Tony Curtis, Hollywood Icon, Dies at 85
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sex sells
Screenplay and direction by Abdellatif Kechiche
France. 2010. 159 minutes. A MK2 production
Saartjie (Sarah) Baartman—the Khoisan slave known in 19th Century Europe as “The Hottentot Venus”--has been the subject of numerous literary works, including poetry by Elizabeth Alexander, a play by Suzan-Lori Parks and a novel by Barbara Chase-Riboud. Her story abides as one of the most bizarre, most shameful artifacts of slavery and colonialism, a compounded crime that did not achieve even its one small measure of justice until 2002, when Baartman's violated remains were finally released by France's Musée de l'Homme and properly interred in her South African homeland. Now, award-winning, Tunisian-born filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche has brought this complex history to the screen in the powerful and disturbing Black Venus (Vénus noire).
Baartman might have lived the already difficult life of any enslaved woman, but her Afrikaner owner, Hendrick Caezar, hatched a plan to display the exoticism of her anatomical features—enlarged buttocks and labia—in the freak shows of London fairs. Abandoned by lovers and grieving the deaths of her children, the young, vulnerable (and probably alcoholic) Baartman saw in this scheme a path to survival and eventual freedom. She signed on as “partner” in this venture and began to take direction from Caezar. He convinced her that she was an artist and taught her to act as if she were a sub-human, barely-tamed beast, perform a cooked-up “dance of savages” and throw a few good scares into her lower-class audience. And this was most important to Caezar: She had to allow them to touch and poke at her buttocks. This last duty horrified her. As she endured the frenzy unleashed around her, she tried to hold onto one last shred of dignity. But Caezar restrained her and later, out of the audience's earshot, berated her for being unwilling to fully play along with the deception.
As disgusting as this sounds, it was only the beginning of Baartman's troubles in Europe. Caezar later hooked up with an actual animal trainer—a Frenchman the filmmaker names Réaux--who deceived and exploited him as he had deceived and exploited Baartman. “Réaux” began booking Baartman's act for high society Parisian parties of increasing coarseness and decadence. “Réaux” proved to be an even more demeaning “director” to this “actress,” demanding that her displays and interaction with her audience directly play to the sexual undertone of the Europeans' fascination with her. She became, for her audience, a mastubatory fetish. Eventually, when her popularity in France diminished, “Réaux” led her into prostitution. Weakened by pneumonia and veneral disease, she died in 1815.
Towards the end of Baartman's life, French scientists from the Royal Academy of Medicine measured every thing about her that they could get a good look at—everything, that is, except her genitals. They pressured her, and she refused. This violation she would not permit and so it is one of the parts they sliced from her corpse and pickled in a jar and held in display at Musée de l'Homme until 2002.
Kechiche's film goes all out in every possible way. It has the bearing of an old-fashioned historical drama, grounded in period detail and rich colors, textures and sound. It weighs in at a hefty and serious 2 hours and 39 minutes, although its gripping, unrelenting pace and tension make it seem to fly by. Its actors, from starring roles to bit parts, give superb, nuanced, individualized performances. These include convincing turns by Andre Jacobs as Caezar and Olivier Gourmet as Réaux-- so convincing, in fact, that you want to grab a few of the ubiquitous bottles of whiskey and break them over their heads.
And then there is Yahima Torrès. One day, Kechiche saw this young woman pass his house and knew he'd found his Saartjie Baartman. Her physical proportions were right, but the director noted that she also possessed an understated beauty that was right for the role. Untrained in acting, she brings intelligence and sensitivity--a hint of guarded interior life--that help us understand the depth of Baartman's suffering, her naïve complicity in her own oppression, and the source of her growing resistance.
For someone completely new to acting, Torrès accepted a role that must stand among the most difficult acting jobs of all times. It's truly ironic that, to play Baartman, she had to endure what Baartman endured. Kechiche spares her—and us, watching—almost nothing. Caged, prodded, made to roar and dance, groped and ridden like a beast of burden, stripped to a loincloth or completely nude--it is Torrès's body, a real body, that endures these things openly before our gaze. Publicity materials continuously emphasize the support given this courageous newcomer by the film's team.
For some viewers, Baartman's story might be new or vaguely known but far removed in time and somewhat abstract, if unsettling. Black Venus brings it to life in front of our eyes. The film might prove too explicit for some viewers—even, in some scenes, verging on the pornographic. Certainly, Kechiche risks offending many viewers by vividly recreating the very imagery that moved some observers and authorities to protest Baartman's treatment and attempt to prosecute Caezar. (Caezar escaped conviction because Baartman testified that she wasn't doing anything she didn't want to do.) Kechiche unequivocably highlights the violent, depraved brutishness of the Europeans who dared to consider this Black woman less than human, but it remains to be seen how his film will be perceived by women and Black people.
As a Black woman, I found it painful, nearly traumatic, to watch the outrages depicted here—the psychological and physical humiliation of this African woman—and to imagine that these things might continue to be enjoyed by contemporary racists and predators, even by some people who might be sitting around me in the theater.
Hard to believe, you say. Baartman's twisted story is ancient history, if true. What does it have to do with anything, with any of us, today? But please bear in mind that the Republican candidate for governor of New York--my state--is a man who thought nothing of forwarding racist, sexist, pornographic emails to his colleagues. For real.
Public screenings:
Thursday, October 7, 6pm
Saturday, October 9, 8:30pm
Alice Tully Hall
Broadway and 65th Street, Manhattan
#1 to 66 Street
Arthur Penn, director, 88
Arthur Penn, Director of ‘Bonnie and Clyde,’ Dies
by Dave Kehr, The New York Times, September 29, 2010
by Dave Kehr, The New York Times, September 29, 2010
Sally Menke, film editor, 56
Sally Menke, Film Editor for Tarantino, Dies at 56
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, September 28, 2010
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, September 28, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Peking Opera at Skirball
Tenth Annual Peking Opera Festival
October 24, 7pm
The Qi Shu Gang Peking Opera Company presents an epic tale from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and scenes from other classics.
566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South), ManhattanSubway: A, B, C, D, E, F, M to West 4th St; 1 to Christopher St; N, R to 8th St; 6 to Astor Place or Bleecker St.
The Qi Shu Gang Peking Opera Company presents an epic tale from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and scenes from other classics.
The performance provides a spectacular evening of music, mime, costumes, amazing martial arts, acrobatics, and traditional Chinese orchestra. Combining singing and dialogue with acrobatic tumbling and kung‐fu fighting, the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera Company stages an unforgettable glimpse into ancient China.
