Erin Brannigan examines dance on film

Continuing the Conversation
Erin Brannigan’s Dancefilm: Choreography and the Moving Image
reviewed by Terry Sprague

Talk about NYC's nonprofit dance

Dance/NYC
invites you to

State of NYC Nonprofit Dance: A Town Hall Meeting

Monday, September 12, 5:30-7pm

at the 92nd Street Y

Join Dance/NYC to discuss preliminary findings from the forthcoming research study, State of NYC Nonprofit Dance, made possible by leadership support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and The New York Community Trust. Based on the first-ever New York State Cultural Data Project data on NYC nonprofit dance groups, this report will provide a snapshot of a vital segment of the NYC dance industry and its activity, audiences, finances and resources. Led by cultural researcher Catherine Lanier and Anne Coates, new Vice President, Research and Special Projects, The Municipal Art Society of New York, we will in this discussion open up our investigation to the field and mine the data on dance for opportunities for policy, funding and management, working together to move NYC forward.

92nd Street Y
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan
(directions)

RSVP here

NJ high school bans Murakami novel

Murakami off reading lists in New Jersey
by Alison Flood, guardian.co.uk, August 25, 2011

Zinoman sees good in bad reviews

Theater Talkback: The Good That Comes From Bad Reviews
by Jason Zinoman, The New York Times, August 25, 2011

The arts commemorate 9/11

For Artists, Sept. 11 Anniversary Is a Season of Reflection
by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, August 25, 2011

Better times for the Cherry Lane

New Revenue and Better Management Help Cherry Lane Theater
by Patrick Healy, The New York Times, August 25, 2011

"Circumstance": forbidden love in Iran

‘Circumstance,’ Directed by Maryam Keshavarz
by A. O. Scott, The New York Times, August 25, 2011

Syrian political cartoonist attacked

Political Cartoonist, Ali Farzat, Is Attacked in Syria
by Nada Bakri, The New York Times, August 25, 2011

What Phillips-Fein dreamed up

Jesse Phillips-Fein is a progressive-minded choreographer who makes space for whimsy, absurdity and sensuality in her politically-oriented dance theater. I can't say I followed every detail in own, Owned--a 40-minute ensemble work about what she clearly sees as our discouraging and apathetic "post-hope" American moment. But I did appreciate her way with striking, indelible imagery--such as a pair of dancers dreamily munching on running shoes' laces and tongues. And her dancers lend themselves to such out-there moments with conviction, even abandon.

Phillips-Fein benefits from some interesting collaborators in sound designers Kevin Farrell and Phil Rodriguez (a scary-brilliant soundscape that opens with spooky splicing and distortion of President Obama's many usages of the word "hope") and lighting designer Shane Moan (whose niftiest contribution, the illusion of light emanating a tv screen, concludes the show). I cant say I cared for having a sudden flashback of Sarah Palin cracking, "How's that hope-y, change-y thing workin' out for ya?" (Get the hell out of my head, Sarah!!!) But I can't fault Phillips-Fein for a noxious effect she surely did not intend.

Performances by Dasha Chapman, Kristen Domingue, Emma Grace Skove-Epes, Kate Lieberman, Jason Sosnowski and Nadia Tykulsker

own, Owned continues at Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival on Friday, August 26 at 7pm, Saturday, August 27 at 5pm and Sunday, August 28 at 5pm.

Tickets and complete Dream Up Festival information


Theater for the New City
155 First Avenue (corner of East Tenth Street), Manhattan

Get in on the "Conversations"

Dance Conversations @ The Flea
February 6 – 19, 2012

Curated by Nina Winthrop
Assistant Curator: Taimi Strehlow

Application Deadline: Friday September 23

Proposals are now being accepted for the 2012 season of Dance Conversations @ The Flea, a free performance, film and discussion series at The Flea Theater, curated by Nina Winthrop and Taimi Strehlow.

Dance Conversations @ the Flea features dance films and live works by emerging, mid-career and established filmmakers and choreographers, followed by an open discussion between the artists and the audience, moderated by choreographer Nina Winthrop and special guests.

Further information and downloadable applications available here.

