Black Gay Genius: Joseph Beam

Charles Stephens & Steven G. Fullwood: A Conversation on Joseph Beam and ‘In the Life’
by Steven G. Fullwood, Lambda Literary, December 29, 2012

What makes dance good: Know it when you see/feel it!

One Sentence: How to Watch Dance
by Phil Chin, The Huffington Post, December 28, 2012

Post-Sandy: High losses for Chelsea art galleries

Art Insurance Losses from Hurricane Sandy May Reach $500 Million
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, December 28, 2012

Jayne Cortez, 76

Jayne Cortez

Moving into a New Year, 

we deeply mourn the loss of the fierce and loving poet

Jayne Cortez (1936-2012).

About Jayne Cortez

Instructions for now, for 2013 and onward:

Find your own voice.

 

Eight charged in 1973 murder of singer Víctor Jara

Eight Are Charged With Chilean Singer’s 1973 Murder After Military Coup
by Pascale Bonnefoy, The New York Times, December 28, 2012

The fiscal cliff threatens dance and arts funding

 How the fiscal cliff will affect dancers and dance companies
 by Steven Weisz, The Dance Journal, Dec 28th, 2012

Fontella Bass, 72

Fontella Bass, 72, Singer of 'Rescue Me,' is Dead
by Ben Sisario, The New York Times, December 27, 2012

Train for anti-violence with Gibney's Institute for Community Action

For more than a decade, Gibney Dance Community Action has pioneered movement workshops that help women in domestic violence shelters to find their voices and move towards healthier futures. Now, you too can be part of the groundbreaking work that positions movement and creativity at the forefront of positive social change.

Institute for Community Action is open to dance and social service professionals and students. Participants will gain the tools and skills to initiate, build, and sustain arts outreach projects targeting specific populations.

Friday, January 25 / 6pm – 9pm: Building Awareness
Saturday, January 26 / 10am – 6pm: Building a Workshop
Sunday, January 27 / 10am – 2pm: Building a Program

Tuition: $500

Learn more about this important program here.

Applications for ICAT are now open through January 4th and can be accessed here. 

Yasemin Ozumerzifon

Community Action Manager

Gibney Dance Center

Celebrate with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely!

TOSHI REAGON & BIGLovely

invite you to

 Toshi's Annual Birthday Celebration

January 18-20

at Joe's Pub

Musician Toshi Reagon

Friday, January 18 -- 9pm

Saturday, January 19 -- 9pm

Sunday, January 20 -- 7pm The Sacred Music Show featuring Bernice Johnson Reagon [SOLDOUT!]

Featuring Judith Casselberry, Stephanie McKay, Marcelle Davies Lashley, Adam Widoff, Robert Burke, Fred Cash, Jason Walker, Josette Newsam Marchak

Tickets can be purchased online at joespub.com, where customers are able to select their seat from an interactive seat map when purchasing, by phone at 212-967-7555, or in person at The Public Theater Box Office (1 PM to 6 PM) located at 425 Lafayette Street, NYC.

Directions to Joe's Pub

Charles Durning, 89 [UPDATE]

Many critics marveled that such a heavyset man could be so nimble in the film's show-stopping song-and-dance number, not realizing Durning had been a dance instructor early in his career. Indeed, he had met his first wife, Carol, when both worked at a dance studio. 

--The Associated Press

Charles Durning, king of character actors, dies at 89
The Associated Press, December 25, 2012

Charles Durning, Prolific Character Actor, Dies at 89
by Robert Berkvist, The New York Times, December 25, 2012

Jack Klugman, 90

Actor Jack Klugman dies in Los Angeles
The Associated Press, December 24, 2012

Jack Klugman, star of 'The Odd Couple' and 'Quincy,' dead at 90
by Daniel Beekman, New York Daily News, December 24, 2012

Stuff I liked a whole lot in 2012

Once again, my dear readers, here's my end-of-year list of cultural high points, fond memories and mad, mad crushes, completely personal and subjective, and sort of in chronological order...

Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion -- Live!: The Realest MC (2011, excerpts) at Focus Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater (January 4 & 8) Abraham, choreography. Dan Scully, lighting. Abraham and Kristi Wood, costumes.

Kate Weare -- Garden (2011) at Focus Dance Festival, The Joyce Theater (January 4 & 8). Weare, choreography. Kurt Perschke, set design. All performers; special mention: Leslie Kraus and Bergen Wheeler
 

Writer/director Toshiki Okada and his chelfitsch Theater Company (Japan) -- Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and The Farewell Speech at Under The Radar Festival at Japan Society (January 5-14)

Marc Bamuthi Joseph/The Living Word Project -- Word Becomes Flesh at Under The Radar Festival at The Public Theater (January 5-15). Special mention: B. Yung

Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods & EIRA -- New York premiere of Blessed -- at New York Live Arts (January 12-14). Created and performed by Francisco Camacho, Abraham Hurtado and Kotomi Nishiwaki; music by Hanh Rowe; installation by Doris Dziersk.