In Chinese with English subtitlesSkirball Center for the Performing Arts
Making space for film
Toronto’s Bell Lightbox and New York’s Film Center
by Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, September 26, 2010
by Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, September 26, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Getting "Through the Night"
I first saw the multi-talented Daniel Beaty--poet, playwright, actor, singer and composer—in Emergence-SEE!, his Obie-winning solo show at The Public Theater in 2006. He has since smoothed out that title; now it is, simply, Emergency. But the jolt of SEE!-ing this lone performer bring dozens of fictional characters to radiant life lingers in memory.
Beaty's back with a handsome new one-act play--Through the Night, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright--at the Union Square Theatre. This 80-minute work focuses on six main dramatis personae--all Black American and male, interconnected through blood or community--with a handful of supporting characters. This time, no phantom slave ship emerges in the harbor, alarming contemporary New Yorkers and launching the drama. Here Beaty takes us through the night and its realities, holding the magical realism elements aside until the very end. It's far from a robust, convincing conclusion, but Black people need a miracle, and this playwright does his best to provide.
Alexander V. Nichol's elegant, efficient scenic projection continuously alters the play's backdrop to suit the rapidly-shifting cast of characters and their intertwined stories. A powerful preacher struggles with food binges and diabetes, worrying his wife, who only wants to grow old with the man she dearly loves. An upstanding neighborhood businessman fights frustration, trying to keep his health food store open and keep hope alive for his brilliant 10-year-old son. A music industry executive and mentor to a promising high school graduate, questions the sexualization of underage girl singers. Meanwhile, he's hiding a crucial truth about himself. These folks, and a few more rendered in Beaty's physical being and sometimes lyrical text, are all headed towards an event that might change their lives forever. Beaty—dressed casually and impersonally in New Balance shoes and a light-grey shirt and slacks—switches and flows from one character into the next with amazing dexterity, clearly a superb observer and keen listener.
Unlike Anna Deveare Smith, whose outstanding one-woman shows depict real-life, usually well-known people, Beaty deals in carefully-rendered types. Through impressive vocal range, simple but precise body language and movement, and an abundance of warmth, he turns potential stereotypes into people we might know and with whom we might identify. He cares about them, and so do we.
Though entertaining, Through the Night is clearly more than a play, more than a gig, for Beaty. It's an earnest love letter to Black America with the aim of fostering open discussion of issues such as health, addictions, relationships and homophobia. Beaty has engaged a team of Black celebrities--including Ruby Dee, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Phylicia Rashad, Ben Vereen and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.--to help him spread the word and get more bodies in the seats at Union Square Theatre. But Through the Night should succeed, I think, not only because Beaty intends to do great good but because he is good--a performer of exceptional appeal who must be seen.
Through the Night
Union Square Theatre
100 East 17th Street (between Park Avenue South and Irving Place), Manhattan
Tickets or 1-800-982-2787
For the performance schedule and more information, click here.
You mean we can't even get a museum?
Unhold Us, Senators
by Gail Collins, The New York Times, September 24, 2010
This is unbelievable, but hooray for Meryl Streep!
by Gail Collins, The New York Times, September 24, 2010
This is unbelievable, but hooray for Meryl Streep!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Man in the mirror
The Larissa Show
Let me say it outright: I love Larissa Velez-Jackson.
And you have one more night to see her troupe at Danspace Project--tonight, 8pm--where she's showing Holy Now! and Making Ends Meet as part of curator Trajal Harrell's PLATFORM 2010: certain difficulties, certain joy.
Harrell's concept of "difficulties" (Velez-Jackson's experiences with a broken toe or a broken heart) and "joy" (the choreographer's ebullient creativity and infectious sense of humor) is well illustrated here. Velez-Jackson is an injection of sunshine and courage.
I love how, in Holy Now!, she dares to create a lovely, honest-to-god altar (although a suspiciously pagan one) in the St. Mark's sanctuary and populate postmodern performance space with women having what appears to be ecstatic encounters with divinity. The work--performed by the choreographer and Sarah Holcman, Abigail Levine and Katy Pyle with soundman Jon Velez-Jackson--is poised on a fine line between seriousness and goof, a satire of bizarre, cultish behavior that locates (and enjoys) the cultish behavior in theatrical performers and their audiences.
Making Ends Meet seems spiritual, too--in the sense of the choreographer using every trick in her book to exorcise the demons that bedevil the process of making and presenting art--like self-doubt and bad reviews. How to do that? Well, start by advising your audience to loosen up: "Guideline #1: Enjoy!" Have a videographer (Ivo Serra) follow you around and turn his lens on the people in the seats. Those live close-ups of audience members' faces will knock 'em off guard. Package yourself in a format the audience has already embraced--the reality show--and maybe think about hiring a coach to bring some edginess out in your niceness.
"Don't hurt the artist," Velez-Jackson sings, over and over again.
Singing this, she parked herself right in front of me--me with my pen suddenly frozen over my notepad--and gazed into my eyes while the videocamera was trained, for painfully long minutes, on my face.
(Oh, no worries, Larissa. You're barking up the wrong tree. The tree you really want, though, might be planted over on the other side of the room!)
Velez-Jackson's a charismatic, kickass artist who, with playfulness and protean skills as a physical comedian, establishes immediate rapport with her audience. Getting us right where she wants us, she's capable of delivering any kind of message or sting or bouquet of rare joy that she desires.
See Larissa Velez Performance Company tonight, 8pm. For information and reservations, click here.
Danspace Project
131 East 10th Street (at Second Avenue), Manhattan
Nigeria's Chinua Achebe wins big
Chinua Achebe to Receive One of the Largest Awards in the Arts
AllAfrica.com, September 24, 2010
Past recipients of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize:
2009 Pete Seeger, folk musician, singer and social activist
2008 Robert Redford, filmmaker, activist, Sundance Institute founder
2007 Laurie Anderson, multimedia performance artist
2006 Shirin Neshat, visual artist and filmmaker
2005 Peter Sellars, theatre and opera director
2004 Ornette Coleman, jazz innovator
2003 Bill T. Jones, dancer/choreographer
2002 Lloyd Richards, theatre director
2001 Jennifer Tipton, lighting designer
2000 Merce Cunningham, dancer/choreographer
1999 Arthur Miller, author/playwright
1998 Isabel Allende, author
1997 Bob Dylan, singer/songwriter
1996 Robert Wilson, artist/director
1995 Ingmar Bergman, film director
1994 Frank Gehry, architect
AllAfrica.com, September 24, 2010
Past recipients of The Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize:
2009 Pete Seeger, folk musician, singer and social activist
2008 Robert Redford, filmmaker, activist, Sundance Institute founder
2007 Laurie Anderson, multimedia performance artist
2006 Shirin Neshat, visual artist and filmmaker
2005 Peter Sellars, theatre and opera director
2004 Ornette Coleman, jazz innovator
2003 Bill T. Jones, dancer/choreographer
2002 Lloyd Richards, theatre director
2001 Jennifer Tipton, lighting designer
2000 Merce Cunningham, dancer/choreographer
1999 Arthur Miller, author/playwright
1998 Isabel Allende, author
1997 Bob Dylan, singer/songwriter
1996 Robert Wilson, artist/director
1995 Ingmar Bergman, film director
1994 Frank Gehry, architect
Friday, September 24, 2010
My latest Dance Magazine reviews
The October issue of Dance Magazine includes my review of the companies of Camille A. Brown, Andrea Miller, Kate Weare and Monica Bill Barnes at The Joyce Theater (August 9-14). Pick up a copy!
