Progress made in funding WTC performing arts center

Arts Center at Trade Center Gets $1 Million in Seed Money
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, January 31 2013

Patty Andrews, 94

Patty Andrews, Singer With Her Sisters, Is Dead at 94
by Robert Berkvist, The New York Times, January 30, 2013

Delilah Jackson, cultural historian, 84

Delilah Jackson, a New Yorker who chronicled the history of black entertainers in the mid-20th Century, dies at age 84
by David Hinckley, The New York Daily News, January 23, 2013

Jean-Léon Destiné, 94

Jean-Léon Destiné, Dancer, Dies at 94
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 30, 2013

Butch Morris, 65

Butch Morris Dies at 65; Creator of ‘Conduction’
by Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, January 29, 2013

Being necessarily here...with Marjani Forté

Dancer-choreographer Marjani Forté (left) and members of her company LOVE|FORTÉ A COLLECTIVE

(photos: left, Ian Douglas; top, Wah Ming Chang, Open City Magazine)

This up-and-coming troupe will present a world premiere in March at Danspace Project.

In recent months, the American media and people, responding to a series of well-publicized tragedies, have opened up a new--although not always entirely helpful--conversation around trauma, mental illness, and public safety. For dance artist Marjani Forté, who has been considering these issues for some time, these discussions don't always lead us back to a significant source of mental distress and imbalance--the daily collision with injustice faced by millions of people marginalized by the mainstream culture. 

"We need to have a deeper conversation around who we are as a country in regards to our history around race and our systems that have been constructed around that history," the choreographer says.

During curator Ishmael Houston-Jones's historic Parallels platform at Danspace Project (February-March 2012), Forté showed a work-in-progress called Here... which she describes as an "observation of mental health in the face of systematic oppression," the impact of racism and economic inequity. Feedback on that 20-minute preview, she says, provided insight into the value of making space for "the full picture of resilience, survival, and healing." The resulting evening-length work--retitled being Here...--opens at Danspace Project on March 21 for a two-night run.

Marjani Forté (photo by Ian Douglas)

Last winter a friend and I encountered a young woman on the Q train in New York City. She was young, slender, beautifully dark skin and curly hair, bright colors and denim pants. She was ranting. She spoke about a time she should never have known about. At no older than 25, this woman spoke like an 80 year old man, about the American Flag. “..You don’t know about the blood on that flag,” she said, as she described her trauma. She carried on in this way across the Brooklyn Bridge to Midtown Manhattan. Then her voice began to change. She developed an accent, deep, thick, and broken. Finally captivated by her, my friend made eye contact with her and winked. The young woman winked back! I sobbed, my friend and I sobbed together.

I felt time pause, and in that moment, she reflected my own journey, my fight for balance, equality, and health. She inspired me to make this work, a story of connection and healing.

--Marjani Forté 

We rarely expect concert dance to tackle an issue as weighty and complex as the roots and consequences of mental illness in American society. But Forté, best known for her performances with Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's Urban Bush Women, is no stranger to social engagement or art that addresses difficult social concerns. Inspired by her interviews with women from the Yale Program for Recovery and Community Health, Forté aims, in being Here..., to "tell one story."

"The most powerful art pieces that I've seen have caused me to ask and generate my own questions about myself and how I'm implicated from telling one story," she says and notes the Benh Zeitlin film, Beasts of the Southern Wild, written by Zeitlin and playwright Lucy Alibar. 

"That movie tells one story about this one community through the eyes of this one child and her journey into adulthood. In that one story, they address the isolation of this community, the power and assets that this community has  without being defined by mainstream culture or government. They address this community's own set of values. They address how mainstream culture comes in and can completely dismantle this community by placing its values on a community that had been self-defined. They address poverty. And they also address how one person takes all of this in and owns her own self-worth and power inside of it.

"So, the way that I'm avoiding getting too complicated in my own thoughts around these issues is, I'm focused on telling one human story, hoping to affirm recovery and regeneration.

"I want people to step into one mind and the facets of that mind."

See being Here... at Danspace Project, Thursday-Friday, March 21-22 at 8pm. For complete details and ticketing, click here.