Young Jean Lee and all collaborators on Untitled Feminist Show -- at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 12-February 4). Performers: Blackwell, World Famous *BOB*, Amelia Zirin-Brown (aka Lady Rizo), Hilary Clark, Katy Pyle and Regina Rocke

Omagbitse Omagbeni in Keely Garfield's Twin Pines at Danspace Project (January 19-21)

Nicholas Leichter and Bryan Strimpel in excerpts from Twenty (work-in-progress) at 651 Art's Live & Outspoken, Mark Morris Dance Center

Wicked Fish by Huang Yi, performed by Cloud Gate 2 at The Joyce Theater, February 8-12

Parallels platform, curated by Ishmael Houston-Jones at Danspace Project, February 2-March 28

Labyrinth Within, film directed by Pontus Lidberg, written by Lidberg with Niklas Holmgren, starring Wendy Whelan, Pontus Lidberg and Giovanni Bucchieri, with music by David Lang. Screened at Baryshnikov Arts Center, February 21

The fabulous Carolina Chocolate Drops

Carolina Chocolate Drops at Pace University's Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, March 2

How To Survive A Plague, film directed by David France, New Directions/New Films Festival, March

651 Arts Live & Outspoken: Judith Jamison interviewing Garth Fagan, March 13. Special mention: performances by Norwood Pennewell and Nicolette Depass; performance by Vitolio Jeune

theRevisitation, Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group, New York Live Arts, March 14-17, Wilson and entire team. Special mention: dancer Paul Hamilton; lighting designer Jonathan Belcher

The Tarot Museum, Morena Poltronieri, Riola, Italy

Interviewing BAX's Marya Warshaw in March, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts 

Strange Cargo (finale of Painted Bird Trilogy), Pavel Zuštiak/Palissimo at Synod House, Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Performers: Jeremy Xido, Luke Murphy, Lindsey Dietz Marchant, Giulia Carotenuto and Denisa Musilova. Joe Levasseur (lighting) and Christian Frederickson and Ryan Rumery (original music/live performance).

NOX by Rashaun Mitchell at Danspace Project. Performed by Mitchell and Silas Riener, Anne Carson (text), Benjamin Miller (music) and Robert Currie. With lighting by Davison Scandrett. Costumes by Mary Jo Mecca and Telfar Clemens.

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce Theater, May 15-27. Ensemble performances in Hofesh Shechter's Violet Kid and Crystal Pite's Grace Engine

Michelle Ellsworth in The Pythagodress at Danspace Project, May 24-26. Costume design by Priscilla Cohan, Janice Lacek and Bruce Miller

Pressing Empty by Melissa Riker & Kinesis Project Dance Theatre at Danspace Project, June 14-16. Melissa Riker for choreography, performances by Riker and Zoe Bowick, Andrew Broaddus, Hilary Brown, Madeline Hoak, Jun Lee and Benjamin Oyzon. Musical score by Katie Down. Costumes by Amy Pedgio Otto, Tracy Klein and Kara Harmon. Lighting by Kia Rogers.

Rodrigo Pederneiras, choreographer, and Paquito D'Rivera, composer, for Come With Me by Limon Dance Company, The Joyce Theater, June 19-24. Also, dancing by Durrell Comedy, Kristen Foote and Logan Francis Kruger in various pieces

Derick K. Grant, Michelle Dorrance and Brenda Bufalino at Writing on Tap seminar, co-produced by Collective for Dance Writing and New Media and American Tap Dance Foundation, June 23 (photo by Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance at Danspace Project, June 28-30. All dancers, musicians and singers. Kathy Kaufmann for lighting.

Jason Samuels Smith at The Joyce Theater, July. Samuels Smith in Imagine; Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, Chloe Arnold and Michelle Dorrance in excerpts from Charlie's Angels 

Nora Chipaumire's Miriam at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space), September 12-15. also dancing: Okwui Okpokwasili. Music by Omar Sosa. Lighting by Olivier Chausse. Costume by Naoko Nagata. Sound by Lucas Indelicato

Clarinda Mac Low's 40 Dancers do 40 Dances for the Dancers at Danspace Project, September 13-15. Numerous dancers.

Karma Mayet Johnson, Indigo: a Blues Opera, entire production at Dixon Place

Tami Stronach, Me and Not Me at Dance New Amsterdam, September 19-22. Duet: Stronach and Lindsey Dietz-Marchant. Lighting: Joe Levasseur. Sound design: Jane Shaw, including vocal by Karina Denike

Voices of Strength (program A) at New York Live Arts, curated by Cathy Zimmerman of MAPP International Productions. Choreography and performance by Nelisiwe Xaba (South Africa), Ketty Noël (Haitian-born, living in Mali) and Nadia Beugré (Cote d’Ivoire)

Philadanco at The Joyce Theater, October 2-7, including performance of Gatekeepers (1999) choreographed by Ronald K. Brown and Wake Up (2012) choreographed by Rennie Harris; performance of Roxanne Lyst in Moan by Matthew Rushing

Takashi Ueno in Raimund Hoghe's Pas de deux at Baryshnikov Arts Center, October 10-12

Thibault Lac in Trajal Harrell's Judson Church is Ringing in Harlem (Made-to-Measure)/Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at the Judson Church (M2M), part of PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now, Danspace Project, October 11-13. Costumes by Complexgeometries

At The Bessie Awards at The Apollo Theater with Dale Amanda O'Reilly, October 15 (photo by Donna Mason)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch in "...como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si..." at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, October 18-26

Meredith Monk in Pioneer Days at Danspace Project, part of PLATFORM 2012: Judson Now

Lucy Guerin's Untrained at BAM Fisher, November 27-December 1 (Michael Dunbar, Alisdair Macindoe, Ross McCormack and Jake Shackleton)