A Celebration of Patricia A. Rowe
You are invited to a memorial tribute to Patricia A. Rowe, Ed.D. (August 11, 1924-June 3, 2010), innovative dance educator and advocate for dance. Dr. Rowe was chairperson of New York University's Department of Dance and Dance Education, which she founded in 1970.
Monday September 27, 6:15pm
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, Manhattan
Speakers and performers include Danny Lewis, Nancy Meehan, Jim May, HT Chen and Dancers, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Sachiyo Ito, Jeanne Bresciani and others.
Free admission
Speakers and performers include Danny Lewis, Nancy Meehan, Jim May, HT Chen and Dancers, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Sachiyo Ito, Jeanne Bresciani and others.
Free admission
Visit patriciarowe.com, and leave your remembrances.
The Psychosocial Network
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| Press queue at Walter Reade Theater (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa |
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| Actor Jesse Eisenberg, left, with director David Fincher (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa |
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The Social Network (directed by David Fincher) USA. 2010. 120 minutes.
Columbia Pictures in association with Relativity Media. A Scott Rudin/Michael De Luca/Trigger Street production
Now that I've seen The Social Network, I can see why Mark Zuckerberg might be worried. Actor Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale; Adventureland) who plays the young, nerdy whelp of an entrepreneur/billionaire-to-be in David Fincher's cautionary tale of brilliance and backstabbing, is now seared into the back of my eyeballs. I know I know, very well, what Zuckerberg looks like, but I can't actually remember right now, and that might be a problem. Why? Well, I'm guessing that a whole lot more people use Facebook than can pick Zuckerberg out of a lineup, and I'm guessing a huge number of these folks are going to see this movie. They're going to have Eisenberg seared into their eyeball's recesses, too, and lord help the real Zuckerberg because his depiction here sure ain't pretty.
On the other hand, Facebook itself is lookin' sharp. If I were Zuckerberg's friend--ahem--I'd tell him to relax. This is great for product. Everything about this film makes Facebook come off as the coolest innovation of the 21st Century. I'm hoping the 21st Century will end up having lots more to recommend it, but this has gotta be good for business.
Of course, The Social Network is the story of how we got there--500 million-strong and counting, spending hours of precious time checking in, again and again, to watch cat videos, post last night's party pics and rail about politics. Well, let's say, it's one of a few possible stories of how we got there. The real Zuckerberg is sticking to his story and, famously, others have theirs. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing; Charlie Wilson's War) whipped up a Roshamon-style facemash of them, and Fincher (Fight Club; The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) blended them on High. You might come away from this film feeling grateful that, where you hang out, the stakes are not this high. Then again, maybe you won't.
The pace is killer--from the nimble verbal swordplay of some very young, very smart people to the occasionally zippy, completely unexpected jabs of humor, from the rapid, cross-cutting camera angles to the unrelenting tension. The visual tone is a class act, too--perversely beautiful eye candy all around. And the acting is unforgettable. Eisenberg works so many layers into his embodiment of Zuckerberg that it's like watching a variety of interior selves jostling for control. One, obsessive in nature and oblivious of everyone around him, keeps surging forward with the dead eyes of a shark. Another barely conceals demonic rage, using his computer-like brain and words like a switchblade. And yet another, awkward and raw and needy as a newborn, rarely allowed to see daylight, can't figure out a way to connect to people for real. Eisenberg doesn't make it easy for viewers to comfortably accept his character--or any of these sub-personalities--because they never comfortably settle into place. I won't give away Sorkin and Fincher's conclusion, but let's just say the irony is devastating.
Andrew Garfield, more than making up for Zuckerberg's total lack of charm, gives a luminous performance as Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg's college friend, CFO and eventual adversary. Justin Timberlake--as Sean Parker, the creator of Napster--is simply fantastic. I must admit I haven't followed his music career, nor was I aware that, in recent years, he had launched a film career. As the wily Parker, he's got total control--physically, vocally, emotionally. It's a masterful performance. Rooney Mara, as the young woman who dumps a heedlessly arrogant Zuckerberg--setting off both his fit of revenge and his date with destiny--made me want to stand up on my seat and cheer. I can't wait to see her bring Steig Larsson's intriguing, strange Lisbeth Salander to the screen in The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, another Fincher project. On a smaller scale, but with huge impact, Douglas Urbanski nails a perfect moment in his brief role as Harvard president Larry Summers, dismissing Zuckerberg's former partners' complaints with withering condescension. (Watch out, Harvard! Larry's on his way back!) All in all, Fincher's tight ensemble could not be finer.
I've heard The Social Network already talked about as one of the great films of all times--a thrilling, archetypal story told with superb craft and beauty. Sounds like hyperbole, sure, but I agree. You will definitely get your money's worth and be entertained and maybe a little scared, too. Then you'll take out your iPhone and update all your friends.
For information on tonight's public screening (6pm), click here. The film will be released nationwide on October 1.
Complete NYFF information (September 24-October 10)
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Documentary on New York's "aggressives"
The Aggressives
A documentary by Daniel Peddle
Saturday, October 9, 8pm
The screening will be followed by a community discussion.
A documentary by Daniel Peddle
Saturday, October 9, 8pm
Admission: Free
This striking and illuminating documentary explores and exposes the subculture of New York lesbians living as "aggressives." Often mistaken for men, these women range from pretty tomboys to the blatantly butch, boldly creating their own identities outside of society's established sexual categories, and the film explores their impact on gender identity in the modern world.
See a review of The Aggressives here.
Click here to RSVP or call 718-842-5223.
Shim Sham time!
an opent tap jam session presented at The Kitchen
curated by Rashida Bumbray
Admission: Free. No reservations.
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan
Some of the finest performers in New York’s rhythm tap community come together to share and showcase their moves.
An accomplished tap dancer, vocalist and jazz musician, Alexandria Bradley will host this season’s installment of Shim Sham. From a tap dance family, she started her fifteen-year career at a young age and has shared the stage with generations of tap greats including Jimmy Slyde, Ted Levy and Savion Glover. The evening will also feature the live music of the Orrin Evans Trio featuring Evans on piano, Leon Boykins on bass, and Jonathan Blake on drums—and promises to make for a dynamic gathering of rhythmic exchange. The jam will, as always, wrap up with the famous tap routine, the Shim Sham Shimmy, led by Bradley.The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan
Bouchra Ouizguen and "Madame Plaza"
A few thoughts on Madame Plaza (2009), curated by Trajal Harrell for Danspace Project's PLATFORM 2010, certain difficulties, certain joy and co-presented by FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival at Florence Gould Hall:
With her research into the cultural practices of the Aïta women singers and dancers of her native Morocco, dancer-choreographer Bouchra Ouizguen tells us that she intends to break free of conventional perspectives on the female body and its uses in dance. Madame Plaza, however, seems to me to be a sign of the sheer beginning, not the fruit, of experimentation.
