Van Cliburn, 78

Van Cliburn, Cold War Musical Envoy, Dies at 78
by Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, February 27, 2013

Harlem School of the Arts renamed for Alpert benefactors

Lani Hall Alpert and Herb Alpert

The historic building housing New York's Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) will be renamed The Herb Alpert Center to honor the school's benefactors--Herb Alpert, Lani Hall Alpert and the Herb Alpert Foundation. The Herb Alpert Foundation’s philanthropy since 2010 has been instrumental in rebuilding the school after a temporary closure. To date, HSA has been awarded a game–changing $6 million in grants from the Foundation.

Naming Ceremony 

Monday, March 11
11am-12:30pm

featuring:

    Herb Alpert

    Lani Hall Alpert

    Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg

    Yvette L. Campbell (President and CEO, Harlem School of the Arts)

    Phylicia Rashad (Tony Award-winning actress, singer, former HSA Parent)

    N’Kenge (HSA alumna, actress in Broadway's Motown: The Musical)

The Harlem School of the Arts

645 Saint Nicholas Avenue (at 141st Street), Manhattan

Subway: A, B, C or D line to 145th Street

About The Harlem School of the Arts

For nearly a half–century, the Harlem School of the Arts (HSA) has transformed the lives of tens of thousands of young people. Located in Harlem’s historic Hamilton Heights, this pioneering, world–class institution brings together music, dance, theatre, visual arts, and musical theatre instruction under one roof. Serving young people, ages 2 to 18, from the under–served communities of Harlem, across New York City, New Jersey and Westchester County, HSA leverages its reputation for excellence and roster of celebrated alumni to empower youths and constantly revitalize its surrounding community.
For more information about Harlem School of the Arts, visit www.hsanyc.org.

About The Herb Alpert Foundation

The Herb Alpert Foundation, a non–profit, private foundation established in the early 1980’s, makes significant annual contributions to a range of programs in the fields of Arts, Arts Education and Compassion and Well Being. Its funding is directed toward projects in which Herb and Lani Alpert and Foundation President Rona Sebastian play an active role. [The Foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals.] www.herbalpertfoundation.org

Herb Alpert is a legend in the music business and the co–founder, with Jerry Moss, of A&M Records, one of the most successful independent record labels in music history that started in 1962 with Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Alpert and Moss sold A&M in 1990, but in the decades before, they significantly influenced a diverse roster of talent, including Janet Jackson, Quincy Jones, Sting, Sergio Mendes & Brasil ’66, Stan Getz, Cat Stevens, The Carpenters, The Police, Joe Cocker, Sheryl Crow, Peter Frampton and scores of others. In his illustrious career, Alpert has won eight Grammy awards and received the Grammy and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Awards. The late Miles Davis once remarked, “You don’t have to hear but three notes before you know it is Herb Alpert.” Alpert explains, “There is a certain satisfaction and energy that comes from playing the horn – a feeling that I am really in my element. I am passionate about what I am doing. I am just playing what comes out, and I try to stay conscious of things that are happening in the spontaneity of the moment.” As well as being a musician, Alpert is as passionate about his 40–year career as a professional painter and sculptor.
www.herbalpert.com
www.herbalpertfoundation.org

Lani Hall started her professional career as the original lead singer with Sergio Mendes and Brasil ‘66. Known for her emotional vocal interpretations, she helped propel the group to international stardom with her distinctive vocals on the infectious Brasilian tune “Mas Que Nada.” It was in 1966, while singing with the group in an audition for A&M Records, that she met Alpert. They were married in 1973 and since then their lives and musical gifts have mingled. Hall has enjoyed a distinguished solo career, having recorded some 14 solo albums (variously in English, Portuguese and Spanish.) In 1983, she sang the title song of the James Bond movie, “Never Say Never Again,” starring Sean Connery, and won a Grammy for Best Latin Pop Performance for her album Es Facil Amar in 1986. She also has credits as a lyricist, producer, arranger, writer and editor. “I am an interpreter,” Hall explains, “The singers that have influenced me the most are jazz singers. They have the ability to pull you into a song and make it feel real.”