Danspace Project

St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery

East 10th Street at Second Avenue, Manhattan

(directions)

Take part in this tribute to Sekou Sundiata

Blink Your Eyes: Sekou Sundiata Revisited, a NYC-wide retrospective, is COMING SOON -- a feast of concerts, poetry readings, re-stagings of theater pieces, discussions, gatherings, and more celebrating Sekou Sundiata -- the man, the poet, the soothsayer, band leader, teacher, soul stirrer, activist and the griot. We want to create a video montage using footage created by -- and starring -- Sekou's friends, fans, collaborators, colleagues and students. TO DO IT RIGHT WE NEED YOU!! YOUR MISSION Please record yourself reading Sekou's poem, "Blink Your Eyes" (click the link to get a PDF of the poem or see the full text below) -- you can do this with a phone, a flip cam, whatever you have access to. You do not need to record it all in one "perfect" take. We just request that you record yourself reading/performing the entire poem so that we can edit it together with other people's videos, and footage of Sekou as well. FORMAT Any digital format can be submitted via email, or via  YouSendIt addressed to julia@mappinternational.org. Please include your name as you want it to appear in the credits and your contact info. STYLE Please film yourself with the camera in a horizontal (landscape) POV. Please do not record yourself in a vertical (portrait) perspective. DEADLINE In order to produce this video piece, we request that you submit your video no later than Friday, February 8, 2013. QUESTIONS Please contact Julia Gutierrez-Rivera julia@mappinternational.org Updates on the retrospective will be posted at sekousundiata.org  Thanks for participating and, in the spirit of Sekou, All of a sudden, Ann *** BLINK YOUR EYES   by Sekou Sundiata I was on my way to see my woman but the Law said I was on my way thru a red light red light red light and if you saw my woman you could understand, I was just being a man. It wasn't about no light it was about my ride and if you saw my ride you could dig that too, you dig? Sunroof stereo radio black leather bucket seats sit low you know, the body's cool, but the tires are worn. Ride when the hard time come, ride when they're gone, in other words the light was green. I could wake up in the morning without a warning and my world could change: blink your eyes. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in Up to the window comes the Law with his hand on his gun what's up? what's happening? I said I guess that's when I really broke the law. He said a routine, step out the car a routine, assume the position. Put your hands up in the air you know the routine, like you just don't care. License and registration. Deep was the night and the light from the North Star on the car door, deja vu we've been through this before, why did you stop me? Somebody had to stop you. I watch the news, you always lose. You're unreliable, that's undeniable. This is serious, you could be dangerous. I could wake up in the morning without a warning and my world could change: blink your eyes. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in New York City, they got laws can't no bruthas drive outdoors, in certain neighborhoods, on particular streets near and around certain types of people. They got laws. All depends, all depends on the skin, all depends on the skin you're living in

Film honors modern dancer Michio Ito

Review of Michio Ito: Pioneering Dancer-Choreographer
by Timothy Cowart, The DFA Blog, January 23, 2013

Interview with director Bonnie Oda Homsey
by Timothy Cowart, The DFA Blog, January 23, 2013

Farihah Zaman launches blog on Dance on Camera films

The Bangladesh-born film writer and documentary director Farihah Zaman contributes writing on the 2013 Dance on Camera Festival in a new blog you can find here.

Wallace Shawn's "The Fever" at La MaMa

The Fever--a monologue written by Wallace Shawn in the late 1980s, now interpreted by French-Romanian actress Simona Maicanescu at LaMaMa--has an inevitability about it. An inevitability so downright inevitable, in fact, that Shawn himself once wondered what might be the point in telling his audiences what they already know--that social and economic injustice exists worldwide and the comfortable, consuming classes depend upon it, revel in it, fear even the slightest hint of its correction. The point of Shawn's project seems to be to make all of that as visceral as possible so as to pin in place his typical audience--a choir of thoughtful, even brainy liberals--and exact some soul-searching.

Simona Maicanescu in The Fever

Co-adapted and directed by Swedish playwright Lars Norén, The Fever traps the pleasant, appealing Maicanescu within a square box of space outlined in heavy chalk marks on the floor. Having approached this space by way of the stairs alongside the audience seating--smiling at one or another of us as she slowly descends--she stands and addresses us nonstop for 85 minutes while mainly moving only her face, head, arms and hands. (There's a water bottle a little distance away, and she does take one short break to retrieve it.) Early on, you see her clasping the fingers of one hand inside its opposite, and you realize that there's something odd but--yes--inevitable in that and that she will not let either hand go free for a long while. When she does move the hands or just the fingers, there's a captivating, sometimes amusing, ritualistic inevitability in that, too.

The poor dear has no idea that she has stepped into a kind of interrogation chamber in which she will come to be the interrogator. Her confinement looks both externally-imposed and protectively self-imposed. As she continues to talk, we see that her unwillingness to delve beyond the surface of things--including the surface of her life and the consequences of her lifestyle--represents a mental lockup even more destructive than its current physical display. As Shawn's monologue drives on, Maicanescu shows signs of disruption and fraying. Eventually, the going gets quite raw.

Maicanescu is fiercely alert, detailed and brilliant in this tough, demanding work. Don't miss her.