The strongest push of the envelope that this hour-long production offers--at least for an audience that, as usual, is almost completely white--is the sight of four brown-skinned women, three of whom are far heavier than conventional dancers Americans are used to and are, indeed, Aïta performers, moving in spare, often pedestrian gestures and patterns like old-school and, frankly, tedious "downtown" stuff. This made me wonder: If this work did not have the Moroccan context--or the short passages of ecstatic incantation, thrashing and a little bit of gender-bending that directly relate to the world of the Aïta--would we find it interesting, intellectually or sensually compelling enough to justify the time? I paid attention and sought engagement from Madama Plaza's first, langourous, dead-silent moments, when the women sit or recline on oblong cushions, occasionally rearranging themselves. It never sparked my interest.
There was a telling moment, at the conclusion of Harrell's post-show Q&A, when Ouizguen took a final question from the audience about a statement she'd made about breaking away from her training and all that dance was supposed to be. The questioner asked,"What did you think dance was?" The choreographer thought for a second, then replied that she no longer knew the answer to that question, didn't know what she's originally meant--a quite apt answer from someone apparently still in a liminal state of search. Both ends of the search--past and possible future--seem fuzzy to me, but I'd love to see what she and the Aïta can do when it all comes into focus.
Madame Plaza--with performances by Fatima El Hanna, Naïma Sahmoud, Kabboura Aït Ben Hmad and Bouchra Ouizguen--completes its run tonight at 8pm.
FIAF's Florence Gould Hall
55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues), Manhattan
55 East 59th Street (between Park and Madison Avenues), Manhattan
Human rights activists protest Batsheva season
A New York group devoted to non-violent protest of Israeli governmental policy towards the Palestinian people has begun a picketing campaign in front of The Joyce Theater where Israel's celebrated Batsheva Dance Company will be performing through October 3. For information about the issues behind the call for boycott, see the following links:
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
Those five fly ladies return
Remember FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance, with solos made and performed by Dianne McIntyre, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Germaine Acogny, Carmen de Lavallade and Bebe Miller?
Well, if you didn't happen to catch these stellar performers last year at LIU's Kumble Theater (where I reviewed the show for Dance Magazine), you have another chance this December at NJPAC's Victoria Theater:
Saturday, December 11, 7:30pm
Sunday, December 12, 3pm
Each dancer appears in a rarely-performed, signature solo work:
Bebe Miller’s classic Rain, in which the choreographer powerfully portrays “a woman weighted down by a host of cares, yet refusing to be totally crushed by them” (New York Times); Urban Bush Women innovator Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s recent Bring ‘Em Home, which explores the New Orleans tradition of Second Line dancing while commenting on the failed efforts to assist those displaced by Hurricane Katrina; Dianne McIntyre’s If You Don’t Know, set to a piano score composed by Olu Dara, which fuses improvisational movement and jazz to explore a series of African American lives; contemporary African dance master Germaine Acogny’s Untitled, a riveting new solo that incorporates video and original music to imagine an Africa with a powerful female President; and Carmen de Lavallade in a recreation of her role in The Creation, Geoffrey Holder’s classic dance that tells the Biblical story of creation as interpreted in a poem by James Weldon Johnson.
FLY: Five First Ladies of Dance is a project of 651 ARTS.Information and ticketing
Directions to NJPAC
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Lennon: Some Time in New York City
2010 New York Film Festival
Film Society of Lincoln Center
LENNONYC (written/directed by Michael Epstein) USA. 2010. 115 minutes.
Two Lefts Don't Make A Right Production, Dakota Group LTD and THIRTEEN's American Masters in association with WNET.ORG for PBS
Documentary director/producer Michael Epstein's latest work for the PBS American Masters series explores the final decade in the life of John Lennon, from the turbulent, creative 1970s through his murder in December of 1980. Epstein selected this period--Lennon's arrival in New York City, his disastrous exile in LA and his return to New York and redemptive reunion with Yoko Ono--because he wanted to avoid rehashing already well-covered material about Lennon's youth and the Beatles era. "I wanted to give you a John you hadn't heard before," he said in a post-screening Q&A. "I wanted people to feel they were a fly on the wall in the studio."
The film probes a time of intense possibility and equally intense pressure for Lennon and Ono. With American students rising to protest the Vietnam War, the peace-loving, outspoken couple found themselves increasingly at the forefront of activism. As long as their contributions might make a difference, Lennon said, "we were willing to be the world's clowns," tuning artistry to politics and politics to theater, inspired by radical colleagues like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Threatened by the prospect of an eloquent, charismatic celebrity of Lennon's magnitude at the helm of an increasingly militant movement, Nixon's administration and the FBI tracked the couple's every move, even spying on their musicians (Elephant's Memory). A four-year fight against an order of deportation ensued, taking its toll on Lennon's emotional health and his marriage.
LENNONYC, for most of its two hours, is a fast-swirling flood of sound and footage, occasionally enhanced by Brian Oakes's simple line graphics that recall Lennon's own love of doodling. The editing, by Ed Barteski and Deborah Peretz, is fierce; the film moves faster than you might expect from a documentary, and it rocks, too, with a selection of music that's just right, never obvious. There's pleasure for the eye as well, both in some of the original footage and photography and in the transformative arrangements of these materials.
You're guided through all this heady stuff by numerous interviewees who worked with and revered Lennon or whose own work or activism brought them into close contact with him. Friends and associates like Elton John, photographer Bob Gruen, producer/engineer Roy Cicala, radio host Dennis Elsas, television host Dick Cavett, and the guys from the rollicking, down-and-dirty Elephant's Memory offer insights into Lennon's creativity, disappointments, alcoholism and relationship with Ono and with their son, Sean. These clips never feel like talking heads interviews. Each one contributes essential, sometimes quite entertaining parts of the story.
Ono, who is also interviewed, gave full blessings to this project, and it depicts her, as both person and artist, with respect and compassion. Epstein did consult with her and accept suggestions, he says, but Ono exerted no control over his film--something that would greatly surprise her many critics. The film's interpretation of Lennon and Ono's bond is generous, to be sure, yet it can't help but raise questions about the addictive, medicating and yet potentially healing qualities of romance.
