Virginia Johnson and the Fortunes of Dance Theater of Harlem
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Natalie Portman's swan immersion
Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ Transforms Natalie Portman
by Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times, October 30, 2010
by Terrence Rafferty, The New York Times, October 30, 2010
Happy Samhain!
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Views from Water Canyon trail
Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Cibola National Forest, New Mexico
(c)2010, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody blog wishes you a Happy Samhain and every bright blessing in the New Year!
And to those of you who celebrate our holiday as Halloween, have a fun day and night, too!
Saturday, October 30, 2010
"THEM" and us
I saw them once. I don’t know when or who they were because they were too far away. -- Dennis Cooper in THEM
PS 122's revival of THEM--a dance/text/music piece created during the early era of AIDS--feels not only fresh but necessary today. With a title that suggests observation and finger-pointing from a distance, this work brings to mind that saying about where your other four fingers are pointing. While its text, quietly recited live by writer Dennis Cooper, reflects memory the way a river's surface plays at capturing the moon, its physical and imaginal energy could not be more in-your-face, more disturbing in real time, in distracted, fearful, denial-bound America.
The hour-long piece premiered at PS 122 in 1986 with a performance team including its primary creators--Cooper, Chris Cochrane (music) and Ishmael Houston-Jones (direction and choreographic score for improvisation). For the reconstructed work, developed in residency at The New Museum, the trio are joined by very talented lighting designer Joe Levasseur and a new team of young dancers--Joey Cannizzaro, Felix Cruz, Niall Noel, Jeremy Pheiffer, Jacob Slominski, Arturo Vidich and Enrico D. Wey. All shoulder great responsibility here with a challenge that demands and takes everything an artist has to give. They give it.
Cruising, anonymous sex, rough sex, gay bashing, anxiety, illness, mortality--the specificity of these things, and of those tumbling, grappling, "tangled guys" invoked by Cooper, are there for anyone to see. The uncommon beauty of THEM is also its terror. Awkward, expansive, often explosive individual and interactive movement throws light onto an aspect of American maleness--whether sourced in biology or in society--that rules. Desire rules: Watch how every aggressive part of a dancer's body gets its way, its voice, humbling the heavy, listless head which merely follows, helplessly and blissfully, in momentum.
Dramatic lighting carves the various scenarios out of the midnight darkness of a space bound on two sides by packed-solid audience seating. While the hip PS 122 crowd--generally "downtown" artists all--might not be unnerved by most of what occurs in THEM, there are at least two scenes that would fail to rattle only the dead. The first occurs when the tense undercurrent simmering in the air suddenly bursts into violence. The second links back to the work's opening image--Vidich led forward and blindfolded by Houston-Jones--and involves the entanglement, and surely the identification, of the young dancer with the bloody carcass of a goat.
This one scene--not brief enough, I'm sure, for most observers--acts like an implosion, as if everything preceding it has collapsed into horror. Here we have the ancient rite, the casting out or slaughtering of the scapegoat, the one bearing our sins and woes. As long as the goat stays well away (or is dead), we are purified. We can breathe easily, live safely, all troubles gone. We still practice this rite today. We just do it in ways that keep our hands clean and smelling sweet.
THEM concludes tonight with 8pm and 10pm performances. I'd be surprised if tickets were still available, but give it a shot here. It's worth it.
Performance Space 122
150 First Avenue (at Ninth Street), Manhattan
Friday, October 29, 2010
Ivy Baldwin: No rest for the weary
Here's a link to my Dance Magazine review of Ivy Baldwin's Here Rests Peggy, which is running through tomorrow evening at The Chocolate Factory.
Just come get this mess
Can you just clear it up? I need a little more clarity. -- Peter Richards in Para-dice (Stage 1)
When Patricia Hoffbauer auditioned for DTW's Fresh Tracks series, she says, David White argued that her dance was too messy and disorganized. But my guess is that mess is often the point. Because either you're going to have a tidy piece of work or you're going to have a real piece of work (meant in both senses of that term). Hoffbauer sees everything in terms of the mess.
And what she has going on now at Danspace Project--a phenomenon called Para-dice (Stage 1)--is messy to the max on purpose. Sprawling throughout space and time, it doesn't even have a discernible beginning or a definitive end. And oh, that middle!
Add the fact that Para-dice (Stage 1) is messily shoehorned into an evening with another phenomenon called The Adventure (instigator: Trajal Harrell), a nightly sample of choreographic research experiments-in-progress and, on the evening I attended, a thought-provoking party game for audience members followed by an invitation to stick around for wine. What's going on here?