Now through February 3

Schedule formation and tickets

La MaMa (First Floor Theatre)
74 East 4th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Reflect, respond: a choreographic commission from Temple University

Reflection:Response

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

2013 Choreographic Commission

The Dance Department at Temple University invites choreographers to submit proposals for its 2013 choreographic commission that speaks to the theme of Reflection:Response.

As dance artists, our embodied learning and creative practice demands that we are able to think and react through multiple intelligences and we invite you to explore this through the concept of Reflection:Response. Whether you locate your work in somatic investigation or socio-political inquiry, we welcome dance-makers from all backgrounds. For further information about the Reflection:Response series, please see the accompanying sheet.

The Commission Brief:

You are asked to create a new work that speaks to the theme of Reflection:Response that will be presented on October 25 & 26, 2013.

Although it is not obligatory, we welcome any opportunities to include Temple students as part of this choreographic commission. Students may be selected through audition and numbers included are entirely at the discretion of the choreographer.

You will be given a $5000 grant towards this and you will have regular access to rehearsal space throughout June-August 2103. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to offer travel, accommodation or per diems.

You have the option to stage the work in the Conwell Theater at Temple University Main Campus or at an alternative site within the Main Campus or North Philadelphia area. We can provide stage management, lighting and sound technicians if you choose to present the work in Conwell Theater.

In addition to the performance, you will also be asked to offer a master class and lecture-demonstration to students in the Dance Department in mid October 2013.

Proposal Guidelines:

Please submit a 2-page application as an email attachment (with the email subject heading Reflection:Response 2013 Commission) that states:

·      Name, address, telephone and e-mail address
·      A short performance biography
·      A brief description of the artistic aims of your proposed work with a clear articulation of how it speaks to the theme of Reflection:Response
·      A breakdown of your budget
·      Anticipated technical requirements

In addition to the written application, you are asked to provide a 10-minute sample of your work (please send a link to You Tube or Vimeo) outlining why you would like us to look at this particular section.

Deadline for proposals: MARCH 15, 2013

Please send your proposal to:

Dr Sherril Dodds: sherril.dodds@temple.edu

Please note that the Selection Committee will meet to review applications in late-March and you will be notified about the outcome of your application by: April 8, 2013.

Body and Soul: Listen.: Jennifer Monson

Dancer-choreographer Jennifer Monson (photos by Ian Douglas)

Situating myself in the American tradition of examining the frontier—the border between wilderness and civilization—as a dynamic arena for embodying the contradictions of freedom and power, my dance work navigates the territory between what is wild and civilized.

The usefulness of the term “nature” has become complicated for me as I struggle with the dialectic of nature/not nature. What is not nature? Wilderness becomes a more amenable concept for me in that it alludes to something untamable, unknowable and challenging, and it is a very human concept. Wilderness as a concept seems central to human evolution. Dancing is a powerful medium for addressing our “nature” and is one of the places I experience wildness.

 --excerpts from Artist Statement by Jennifer Monson

To listen to Jennifer Monson talk about her new project, Live Dancing Archive, download my Body and Soul mp3 recording, or subscribe to the podcast series here.

iLAND Web site

Jennifer Monson bio and artist statement

Live Dancing Archive at The Kitchen

February 14-16, 21-23 (8pm)

For more information, click here.

Dancemakers peer-to-peer groups forming

Dancemakers, do you need…

Accountability?
Support?
Resources?
Commiseration?
Guidance? 

Downtown Dance Learning Circles are facilitated peer-to-peer resource sharing groups that meet regularly. Within the circles, dancemakers present their challenges to each other and brainstorm solutions together.

Each Learning Circle is made up of eight dancemakers at similar career stages, providing an opportunity to solve problems, share resources, build relationships, and move your work forward.
Interested in becoming part of a Learning Circle? Apply to participate through Connect the Blocks!

Application deadline is February 15th.

For all information and an application, click here.

Brave the cold tonight: BRINK at Dixon Place

Last night's frigid cold was not enough to keep progressive dance luminaries--from Movement Research, Chocolate Factory and the like--from turning out in support of Kathy Wasik and Stacy Grossfield, both choreographers showing works-in-progress at Dixon Place. These pieces couldn't be more different.

Wasik's low-key Real things, things, and ghost things (whose title might slip over onto Grossfield's dance without doing it much violence) utilizes a nearly bare space and two casually be-jeaned dancers (Wasik and Cara Angela Liguori) colliding in competition over attempts to build a house of cards. (Speaking of which, check this out.) As you might guess, the arc of Real things rises and falls on the two women's often tickling runs at and avoidance of building a personal connection. I most enjoyed watching Wasik's face--big, dark eyes full of potential warmth peering at Liguori, mouth sometimes evenly set, registering faint but detectable amusement, restrained sarcasm or genuine interest. If nothing else, this is a dance that proves that faces--and their gazes--dance.