LENNONYC loses some steam towards its end with the victorious resolution of the couple's legal problems and the birth of Sean. In a way, this makes sense. "Hard times are over," as Ono sang on Double Fantasy (1980). There's no more conflict or dysfunction to propel the narrative. Lennon evolves into a sober, loyal and feminist husband, a loving dad who stays home, bakes bread, teaches his son to swim and is as content as can be. Ono, for her part, has developed business skills because Lennon is simply no good at that sort of thing. New York is a wondrous place to live, to be in love, to raise a kid.
We know the rest of the story. Epstein touches on the tragedy through the anguished faces of people holding vigil outside the Dakota and through interviews with Ono and Lennon's friends. He omits, however, the murderer's name and avoids dwelling on the particulars of his heinous act, refusing to dignify him with more attention than he has already received. At the Q&A, he called that "part of the shitty fame machine."
Epstein's closing remarks left us to wonder how Lennon--courageous and clever activist--might have addressed the current political flare-up around immigration in the US.
'John's story is an example of what makes America special," he said. "We don't share a common past, but what we share is a common vision for our future."
Public screenings:
Saturday, September 25, 9pm
Alice Tully Hall, 65th Street (Broadway/Amsterdam), Manhattan
Saturday, September 25, 10:30pm
Walter Reade Theater, 65th Street (Broadway/Amsterdam), Manhattan
PBS premiere: Monday, November 22, 9pm ET (Check local listings.)
Information and ticketing
Complete NYFF information (September 24-October 10)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
LENNONYC (written/directed by Michael Epstein) USA. 2010. 115 minutes.
Two Lefts Don't Make A Right Production, Dakota Group LTD and THIRTEEN's American Masters in association with WNET.ORG for PBS
Documentary director/producer Michael Epstein's latest work for the PBS American Masters series explores the final decade in the life of John Lennon, from the turbulent, creative 1970s through his murder in December of 1980. Epstein selected this period--Lennon's arrival in New York City, his disastrous exile in LA and his return to New York and redemptive reunion with Yoko Ono--because he wanted to avoid rehashing already well-covered material about Lennon's youth and the Beatles era. "I wanted to give you a John you hadn't heard before," he said in a post-screening Q&A. "I wanted people to feel they were a fly on the wall in the studio."
The film probes a time of intense possibility and equally intense pressure for Lennon and Ono. With American students rising to protest the Vietnam War, the peace-loving, outspoken couple found themselves increasingly at the forefront of activism. As long as their contributions might make a difference, Lennon said, "we were willing to be the world's clowns," tuning artistry to politics and politics to theater, inspired by radical colleagues like Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin. Threatened by the prospect of an eloquent, charismatic celebrity of Lennon's magnitude at the helm of an increasingly militant movement, Nixon's administration and the FBI tracked the couple's every move, even spying on their musicians (Elephant's Memory). A four-year fight against an order of deportation ensued, taking its toll on Lennon's emotional health and his marriage.
LENNONYC, for most of its two hours, is a fast-swirling flood of sound and footage, occasionally enhanced by Brian Oakes's simple line graphics that recall Lennon's own love of doodling. The editing, by Ed Barteski and Deborah Peretz, is fierce; the film moves faster than you might expect from a documentary, and it rocks, too, with a selection of music that's just right, never obvious. There's pleasure for the eye as well, both in some of the original footage and photography and in the transformative arrangements of these materials.
You're guided through all this heady stuff by numerous interviewees who worked with and revered Lennon or whose own work or activism brought them into close contact with him. Friends and associates like Elton John, photographer Bob Gruen, producer/engineer Roy Cicala, radio host Dennis Elsas, television host Dick Cavett, and the guys from the rollicking, down-and-dirty Elephant's Memory offer insights into Lennon's creativity, disappointments, alcoholism and relationship with Ono and with their son, Sean. These clips never feel like talking heads interviews. Each one contributes essential, sometimes quite entertaining parts of the story.
Ono, who is also interviewed, gave full blessings to this project, and it depicts her, as both person and artist, with respect and compassion. Epstein did consult with her and accept suggestions, he says, but Ono exerted no control over his film--something that would greatly surprise her many critics. The film's interpretation of Lennon and Ono's bond is generous, to be sure, yet it can't help but raise questions about the addictive, medicating and yet potentially healing qualities of romance.
LENNONYC loses some steam towards its end with the victorious resolution of the couple's legal problems and the birth of Sean. In a way, this makes sense. "Hard times are over," as Ono sang on Double Fantasy (1980). There's no more conflict or dysfunction to propel the narrative. Lennon evolves into a sober, loyal and feminist husband, a loving dad who stays home, bakes bread, teaches his son to swim and is as content as can be. Ono, for her part, has developed business skills because Lennon is simply no good at that sort of thing. New York is a wondrous place to live, to be in love, to raise a kid.
We know the rest of the story. Epstein touches on the tragedy through the anguished faces of people holding vigil outside the Dakota and through interviews with Ono and Lennon's friends. He omits, however, the murderer's name and avoids dwelling on the particulars of his heinous act, refusing to dignify him with more attention than he has already received. At the Q&A, he called that "part of the shitty fame machine."
Epstein's closing remarks left us to wonder how Lennon--courageous and clever activist--might have addressed the current political flare-up around immigration in the US.
'John's story is an example of what makes America special," he said. "We don't share a common past, but what we share is a common vision for our future."
Public screenings:
Saturday, September 25, 9pm
Alice Tully Hall, 65th Street (Broadway/Amsterdam), Manhattan
Saturday, September 25, 10:30pm
Walter Reade Theater, 65th Street (Broadway/Amsterdam), Manhattan
PBS premiere: Monday, November 22, 9pm ET (Check local listings.)
Information and ticketing
Complete NYFF information (September 24-October 10)
Courage of an Afghani filmmaker
Sonia Nassery Cole’s Battle to Make an Afghan Film
by Brooks Barnes, The New York Times, September 21, 2010
by Brooks Barnes, The New York Times, September 21, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Joffrey: Choreographers of color wanted!
Creative Force: The Joffrey's Choreographers of Color Award
Joffrey Ballet
Application deadline: October 1
Joffrey Ballet
Application deadline: October 1
Click here for details.
Frammartino's Calabrian soul
2010 New York Film Festival
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Le quattro volte (written/directed by Michelangelo Frammartino) Italy/Germany/France. 2010. 88 minutes. Lorber Films
Without dialogue but with sense-filling imagery and sound, Michelangelo Frammartino (writer/director) traces the movement of soul within earthly matter as represented by his rural ancestral home, Calabria, across four seasons. Human, animal, vegetable, mineral: These divisions are also the "four turns" of the title and the four profound, interconnected elements of Calabrian tradition and practical survival.
