattan
Reservations: 212-260-1834

Swing out with Swing Space

Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space program (project-based arts residencies) announces its next application deadline: July 22.

For this open call, LMCC is accepting applications for Studio Space at Building 110: LMCC's Arts Center at Governors Island, and Rehearsal Space at The Vaults at 14 Wall Street.

Learn more and apply here.

Dalrymple: seeking the sacred

Asia Society presents

Nine Lives - In Search of the Sacred in Modern South Asia
Performance, Music and Reading

Friday and Saturday, June 18 and 19 at 7:30pm

Writer and historian William Dalrymple reads from his latest book Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India, interspersed with performances by these notable South Asian performers: Paban Das Baul and the Bauls of Bengal, Shah Jo Raag Fakir, Susheela Raman and Chandu Pannicker Theyyam Dance Group. Followed by a reception.

Information
Tickets

Asia Society
725 Park Avenue (70-71 Streets), Manhattan

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Party to support new work by Anahid Sofian

A fund-raising party for Anahid Sofian's upcoming production, Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat, featuring the music of Haig Manoukian and Souren Baronian and dances by Anahid Sofian and members of her company (Sira Melikian, Jean Musacchio and Stephanie Vartanian), will be held on Sunday, June 27, 5-8pm, at the Lafayette Grill.

The event will feature a silent auction of fabulous items at a fraction of the cost, a 50-50 cash raffle and a boutique.

Click here for more information, email sofiana@tiac.net or call 212-741-2848.

Reservations: Lafayette Grill at 212-732-5600

Lafayette Grill
54-56 Franklin Street (4 blocks below Canal, between Broadway/Lafayette), Manhattan

Anahid Sofian Studio and Company Web site

Information on Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat

Saturday, June 12, 2010

From David Byrne

Here's an announcement I got today from the always intriguing David Byrne!

The Venue Makes The Music - Creation In Reverse

I was honored to do a TED talk this year - back in February. It's about 16 minutes long and now, today, they are posting it online. It is also available as a video podcast, downloadable free from the iTunes store. I am hooked on watching these podcast versions of their famous talks, which they've had available for a few years now. You can carry them with you and watch a short talk from an array of incredible thinkers (many of whom are pretty well known) whenever you feel like it. Inspiring stuff. 

David Byrne

My own talk (it wasn't a musical performance) was based on the idea that the acoustic properties of the clubs, theaters and concert halls where our music might get performed determines to a large extent the kind of music we write. We semi unconsciously create music that will be appropriate to the places in which it will most likely be heard. Put that way it sounds obvious...but most people are surprised that creativity might be steered and molded by such mundane forces. I go further - it seems humans aren't the only ones who do this, who adapt our music to sonic circumstances - birds do it too. I play lots of sound snippets as examples, with images of the venues accompanying them...

Enjoy.

David B
Soho

BGU 2010 tells it like it is

 
Chiquita Brooks, Courtney Dowe and Li'l T
in Black Girl Ugly 2010 at WOW Café Theatre






If I could, I'd render the title Black Girl Ugly 2010 with a big old malcolm-X over the last word, the way director-playwright Ashley Brockington has it. But I can't. You'll just have to imagine that all-important X. Or, better yet, go to WOW Café Theatre, get yourself a program and see it for yourself. Yeah, that sounds good.

Written by performers Chiquita Brooks (Red Alice), Courtney Dowe (Green Alice) and Li'l T (Black Alice) with Brockington, the hour-long BGU is sort of Ntozake Shange crossed with Nina Simone, with maybe a pinch of Audre Lorde. In other words, Brooks, Dowe and Li'l T help us remember that, when it comes to predators out there in the world, "kickass" can be a corrective action, not just a term techies use to tout the latest hot gadgets. They aim to investigate and demolish racist/sexist stereotypes, and their aim is pretty damn good.

There's strong, affecting talent on display, good physical and vocal command, and a book that combines social critique, rambunctious humor and affirmative sexiness in a rare, effective balance. To the extent that audience members can identify and empathize with the experiences of the three Alices--each Alice bearing one of the liberation colors--they will come away feeling clearheaded and energized for whatever the next day brings.

Black Girl Ugly 2010 runs Thursdays-Saturdays through June 26. For more information, schedule details and ticketing, click here. Call 212-777-4280 for reservations.