For Grossfield's Red, Pink, Black, the audience gets displaced from its front-on arrangement--mainly, as far as I could tell, so drummer Anders Griffen could commandeer one of our seats and, also, so we could catch a good view of the theater's balcony. A nightmarish and interestingly childlike drama unfolds--visually and aurally overblown, like a pretend medieval carnival with ratty, makeshift costuming--performed by Grossfield, Nicole Daunic, Rebecca Warner and a hyperactive, amusingly menacing Joey Kipp.

DP's BRINK program, curated by Kim Brandt conclude this evening with a show at 7:30pm. Check in here for complete details and ticketing.

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

"Music has always brought hope in Mali"

Malian Musicians Call for Peace
by James C. McKinley Jr., The New York Times, January 21, 2013

Closing soon: Half Straddle, Jeanine Durning, "Black Latina"

Susie Sokol and Becca Blackwell of Half Straddle

For Seagull (Thinking of you), Tina Satter and her troupe Half Staddle take scissors to Chekov's The Seagull, his letters and other material, stapling slivers of original language to shards of modern speech (in English, Russian and pseudo-Russian). This deconstruction/reconstruction serves up a compact gull in 75 mostly entertaining minutes with electric, charming performances by a small cast--notably Eliza Bent (Masha), Susie Sokol (Arkadina), Emily Davis (Nina) and Jess Barbagallo (Treplov)--as well as the scrupulous arrangement and deployment of sensory delights (Zack Tinkelman's lighting, Enver Chakartash's costumes and Chris Giarmo's sound design and original music). Presented by Performance Space 122's COIL fest at the New Ohio Theatre. Extended to January 26. For complete schedule information and tickets, click here.

Jeanine Durning's inging (2012) occupies a space set up to have the feeling of a college classroom. In fact, as each member of the audience comes in, he or she can take a folding chair and place it anywhere in the room that will afford a decent view of a table serving as Durning's desk. A tall stack of books on this "desk" prop up a small digital point-and-shoot set for videotaping her. We can see the monitor of the recording as she stands behind the desk. Behind her, we see three different pre-recorded videos--side by side by side--that show Durning sitting, talking and gesturing. For 50 minutes, the live-action Durning (her name ends in ing, and she clearly relishes that state of being in continuous process) mainly talks non-stop. And I don't mean taking pauses for hydration (although a bottle of water rests on her desk, and she occasionally handles it) or for sustained breath. Oh, no. None of that. She starts by suddenly slipping behind the desk and just goes for the duration of the time, with all sorts of associations and disassociations, all kinds of vocal blips and repetitions, self-interruptions and self-disruptions pulled into her rapid, auto-replenishing stream of consciousness. "What do you say when there's too much to say?" she asks, at one point. Maybe the answer is that it all just breaks down and breaks out in every possible direction. Yes--if you were wondering--this "choreography of the mind," as she calls it, can be considered dance because her speech has fabulous rhythms and is, in itself, the body working very hard. Ultimately, she can't even maintain her position behind the desk, and her wandering around forces us to twist in our seats to follow. Presented by American Realness at Abrons Arts Center. Final performances today at 4pm and 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

When Black Latina, a 45-minute ensemble piece written by Crystal S. Roman and directed by Veronica Caicedo, started off looking and, especially, sounding like a derivative from the 1970s--think For Colored Girls--my heart sunk a little. Not that I didn't love (and desperately need) Shange's For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf. But, in 2013, might we be ready for an innovative approach? In Black Latina, we find an ensemble of women of color, symbolically dressed in orange prison garb, sitting or dancing on blocks arranged around the space, each airing her pain and frustrations and observations in pedantic expressions declaimed at high volume--"The media bombards us with ideas of what beauty should be," "You're too closed-minded to comprehend the miracle of being a Black Latina," and so forth. As expected, they aim to speak for the unheard, raise awareness, rally sisters in the audience in pride and solidarity with evocations of family togetherness and the pleasures of traditional food, music and party time. Somewhere along the way, though, I began to see Roman's contribution as indeed something new, supportive and motivating for her community--women of mixed Black and Latina heritage struggling for acknowledgement and respect, not only in dominant white society, but also among Blacks, Latinos and often their own family members who may value light skin over dark. Out of love and urgency, her devoted cast--particularly Judy Torres, Teniece Divya Johnson and Jenelle Simone, whose performance styles are detailed, joyful and commanding--really work it out. I'd love to see Black Latina produced in our city schools. These women won me over, and their audience returned the love. Presented by The Black Latina Movement at Teatro LATEA. Closing tonight. For information and ticketing, click here.