If narrative is power, is there any coincidence whose narratives are visible? -- Patricia Hoffbauer in Para-dice (Stage 1)
What seems to be going on is a kind of blasting open of assumptions about what it means to make and perform dance, what it means to try to give a lecture on dance and culture (with Hoffbauer and collaborators vividly referencing and mercilessly deconstructing Brazilian history, pop culture and stereotypes), what it means to consume art, what it means to critique it or to willingly live with it and participate in its meaning. It complicates everyone's safe story--and just what does it mean to have a crush on a smooth-singing, smooth-looking samba/funk star who turns out to have been an informer for the dictatorship devastating your country?--and it continuously interrupts "serious" art with entertainment and vice versa. And it does all these things with an almost unimaginable seamlessness and insouciance.
One of my favorite moments happens very early on: There's a smallish film screen set up on one side of the space, and some hazy imagery comes on for just a few seconds before the images inexplicably slide away onto the back wall of St. Mark's Church's sanctuary. Why in hell should the images stay on a little screen when they can more rambunctiously, even sacrilegiously, splash themselves, as in a movie theater, across far more impressive space? This filled me with cheer, and the oncoming dance--riddled with graceful humor among other good and smart and skillful things--kept me alert throughout.
The piece was created in collaboration with its performers--Peggy Gould (so deft and pleasurable to watch in her duet work and other interactions with Hoffbauer), Elisa Osborne, Peter Richards (whose visual contributions include samples from Brazilian filmmaker Glauber Rocha) and George Emilio Sanchez (responsible for much of the text). Costumes are by Liz Prince, lighting by Kathy Kaufmann.
Every performance includes a different work from The Adventure. (Last night, for instance, dancer Anna Whaley "stole" Thibault Lac's solo, 2, Line, Science--simply constructing a sandpainting-like diagram of white powder on the church floor and dustbusting it up again, all to the strains of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine.") So go and see what adventure's in store for you this weekend.
Patricia Hoffbauer's Para-dice (Stage 1) and The Adventure
continuing tonight through Saturday, 8pm
St. Mark's Church
Second Avenue and Tenth Street, Manhattan
She dances with dolphins
Together: Dancing with Spinner Dolphins
directed and performed by Chisa Hidaka, founder and director, Dolphin Dance Project, "dedicated to a true collaboration between equal minds."
Support the work of the Dolphin Dance Project. Download Together or purchase a DVD here.
For further information about Together and the DDP, click here.
directed and performed by Chisa Hidaka, founder and director, Dolphin Dance Project, "dedicated to a true collaboration between equal minds."
Support the work of the Dolphin Dance Project. Download Together or purchase a DVD here.
For further information about Together and the DDP, click here.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
OurGoods: a community bartering initiative
OurGoods.org, a barter network for the creative community, is celebrating its launch with a series of live barter matchmaking events co-sponsored by several major NYC arts service institutions in November. OurGoods helps performing and visual artists, designers and craftspeople get their creative projects done in a community that runs on mutual respect. The site matches barter partners, provides accountability tools, and offers technical assistance resources. It is an instigator for generosity, a locus of empowerment, and an innovative model for supporting the work of artists.
The site lists resources members are willing to share ranging from sound design to carpentry, from embossing equipment to language coaching, from babysitting to a ’98 Corolla. Members are looking for marketing help, performance venue research, web design, a sailboat, yoga lessons, and a quiet writing space, among other things.
The November live barter events are an opportunity to meet potential barter partners in person. Each event starts with an optional workshop to help participants get their Needs and Haves organized. The workshop is followed by a networking session in which OurGoods founders will map the Needs and Haves in the room and connect potential barter matches.
OurGoods event schedule
Saturday, November 6 at Dance Theater Workshop, 219 West 19th Street, Manhattan. 3pm Barter, a Budget Supplement (workshop), 4pm Live Barter Matchmaking. This event is part of The Field’s ERPA Open Source series. Co-sponsored by The Field, DTW, Movement Research, and Dance/NYC.
Sunday, November 7 at WOW Café Theater, 59 East 4th Street. 12pm Self Producing 101 (workshop), 1pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, HERE Arts Center, Fourth Arts Block and Dixon Place.
Saturday, November 13 at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, 323 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor. 3pm Idea Party (workshop), 4pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by Exit Art, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Smack Mellon Studios, LES Printshop, and F.E.A.S.T.