WOW Café Theatre
59 East 4th Street (between Bowery and Second Avenue), 4th Floor, buzzer 6, Manhattan

Friday, June 11, 2010

Evidence of things unseen

This afternoon, I ferried over to Governors Island to check out choreographer Dana Salisbury's Unseen Dances, a presentation of Lower Manhattan Cultural Council's Swing Space program.


All photos (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

While big crowds arrived to take in the numerous, fun-looking offerings of a arts-and-public-creativity festival called Figment, I slipped into a small room at the back of Building 110 (LMCC's arts residency outpost) and joined a small group of people being de-shoed, separated from our belongings, blindfolded and guided around. Salisbury and the No-See-Ums provided a sightless experience of heightened aural, tactile and kinetic awareness, ranging from the amusing (when I briefly got snared in something plastic that failed to give way) to the amazing (a mini-earthquake of rapid, heavy footfalls; outside conversations from two opposing directions, simultaneously hitting each of my ears in a startling demonstration of brain hemispheres).


Unseen Dances comes in two flavors: improvised and choreographed. Feel free to visit anytime during open hours (12-4 tomorrow; 1-5 on Sunday) and sign up to go with the improvised flow. Come at 2pm tomorrow or 3pm on Sunday for the choreographed performance, which lasts 45 minutes. There's no charge.

You'll find Building 110 as soon as you come off the ferry. Look for it to the right of the path, past the building housing the new cafe. 110 is a long brick building with a sign for Figment. Stop in there for restrooms, then exit again and walk around to the building's left side.

Walk down to the far end of the building where you'll find LMCC's special entrance as well as a rather adorable sign for Unseen Dances.

Directions to and schedule for the Governors Island ferry

More on Dana Salisbury

New Blogger design

What do you think of InfiniteBody's new design? Comment here and on my Facebook page.

In search of mavericks

John McClain might say he never claimed to be one. Sarah Palin might give it a bad name. But La MaMa still loves mavericks. This week, you can visit the La MaMa Moves Festival and see who--among a bevy of choreographers across four shared Mavericks in Motion programs--deserves to wear the label with pride.

I'm going to cast an early vote for a couple of handsome Cunningham dancers, Rashaun Mitchell and his collaborator/dance partner Silas Riener, who showed Nocturnal Excerpts, a work-in-progress. Telfar Clemens's costumes turn them into a couple of vaguely disheveled, modern-day Pierrots, and Mitchell's movement ideas disturb and contort any conventional notion of what human bodies can do. Riener, in particular, is a compelling presence and mover, and it will be interesting to see where these guys take this duet.

If you missed Mitchell and Riener last night, try for Saturday's show (8pm), which also includes offerings by Benjamin Asriel, Myra Bazell w/ SCRAP, David Capps, Luke Gutgsell (partnering the fascinating Elise Knudson), and Lionel Popkin & Robert Een.

Mavericks in Motion programming concludes this Sunday evening. The festival continues through June 20.

Complete La MaMa Moves festival schedule

Tickets

La MaMa E.T.C.
First Floor Theatre
74a East 4th Street (near 2nd Avenue), Manhattan

Workshop in traditional chant and dance of Korea

Traditional Korean Buddhist Ritual Chant and Dance with Myung Suk Lee

Saturday, June 12 (2-5pm)

This workshop presents a rare opportunity to learn about Korean traditional meditative arts. Master artist Myung Suk Lee, assisted by Nuria Divi, will give an introduction to Bumpae, traditional Korean Buddhist ritual chant and dance. She will teach the Buddhist chant Doryang Ge, and how to play and dance in time to Baras (cymbals).

No experience in dance or singing is necessary to attend this workshop.

Admission: $5

RSVP by email at nuridisa@hotmail.com or walk in on the day of the workshop.

Location: Westbeth Community Room, 155 Bank Street (left side), Manhattan

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Toying around with theater

Last evening, the good folks from Great Small Works--hosts of the 9th International Toy Theater Festival--devoted time to teaching their audience the fundamental qualities of Toy Theater. It seemed critical that we actually absorb these fundamental qualities in a visceral way. Unfortunately, I cannot recreate that experience for you here, but I will list them.

Toy Theater is:
  1. performed within a proscenium arch
  2. small
  3. made of paper
  4. flat
  5. something you can do yourself
Well, from what I saw at St. Ann's Warehouse--where the fest runs through Sunday--that definition doesn't always hold true. You can break free of the frame, use other materials besides paper and go 3D to the max. But the part that really gets me is this nice, democratic notion that you and your kids can do this at home.