Tere O'Connor's 2 New Works at New York Live Arts, November 27-December 1 (especially poem, and performance by Natalie Green, Heather Olson, Michael Ingle, Oisín Monaghan and Silas Riener)

Ros Warby in Deborah Hay's As Holy Sites Go/duet at Danspace Project, November-December 2012

Interviewing the venerable Middle Eastern dance artist Anahid Sofian at Gibney Dance Center, December 8

August Wilson's The Piano Lesson at Signature Theatre (writing, acting, sets)

The Robert Glasper Experiment at Harlem Stage Gatehouse in Robert Glasper: Songs in The Key of Life (including singers Lalah Hathaway, Eric Roberson and Stokley), December 13-14

Christian Marclay's The Clock at MoMA, December 21 through January 21

***

It has been a notably challenging year for me, as for so many others, but not without its precious rewards--including so many opportunities to learn from and enjoy the work of talented artists. I am continuously blessed.

Here's to 2013! See you around town! 

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

InfiniteBody

http://infinitebody.blogspot.com

Happy Winter Solstice!

Wishing you a season of light and renewal. 

Bright blessings now and in the coming year.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

http://magickaleva.wix.com/psychictarot

"Say, do you happen to have the time?" See Marclay's "The Clock"

Christian Marclay. Detail of The Clock. 2010. Single-channel video with sound, 24 hours. © Christian Marclay. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.

Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art, proudly declared Christian Marclay's The Clock to be "one of the most coveted works of art anywhere in the world." This unique, 24-hour video installation, winner of the Golden Lion Award at the 2011 Venice Biennale, now belongs to MoMA's collection. The two men sat in conversation at MoMA's second-floor atrium to introduce a two-hour press preview of the installation.

A fast-paced montage of film clips--some obscure, others easily recognizable--The Clock draws from an international array of film, from the silent through contemporary eras, from Charlie Chaplin to Christopher Walken. This work of sly visual and sound editing unfolds real time before our eyes, each minute synced to our actual time and announced in exact order, each scene or image bearing literal and/or metaphoric connection to time and timepieces.

If you missed The Clock in its European presentations, in Boston or at last summer's Lincoln Center Festival, you've got another chance to catch it this winter from Decemer 21 through January 21, 2013. In addition to showings during public hours as well as some continuous screenings (see schedule here), MoMA will offer a special presentation of The Clock in its Contemporary Galleries on New Year's Eve beginning at 10:30am and running continuously through 5:30pm on New Year's Day. (Click here for information on after-hours admission.)

Marclay--an American-born multimedia artist, now based in London--edited film material, collected by assistants, over a three-year process he describes as "tedious but simple." He used sound to facilitate his enchanting transitions from clip to clip. For instance, for an illusion of continuity, he might overlap the native sound of one scene--say, the resonance of church bells--with the opening of the following scene.

How many discrete clips does The Clock contain? Marclay hasn't a clue and does not care.

"After I was done with the project, I didn't want to sit there and count them," he says. "All those statistics are less important than the actual experience."

That experience can be heady and surreal as well as richly entertaining. Images of clocks and watches, the ordinary and the ornate, alternate with motifs that suggest movement and speed (various types of vehicles) or the fluid possibilities of transition (entrances and exits; sleeping and waking; crossing a street; walking or playing on the sand at water's edge.)

Repeat viewers can tell you their favorite times of day. Moments of wit and humor or gripping suspense abound. Familiar actors and film scenes pop up, here and there, triggering memories that call up your personal experiences of time. Tension builds to a crescendo as the video approaches noon (as I witnessed today) and, reportedly, midnight. Around about the witching hours of three or four in the morning, Marclay says, "things get kind of weird."

Marclay suggests that The Clock is best approached and appreciated not as a marathon event but, rather, a work each viewer can tailor to the rhythm of his or her own life.

"You don't have to see it from beginning to end," he advises. "There is no beginning, and there is no end."

It took me a half-hour to figure out how The Clock was messing with my head--dazzling me while also making me feel antsy. Here's a video installation using bits of film to break amorphous time into its components, lining up each of those bits, one after the next, and insisting on giving each its visualized or spoken time-stamp. While cleverly celebrating the legacy and magic of cinema, The Clock resists acting like film--that is, it does not help us swoon and forget. It keeps us focused on the literal, linear passage of time. In that way it is, like Marclay's editing process, intermittently "tedious but simple," creating, even regimenting, a form of order out of chaos.

Arrive when you can, watch as much as you care to, and leave when it suits you. Each regular showing--free with museum admission--can accommodate 130 visitors and up to 170, if you include standing room.

A few important notes of caution, though. Prepare for a long wait to get in. MoMA promises live online reports on the state of the queue here and via Twitter @TheClockatMoMA.

Also, MoMA's sofas aren't particularly comfy--inadequate back support--but if you race in and grab a corner of a sofa, as I did, you might be able to angle your body in a way that will suffice for an hour or two. Sit on the floor, if you like. You can't bring drinks or snacks. Use the restroom before you enter the gallery; if you go out for a break, you forfeit your place. To re-enter, you'll have to stand on line again. Your youngsters might enjoy The Clock in intervals of reasonable length, but be aware that there is some profanity and nudity. 

Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Healthcare for New York City's dance community

The William F. Ryan Community Health Network invites the dance community to register for services including primary and preventive care, routine dental, mental health, OB/GYN, and eye/vision services. Click here for its letter to the field.

Founded upon former congressman William F. Ryan's belief that "health care is a right, not a privilege," the William F. Ryan Community Health Network is a family of not-for-profit, federally qualified health centers, which delivers medical care to diverse and underserved communities. The William F. Ryan Community Health Network is: dedicated to its patients, culturally sensitive, community-oriented, and linguistically diverse. Its goal is to ensure that everyone receives the most comprehensive care possible. www.ryancenter.org

Contact:

Maria A. Lugo
Director of Operations
William F. Ryan Community Health Center
110 West 97 Street
N.Y. N.Y. 10025
212-316-8361 (Office)
212-932-8323 (Fax)
maria.lugo@ryancenter.org

The need for healthcare options in dance is demonstrated by recent Dance/NYC research. For instance, the Dance/NYC Junior Committee's Dance Workforce Census: Earnings Among Individuals, 21-35, shows that only 55% of full-time danceworkers, and 3.6% of part-time dance workers receive health insurance benefits.

The Ryan Community Health Network's new initiative is one response to this identified need and grows out of field discussions initiated by Charles Reinhart and including dance artists and managers, Dance/NYC, Dance/NYC Junior Committee's Healthcare Subcommittee, Career Transitions for Dancers, Elsie Management, The Field, Fractured Atlas, Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, New York Live Arts, and Pentacle. For more on dancer health and to learn about Dance/USA's Taskforce on Dancer Health, see Dance/USA's resources.

Graham's surrealism on display at the Morgan

Along with its major exhibition of Surrealist works on paper--Drawing Surrealism (January 25-April 21)--The Morgan Library and Museum will present a performance of works by Martha Graham.

Inner Landscape: Martha Graham and the Surreal
Thursday, February 7, 7pm

The Martha Graham Dance Company will perform three of Graham’s masterworks that touch on surrealism and demonstrate how the choreographer made the workings of the mind visible in dance. Every Soul is a Circus (with Katherine Crockett performing the lead), Satyric Festival Song, and “Moon” from Canticle for Innocent Comedians will be featured with commentary by the Company’s Artistic Director, Janet Eilber. Drawing Surrealism will be open at 6pm especially for program attendees.

Tickets: $20; $15 (members)

The Morgan Library & Museum
225 Madison Avenue (at 36th Street), Manhattan
212-685-0008 x560
(map/directions)

Coming to the Guggenheim in 2013

Daniel Beaty and Moisés Kaufman
Tallest Tree in the Forest
Sunday, January 13, 7:30pm; Monday, January 14, 3 and 7:30pm

Advance tickets are available for the Works & Process presentation of The Tallest Tree in the Forest. The play, by Obie-Award winning performer and writer Daniel Beaty and Tony- and Emmy-nominated director and playwright Moisés Kaufman, explores the evolution of Paul Robeson as an actor and activist.

Wendy Whelan
Restless Creature
Sunday and Monday, Apr 14 and 15, 7:30pm

Hailed by the New York Times as “America’s greatest contemporary ballerina,” Wendy Whelan performs a Shen Wei solo; a duet with New York City Ballet’s Robbie Fairchild choreographed by Joshua Beamish; and excerpts from Restless Creature, featuring four new duets by Beamish, Kyle Abraham, Brian Brooks, and Alejandro Cerrudo, prior to its premiere at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Jacob’s Pillow Executive and Artistic Director Ella Baff moderates a discussion with Whelan and the four choreographers.

For a schedule of the entire Works & Process series, click here.

Guggenheim Museum
1071 Fifth Avenue ( at 89th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Jeni LeGon, 96

Jeni LeGon, Singer and Solo Tap-Dancer, Dies at 96
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, December 16, 2012

In the key of Wonder: Robert Glasper at Harlem Stage Gatehouse

Robert Glasper

From a nightclub table at the edge of Harlem Stage Gatehouse stage, I had a revealing angle on Robert Glasper. The pianist, bent to his work, simply presented to my gaze one ear, the side of his neck, the whimsical watch cap stretched out behind his head. Facing a far corner of the stage, remaining in that humble, vulnerable position, Glasper flowed through a rippling, ringing solo he later called "I Wonder." With its layers of meditative and bluesy "voices," less driven than the sturdier, determined work of his ensemble--The Robert Glasper Experiment--and his guest performers, the solo expressed a wandering kind of wondering that eventually wends its way to clarity and serenity.

Commissioned by Harlem Stage's WaterWorks series, Robert Glasper: Songs in the Key of Life features the Grammy-nominated pianist's take on the legacy of Stevie Wonder--another artist with a profoundly expansive, eclectic musical toolbox--and it's a thoughtful show for folks who love Wonder but don't necessarily need to hear upbeat hits signed, sealed, delivered. Glasper's choices--and his guest collaborators--are quirky, soulful and sometimes soul-stirring.