Sunday November 14 at Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 421 5th Avenue, Brooklyn. 12pm Self Producing 101 (workshop), 1pm Live Barter Matchmaking. Co-sponsored by Brooklyn Arts Exchange and Brooklyn Arts Council.
For more information about OurGoods.org and to get involved, click here.
Symposium on diasporic literatures in the US
Turning Tides
A Symposium on Diasporic Literatures
Saturday, November 6 (1-6pm)
McNally Auditorium, Fordham University, Lincoln Center
140 West 62nd Street, Law School Entrance
(between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)
directions
Free and open to the public
A Symposium on Diasporic Literatures
Saturday, November 6 (1-6pm)
McNally Auditorium, Fordham University, Lincoln Center
140 West 62nd Street, Law School Entrance
(between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues)
directions
Free and open to the public
Poets & Writers is pleased to co-sponsor Turning Tides: A Symposium on Diasporic Literatures at Fordham University.
This creative and scholarly symposium will highlight three different legacies of diaspora in the United States: Haiti, The Philippines and Puerto Rico. Each panel will feature a short scholarly talk and a reading by two writers, followed by a moderated conversation. What do Filipino American writers take for granted, in terms of artistic freedom? In what political and aesthetic ways are Puerto Rican writers employing creative disobedience? Until January 2010, descendants of the Haitian diaspora could call Haiti their home; now, that geography has been rent. What kind of scattering will result? And, how will it be told by writers?
The principle aim of Turning Tides is to involve prominent artists and scholars in an exchange of ideas for the purpose of proactively responding to the growing phenomena of American diaspora as it is in the making and to ground and contextualize this conversation within a critical understanding of a larger global history.For detailed program and speakers information, click here.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Controversy at Royal Ballet of Flanders
A video interview with Kathryn Bennetts, recently forced out of her post as artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders
Visit Save Royal Ballet of Flanders on Facebook
Ballet Leader to Leave Over Flemish Official’s Plan
Visit Save Royal Ballet of Flanders on Facebook
Ballet Leader to Leave Over Flemish Official’s Plan
Conspire with Trajal Harrell
Trajal Harrell, dancer-choroegrapher and curator of Danspace Project's celebrated PLATFORM 2010: certain difficulties, certain joy will offer a 20-minute lecture on the current state of dance and performance.
"THE CONSPIRACY OF (Performance)"
Friday, October 29, 2pm
Friday, October 29, 2pm
Admission: Free
Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street (corner Second Avenue), Manhattan
Danspace Project
St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th Street (corner Second Avenue), Manhattan
Desmond Tutu on arts boycott of Israel [UPDATED]
Tutu Urges South African Opera Company Not to Perform in Israel
by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, October 26, 2010
UPDATE: Over Tutu’s Objections, South African Opera Company Says It Will Tour Israel
by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, October 26, 2010
UPDATE: Over Tutu’s Objections, South African Opera Company Says It Will Tour Israel
Arturo O'Farrill band to play Cuba
Arturo O'Farrill to Play in Cuba, His Father's Homeland
by Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, October 26, 2010
by Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, October 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Homer: all through the night
This just in...an invitation from The Readers of Homer...
200 participants of all ages, backgrounds and nationalities will gather to read, one after the other, Homer’s great poem, The Odyssey.
The pre-assigned segments may be offered in English, ancient or Modern Greek, or in any language of the reader’s choice, while the acclaimed English translation by Stanley Lombardo will be projected on a giant screen. Students, teachers, professionals from all fields, children and parents, are invited to experience–as participants or audience members–the life changing pleasures of reading poetry aloud.
Featuring renowned ancient Greek music ensemble Lyravlos, under the direction of Panagiotis Stefos and contemporary dance by the notable Choreo Theatro Company, under the direction of choreographer Irina Constantine Poulos and set to original music by the Slovenian group Silence.
Featuring renowned ancient Greek music ensemble Lyravlos, under the direction of Panagiotis Stefos and contemporary dance by the notable Choreo Theatro Company, under the direction of choreographer Irina Constantine Poulos and set to original music by the Slovenian group Silence.
With the rising of the sun, the event will close with Four Meditations on War, a musical piece scored for bass-baritone and string quartet, conducted by composer Mark Latham. Created during some of the bleakest days of the war in Iraq, the composition reflects the complexity of this foremost Homeric theme, war, and all that arises from it: courage, cowardice, beauty, futility, heroism, love.