Oh, sure you can.

Okay, maybe you can...do something...somewhat...like this. But, I can tell you, it will not be easy for the vast majority of us to recreate the visual wonders, heart, wit and surprising sophistication of this theater form at its most effective.

For inspiration, though, go tonight, your last chance to see Who's Hungry--West Hollywood, three lovely, poignant puppet plays by Dan Froot and Dan Hurlin, derived from interviews with homeless LA residents from their Who's Hungry project. The Froot/Hurlin pieces are running in a long, awkwardly-arranged and intermission-less program with works by Concrete Temple Theatre and Marsian, but they're worth the bother.

The Toy Theater Festival's Program 3 (with Froot and Hurlin and others) concludes tonight, with a 7:30pm curtain, at St. Ann's Warehouse, 38 Water Street, DUMBO, Brooklyn. The festival continues through Sunday.


Also, go early and view THE TEMPORARY TOY THEATER MUSEUM:
"the finest examples of historical and contemporary toy theaters, representing visual artists reinterpreting the Toy Theater form, and collectors, including a group of classic Spanish stages from the collection of Lucia Contreras of Valencia. FREE and open to the public one hour before showtimes."
Ticketing or (718) 254-8779

Dance on Camera screenings this Saturday

In celebration of National Dance WeekDance on Camera presents a dance film screening and live concert, introduced by Dance Films Association artistic director Deirdre Towers.
 
Saturday, June 12, 1pm

at Alvin Ailey Center
405 West 55th Street (at 9th Avenue), Manhattan

Discounted tickets are available online. Register!

Program:

BEGUINE
Douwe Dijkstra, Netherlands, 2009, 4:44m
One man's response to losing his lover

THEY CALL HIM "CUBAN PETE"
Oscar Lopez, USA, 2001, 8m
Shown with the permission of WPBS "New Florida," this documentary allows the audience to meet Mr. Cuban Pete, legendary Latin dancer, Pedro "Cuban Pete" Aguilar.

LA VIE EST BELLE
Tristan Duhamel, France, 2004; 3.13m
A street-art character painted by Jérôme Mesnager dances on the walls of Paris.

MOVE THE FILM
Melinda and Kurt Songer Soderling, USA, 2010, 7m trailer
Sneak peak at a fiscal sponsored project of DFA that includes some of Hollywood and Broadways most talented dancers and choreographers.

little ease [outside the box]
ami ipapo and matt tarr, USA, 2008, 6:53m
A new take on a choreography conceived in 1985 by extreme action pioneer Elizabeth Streb

WORLD CLASS DANCERS
Frank Correa, USA, 2010, 5'
A hip hop group aged 11-22 based in NYC, led by Juan Zapata, as seen in performance and rehearsals

Live performance by World Class Dancers


TRASH DANCE
Oliver Fergusson-Taylor, 2008, UK, 1M
Hip hop animated deconstruction of trash heap

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Celebrating Balasaraswati

Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life

Asia Society welcomes Douglas Knight, author of Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life

June 24, 6:30-8:30pm

Celebrate the life and legacy of one of India's most infuential artists, Balasaraswati. Watch unseen footage of Balasaraswati's dance and hear from featured speakers, including Asia Society President Vishakha N. Desai, dance critic Anna Kisselgoff, author Douglas Knight, and Balasaraswati's grandson, Aniruddha Knight.

Books available at AsiaStore.org.

Tickets

Asia Society
725 Park Avenue (between 70th and 71st Streets), Manhattan

These four women have got it goin' on!

Coming up in August at the Joyce Theater: two shared programs with lots of new choreography I'm really looking forward to checking out!

Camille A. Brown and Andrea Miller: Monday, August 9 at 7:30pm; Wednesday, August 11 at 8pm; Friday, August 13 at 8pm
Information, video clips and tickets

Kate Weare and Monica Bill Barnes: Tuesday, August 10 at 7:30pm; Thursday, August 12 at 8pm; Saturday, August 14 at 8pm
Information, video clips and tickets

Plus a "family-friendly" show, featuring all four choreographers, on Saturday, August 14 at 2pm

Bridge of Sighs, choreography by Kate Weare (photo: Keria Heu-Jwyn Chang)

choreography by Camille A. Brown (photo: Matt Karas)

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets), Manhattan
JoyceCharge: 212-242-0800

Investigating improv

Studies Project Inter-Generational Exchange in Improvisational Practice

Sunday June 13, 5:30 pm

at La MaMa E.T.C.
74A East 4th St.
(between 2nd and 3rd Avenues)

FREE

This Studies Project, in partnership with La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival
(June 8-27), will uncover lineages of improvisational practices. Curators Yvonne Meier and Ishmael Houston-Jones will instigate a discussion amongst pioneers of improvisation in dance, as well as contemporary artists who are practicing investigations within the larger context of improvisation. The event will also include dancing to a score developed by Yvonne Meier and Ishmael Houston-Jones.