Meet Richard Blanco, Obama's inaugural poet

Richard Blanco (photo by Nicco Tucci)

Our People, Our Future: Richard Blanco in Conversation

Academy of American Poets staff spoke with Richard Blanco in the days leading up to his delivering a poem at President Obama's Inauguration on January 21, 2013.

Welcome to Ntozake Shange's worlds

The Worlds of Shange

presented by

Barnard Center for Research on Women

February 14-15

Performing Shange
Thursday, February 14 (6-8pm)
Free and open to the public
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College

a conversation between Obie-award winning playwright and poet Ntozake Shange and dance artist Dianne McIntyre followed by student performances of Shange's work

Worlds of Shange
A conference
Friday, February 15 (10am-6pm)
Free and open to the public
Event Oval, The Diana Center, Barnard College

Featured speakers include scholars and artists shaping scholarly and popular conversations about African-American arts and letters as well as gender in the African Diaspora.

For complete details on this and other programs of the Barnard Center for Research on Women (Barnard College), click here.

Shocking attack on Bolshoi Ballet director

Bolshoi Ballet Director Is Victim of Acid Attack
by Ellen Barry, The New York Times, January 18, 2013

James Brown biopic in the works

Producer Says James Brown Biopic Is Finally A Go
by James C. McKinley, Jr., The New York Times, January 16, 2013

Gish Prize goes to Anna Deavere Smith

Anna Deavere Smith Wins Gish Prize
by Patricia Cohen, The New York Times, January 17, 2013

Discount code for Parsons Dance at The Joyce

Fans of this blog and of Parsons Dance--now at The Joyce Theater through January 27--can take advantage of a special 50% offer on regularly-priced $59 tickets.

Use the promotion code -- BLOG -- here, and get your tickets for only $30!

Not valid for Friday or Saturday evenings

For complete season information and ticketing, click here.

"Ruff": Peggy Shaw rocks Dixon Place

Watching Peggy Shaw perform Ruff--her new one-woman show at Dixon Place for PS 122's COIL festival--offers an intimate, affecting lesson in empathy. A legend in queer, progressive theater, the much-beloved Shaw suffered a stroke in 2011. This hour-long show is her comeback--a marvelous one--and a way of sharing what it feels like to know that some memories and resources that made you what you are are now unretrievable.

What remains, as Shaw performs it, races by in a stream of consciousness and digressions that are Shaw's but quickly become the audience's, too. As if I'd had the stroke, I found myself struggling to retain the memory of specific words--explication, quips, tales, often amusing--while sartorial details and props (one of which, a brown-and-white wingtip men's shoe, I briefly held for Shaw), body language, facial expressions, shadowy video imagery, music and song easily zapped into my brain and hunkered down. In fact, Shirley Ellis's tongue-and-memory-twisting novelty hit from the 1960's, "The Name Game," became last night's earworm, finally dislodging this morning.

Shaw pivots from tender butch to stage-ruling rock star to slightly mystified stroke survivor who needs a trio of monitors to recall her intricate lines. The audience rides these rhythms and moods, grateful that we occasionally get to see those monitors, too--we sometimes need them--and even more grateful that Shaw has let us into her experience of loss.

Here's a 2010 video clip of Shaw talking about women's roles in theater.


One more thing, a special announcement from Dixon Place founder Ellie Covan: Shaw--who won PS 122's 2011 Ethyl Eichelberger Award--can now also boast that DP's theater has been named for her.

Directed by and co-written with Shaw's partner, Lois Weaver, Ruff runs through Saturday evening at Dixon Place. For a schedule of remaining shows and ticketing information, click here.

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

Celebration for Jayne Cortez at Cooper Union's Great Hall

There will be a celebration of the life of poet/activist Jayne Cortez at The Great Hall, Cooper Union  (7 East 7th Street, Manhattan) on Wednesday, February 6, 2pm.

(map/directions)

For further information, please email jaynecortezcelebration@gmail.com.

"Zinnias": new Robert Wilson opera on Black artist Clementine Hunter

Zinnias - The Life of Clementine Hunter

World Premiere at Montclair State University

A Peak Production

January 26 and February 2 • 8pm
January 27 and February 3 • 3pm
January 31 and February 1 • 7:30pm

Concept, Direction, Set and Light Design by Robert Wilson
Libretto and Music Composition by
Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon
Book by Jacqueline Woodson

A new opera based on the life of renowned African-American artist Clementine Hunter, Zinnias is an intimate exploration of one of America’s greatest natural talents. Born on a plantation in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Hunter's experiences revealed an innate talent for depicting life in the early 20th century through her paintings. Now, using her artwork and stories, Clementine Hunter’s touching and unique journey is brought to the stage through the collaboration of Robert Wilson, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Toshi Reagon and Jacqueline Woodson. The title of the piece refers to the vibrantly colored flower of the same name which was one of Hunter's favorite subjects to paint throughout her career.