All proceeds benefit the national and international programs of The Readers of Homer. The objectives of the organization include the revival of public reading, the recognition of the eternal immediacy of Homer, the honouring of the international translators of his epics, the offering of a multilayered audiovisual experience to the public, as well as learning and socialization opportunities to thousands of participants. Under the direction of founder Prof. Kathryn Hohlwein and actor/producer Yannis Simonides, and with the support of a multi-talented group of colleagues, the Readers of Homer have recently presented extremely successful Homeric celebrations in the USA, Egypt, Uruguay, Greece, Italy and Turkey, and seek support in order to respond to an increasing number of invitations worldwide.
For participation and additional information, contact Stephania Xydia at 917-671-6984 or Odyssey92Y@gmail.com.
Sylvia Sleigh, visual artist, 94
Sylvia Sleigh, Provocative Portraitist and Feminist Artist, Dies at 94
by William Grimes, The New York Times, October 25, 2010
by William Grimes, The New York Times, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Debate: Is ballet over?
Debate: Is ballet over? (audio podcast)
Q host Jian Ghomeshi welcomes Jennifer Homans, dance critic of The New Republic and author of the forthcoming Apollo’s Angels: A History of Ballet (Random House) and Karen Kain, artistic director of National Ballet of Canada.
Read Is ballet over? by Jennifer Homans (excerpted from Apollo's Angels by The New Republic, October 13, 2010).
Read Is ballet over? by Jennifer Homans (excerpted from Apollo's Angels by The New Republic, October 13, 2010).
Kushner in America
Kushner’s ‘Angels in America’ Earns Place in Pantheon
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, October 24, 2010
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, October 24, 2010
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Itching to write about competition?
Just in from the editors of itch, this provocative call-for-submissions of writing about dance and competition:
itch #12 -- Com(petition): The Big Throw Down
The stench of competition seems to be everywhere thanks to the infiltration of prime-time competition reality dramas. Many of us thought the art world was immune to the play of juvenile and canned rivalries, but five years deep into So You Think You Can Dance, followed by Bravo's Work of Art, even non-commercial ventures are employing contest tactics as a P.L.A.U.S.I.B.L.E(!) means of supporting emerging artists. In the aftermath, audiences become collectives whose supposed "voting power" turns them against work that doesn't offer instant gratification, and the veneer of the artwork itself gets shinier and shinier.
While we all know that the politics of art are never immune to popularity contests, what do the unapologetic turns to the "spectacle of the contest" do to the aesthetic discourses and conversations that we value, struggle for, establish and teach?
And what about you? Do you play the game? Does it play you? What are you competing against? (something real, imagined, personal, artistic, conceptual, political, psychological, tactical, choreographic...your last piece???) When does competition inspire you to dig deeper and question your methods, motivations, and desires; and when does it just blow up in your face? What or who motivates you to throw down and where does it go from there?
Competition functions to pit peers against one another, but does it have to? What happens if we instead petition the competition, question its mechanics and tactics, thwart the rules of the game, and refuse its authority?
For this issue of itch, (Com)petition: The Big Throw Down, we're interested in the many ways in which you wrestle with the notion of competition, turning it into a clause of action, a site of inquiry or an avenue for confronting fears of failure. Yes, we're talking about fighting the system, but we're also talking about recognizing and usurping the format of winning and losing altogether.
What's really worth fighting for anyway?
Submission deadline: November 30
Send submissions, questions and provocations as attached, uncompressed word files or pdfs to submit@itchjournal.org
itch is an evolving art project in the form of a journal that aspires to serve the community of dancers and other artists of the Los Angeles area and beyond. Practice participation in the developing LA dance culture: insert your thoughts, your body, your voice. help itch grow should you be enhanced by it...
submit volunteer donate distribute subscribe participate!
itch #12 -- Com(petition): The Big Throw Down
The stench of competition seems to be everywhere thanks to the infiltration of prime-time competition reality dramas. Many of us thought the art world was immune to the play of juvenile and canned rivalries, but five years deep into So You Think You Can Dance, followed by Bravo's Work of Art, even non-commercial ventures are employing contest tactics as a P.L.A.U.S.I.B.L.E(!) means of supporting emerging artists. In the aftermath, audiences become collectives whose supposed "voting power" turns them against work that doesn't offer instant gratification, and the veneer of the artwork itself gets shinier and shinier.