Lani Hall Alpert recently published her first book, Emotional Memoirs & Short Stories. Primarily set in Chicago, the fiction and non-fiction stories are woven together via a winding personal narrative, as Hall takes a refreshingly honest look back at her own life and into her imagination.
www.lanihallalpert.com

Things that help me breathe...and smile

First, the news that Quvenzhané Wallis (Oscar nominee for Beasts of the Southern Wild) will play the lead in a new film version of Annie. (Yes! She who laughs last laughs best!)

And now this:

Alfre Woodard Says She's Bringing The Life Of Fannie Lou Hamer To TV In 4-Hour Film
by Tambay A. Obenson, Indiewire: Shadow and Act, February 26, 2013

Doug Varone and Dancers strip it down at 92Y

My review of Doug Varone and Dancers at 92nd Street Y's Harkness Dance Festival has just been posted to DanceMagazine.com.

Read it here.

Tony Kushner talks "Lincoln" with Bill Moyers

Tony Kushner on Abraham Lincoln and Modern Politics
Moyers & Company, December 21, 2012

Lincoln screenwriter Tony Kushner talks about what we can learn from the life and decisions of America’s 16th president.

Matt Mattox, 91

Matt Mattox, Dancer for the Movies, Dies at 91
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, February 24, 2013

Wicca as somatic healing with dance artist iele paloumpis

New York Live Arts

presents

Shared Practice 

with 

iele paloumpis

Witchcraft – A Corporeal Practice

March 16 (1:30-3:30pm)

Third Floor Studios 

In Shared Practice workshops, Live Arts season artists share the physical and creative practices behind their work. Each process-focused session provides participants an opportunity to recharge their own artistry by experiencing different approaches to making and moving with similarly-motivated professionals. All classes are held on Saturdays throughout the season at New York Live Arts.

Witchcraft -- A Corporeal Practice

Over the past several months, changes in my health and body have shifted the ways I approach dance and daily life. Without concrete answers from doctors and various bodyworkers, I’ve been looking to Wiccan ritual as a somatic practice of integration, acceptance and healing. I’ve also been thinking a lot about how all bodies - whether elderly, disabled, or otherwise "different" - can enter into dance. For this Shared Practice, we will look to magical herbs, astrology and the lunar calendar, as well as our own unique and defiant bodies, to generate restorative movement. Come with an awareness of something you might like to shed, heal and/or embrace.

--iele paloumpis 

$15/class. Class size is limited. Advance purchase is recommended to guarantee a spot. Click here.

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Collage of cultures in the work of Iona Rozeal Brown

Iona Rozeal Brown: Single Works With Myriad Influences
by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, February 22, 2013

Cleotha Staples, 78

Cleotha Staples Dead: Founding member of the Staple Singers dies at 78
by Caryn Rousseau, The Huffington Post, February 22, 2013

Jookin' Lil Buck to jam with Yo-Yo Ma at (le) poisson rouge

Memphis jookin' star Lil Buck

jams with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and other musical guests

(le) poisson rouge

Tuesday, April 2 (10pm)

Lil Buck, dance
Yo-Yo Ma, cello
Marcus Printup, trumpet
Cristina Pato, Galician bagpipe
John Hadfield, percussion
Brooklyn Rider

featuring a world premiere for solo cello by Philip Glass, composed for Yo-Yo Ma and Lil Buck, especially for this engagement


Director’s Statement:

“It is an honor to present Lil Buck in his first New York one-man show — an exclusive chance to see the virtuoso jookin’ sensation up close at (Le) Poisson Rouge, where he is joined by a stellar musical cast including Yo-Yo Ma, who first performed with the dancer in the original “Swan” video that went viral online. The one-hour jam session will feature that “Swan” duet come to life onstage, and a world premiere composed by Philip Glass for Ma and Lil Buck, in addition to new music from Brooklyn Rider, and appearances by Galician bagpiper Cristina Pato, jazz trumpeter Marcus Printup, and percussionist John Hadfield.” – Damian Woetzel, Director and Producer

 For complete information and ticketing, click here.