For detailed information on this production--including ticketing and roundtrip bus reservations for guests coming from Manhattan--click here.

Alexander Kasser Theater
Montclair State University
Montclair, NJ
(map/directions)

APAP note: Kyle Abraham at Danspace Project

Last spring, I saw, and marveled at, an early version of Kyle Abraham's ensemble piece Pavement--then called Boyz N The Hood: Pavement--during Danspace Project's historic, brilliant Parallels series. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I missed Abraham's world premiere of Pavement at Harlem Stage Gatehouse. But that's one thing APAP showcases are good for: catching up with stuff. The piece now looks tighter, clearer and, at the same time, more sophisticated in its intriguing ambiguity about people and interactions. Abraham's dancers--well-chosen and vivacious--are poised for greatness. You can feel it.

Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion

heat, glare, Bartosik

Let me take a moment, between APAP shows, to remind you to keep posted on a work-in-development from dancer-choreographer Kimberly Bartosik, You are my heat and glare, set to premiere in the fall of this year. The choreographer and artistic director of Kimberly Bartosik/daela offered 55 minutes from her evening-length ensemble piece today at Gibney Dance Center for APAP. The work has greatly intensified and darkened, intriguingly, since I saw early versions of a couple of its segments last year.

Like a book of strange, compelling short tales, You are my heat and glare presents enigmatic duos--Bartosik and Roderick Murray; Joanna Kotze and Marc Mann, who are exceptional and terrifying; and the engaging vocalists Gelsey Bell and Dave Ruder--whose relationships are contained, shaped, revealed or rendered inscrutable by Murray's in-the-moment lighting manipulations. And that's quite a bag of tricks Murray has, too.

Kimberly Bartosik/daela

All that is: Emily Johnson at Baryshnikov Arts Center

See if you can you snare a ticket to tonight's concluding presentation of Niicugni--an interdisciplinary, movement-based work by Minneapolis-based Emily Johnson/Catalyst.

Presented at Baryshnikov Arts Center as part of PS 122's COIL fest, the 70-minute work offers rich storytelling through poetic words, movement, soundscape and scenic design--all reflecting the values inherent to Johnson's Central Alaskan Yup'ik heritage. It demonstrates and encourages empathy with all life--most memorably, those little red foxes imagined by Johnson and Aretha Aoki, on their nimble run through a forest and a batch of just-folks who periodically emerge from the audience to exalt in being part of the fabric of life.

If you manage to un-guard your heart and pay attention to subtle things--which is what the title, Niicugni, explicitly invites--you will perceive a gracefully-integrated, seductive work of art at the core of which is one rare, exquisite and charming performer, Emily Johnson. Oh, how I long to see more of her work!

Niicugni concludes its run tonight at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

It's alive!!! Radiohole at The Kitchen

I'm so mind-spun by all the APAP-connected presentations and confused by PS 122's peripatetic condition of late, that I ran a small risk of ending up at Baryshnikov Arts Center last night instead of The Kitchen where, for PS 122's COIL festival, the experimental, interdisciplinary theater troupe Radiohole (Erin Douglass, Eric Dyer and Maggie Hoffman) put on their Inflatable Frankenstein show in front of a hip and actually rather cool (not in a good way) audience. I'd had "The Kitchen" in my head, rightly, but had written "Baryshnikov Arts Center" on the dry erase board that helps keep me organized and my wife informed, and it was only until I was preparing to leave for the show that I realized that I'd been glancing at the exactly wrong thing all day, and the mistake just hadn't registered. I go to BAC tonight to see Emily Johnson!

Never having seen the legendary Radiohole--okay, relax: dance shows keep me a little busy--I'm unable to guess how high Inflatable Frankenstein would rank in their repertory, but the audacity of the hour-long show's elaborate design and execution impresses and tickles me. Hey, kids, let's "liberate Frankenstein from the long shadow of Boris Karloff!" Let's blow up Mary Shelley (literally and in more ways than one)! Go!

The troupe has littered Kitchen's performance space with everything from hi-tech whiz-bang to lo-tech aluminum mixing bowls filled with a pinkish substance like a particularly runny Silly Putty. In the recesses behind the central action, there's a whole big jumble of colorless...something (to be revealed later). We gaze on it apprehensively, past the actors and scenery, for nearly the entire time. Characters continuously shift names and identities (who's who? who's where? when's when?). What's the purpose for all of this mess? One of the play's funniest sequences happens right away when the actors discuss how Inflatable Frankenstein came to be and offer surprisingly competing views of what the show is about. Informal discourse quickly degenerates into speakers stepping all over one another's statements and, finally, a rapid plunge into artistic theoritizing so dense and garbled it might as well be baby-talk. Purpose? Purpose lurches this way and that throughout the hour like a big, misshapen creature stitched together and shot through with high voltage.