While we all know that the politics of art are never immune to popularity contests, what do the unapologetic turns to the "spectacle of the contest" do to the aesthetic discourses and conversations that we value, struggle for, establish and teach?
And what about you? Do you play the game? Does it play you? What are you competing against? (something real, imagined, personal, artistic, conceptual, political, psychological, tactical, choreographic...your last piece???) When does competition inspire you to dig deeper and question your methods, motivations, and desires; and when does it just blow up in your face? What or who motivates you to throw down and where does it go from there?
Competition functions to pit peers against one another, but does it have to? What happens if we instead petition the competition, question its mechanics and tactics, thwart the rules of the game, and refuse its authority?
For this issue of itch, (Com)petition: The Big Throw Down, we're interested in the many ways in which you wrestle with the notion of competition, turning it into a clause of action, a site of inquiry or an avenue for confronting fears of failure. Yes, we're talking about fighting the system, but we're also talking about recognizing and usurping the format of winning and losing altogether.
What's really worth fighting for anyway?
Submission deadline: November 30
Send submissions, questions and provocations as attached, uncompressed word files or pdfs to submit@itchjournal.org
itch is an evolving art project in the form of a journal that aspires to serve the community of dancers and other artists of the Los Angeles area and beyond. Practice participation in the developing LA dance culture: insert your thoughts, your body, your voice. help itch grow should you be enhanced by it...
submit volunteer donate distribute subscribe participate!
Rethorst and Rev. Billy win Alpert Award
And while we're at it, cheers to dancer artist Susan Rethorst, theatrical gadfly Bill Talen ("Reverend Billy") and all the other winners of the 2010 Alpert Award in the Arts!
2010 Alpert recipients
About the Alpert Awards
2010 Alpert recipients
About the Alpert Awards
Bessies get rolling again
My New Mexico vacation plans had long been set when I learned that the Bessies would be coming back and celebrated at Symphony Space on October 18. While I felt sad to be unable to be there, I was delighted to hear the results and that the evening, with Isaac Mizrahi as MC, turned out to be amazingly fabulous! Congratulations to everyone--the winners, the selection committee and steering committee, Dance NYC and Lucy Sexton who pulled this thing from death's door.
And, of course, New York dance is the big, big winner.
Here's the list:
37 Venice Boulevard
Choreographed by Faye Driscoll
Performed November 2008 at the Here Arts Center
Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance
Created and choreographed by Okwui Okpokwasili
Performed February 2008 at Performance Space 122
Stolen
Choreographed by Yvonne Meier
Performed February 2009 at Danspace Project
Crotch (all the Joseph Beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal, or trauma…)
Choreography, performance, installation, and visuals by Keith Hennessy
Performed April 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
Dark Horse/Black Forest
Direction and choreography by Yanira Castro
Performed June 2009 in the hotel lobby bathroom at The Gershwin Hotel, presented by Performance Space 122
Be In the Gray With Me
Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz
Performed June 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
Comme Toujours, Here I Stand
By Big Dance Theater
Performed October 2009 at The Kitchen
Grupo de Rua: H3
Direction and choreography by Bruno Beltrao
Performed February 2010 at Dance Theater Workshop
Last Meadow
Created and choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez in collaboration with the performers
Performed September 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
parades & changes, replays
Conception and artistic direction Anne Collod in dialogue with Anna Halprin and Morton Subotnick
Performed October 2009 at The Kitchen
Puro Deseo
Concept and direction by Luciana Achugar
Premiered April 2010 at The Kitchen
The Radio Show
Choreographed by Kyle Abraham
Performed February 2010 at Danspace Project
Recipients of Bessies for performances from the past two seasons (2008–2010)
Michelle Boule
David Leventhal
Heather Olson
Miki Orihara
Paradigm
Latysha Antonio, Sofia Britos, Non Griffiths and Allegra Herman for their performance in Sarah Michelson’s Dover Beach at The Kitchen
Kayvon Pourazar
And here's some more Bessies goodness:
Bessies Are Back After a Hiatus, Primed for a Major Makeover
by Gia Koulas, The New York Times, September 10, 2010
Video footage from the 2010 Bessie Awards
Dance NYC
And, of course, New York dance is the big, big winner.