Fervent r&b vocalist Eric Roberson serves as caller to the unified ensemble's ready, chugging response in the surprising opener, "Misstra Know It All," before Glasper and the band almost imperceptibly ease it into a  lilting jazz fantasia. Stokley (of the St. Paul, MN band Mint Condition) is all over "You've Got It Bad, Girl"--a song I appreciate far more for its silky instrumentation than its obnoxious lyrics--and "Rocket Love," strongly evoking not only the wonderful Wonder but Al Jarreau at the height of his powers. Lalah Hathaway's mocha voice deftly lifts "Overjoyed" beyond treacly pleading, and she makes you sit up and take notice--all you "Jesus Children of America"--that your bullshit ain't gonna cut it. But nevermind all that. Cool Mama Hathaway, with a big assist from Glasper and the band, ends up rocking us into a holy state of all-rightness. No matter where we're coming from, no matter what's going down now, it's going to be all right.

Check out Glasper's journey through Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"--you can do that here--and you'll feel a similar sense of moving through darkness, with increasing strength and determination, to something all-embracing and reassuring. That's where Glasper--the unifier, the healer, the dedicated Knight of Cups--likes his music to take us.

The Robert Glasper Experiment includes Casey Benjamin (saxophone/keys/vocoder), Mark Colenburg (drums), Derrick Hodge (bass) with guest performers Ahmir ?uestlove Thompson (drums, Thursday only), Gregoire Maret (harmonica), Mike Moreno (guitar) and Yuki Hirano (synthesizer).

Robert Glasper: Songs in the Key of Life concludes this evening with two more 75-minute performances (7:30 and 10pm). With seating limited, nightclub-style, both shows have long sold out, but check for last-minute cancellations. For information on these shows and tonight's pre-performance discussion with Glasper (6:30pm) and after-party at Ginny's Supper Club, click here.

Follow Harlem Stage's programming here.

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Avenue (at 135th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

The New Yorker names Susan Rethorst book one of 2012's best

Alec Wilkinson writes, "Rethorst so clearly described the immensely receptive manner in which she apprehends the world that I felt I had a privileged view of the mechanics and procedures of an ardent life."

And I agree.

Read more about dancer-choreographer Rethorst's wonderful book of "autobodygraphical" essays, A Choreographic Mind, as well as other 2012 book selections here: 

Best Books of 2012
The New Yorker, December 13, 2012

Music great Eddie Palmieri gets his due

Borders and Epochs, Dissolving at His Keyboard
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, December 13, 2012

Carole King to be awarded the Gershwin Prize

Carole King to Receive the Gershwin Prize
by James C. McKinley, Jr., The New York Times, December 13, 2012

Haitian dance is La Difference

Haitian Rhythms You Can Hear From the Street
by Sarah Stodola, The New York Times, December 13, 2012

Public art raises a ruckus in Atlanta

Outcry Brings Down Murals in Atlanta Art Project
by Robbie Brown, The New York Times, December 13, 2012

Job opening: Assistant Professor of Dance

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DANCE: Dance History/Theory: full-time, tenure track position available Fall-2013

Marymount Manhattan College
New York, NY

Posted: December 13, 2012

Employment Level:
    Tenured, tenure track

Website:
    http://www.mmm.edu

Application Deadline:   
    January 15, 2012

Employment Status:
    Full-time

Salary:   
    Not specified

Marymount Manhattan College seeks to fill a full-time, tenure-track position as Assistant Professor of Dance, with specialization in Dance History/Theory beginning September 1, 2013. The Dance Department currently enrolls 185 BFA/BA majors. The curriculum includes a broad range of dance styles preparing graduates to perform in diverse venues from ballet to musical theatre and supplements technical training with eight areas of concentration.

Responsibilities include teaching, participation in student assessment and academic advisement, cultivation of interest in Dance Studies, administrative assignments as determined by the Chair of the Dance Department, curriculum development, recruitment activities, scholarly activity, college-wide service.

Required: MFA or PhD in Dance; college-level teaching experience in dance history and critical theory, and one or more of the following areas: movement analysis, cultural studies, dance and technology, dance education, or dance ethnography; a demonstrable interest in interdisciplinary connections among visual arts, dance, theatre, and music; an understanding of international developments in the field of dance; and a commitment to teaching within a liberal arts, urban undergraduate setting.

The application deadline is January 15th, 2013. Send a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three names and phone numbers of current references to Katie Langan, Chair, Dance Department.

This position is subject to final budget approval. Please refer to the college website, www.mmm.edu, and catalogue for further information. Marymount Manhattan College is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. Members of under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.

Catch the livestream of our workshop on dance film, writing: Today at 5pm

Writing on Dance:Film
A WRITE OPEN workshop

Wednesday, December 12 (5-6:30pm)

Open to NYU Tisch Dance students only
Department of Dance, NYU Tisch School of the Arts
(Cherylyn Lavagnino, Chair)

co-presented by Dance Films Association and Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

In this informal workshop, we will explore and write about excerpts from two exciting filmed versions of DV8 Physical Theatre's Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Rosas danst Rosas.  Screenings will be presented by Brighid Greene (Communications Associate, Dance Films Association).  Writing exercises will be facilitated by dance writer Eva Yaa Asantewaa.

To catch the livestream of Writing on Dance:Film -- 5pm to 6:30pm today -- click here. Download student handout here.

FLASH MOB ALERT: For Sandy relief -- Today 12:12pm at Washington Square Park Arch

BALLROOM BASIX HOSTS RHUMBA FOR ROCKAWAY RELIEF

FLASH MOB

Tony Dovolani of Dancing With The Stars, Iveta Lukosiute, the 2009 World 10 Dance Champion, Radio City Rockettes and Flash Mob America Join Ballroom Basix to Raise Funds for Rockaway

TODAY, Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 12:12 p.m.