The film opens as smoke wafts from holes in a black cone of charcoal erected and tended by carbonai (coal men), launching intertwined cycles of cause and effect. As the film progresses, the significance of this cone will become clear, and Frammartino returns to it near the end, showing the careful process of its construction and use. In between, we observe the stark, everyday flow of life in a Calabrian hill village where an aged, ailing goatherd (Giuseppe Fuda) lives by himself and tends his adorable charges. He also tends a persistent cough in a traditional way by ingesting blessed packets of dust swept from a church floor.
The goatherd serves as Frammartino's primary human focus. (The closeups of Fuda's face and hands and the few humble belongings in his home would have inspired van Gogh.) But sometimes I also felt as if I were getting down in the muck with the wonderful goats and their kids. We visit and revisit the Calabrian landscape, the film's rhythms returning us to certain views in differing lighting or times of year, as if we're perched on a higher hill looking out across the soft expanse. In most of the village scenes, we gaze downward as if standing atop the highest roof or floating above a road. The few verbal exchanges between villagers sound muffled. Distinct words are not as important as meaning; being human, we understand well enough. Frammartino lets clanging goat bells, rustling wind, a barking dog, jubilant villagers and growling chain saws tell the story and mark time's passage.
Despite the distancing viewpoints and Frammartino's unusually intense attention to the non-human elements in his film, Le quattro volte carries a strong emotional charge. You watch it, you feel, you care.
Read Michelangelo Frammartino's synopsis and intention.
Public screening: Sunday, September 26, 3pm
Alice Tully Hall, 65th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam), Manhattan
Information and ticketing
Complete NYFF information (September 24-October 10)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Le quattro volte (written/directed by Michelangelo Frammartino) Italy/Germany/France. 2010. 88 minutes. Lorber Films
Without dialogue but with sense-filling imagery and sound, Michelangelo Frammartino (writer/director) traces the movement of soul within earthly matter as represented by his rural ancestral home, Calabria, across four seasons. Human, animal, vegetable, mineral: These divisions are also the "four turns" of the title and the four profound, interconnected elements of Calabrian tradition and practical survival.
The film opens as smoke wafts from holes in a black cone of charcoal erected and tended by carbonai (coal men), launching intertwined cycles of cause and effect. As the film progresses, the significance of this cone will become clear, and Frammartino returns to it near the end, showing the careful process of its construction and use. In between, we observe the stark, everyday flow of life in a Calabrian hill village where an aged, ailing goatherd (Giuseppe Fuda) lives by himself and tends his adorable charges. He also tends a persistent cough in a traditional way by ingesting blessed packets of dust swept from a church floor.
The goatherd serves as Frammartino's primary human focus. (The closeups of Fuda's face and hands and the few humble belongings in his home would have inspired van Gogh.) But sometimes I also felt as if I were getting down in the muck with the wonderful goats and their kids. We visit and revisit the Calabrian landscape, the film's rhythms returning us to certain views in differing lighting or times of year, as if we're perched on a higher hill looking out across the soft expanse. In most of the village scenes, we gaze downward as if standing atop the highest roof or floating above a road. The few verbal exchanges between villagers sound muffled. Distinct words are not as important as meaning; being human, we understand well enough. Frammartino lets clanging goat bells, rustling wind, a barking dog, jubilant villagers and growling chain saws tell the story and mark time's passage.
Despite the distancing viewpoints and Frammartino's unusually intense attention to the non-human elements in his film, Le quattro volte carries a strong emotional charge. You watch it, you feel, you care.
Read Michelangelo Frammartino's synopsis and intention.
Public screening: Sunday, September 26, 3pm
Alice Tully Hall, 65th Street (between Broadway and Amsterdam), Manhattan
Information and ticketing
Complete NYFF information (September 24-October 10)
Geena Davis takes on gender inequality
Geena Davis talks about a lack of females in TV and film
by George Szalai, Reuters, September 20, 2010
by George Szalai, Reuters, September 20, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Jill Johnston, 81
Jill Johnston, Critic Who Wrote 'Lesbian Nation,' Dies at 81
by William Grimes, The New York Times, September 21, 2010
Georgianna Nienaber reflects on Jill Johnston (Huffington Post, September 20, 2010)
Jill Johnston Web site and biography
Bon Voyage to Jilly by Ingrid Nyeboe
by William Grimes, The New York Times, September 21, 2010
Georgianna Nienaber reflects on Jill Johnston (Huffington Post, September 20, 2010)
Jill Johnston Web site and biography
Bon Voyage to Jilly by Ingrid Nyeboe
Sally Silvers is out of her mind!
OUT OF YOUR MIND (AND IN YOUR BODY):
A MOVEMENT WORKSHOP FOR WRITERS
with Sally Silvers
Tuesdays (7-9pm), beginning October 12 for 10 sessions
This is a movement workshop for writers who want to explore creating movement out of words and writing out of movement. No dance, theater, or athletic ability/experience is required. Dancers or choreographers who want to work with language and with untrained movers are also very welcome. We’ll start with a physical warm up designed to fire up your senses, center you in your body, and get your creative juices flowing. We’ll explore ways of writing inspired by movement. We’ll look at people moving on video (from Jerry Lewis, and Robin Williams to sports to break dancing, from Yvonne Rainer, Douglas Dunn, Bill T. Jones to my own dances) with an eye toward new kinds of writing: texts to accompany performance, to combine poetry with documentation, that designs movement or is energized by it. We’ll look at some texts that have inspired or accompanied dance & performance (from Emily Dickinson to Vito Acconci to John Cage, etc.) And we’ll especially look at our own writing to imagine performing it & putting it in motion. Through collaborations, talking about videos, writing and editing together and alone, we’ll create performances that spotlight the experiments that start with our bodies. When you stimulate your body, your creative process comes alive in ways that will amaze you. Let’s open some new horizons for your writing. Did I already say no movement training or dance experience necessary? Wear or bring comfortable clothes & shoes.
Sally Silvers is writer/ choreographer who has been making dances and texts for 30 years. Her first group work featured non-dancer poets. She also currently dances for Yvonne Rainer.
The workshop fee is $350, which includes a one year Sustaining Poetry Project membership and tuition for any and all spring and fall classes. Reservations are required due to limited class space, and payment must be received in advance. Caps on class sizes, if in effect, will be determined by workshop leaders.
If you would like to reserve a spot in any of the classes, you can sign-up here. You can also email us at info@poetryproject.org, or call 212-674-0910.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Arts: New Deal and Now Deal
The Philoctetes Center for The Multidisciplinary Study of Imagination (New York Psychoanalytic Institute) will host a free roundtable:
From the WPA to the NEA: Arts Funding Then and Now
Saturday, September 25, 2pm
The WPA, one of the central programs of Roosevelt's New Deal, was pivotal in providing a template for government subsidy of arts projects, producing one of the great periods of creative expression in the history of American society. Playwrights like Arthur Miller and Elmer Rice flourished under the WPA’s Federal Theater Project, directed by Hallie Flanagan. Federally funded projects sowed the seeds for America's ascendency as the center of modern art, particularly with the emergence of abstract expressionism in the late ‘40s and ‘50s. The WPA and the New Deal fostered a renaissance that affected the very fabric of American society, instilling a confidence that helped lead the country back to prosperity. This panel will look at how and why the WPA stimulated creative growth during a crucial period in American history, and examine the ways in which government subsidy of the arts can foster a sense of social identity.