Cyndi Lauper's True Colors, indeed

Cyndi Lauper Opening Safe Haven For LGBT Youth In Harlem
The Gothamist, August 23, 2011

Making space work for New York's dancers

Gibney Dance Center Pioneers a New Financial Model While Providing Much Needed Dance-Work Space
by Jennifer Edwards, The Huffington Post

Towards a free Libya

Libyan-American Rapper Reacts to Rebel Takeover With Music
by Marlon Bishop, WNYC Culture, August 22, 2011

Music world loses Nick Ashford and Jerry Leiber

Nick Ashford, of Motown Writing Duo, Dies at 70
by Ben Sisario, The New York Times, August 22, 2011

Jerry Leiber, Prolific Writer of 1950s Hits, Dies at 78
by William Grimes, The New York Times, August 22, 2011

Arts make us healthier and happier

from ConsumerReports on Health newsletter (September 2011)

Getting cultural

In one study, men who had visited a museum or attended a concert, film, play, or sporting event in the previous six months reported better health and higher life satisfaction than those who hadn't. For women, participating in active pursuits like dancing had the greatest benefit.

Iranian "Circumstance"

‘Circumstance,’ a Film of Underground Life in Iran
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, August 19, 2011

Grooving with Susana Baca

Susana Baca, Peruvian Musician and Culture Minister
by James C. McKinley, Jr., The New York Times, August 19, 2011

Katori Hall and Moscow's Black theater artists

‘The Mountaintop’ Goes to Moscow
by Katori Hall, The New York Times, August 18, 2011

Back to class...with lusciousness

Bessie Award winner luciana achugar brings her Feeling Form classes--"connecting the parts of our whole and using imagination and intention to move more fully and with lusciousness"--to BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange) on Tuesday mornings, October 4 to December 13. Click here for more details.

BAX -- map and directions

Jowers says, Just don't call it a blog!

Read what my colleague, the dedicated and energetic Christine Jowers, has to say about The Dance Enthusiast (not a blog, people! not a blog!) and what's down the road for dance journalism. (Hint: You will have a lot to do with it!)

Back to School and the Homework Assignment is THE DANCE JOURNALISM OF THE FUTURE
by Christine Jowers, The Dance Enthusiast

Dance to get stamps of approval

Legendary Choreographer Bob Fosse to Be Honored with U.S. Stamp
Broadway.com, August 16, 2011

And not just Fosse! There's Isadora Duncan, Katherine Dunham and José Limón, too, coming in 2012 to a post office near you!

Perform, connect, all the way live

The New York Times asks Did YouTube Kill Performance Art?

In the Internet age, when the line between "happenings" and publicity stunts has blurred, can performance art still resonate with the public?

Here are a couple of interesting selections from the four responses... 

Room for Debate: Performance Art Engages All Five Senses
by Paul Levinson, The New York Times, August 18, 2011

The Lure of Enigmatic Gestures
by Liz Kotz, The New York Times, August 18, 2011

Carella dance fusion troupe marks ten years

Dalia Carella Dance Collective presents its 10-Year Retrospective, Friday, September 23 (8pm) and Saturday, September 24 (6:30pm and 9pm) at Manhattan's Dance New Amsterdam. For complete cast, program and ticketing information, click here.

Jersey on tap

It's almost time for Hillary-Marie Michael's 2nd Annual JERSEY TAP FEST, from classes with Karen Callaway Williams, Hank Smith, Yvette Glover and more to a Saturday night main stage event at Bloomfield College's Westminster Arts Center (tickets). The fest runs from Thursday, August 25 through Sunday, August 28. Get all the program and registration details here.

Dance Magazine's dance video contest

Click here to learn how you can enter your video to Dance Magazine's Video of the Month contest!

DanceMedia – All videos, all dance, all the time.

Scotland values dance!

Ya dancer! 1.5m to be spent getting Scots on their feet
by Brian Ferguson, Scotsman.com, August 4, 2011

Lila Downs set for Carnegie Hall

CAMI Music 
in association with
World Music Institute and The Latin Recording Academy
present

Lila Downs

Tuesday, November 15, 8pm

For over a decade, Lila Downs has toured the world, performing her dramatic reinvention of traditional Mexican music and original compositions fused with blues, jazz, soul and African roots.  Some would classify Lila as a Mexican artist, but there is no real way to categorize her music except to say that it is a distinctive and exciting blend of international sounds.  With her soaring voice, she takes her audiences on a musical journey that is always fascinating, simultaneously edgy and strong, yet sumptuous and graceful.
 