Washington Square Park Arch, Manhattan
(map/directions)

More than 100 Ballroom and Latin dancers with Harlem schoolchildren from M.S. 45, 57 and 76 come together to raise thousands for Sancy victims.

Ballroom Basix, a not-for-profit, arts-in-education initiative that brings the etiquette and education of partner dancing to deter bullying and enhance peer relationships among schoolchildren, was serving over 120 students in PS 114 in the Rockaways before Hurricane Sandy wreaked havoc on the area. PS 114 was one of the most severly affected schools ­ so sever that all the children were relocated.

The flash mob will be danced to an original composition, a contemporary English/Spanish version of America, The Beautiful (featuring Grammy-nominated powerhouse Karina Pasian). The song is available on iTunes for $1 ­ all dowload proceeds will go towards helping the students of PS 114. A video of today¹s flash mob will post later today in hopes of viral recognition/downloads/fundraising.

Program for emerging documentary filmmakers of color

Diverse Voices in Docs is a professional development and mentorship program for emerging documentary filmmakers of color, organized by Kartemquin Films and the Community Film Workshop of Chicago. At the core of the program are six engaging three-hour workshops at the Community Film Workshop, with creative advice provided by Kartemquin Films’ world-class staff and associates. Each session will provide practical skill-enrichment designed to help incubate your next documentary project, as well as time to network and share experience with your cohort of participants. Applicants should be filmmakers who have played a principal role in a completed production (producer, writer, director, editor, etc.) and have experience or work history that demonstrated their commitment to social issue documentary. We will facilitate continued engagement throughout the six-month workshop program, and connect you to an expert community, new collaborators, and a wider network of funders and distributors. The program will culminate in exposure through a final public exhibition in late 2013.

Applications are now open.

Complete information available here

Apply by email: DVID@kartemquin.com

DOWNLOAD APPLICATION FORM or APPLY ONLINE

Application deadline: Monday, December 17th
Acceptance notification: Friday, January 6th, 2013

Ravi Shakar, 92

Ravi Shankar, Prolific Indian Sitarist, Dies at 92
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, December 12, 2012

Remembering Jenni Rivera's activism

Jenni Rivera, American Diva
by Lawrence Downes, The New York Times, December 10, 2012

Gloria Davy, 81

Gloria Davy, First African-American to Sing Aida at the Met, Dies at 81
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, December 10, 2012

Time to get "Writeous"

Writeous! 

Friday, January 11 

(7:30pm; doors open at 6:30pm)

at the Brecht Forum

An evening of readings, performances, and music celebrating Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice's Lesbian Writer's Fund and supporting its Global LGBT Arts Fund.

Featuring the words of Urvashi Vaid, Lenelle Moise, Staceyann Chin, Jacqueline Woodson; the music of Imani Uzuri; and beats by DJ Tikka Masala

$20 (No one turned away for lack of funds)
Food and WitchesBrew drinks available for purchase

Venue is wheelchair accessible through ramp in rear courtyard. If you need any further information about accessibility, please email development@astraeafoundation.org

For tickets, click here.

Brecht Forum
451 West Street (between Bank and Bethune Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Choreographer Abdel Salaam: a force of nature

Abdel Salaam -- Forces of Nature Dance Theatre
Paul Winter.com, December 6, 2012

doug elkins choreography, etc. at Baryshnikov Arts Center

The theater at Baryshnikov Arts Center was totally packed for the New York premiere of Mo(or)town/Redux, presented by doug elkins choreography, etc. So, while I can't tell you if you'll be able to get in, do try. You get Elkins's exhilarating Scott, Queen of Marys into the bargain--a cocktail blend of Scottish dancing, voguing, capoeira moves and more, first seen in 1994 but ever-fresh with a fine cast that includes very cool/on fire Javier Ninja. Seventy minutes all told, the two-dance program makes quite a very neat package for your weekend.

In the ingenious Mo(or)town/Redux, Elkins brings both Shakespeare's Othello and José Limon's The Moor's Pavane into the age of Motown and soul music. Kyle Marshall plays the Othello figure like a tall, dignified Black athlete; Donnell Oakley, his treasured Desdemona in high spirits and with bright energy just oozing from every pore. Alexander Dones and Cori Marquis--scheming Iago and his dupe, Emilia--make another sexy couple. Elkin's choreography references the lively use of space and the quartet and duet court dance patterns Limon skillfully employed as well as Limon's clever, ultimately treacherous business with a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't handkerchief--all of this arranged against a soundscape Black music hits of the '60s.

The carefully selected music--not the original versions of songs like "Tears of A Clown" and "Just My Imagination," of course--is effective, if borderline obvious and actually my least favorite element in this piece. The choreography rolls out so suave and delicious, the dancers so deft, that I think Elkins could tell the Othello story just as well without the overlay of well-known lyrics. Best of all, these dancers--especially, Oakley and the sensational Dones, who clearly loves dancing so much he can't seem to help making villainous Iago downright appealing--work out with such natural truth that they can draw you right into the dance. Not just great moves well done: This thing is alive, baby!
doug elkins choreography, etc. continues its BAC run tonight and Saturday at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

In the swing of things: Ann Hamilton's active audience

The Audience as Art Movement: Ann Hamilton at the Park Avenue Armory
by Roberta Smith, The New York Times, December 6, 2012

Open Letter from Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

Open Letter
from Collective for Dance Writing and New Media

Dear friends,

We want to inform you that we, the members of CollectiveDWNM's Executive Committee, have made the tough decision to disband.