Morris Dickstein is the author of Dancing in the Dark: A Cultural History of the Great Depression, winner of the 2010 Ambassador Book Award in American Studies. He is Distinguished Professor of English and Theatre at CUNY Graduate Center and the author of Gates of Eden and Leopards in the Temple, among other works.
Rocco Landesman is the tenth chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Prior to joining the NEA, he was a Broadway theater producer. After receiving a doctorate in Dramatic Literature at the Yale School of Drama, he served there for four years as an assistant professor. He ran a private investment fund until his appointment in 1987 as president of Jujamcyn, a company that owns and operates five Broadway theaters. Landesman has produced several Tony award-winning Broadway hits, most notably Big River, Angels in America, and The Producers. He has been active on numerous boards, including the Municipal Arts Society, the Times Square Alliance, The Actor's Fund, and the Educational Foundation of America. Landesman has spoken at forums and written numerous articles on the debate surrounding arts policy.
Susan Quinn is the author of A Mind of Her Own: The Life of Karen Horney; Marie Curie: A Life; Human Trials: Scientists, Investors and Patients in the Quest for a Cure; and Furious Improvisation: How the WPA and a Cast of Thousands Made High Art Out of Desperate Times. Quinn received the Globe Winship award for A Mind of Her Own, and was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and Rockefeller residency to work on her biography of Marie Curie, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, shortlisted for the Fawcett Book Prize in England, and won the Grand prix des Lectrices d'Elle in France. Quinn has been a staff writer at Boston Magazine, where she won the Penney-Missouri Magazine Award for investigative journalism, and has contributed to The Atlantic and New York Times Magazine, among other publications. She is currently at work on a book about the friendship of Harry Hopkins and FDR.
Leslie G. Schultz is the Executive Director of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn, a non-profit cultural institution dedicated to supporting the creative process and presenting innovative and accessible contemporary art, performing arts, and community media programming that reflects the diverse communities of Brooklyn. Under her leadership, BRIC has rebranded, restructured, expanded its programming, developed and implemented a new strategic plan for institutional growth, and secured public and private support for the creation of BRIC Arts | Media House, a multidisciplinary arts and media center designed by award-winning Leeser Architecture that will double the size of BRIC's current facilities. Prior to BRIC, Leslie was a partner at the law firm of Manatt Phelps & Phillips and its predecessor firm, focusing on capital projects for a range of non-profits and on non-profit governance and corporate affairs.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.
Events at Philoctetes are free and open to the public. Seating is on a first come basis.
The Philoctetes Center for the Multidisciplinary Study of the Imagination was established to promote an interdisciplinary approach to the understanding of creativity and the imaginative process. To achieve its mission, the Center organizes roundtable discussions and music, poetry and film series. All programs are free and open to the public. Visit www.philoctetes.org for more information.
Dancing in the park
Kinesis Project Dance Theatre
(Zoe Bowick, Hilary Brown, Madeline Hoak, Benjamin Oyzon,
Jun Lee, Rebecca Patek and Melissa Riker)
at Bosque Garden and Fountain, Battery Park
all photos (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
First, I had to find the troupe. I headed towards the Bosque Garden fountain--since I'd read that the company planned to dance in it. Riker's announcements invited the public to bring towels if they wanted to join in. But I found only pigeons, English house sparrows and starlings sipping and bathing in the fountain--oh, and a batch of tourists taking snapshots of loved ones posed in the midst of the spray. No dancers, though.
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
I wandered a short distance and discovered that Kinesis Project is a movable feast in more ways than one. Riker and her dancers were gradually ambling and scrambling towards the fountain, often landing on benches and slipping over one another in a rapid, nonstop way that challenged my photo skills.
Eventually, dancers displaced avian denizens and tourists as you will see in this photo collection. Click the photo player to see larger images.
Birds and KPDT at Battery Park
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Hoghe: "I invite dancers to my universe."
After a DTW performance of Sans-titre--wrought and performed by Raimund Hoghe (Germany) with Faustin Linyekula (Democratic Republic of Congo)--a respected colleague came up to me and told me that, even allowing for a broad definition, he failed to find much in the way of choreography in the piece. By this, I think he meant a deliberate, effective selection and arranging of movement material with connective tissue, some internal logic, a recognizable through-line. Instead, he found ideas and pieces of things here and there.
This frank assessment sent me into a momentary brain jam. The work had been, for me, intuitively recognizable as a "universe"--as Hoghe might call it--with its own structure and resonance. I had come out of the theater with chills up my back and feeling unable to speak and, what's more, feeling that words were not necessarily the most necessary things I could offer. In the course of seventy minutes, Hoghe and Linyekula had--through stark visual and kinetic elements and a haunting blend of Baroque music and Black spirituals--taken mundane space, marked it off for sacred work and turned it into a place of solemnity and tenderness. I felt no distance between myself, as spectator, and moments of loss, absence, grief or, for that matter, compassion and healing that these two men--different in so many ways--might have experienced in their lives.
The work is entitled "untitled," and it is a work that belongs to, and leaves generous space for, its audience. I cannot say how, but I know that I--as well as others--found ourselves inhabiting those spaces.
At the post-show Q&A--a curious and largely disappointing one, since DTW's Carla Peterson seemed unable to think up a way to engage Linyekula in a conversation dominated by Hoghe--Peterson noted that the audience had remained completely still during the performance. Listening and, now and then, gazing around me, I had noticed that, too. It felt, to me, like an attentiveness that ran unusually deep.
I note--but find myself less interested in--the striking differences between Hoghe and Linyekula. These include realities of race, age, nationality, culture, history and--the ones that usually make the most difference on a dance stage--physical form and ability. Hoghe--exposing his pronounced spinal deformity to our gaze--fits no conventional notion of dancer. (Please note: I wrote conventional.) Linyekula--youthful, slender, sinewy and with the facility of a marionette--is a handsome African Mercury, a dancing god. Their undeniable differences are Hoghe's preoccupation in this work--that and the possibility of human connection across difference.
What interested me more, in a personal way, as a former ritualist in women's spirituality circles, was the two men's creation and holding of ritual space, largely through minimalist iconography--blank sheets of white paper; pale-colored stones smoothed by the pressure of water--that simply takes you there. And as a former ritualist, I recognized, with a catch of my breath, Hoghe's equally deliberate, necessary, erasure of that space near the conclusion of the evening. Ritual space exists in a timeless place--a place out of ordinary human time. It is conjured as a protective enclosure for sacred work, and then it is carefully dispersed before we return to linear time and our day-to-day lives. Hoghe understands this.