It's a good time. One can love it to pieces and love individual pieces--the sharp, wacky performances, the clever sound and visual elements, the allusions to James Whale's films--all spliced together with a sense of desperation and aggression, the kind of desperation and aggression that brings forth humor. I can't answer the question, What does it all add up to? Maybe there really can't and shouldn't be an answer--the troupe's notes quote Artaud: "...to be more precise would spoil the poetry of the thing"--but maybe that's why last night's audience, at the end, sounded polite but less than smitten.

See Inflatable Frankenstein at The Kitchen--for sure!--through January 19. For schedule and ticketing details, click here.

The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Celeste Bartos, 99

Celeste Bartos, New York Philanthropist, Dies at 99
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 10, 2013

Cheering at The Joyce

What's the deal with that reported Google-sponsored free WiFi in Chelsea? I hoped to post my FOCUS DANCE observations and thoughts to Facebook and Twitter at intermission, but all I could find was a "Joyce Public" connection that hung for hours every time I typed just a few characters. Crazy.

Last night's presentation of Camille A. Brown & Dancers and Brian Brooks Moving Company at the APAP-targeted FOCUS DANCE at The Joyce got the audience cheering so vociferously I began to wonder if I hadn't slipped into a wormhole and ended up at City Center's Fall For Dance festival instead. The cheering sounded a little pre-planned, shall we say?

I will cheer, though--and loudly--for a couple of solos from this program.

Brian Brooks presented I'm Going to Explode, a signature piece from 2007 where the choreographer steps out (and flips out) of his character's mundane, buttoned-down existence and splinters into rapid-fire, thrashing, punishing movement. It's an amazing performance of physical control and endurance, one I never tire of seeing, just as I never tire of its accompanying music--"Losing My Edge" by LCD Soundsystem. (Yeah, I'm losing my edge...The kids are coming up from behind...the kids from France and from London, but I was there...I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band. I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."...But have you seen my records?...Gil! Scott! Heron!)

Brown's half of the show also featured a distinguished solo--The Real Cool, an excerpt from her ensemble piece, Mr. TOL E. RAncE (2012). The solo works as a standalone item. Like Brooks, Brown has superb control of timing, weight, every last movement in this meditation on Black performing artists and stereotypical representations. A dancer with legendary skill and presence, Brown turns her character into a full-body mask. Its intelligent, fiery and sorrowful human spirit seems to float a few feet back from this animated shell. Eerie.

Other highlights on the bill: Brown's fun and feisty Been There, Done That (2010) duet with lovable Jule D. Lane (a Jacob's Pillow crowd-pleaser that, yes, this talented duo should work the hell out of as long as they can) and Brooks's duet, Fall Falls, some attractive, if inconsequential, slippery-do and swirling around with Wendy Whelan which exploits her malleable qualities without giving her much of a point for being there except to be Wendy Whelan, surely wonderful to indulge in (as dancemaker and as audience) but which, in the end, does not satisfy.

For information on the remaining FOCUS DANCE programs through January 13 at the Joyce--Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Doug Varone and Dancers, Eiko & Koma and John Jasperse--click here and here.

The Joyce Theater
Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, Manhattan
(directions)

Obama picks gay Latino poet for his inauguration

Poet's Kinship With the President
by Sheryl Gay Stolberg, The New York Times, January 8, 2013

A warm(er) New York City welcome for APAP

This year, New York has welcomed the annual APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) conference with the kind of "winter weather" that makes chasing down performances and showings all around town a whole lot easier than anticipated. I like that I can take post-dinner strolls across town to The Joyce for FOCUS DANCE--the series offered by Gotham Arts Exchange and the Joyce and curated, this year, by Jodee Nimerichter (director, American Dance Festival). I'll only get to the first two of FOCUS's four programs, but I'd like to shake the hand of the man or woman who can manage to get to everything invited to or, for that matter, worth seeing during APAP season.

Last night's show at the Joyce featured work by Jodi Melnick and Stephen Petronio. Melnick's Solo, Re(Deluxe), Version (2012), premiered last spring at New York Live Arts and set to the ecstatic, jagged chugging of Steven Reker's rock band, People Get Ready, finally came into focus and took off for me when the choreographer teamed up with another outstanding dancer, Hristoula Harakas. The two women proceeded to slip within and against the space with moves of silk and sophistication, switched on and attuned to one another's force and timing. Everything on that raw stage suddenly warmed up. It looked like love and intuition and mad stellar skill. Also, mad stellar are Gino Grenek and his fellow dancers from Stephen Petronio Company who offered excerpts from three sculpted pieces--Like Lazarus Did (LLD), a work in progress, The Architecture of Loss (2012) and Underland (2011). I'm always drawn to this ensemble's earth-angel quality: You can see how disciplined they are, but they show honor to the body and materiality--and humanity--by playing with gravity, never straining to escape it. Whatever they're dancing, they are sharing this specific time and place with us. Something so arresting and emotionally moving in this for me.