Although we strongly believe in CollectiveDWNM's vision and mission--statements derived from numerous discussions with members of the dance and dance writing communities--we regret that we have been unable to motivate active community commitment to the effort of stabilizing and developing a grassroots, activist organization to advocate for dance writers.

Over several months, we have suffered the loss of many members of our Executive Committee and Leadership Circle (internship program) to increasingly busy lives. We have had to step back and assess the sad fact that we lack the personnel and resources necessary for even the most basic steps toward our goals.

After distributing honoraria to guest speakers from our "Writing on Tap" forum at American Tap Dance Center and our Open House at the Gibney Dance Center, we are left with a small amount of funds from admissions and membership fees. We will contribute these funds to a community organization.

A few of us hope to reschedule, on an independent basis, a couple of the events postponed due to Hurricane Sandy or planned for the future, and we will keep you posted on these developments. If you can, please come and enjoy them!

We wish you a marvelous holiday season and a New Year of peace and renewal!

All the best,
Eva Yaa Asantewaa
with Hayley Muth and Dale Amanda O'Reilly
Executive Committee
Collective for Dance Writing and New Media
collectivedwnm.com

BAM season will be Trisha Brown's last as a choreographer

Trisha Brown to Retire From Making New Work
by Jennifer Schuessler, The New York Times, December 6, 2012

On an Ailey high

Rachel McLaren (photo by Andrew Eccles)

Last night, Rachel McLaren (seen above in a publicity shot for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater) nailed The Evolution of A Secured Feminine--Camille A. Brown's virtuosic character solo. Brown is inimitable, but McLaren now has added her own brand of sass to the swift-moving piece, set to songs by Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Carter and Nancy Wilson. She made me stop and think how tricky it is for one dancer to try to hold the big City Center stage whose audience expects to see the Ailey corps fan out and fill it with energy and charm. McLaren, with her fashion model looks and razor-sharp style, gets the solo's attitude and variable timing down. She knows when to click into place, when to ease the moment, and never makes the movements look mechanical--which can happen if you are just rushing them without animating them. She luxuriates in Evolution, and so we do, too. The audience loved her. I hope you get to see her this Ailey season.

The zooming Kyle Abraham now joins the Ailey pantheon with his upbeat ensemble, Another Night, and shows he can work into that time-honored big stage-filling tradition. Set to Art Blakey's heady play on Dizzy Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia," this piece opens with slinky lead dancer Jacqueline Green unfurling long limbs into smoky environs and proceeds to explode with kicking, twirling, windmilling Ailey dynamos. Abraham's choreography doesn't seem to resonate from inside these bodies yet--with the fleeting exception of Renaldo Gardner's fun turn in the spotlight. Some similar flashes of interest go by in just that--lightning flashes. Zip, zip, gone. (Hey, can we see more of that? No? Oh, well...) Hope Boykin nicely stirs an already bubbling pot and gives us glimpses of a real person--not just a dancer stand-in for a person--without distracting from the overall action. Another Night is not the killer piece Abraham could give the Ailey troupe. Bring it, Kyle.

Jacqueline Green leads the cast of Kyle Abraham's Another Night (photo by Paul Kolnik)

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater continues its New York City Center season through December 30. For information on remaining performances and the company's upcoming US tour, click here.

New York City Center
55th Street (between 6th and 7th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Peggy Shaw returns to the stage at COIL

Peggy Shaw

Certain to be a highlight of Performance Space 122's COIL Festival, Ruff marks the return to the stage of the great Peggy Shaw--actor, producer and playwright--since her 2011 stroke.

Co-presented with Dixon Place,

Ruff pays tribute to the host of crooners, lounge singers, movie stars, rock and roll bands and eccentric family members who have kept Shaw company, living inside her, for the past 68 years. Guided by longtime collaborator Lois Weaver, Shaw throws off the stigma of age and embraces the joy—and necessity—of creating new work, post-stroke, aided by new technology and even deeper courage. Shaw is the recipient of the 2011 Ethyl Eichelberger award.

See Peggy Shaw in Ruff, January 10, 16, 18, 19 at 7pm; January 11, 19 at 10pm; January 12 at 6pm; January 15 at 9pm. For more information and ticketing, click here or call 212-811-4111.

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

Tell me a story: It's good for your brain!

The Science of Storytelling: Why Telling a Story is the Most Powerful Way to Activate Our Brains
by Leo Widrich, Lifehacker, December 5, 2012   

Black women filmmakers speak out

There Is an Audience for Our Films: Four African-American Female Filmmakers Speak Out
by Lorenza Muñoz, The Daily Beast, December 4, 2012

Dave Brubeck, 91

Dave Brubeck, Who Helped Put Jazz Back in Vogue, Dies at 91
by Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, December 5, 2012

Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People at BAM Next Wave Festival

A soft, glowing globe--like a goddess breast of white, translucent parachute cloth--looms over cramped performance space carved out by three angled thrusts of audience seating, their front edges cutting right into that surface in BAM Fisher's Fishman Space. Miguel Gutierrez hasn't given himself--or his dancers...or us, for that matter--much room to maneuver. And yet, during its 90 minutes, And lose the name of action aims to channel big, hefty other worlds and states of being and perception.