Afterwards, in DTW's lobby, I felt I had returned to my life and the world a little too abruptly. Generally speaking, I prefer to incubate my experience with serious art--at least, overnight--before fully assessing it. Moreover, the Q&A felt strange. Had it not been for prompting from a choreographer in the audience, Linyekula--quietly sitting to Peterson's right--would not have been drawn into it at all. Peterson's body language--she was completely turned towards Hoghe for almost all of the time--puzzled me. Was she uncomfortable with the prospect of questioning Linyekula? Both men speak English clearly and both, I would think, could and should speak to the intention of the piece, the creative process and what the work feels like from inside. That Linyekula was left in silence for almost the entire time underscored difference--brought it roaring back into focus--in a way I found disturbing.
And yet this is our world. We leave the theater, leave sacred space, and we are right back in it. If theater, if ritual, has served its purpose, perhaps we will have learned something that we can use in the thick of things.
[Sans-titre, a co-presentation of Dance Theater Workshop and FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival]
What interested me more, in a personal way, as a former ritualist in women's spirituality circles, was the two men's creation and holding of ritual space, largely through minimalist iconography--blank sheets of white paper; pale-colored stones smoothed by the pressure of water--that simply takes you there. And as a former ritualist, I recognized, with a catch of my breath, Hoghe's equally deliberate, necessary, erasure of that space near the conclusion of the evening. Ritual space exists in a timeless place--a place out of ordinary human time. It is conjured as a protective enclosure for sacred work, and then it is carefully dispersed before we return to linear time and our day-to-day lives. Hoghe understands this.
Afterwards, in DTW's lobby, I felt I had returned to my life and the world a little too abruptly. Generally speaking, I prefer to incubate my experience with serious art--at least, overnight--before fully assessing it. Moreover, the Q&A felt strange. Had it not been for prompting from a choreographer in the audience, Linyekula--quietly sitting to Peterson's right--would not have been drawn into it at all. Peterson's body language--she was completely turned towards Hoghe for almost all of the time--puzzled me. Was she uncomfortable with the prospect of questioning Linyekula? Both men speak English clearly and both, I would think, could and should speak to the intention of the piece, the creative process and what the work feels like from inside. That Linyekula was left in silence for almost the entire time underscored difference--brought it roaring back into focus--in a way I found disturbing.
And yet this is our world. We leave the theater, leave sacred space, and we are right back in it. If theater, if ritual, has served its purpose, perhaps we will have learned something that we can use in the thick of things.
[Sans-titre, a co-presentation of Dance Theater Workshop and FIAF's Crossing the Line Festival]
Friday, September 17, 2010
Free The Bessies!
Did you know that you can reserve free* tickets for the brand spankin' new Bessies awards celebration? It's smart to jump on this opportunity right now. See below.
Monday, October 18, 8pm
Broadway and 95th Street, Manhattan
(#1 subway to 96th Street)
Hosted by Isaac Mizrahi
with award presentations by HT Chen, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Virginia Johnson, Yvonne Rainer, Tina Ramirez, Gus Solomons, Jock Soto, Elizabeth Streb and Jennifer Tipton
*Tickets are free but must be reserved through:
Symphony Space online (convenience/handling fees: $5.75)
phone 212-864-5400 (service fee: $2.75)
box office (no fee)
Faculty opening: Hunter College dance ed
Click here--Lecturer (Coordinator of Graduate Dance Education)--and scroll down.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The influential Georgianna Pickett
ARTIST & INFLUENCE
651 ARTS Executive Director Georgiana Pickett will be interviewed for the Hatch-Billops Collection on Sunday, October 10, 2pm.
For almost 40 years, the New York City-based husband-and-wife artistic team Jim Hatch and Camille Billops have collected and documented the oral histories of leading African American artists from all fields of the performing and applied arts and published them in their annual journal Artist & Influence. The list of interviews is astounding, and includes Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Owens, Amiri Baraka, Don Cherry, Margo Humphrey, Judith Wilson, George C. Wolfe, Glenda Dickerson, Linda Goode-Bryant, Langston Hughes and many, many more. It is a great honor for Georgiana Pickett to give her perspective on the history and importance of 651 ARTS for this esteemed archive.
Sunday, October 10, 2pm
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
"seNSATE' in The Vaults
Carrie Ahern rehearsing seNSATE
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Choreographer Carrie Ahern reprises seNSATE, her acclaimed dance installation, at The Vaults (14 Wall Street) for six Swing Space performances, beginning this Saturday at 8pm.
all photos (c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Premiered at the Brooklyn Lyceum in November 2009, Ahern's seNSATE runs for three hours in a cyclical loop. Viewers may drop in and leave at any point during those times, and they will freely move around to follow the flow of action in various pockets of space beneath Wall Street.
Carrie Ahern Dance
The Vaults
14 Wall Street (Level B), Manhattan
Swing Space is a residency program and presentation of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.
Saving the art of Haiti
Cultural Rescue
Public and private U.S. sources unite to help Haiti's art community recover from the earthquake
by Stevenson Swanson, ARTnews, September 2010
Public and private U.S. sources unite to help Haiti's art community recover from the earthquake
by Stevenson Swanson, ARTnews, September 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Andy Horwitz breaks it down
When it comes to the controversial Ann Liv Young, Culturebot's Andy Horwitz doubts there's any there there. Read on...!
The Silly Consensus
The Silly Consensus
UBW in the (praise) house!
Urban Bush Women's next Being Bushified! evening--tomorrow at 7pm--will feature a screening of Praise House (1991):
Directed by acclaimed director, Julie Dash, this 1991 film is based on Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's dance theater ensemble work, Praise House. It explores the search for liberation and cultural identity within the African Diaspora through the cultural elements of myth, religion and history.
Being Bushified! is our monthly culture and community series that introduces you to the UBW way and brings you into our community through dance, workshops, conversations and films that show what a great impact dance has on health & wellness, education, communities, individuals and innovation.Admission: $15 ($5 of every ticket goes to supporting UBW's Juneteenth partnerships.)
Wednesday, September 15, 7pm
Location:
The Great Room, A.R.T. NY building
138 South Oxford Street, 2nd Floor
(between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue), Brooklyn
138 South Oxford Street, 2nd Floor
(between Hanson Place and Atlantic Avenue), Brooklyn
Directions: 1 block from C train to Lafayette
2 blocks from G train to Fulton Street
4 blocks from B/D/M/N/Q/R/2/3/4/5 to Atlantic Station
Call 718-398-4537 or click here.
2 blocks from G train to Fulton Street
4 blocks from B/D/M/N/Q/R/2/3/4/5 to Atlantic Station
Call 718-398-4537 or click here.
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