Panelists: Paul Langland, Daniel Lepkoff, Jennifer Monson

Moderator: Danielle Goldman

Dancers: Maggie Bennett, Daniel Clifton, Jonathan Kinzel, Daniel Lepkoff, Paul Langland, Melanie Maar, Jennifer Monson, Yina Ng, Arturo Vidich and Anthony Whitehurst

Initiated by Nicky Paraiso, Co-Curator, La MaMa E.T.C.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Somewhere out there...

Parallel Universes: The History of an Idea

Saturday, June 12 at 2:30pm

Roundtable: Eva Brann, Christa Davis Acampora, David Morgan, Paul Park (moderator), David Weinberg

The notion of the parallel universe—the idea that a replica or near replica of the worlds we know, have known, or will know—has permeated imaginative thought in both science and art throughout the ages. Vedic philosophy introduces the notion of the wheel. Nietzsche propounded the Doctrine of Eternal Recurrence around the same time that the French mathematician Poincaré introduced his Eternal Recurrence Theorem. Parallel universes appear in numerous science fiction works, such as Phillip K. Dick’s Man in a High Castle, and have appeared as motifs in numerous films, including the Clarence Oddbody sequence in Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and in Peter Howitt’s Sliding Doors. This roundtable will examine the history of the idea of the parallel universe, and the confluence of thinkers from fields as varied as non-Euclidian geometry, Hinduism, romantic comedy, science fiction, and astrophysics who have wrestled with this imaginative concept.

Friday, June 4, 2010

Christopher Williams descends the roots

The prospect of seeing a new Christopher Williams piece fills me with childlike eagerness. I’m jazzed by his imagination, which seems to belong to not just one wildly intelligent man but to a multitude. I’m dazzled by his productions which always seem much larger than the space they inhabit and definitely not of this era. Watching his work feels like falling into a big storybook with gilt-edged pages, embroidered satin bookmarks, fanciful characters whose heightened strangeness only partly masks their more elusive familiarity.

Like a Joseph Campbell with all of theater’s tools and magical possibilities at his command, Williams divines and opens portals between cultures, bidding us follow wherever curiosity has led him. In Hen’s Teeth—given its world premiere last night at Dance New Amsterdam--that curious terrain is the intersection of old Brittany, ancient Greece and the medieval Roman Catholic church. Heads should swim but, oddly, I managed to keep mine firmly in balance. I wondered what was preventing me from being swept away this time.

This work has Williams’s signature richness of imagination and his polish, complete with lighting by Amanda K. Ringger, costumes by Andy Jordan and Gregory Spears’s appealing original score, a requiem played and sung live in Breton, Middle French and Latin. For the Breton tale’s ensemble of mysterious bird-women—Storme Sundberg, Jennifer Lafferty, Kira Blazek, Hope Davis, Emily Stone, Ursula Eagly—Williams has provided old-fashioned dancey-dance architecture. That’s rare as hen’s teeth in New York’s “downtown dance” venues but fits this choreographer's mythic, ritualistic purposes just fine. The bird-womens's opening number is performed with enchanting physical presence and convincing vocal skill. Their delicate costumes—filmy, feathery skins that eventually “molt” from bare shoulders and bosoms—are totally lovely.

The actual Breton narrative remains vague—on purpose, most likely—but there is a lone male character (Adam H. Weinert) who woos one of the bird-women. The avian ladies lift him and his love high, swirling them around in the air so they appear to be flying. These swoony passages resemble a romantic ballet rendered in animation—artificial with a sincere underpinning, sincere with an overlay of the artificial. I think, for Williams, this is the very essence of doing ritual, of doing theater.