L-r: Luke George, Miguel Gutierrez, Ishmael Houston-Jones and K.J. Holmes (Photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Performed by Gutierrez with a stellar cast of collaborators--Michelle Boulé, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Luke George, Hilary Clark and K.J. Holmes--And lose the name of action takes its premise from the choreographer's interest in neuroscience and the senses and, in particular, what he sees as the absence, in any discourse on philosophy and innovations in neuroscience, of any mention of what dancers know about the body. On a deeply personal level, though, it is also influenced by his father's struggles with a neurological disorder.

His program notes for the piece (worth a read, if you get a copy) conclude,

Along the way, I became intrigued with seemingly irrational ideas from the paranormal field, with their focus on insubstantial bodies, and I created a link between this field and my experiences performing and watching dance, which itself constantly disappears and haunts, and the hallucinatory experience of watching my father and family undergo a change I could never have predicted and only barely understand now.

From the outset, even before the performance begins, something is in the air. A heavy, soapy scent, actually. I can't swear this is deliberate--not something an audience member was wearing--but Gutierrez is interested in the senses. And so...maybe. And there's a very low-level sound thing going on, too. Something chiming, some voice or voices barely detectable beneath the audience chatter and the usher's anxious seating instructions.

The piece, itself, goes on to wink and wobble and lurch so much that it sometimes dumps and spills us out of its disoriented/disorienting state as much as it envelopes us. The relatively brief audience participation in a kind of seance presided over by a smarmy Houston-Jones seems especially wink-y--and yet, also, genuinely intense with all the dancers chanting and stiffly splaying their limbs in spirit-infused rapture.

Gutierrez either contains or explodes energy, feeling, thought. Sequences of hand gestures are performed with great calm despite a sense of obsessive and/or sacred ritualization--playing a piano runs into typing runs into chopping runs into declaiming without words and bigger, formal, ritualistic movements in duets or groups. In inexplicable but interesting spotlit-moments, Houston-Jones makes like a ninja sprite and Boulé, like a drunken Isadora. Dancers spill into the space, flowing, flopping, sloshing, stuttering, stumbling, twirling, negotiating near collisions like suddenly agitated molecules. A voice mumbles a musical "Fuck you," so barely discernible that you check, again and again, to be sure that you're really hearing it. There's pregnant talk of "a gesture of bad faith." The space fills with mad Ophelias. A bearded guy (actor Paul Duncan) appears in a video that, depending on your seat, you can see or not see. Deck chairs on the Titanic get rearranged...okay, well, not the Titanic...or maybe...but the very special, restricted white chairs interspersed among the front audience rows and commandeered by dancers play a heavy role in all of this and take a good deal of the brunt.

With a soundscape often lulling us into an altered state (and possibly slumber), And lose the name of action can switch between graceful and graceless, sharply envisioned and disorganized (deliberately or not), ludicrous and alarming. I doubt that it will come to count among my favorite Gutierrez works, but it does remind me of my first--and abiding--impression of his work, that gut feeling that I'm in the middle of an earthquake.

With lighting by Lenore Doxsee, sound design by Neal Medlyn, video and writing by Boru O'Brien O'Connell, costumes by David Tabbert and dramaturgy by Juliana May

Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People perform And lose the name of action at BAM Fisher (Fishman Space) through Saturday, December 8 at 7:30pm and December 7 at 10pm.

Seating is limited. Sold out, although people on last night's waiting list were able to get in. So, give it a shot. For information, click here.

BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)
321 Ashland Place, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Middle Eastern dance great Anahid Sofian presents videos at Gibney

So do you guys want to meet one of the great, pioneering master dancer/choreographer/teachers of New York's Middle Eastern dance scene? Well, of course you do! 

So join me this Saturday, December 8, at Gibney Dance Center for GDC's Sorry I Missed Your Show event, and I'll introduce you to Anahid Sofian and show you a few videos of her dancing. It will be my honor! 

The entire SIMYS runs from 3-6pm, and Anahid's portion with me is 4-5pm, but come for it all, if you can! 

You must RSVP by early on Friday to rsvp@gibneydance.org. 

Don't forget: RSVP! Thanks, and see you there!

Saturday, December 8 

Gibney Dance Center
890 Broadway (between 19th and 20th Streets), 5th Floor, Manhattan 
(map/directions)

Choreographer Douglas Dunn celebrates his new book

Book launch for Douglas Dunn's new book of collected writings, Dancer Out of Sight

Douglas Dunn (photo by Peggy Jarrell Kaplan)

Wednesday, December 5 (6pm-7:30pm)

Douglas Dunn Studio
541 Broadway (between Prince & Spring), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Wheelchair accessible

Reservations Suggested
866-620-7509

Writing on Dance:Film -- a WRITE OPEN workshop

Eva Yaa Asantewaa (InfiniteBody and Collective for Dance Writing and New Media) and Brighid Greene (Dance Films Association) will present a workshop on Wednesday, December 12 for students from New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Dance Department.

Writing on Dance:Film will challenge dance students to explore and write about excerpts from two exciting filmed versions of DV8 Physical Theatre's Dead Dreams of Monochrome Men and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Rosas danst Rosas.

The workshop--open to students only--is a presentation of Collective for Dance Writing and New Media's WRITE OPEN series in collaboration with Dance Films Association.