Here's the list:
37 Venice Boulevard
Choreographed by Faye Driscoll
Performed November 2008 at the Here Arts Center
Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance
Created and choreographed by Okwui Okpokwasili
Performed February 2008 at Performance Space 122
Stolen
Choreographed by Yvonne Meier
Performed February 2009 at Danspace Project
Crotch (all the Joseph Beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal, or trauma…)
Choreography, performance, installation, and visuals by Keith Hennessy
Performed April 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
Dark Horse/Black Forest
Direction and choreography by Yanira Castro
Performed June 2009 in the hotel lobby bathroom at The Gershwin Hotel, presented by Performance Space 122
Be In the Gray With Me
Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz
Performed June 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
Comme Toujours, Here I Stand
By Big Dance Theater
Performed October 2009 at The Kitchen
Grupo de Rua: H3
Direction and choreography by Bruno Beltrao
Performed February 2010 at Dance Theater Workshop
Last Meadow
Created and choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez in collaboration with the performers
Performed September 2009 at Dance Theater Workshop
parades & changes, replays
Conception and artistic direction Anne Collod in dialogue with Anna Halprin and Morton Subotnick
Performed October 2009 at The Kitchen
Puro Deseo
Concept and direction by Luciana Achugar
Premiered April 2010 at The Kitchen
The Radio Show
Choreographed by Kyle Abraham
Performed February 2010 at Danspace Project
Recipients of Bessies for performances from the past two seasons (2008–2010)
Michelle Boule
David Leventhal
Heather Olson
Miki Orihara
Paradigm
Latysha Antonio, Sofia Britos, Non Griffiths and Allegra Herman for their performance in Sarah Michelson’s Dover Beach at The Kitchen
Kayvon Pourazar
And here's some more Bessies goodness:
Bessies Are Back After a Hiatus, Primed for a Major Makeover
by Gia Koulas, The New York Times, September 10, 2010
Video footage from the 2010 Bessie Awards
Dance NYC
Friday, October 22, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
NJPAC gets into real estate
New Jersey Arts Center Sets Real Estate Venture
The project, advocates say, will help revitalize the Newark neighborhood where the center makes its home.
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, October 15, 2010
The project, advocates say, will help revitalize the Newark neighborhood where the center makes its home.
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, October 15, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Cat People Are People Too
Cat People Are People Too
by Sloane Crosley, The New York Times, October 21, 2010
by Sloane Crosley, The New York Times, October 21, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Only connect: Eastwood's "Hereafter"
Clint Eastwood (director)
USA. 2010. 126 minutes. Warner Bros. Pictures
Writer Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) and director Clint Eastwood present the world as a hazardous place, all the more horrific for the impersonal nature of most of this danger. We're helpless in the face of earth's changes, terrorist plots, downsizing industries, dysfunctional people. It's not about us, but the bad thing comes ripping through, and we are simply in the way.
Life is hard--at the very least baffling, disappointing, lonely--and then you die.
And then what?
Psychic George (Matt Damon), tv superstar Marie (Cecile de France) and poor young Marcus (Frankie McLaren) all have good reason to ask. Morgan and Eastwood hurtle them through this film as through a classic mythic quest--with Damon's George as reluctant participant while the other two are valiantly driven. Because this is an Eastwood film, you know that geography will not separate these three questers for very long. In fact, only through interconnection will each one begin his or her true journey.
And then what?
With Hereafter, the 80-year-old Eastwood explores human vulnerability. At every turn, he renders his audience as vulnerable as children. The tsunami hits just a few minutes into the film; its amazingly realistic visual and sonic effects truly terrify. You almost feel the weight of the water, the impact of overturned vehicles slamming into structures and bodies. Camera work rushes the waves at you and submerges you. And that's only the beginning. Later scenes--depicting disasters large or intimate--are equally visceral, and we are given absolutely no time to shield ourselves.
Eastwood displays, as always, the dry-eyed, old-school humanism of a tough guy with a basic sense of decency and compassion. Morgan's characters work our emotions; we find ourselves in them. In fact, with Eastwood's direction, McLaren and de France are, in every moment, almost too real. Only Damon--perhaps because we know this actor all too well--appears to be acting, sometimes spelled with a capital A. But very often something quieter, subtler, more intuitive comes to the fore--as in some cooking class scenes shared with his fellow student, a pivotal role overplayed to distracting, cutesy effect by Bryce Dallas Howard. Ignore Howard and watch Damon.
When George touches his clients hands, he gets brief flashes of information about their deceased loved ones. He tours the preserved home of Charles Dickens and touches objects that make him feel closer to his idol. The film concludes with the inevitable, though almost missed, clasping of hands. For Eastwood, touch--human connection--seems to be the only answer to the awesome, perhaps unanswerable questions about this world and whatever may follow.