At some point, though, you might begin to wonder what all of this has to do with the Holy Roman lux aeterna and Agnus Dei. I believe that Williams must know but, as a watcher, not having some clue can be a barrier. The entrance of three bulbous, grotesquely-costumed characters--played by Alison Granucci, Joan Arnold and Grazia Dell-Terza—compound the confusion. It’s possible that these beings are introducing an apocalyptic note, but neither their existence nor their movement effectively connects to what came before or advances the narrative.

So, we have a dreamy opening ensemble that enjoys the work’s only distinctive movement; a soaring love fantasia; and finally, the arrival of a depressed and depressing trio of ugly trolls. Rather than a coherent accomplishment, Hen’s Teeth feels like patches out of a much larger ballet where potent ancestral motifs might speak to us of the perennial challenges of the human journey.

Christopher Williams’s Hen’s Teeth and Gobbledygook (a work in progress featuring Weinert and Eikazu Nakamura) continue tonight and Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 3pm.

Dance New Amsterdam, 280 Broadway (entrance on Chambers Street). Information and tickets

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Bill Shannon plays in "Traffic"


Bill Shannon

It's just hot enough these days for a totally nutty--yet air-conditioned--diversion like Traffic, a presentation of Dance New Amsterdam. In this "transient specific performance," the audience rides a tour bus down lower Broadway as Crutchmaster Bill Shannon glides the streets, freestyling on his skateboard and custom-designed crutches. Looking like a scruffy East Village squatter turned cross-country skier, Shannon interacts with the congested downtown terrain and its pedestrians. DJ "The Wizard" Brian Coxx pumps the house music (just try sitting still!) and James Cloftfelter VJ "TopKill" (yeah...I know) works the visuals.

"Sometimes magical things happen that I would never have designed in a million years," Shannon said yesterday, before we set out on this grand improvisational journey. "Maybe something will happen, and maybe nothing will happen."

A couple of video monitors keep track of any action that might be outside your range of view. And Shannon is equipped to receive and send sound which, ideally, should allow you to hear his impromptu conversations with unsuspecting passersby. Yesterday, that last bit didn't work so well, but some moments were not only readable but completely magical and captivating. In one, a construction crew, admiring Shannon's moxie, threw him down their unfinished bottle of iced tea. In another, Shannon commandeered some public art sculpture for a moody impromptu solo, perfectly capturing its scrunched texture in his movement.

Traffic sets off from the lobby of Dance New Amsterdam (280 Broadway, near Chambers Street) today and tomorrow at 4:30.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Evidence: Here's to 25 more!

Harlem Stage's E-Moves dance series throws a big celebration for the 25th Anniversary of Evidence, A Dance Company, June 17-20, with highlights from works by acclaimed choreographer Ronald K. Brown and a special Father's Day workshop for boys and their dads or male mentors/guardians. Experience the powerful and inspiring dancers of Evidence and live music by Gordon Chambers, Wunmi and more.

For complete schedule details and ticketing, click here or call 212-281-9240 x 19 or 20.

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

Hey! Here's that other bus tour!

It's Kathy Westwater's PARK!

Fresh Kills Park
Staten Island
Saturday, June 26 (9am-1pm)

"...about worlds we create and worlds that disappear." 

choreography: Kathy Westwater
poetry: Jennifer Scappetone
visual design: Seung Jae Lee
performance: Maggie Bennett, Rebecca Brooks, Rebecca Davis, Ursula Eagly, Melissa Guerrero, Belinda He, Kazu Nakamura, Jeremy Pheiffer and Enrico Wey

Park explores how nature consumes itself to regenerate-and how humans construct and consume it through the creation of parks. This site-specific performance/installation is the culmination of a rarely-awarded artist residency at the site of Fresh Kills Park, a 2,200 acre emergent park being developed by the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation over the next 30 years. 

The park's site is the Fresh Kills Landfill, formerly the world's largest landfill which was operated by the NYC Department of Sanitation for 50 years and closed in 2001. A short bus tour of the Freshkills Park site, with explanation of the site's engineering, infrastructure, and ecology, precedes this performance.

All attendees must board the tour bus at the St. George Ferry Terminal on Staten Island at 9:30am. Attendees coming from Manhattan must take the 9am ferry from Manhattan in order to make this bus. Buses will provide transportation from the ferry terminal on Staten Island to the park site and return attendees to the ferry terminal by 1pm.

FREE. Space is limited, and reservations are required. For reservations, please email doug.elliot@parks.nyc.gov or call 212/788-8277.