Tickets

Carnegie Hall
57th Street and 7th Avenue, Manhattan
(directions and parking)

Yatkin's "Wallstories": dancing to freedom

There's a moment, late in the hour, when Wallstories--a Fringe Festival multimedia work presented by Nejla Y. Yatkin's NY2Dance--takes flight. Prior to this point, the production seems an earnest, generically energetic ensemble based in thoughts about the Berlin Wall and the eventual passing of the Cold War era.

Opening with a blaring voice-over and a very narrow horizontal strip of film imagery of workers laying bricks, the dance employs a multicultural cadre of performers in short, rumpled raincoats who repeatedly bunch together and collapse one moment and, at another, make big, jazzy gestures like a Broadway chorus line of mimes. Their dancing, set to music by Bach and Pink Floyd, runs from lunges, stretches, dashes and collisions that give an impression of restlessness and inevitable release to sharply-rendered solos that convey the essence of an individual's recollections and emotions. Occasionally--as in the sixth section, "Dorothea's ?uestions," set to Pink Floyd's "Blue Sky"--the movement achieves a rapturous flow.

Yatkin's fifth section--superfluously titled "The Government, Mother Russia, my Mother, your Mother"--feels like the first clear evidence that Wallstories aims to operate on a level of psychological and universal insight beyond its aesthetic and historical concerns. But it isn't until one of the final sections, when Yatkin suddenly rises from her front-row audience seat to move in sync with one of her dancers, that the work comes home. As a member of the audience, she stands on the cusp between us and the dancers, bridging temporal, physical, emotional and psychological divides. She visually identifies herself, finally, as the heart of this piece.

A Berlin native of Turkish-Egyptian descent, now living and working in the States, Yatkin is a tall, sinewy, strong-featured wonder, a gifted dancer's dancer whose every performance is living sculpture. Watching her move last evening offered the thrill and, simultaneously, the poignancy that Wallstories had previously withheld despite the admirable effort of its other hard-working performers. It located Wallstories squarely in Yatkin's body and in her experience as a descendant of immigrants, and that touched off connections to issues roiling Western Europe in the present day.

A joyous coda brings the evening to a close, but Yatkin's presence brought it to its height.

Performed by Ahmaud Culver, Shay Bates, Sevin Ceviker, Rachel Holmes, Fadi Khoury, Karina Lesko, Marissa Maislen, Derek Crescenti, Nejla Y. Yatkin and Ehizoje Azeke

Lighting: Caroyn Wong

Video Design: Michael K. Rogers and Nejla Y. Yatkin

Photography: Nejla Y. Yatkin

Text: Nejla Y. Yatkin, with original interviews with Germans from the East and West

Wallstories is a presentation of the New York International Fringe Festival and runs through Sunday, August 28 at Dixon Place. For specific schedule details and ticketing, click here.

Dixon Place
161A Chrystie Street (between Rivington and Delancey), Manhattan
(directions)

Trinidad embraces co-author of Primus bio

A Gift to Africa
by Glenvile Ashby, The Trinidad Guardian, August 1, 2011

The Dance Claimed Me: A Biography of Pearl Primus
by Peggy and Murray Schwartz (Yale University Press, 2011)

To authors Peggy and Murray Schwartz, the Trinidad-born dancer, choreographer, anthropologist and educator Pearl Primus (1919-1994) was an extraordinary lifelong friend. Their biography reflects honest but compassionate insight into a towering artist who was not always easy to understand or work with. The Dance Claimed Me ably portrays Primus and the times and experiences that molded her--from racism and Red-baiting in America to a life-transforming, if sometimes unreliably welcoming, Africa. Regal, headstrong and as complex as only a driven genius can be, Primus can be credited with infusing the American dance stage with the profundities and subtleties of African ritual dance and music, influential if impossible to duplicate to perfection. I recommend this engrossing, poignant study of her life and contributions.

Peggy Schwartz is professor of dance and former director of the Dance Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Murray Schwartz is former Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He teaches literature at Emerson College.

The Dance Claimed Me on Amazon.com