Public festival screenings:
Sunday, October 10, 8:15pm (Walter Reade Theater)
Sunday, October 10, 10:00pm (Alice Tully Hall)
Sunday, October 10, 10:00pm (Alice Tully Hall)
National release: October 22
Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall
Obscenity...of the financial kind
'Inside Job' - Charles Ferguson Dissects the Wall Street Meltdown
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, October 7, 2010
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, October 7, 2010
Intimate terror
Review of Down There by Randy Sharp and Michael Gump
by Deborah Feller, DeborahFeller.com, October 7, 2010
by Deborah Feller, DeborahFeller.com, October 7, 2010
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Vargas Llosa wins Nobel
Vargas Llosa Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature
by Julie Bosman, The New York Times, October 7, 2010
by Julie Bosman, The New York Times, October 7, 2010
Into the unknown with Ralph Lemon
How can you support a work without knowing where it’s going?
by Alyssa Alpine, Culturebot, October 6, 2010
by Alyssa Alpine, Culturebot, October 6, 2010
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
10*10*10: Celebrating TOPAZ ARTS
TOPAZ ARTS celebrates its 10th anniversary!
Includes performances by Monstah Black, Molissa Fenley & Dancers and Paz Tanjuaquio with a reading by Carl Hancock Rux, a film short by Todd Richmond
also literary luminaries Luis H. Francia, Queens Poet Laureate Paolo Javier
and the opening of a solo exhibition of new paintings by Roy Fowler
Hosted by Christalyn Wright
The event continues with DecadeDance! featuring music compilations by
guest DJs Bruce Tantum and Niles Ford
Includes performances by Monstah Black, Molissa Fenley & Dancers and Paz Tanjuaquio with a reading by Carl Hancock Rux, a film short by Todd Richmond
and the opening of a solo exhibition of new paintings by Roy Fowler
Hosted by Christalyn Wright
The event continues with DecadeDance! featuring music compilations by
guest DJs Bruce Tantum and Niles Ford
Sofian: through light and shadows
Distinguished dancer, choreographer and instructor Anahid Sofian presents
Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat--"an ethos of the Armenian people, their culture, history, religion, arts and folklore."
Passage through Light and Shadows: The Children of Ararat--"an ethos of the Armenian people, their culture, history, religion, arts and folklore."
An added feature will be two Saturday, 4pm showings of the recently-discovered 1919 film Ravished Armenia, along with a distinguished panel of Armenian scholars.
Theatre of St. Clement's
423 West 46th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
October 22, 23, 29, 30 at 8pm
October 26, 27, 28 at 7:30pm
October 24 at 3pm and 7pm
October 22, 23, 29, 30 at 8pm
October 26, 27, 28 at 7:30pm
October 24 at 3pm and 7pm
October 31 at 3pm
Information: sofiana@tiac.net or 212-741-2848
Online ticketing or order by phone at 212-352-3101 or 1-866-811-4111
Paintings by Joe Levasseur
Performance Space 122 invites you to a exhibition of paintings by award-winning lighting designer Joe Levasseur.
Opening: Tuesday, October 12 (7-9pm)
Performance Space 122
Downstairs Theater/Gallery/Lounge
150 First Avenue (enter on East 9th Street), Manhattan
Regular schedule:
Wednesday, October 13 (7-9pm)
Thursday, October 14 (7-11pm)
Opening: Tuesday, October 12 (7-9pm)
Performance Space 122
Downstairs Theater/Gallery/Lounge
150 First Avenue (enter on East 9th Street), Manhattan
Regular schedule:
Wednesday, October 13 (7-9pm)
Thursday, October 14 (7-11pm)
includes Thursday Night Social for I Am Saying Goodnight
Friday and Saturday, October 15–16 (7-9pm)
Sunday, October 17 (2-6pm)
Thursday, October 21 (7-11pm)
Friday and Saturday, October 15–16 (7-9pm)
Sunday, October 17 (2-6pm)
Thursday, October 21 (7-11pm)
includes Thursday Night Social for Them
Saturday and Sunday October 23- 24 (2-6pm)
Monday, October 25 (7-9pm)
Click here for additional information on Levasseur and his visual art.
Saturday and Sunday October 23- 24 (2-6pm)
Monday, October 25 (7-9pm)
Click here for additional information on Levasseur and his visual art.