Tonight? Camille A. Brown & Dancers--to see where Brown's going with the provocative Mr. TOL E. RAncE--and Brian Brooks Moving Company (7:30 at The Joyce Theater). For information on the remaining FOCUS DANCE programs through January 13 at the Joyce--including work by Rosie Herrera Dance Theater, Doug Varone and Dancers, Eiko & Koma and John Jasperse--click here and here.

The Joyce Theater
Eighth Avenue at 19th Street, Manhattan
(directions)

Ada Louise Huxtable, 91

Ada Louise Huxtable, Champion of Livable Architecture, Dies at 91
by David W. Dunlap, The New York Times, January 7, 2013

An Appraisal: A Critic of the Curb and Corner
by Michael Kimmelman, The New York Times, January 8, 2013

A struggling Black theater survives

New Funds Help Revive a Theater in St. Paul
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, January 7, 2013

Post-Sandy: The Kitchen recovers

Drying Out After a Storm, and Moving On
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, January 4, 2013

You're essential to Essential Dance Film [call for submissions]

Essential Dance Film - Spring/Summer 2013

The art of capturing dance on film is as old as the art of film itself - the first dance films were created by the Lumiere Brothers in 1895. Essential Dance Film is proud to showcase the state of dance film today by presenting a curated election of features and shorts from around the world. The Essential Dance Film collection includes works by festival winners, Hollywood veterans and emerging filmmakers.    

Submissions for Essential Dance Film - Spring/Summer 2013 will be considered on an ongoing basis until January 15, 2013.

TenduTV (tendu.tv) is now accepting submissions for Essential Dance Film, a curated selection of features and shorts by choreographers and filmmakers from around the world. Building upon the original Essential Dance Film collection, a series of 9 dance shorts released by TenduTV in 2010, the expanded and newly-rebranded channel now releases new films each week via TenduTV’s digital platform partners. Essential Dance Film is available on the popular US platform, Hulu, and is mirrored on a branded YouTube show page that is available to audiences worldwide.

Essential Dance Film is on YouTube at www.youtube.com/show/essentialdancefilm and on Hulu at www.hulu.com/essential-dance-film

If you would like your film to be considered for Essential Dance Film, email content@tendu.tv with the following information:

• Title of film

• Year and place of premiere

• Screening history

• Type of source video (eg. Beta, Digibeta, Apple Pro Res)

• Link to a clip (if available)

• Confirmation of music rights   

Jayne Cortez, 78 [New York Times obituary]

Jayne Cortez, Jazz Poet, Dies at 78
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 3, 2013

See also: http://infinitebody.blogspot.com/2012/12/jayne-cortez-76.html

Black Latinas take the stage

Black Latina: The Play, written by Crystal Shaniece Roman and directed by Veronica Caicedo, returns to Teatro La Tea for a limited run--January 16-19.

"We decided to bring back Black Latina: The Play to the forefront of 2013 because as one of the fastest growing communities in the United States, we want to expose the triumphs and struggles that can come from within and in our own circles," says Apryl Lopez, President of The Black Latina Movement.

The narrative depicts the story of today's Black Latina in the United States. Whether dark-skinned or indeed African-American and Hispanic, Black Latina chronicles the journey of ones struggle identifying with both cultures. It deals with external factors from society to media as well as the internal viewpoints of family and friends . With characters based on the four strongest emotions one confronts in the face of adversity (Anger, Sadness, Love, Empowerment), each character gives testimony justifying the emotional names they carry.

Starring:
Judy Torres, special guest artist
Teniece Johnson
Jenelle Simone
Nubia Santos
Anaridia Burgos

For schedule and ticketing information, visit Brown Paper Bag Tickets here or call (212) 529-1948.

Teatro La Tea

Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center
107 Suffolk Street, 2nd Floor (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Beate Gordon, 89

Beate Gordon, Long-Unsung Heroine of Japanese Women’s Rights, Dies at 89
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 1, 2013

Post-Sandy: Disaster and possibility: New York's art world in recovery

A Climate Change in the Art World?

The art community is digging out, drying off, counting its losses, helping its neighbors--and starting to prepare for the hurricanes of the future.

by Robin Cembalest, ARTNews, November 13, 2012 (print: January 2013)