Arlene Goldbard: "RIP Bernie Schwartz"
RIP Bernie Schwartz: Hidden and Revealed Cultural Identity
by Arlene Goldbard, ArleneGoldbard.com, October 3, 2010
by Arlene Goldbard, ArleneGoldbard.com, October 3, 2010
Newark hosts Dodge poetry fest
Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival Tries Newark
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, October 5, 2010
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, October 5, 2010
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Afro-Haitian dance at BAAD!
BAAD! presents Jessica St. Vil's Ka Nu Dance Theatre and the Mikerline Dance Troupe for an evening of Haitian heritage, history and culture.
Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!)
841 Barreto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
841 Barreto Street, 2nd Floor, Bronx
718-842-5223
Friday, October 15, 8pm
Friday, October 15, 8pm
For more information, ticketing and directions to BAAD!, click here.
Science foundation funds theater project
Science Foundation Backs Climate-Change Play
by Rachel Lee Harris, The New York Times, October 3, 2010
by Rachel Lee Harris, The New York Times, October 3, 2010
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Fire & Ink's call and response
Black LGBT publishing house Fire & Ink and MC Books publisher Michael Christopher offer a list of good resources for education and discussion:
Save the Merce Cunningham Studio Petition
Read the proposal and sign the petition to support this effort!
Vollmond: only love can make it rain
Vollmond. Opulent. Audacious. Sure-footed. Funny. Poignant. Elegant. Dashing.
Generous. Unforgettable. Pina Bausch.
Generous. Unforgettable. Pina Bausch.
US Premiere of
Vollmond (Full Moon)
through October 9
2010 Next Wave Festival
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
30 Lafayette Avenue, Brooklyn
Friday, October 1, 2010
"Something rich and strange"
Julie Taymor (director/producer/writer)
USA. 2010. 110 minutes. Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films
The vertiginous camera work in the early moments of The Tempest, where a ship founders in a sudden storm, gives viewers a good idea of what they're in for--an explosive, visceral ride. Julie Taymor (Frida, Across the Universe and Broadway's The Lion King) will swirl her trusty wand, conjuring a primal island commanded by Prospera (Helen Mirren), a female version of Shakespeare's master of high magick, cunning and insight.
Taymor's Tempest is "such stuff as dreams are made on"--silky, romantic dreams as well as fearsome nightmares, all larger than life. Huge close-ups of faces; vivid, textured landscapes; reverberating sound: This hallucinatory sensuousness bears down and sweeps you up.
Beneath these heady visions, though, lies the bedrock of things more inescapably human than magical: envy, betrayal, vengeance as well as the capacity for compassion and forgiveness. Shakespeare's Tempest is a tale in which the attainment of justice requires acceptance of humanity in all its light and dark elements, acceptance of the limits of one's power as a mortal being. The freedom Prospera frequently promises her helper spirit Ariel is the freedom she most craves for herself.
Mirren, our North Star, is an elegant authority. The mercurial play of thought across her face's terrain illuminates this narrative of an exiled leader and powerful mage at a personal crossroads.
Julie Taymor talks about The Tempest (AUDIO)
(New York Film Festival press conference, September 30, 2010)
Beneath these heady visions, though, lies the bedrock of things more inescapably human than magical: envy, betrayal, vengeance as well as the capacity for compassion and forgiveness. Shakespeare's Tempest is a tale in which the attainment of justice requires acceptance of humanity in all its light and dark elements, acceptance of the limits of one's power as a mortal being. The freedom Prospera frequently promises her helper spirit Ariel is the freedom she most craves for herself.
Mirren, our North Star, is an elegant authority. The mercurial play of thought across her face's terrain illuminates this narrative of an exiled leader and powerful mage at a personal crossroads.
Julie Taymor talks about The Tempest (AUDIO)
(New York Film Festival press conference, September 30, 2010)
Russell Brand (Trinculo)
Alfred Molina (Stephano)
Djimon Hounsou (Caliban)
David Strathairn (King Alonso)
Chris Cooper (Antonio)
Alan Cumming (Sebastian)
Ben Whishaw (Ariel)
Reeve Carney (Prince Ferdinand)
Felicity Jones (Miranda)
Tom Conti (Gonzalo)
Composer: Elliot Goldenthal
Production Design: Mark Friedberg
Costume Design: Sandy Powell
Public festival screening: Saturday, October 2 (10pm)
New York and Los Angeles release: December 10
Alice Tully Hall
New York and Los Angeles release: December 10
Alice Tully Hall
Broadway and 65th Street, Manhattan
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