 As one commenter wrote: "the hood meets ballet and owns it."

(But if they ever want to come back, they've gotta get a permit....)

New South Bronx group seeks performers

Join a new South Bronx community performance group led by Alejandra Duque at Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education and Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD). Weekly sessions begin on March 2, and Jonzi D will lead a special community dance theater workshop on March 5.

Jennifer Monson premieres "Live Dancing Archive" at The Kitchen

At the outset of Jennifer Monson/iLAND's Live Dancing Archive, the audience sits without benefit of light for a very long time. We hear tiny, ambient sounds of one another breathing, shifting, rustling, settling into an alive, soft darkness. Recalling that Monson recently told me that she had come to think of her audience as the ocean, I'm also remembering a time when I sat and watched the open sea at night, its awesomeness shading into something even more mysterious and compelling than usual and more than a little scary. What's in there? What's down there? 

Jennifer Monson (photo by Valerie Oliveiro)

Live Dancing Archive, presented at The Kitchen, serves as a way for Monson to embody a decade of her history of research and making, her sensitive and searching relationship with ecological systems of environments and communities, and her understanding of herself within all of this as a queer woman, activist and artist. It includes not only her hour-long performance--a collaboration with two brilliant artists, lighting designer Joe Levasseur and composer Jeff Kolar--but also a video installation by Robin Vachal and a digital archive designed by Youngjae Josephine Bae.  Levasseur and Kolar accompany her live for the journey, shaping and toning her austere surroundings: Levasseur striding here and there, adjusting the position and varying intensity of portable lights; Kolar sitting at his table of wonders, manipulating "external weather phenomena, wireless technology systems and human activity" through an array of handmade radio transmitters and receivers. If all of this seems like a pretty packed package, it is indeed, necessarily, packed and yet rendered with elegance.

Having seen a preview of part of the video last year, I limited myself to Monson's live show last evening. Even so, I came away feeling full and privileged to witness the skill and authority of this performance.

Jennifer Monson (photo by Ian Douglas)

In Live Dancing Archive, Monson presents herself as a hybrid creature of fur (fake pelt strapped to her torso, concealing her breasts) and human, womanly flesh (the wide mesh of her translucently pale, footless tights enclosing while revealing the nudity of her lower body). She initiates her dancing by pawing and pushing through the air, unfurling into and swimming into it. She endlessly channels organic forms, many presences coming and going in her movement and aspect. An inner wildness becomes external, and vice versa, all with precise control and calibration of pace, effort and coordination. A brief femme-drag sequence/lipsync to singer Antony's "Bird Gerhl" (with Monson ritually adorned by her costume designer, Susan Becker, in a completely uncharacteristic platinum wig, scarlet lipstick and saffron chiffon sleeves) serves as a solemn moment of vulnerability shortly before we experience, along with her, violent disturbance in the surrounding field of energy and sound.

There's so much more that transpires, in this ferocious, profoundly beautiful presentation, than I can say here. I hope you will jump at your chance to take it all in before Live Dancing Archive ends its run at The Kitchen tomorrow night.

Remaining performances: tonight and tomorrow night at 8pm. For more information and tickets, click here.

Vachal's video installation will be on view in the theater today (noon-6pm) and tomorrow (11am-6pm) for free viewing.

Browse, enjoy and subscribe to the Live Dancing Archive site: Click here.

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

59 works by Jean-Michel Basquiat at Gagosian Gallery

Inner Demons, Exorcised With Paint
‘Jean-Michel Basquiat’ at the Gagosian Gallery in Chelsea
by Ken Johnson, The New York Times, February 21, 2013

Film version of Anaya's "Bless Me, Ultima" opens today

The author of “Bless Me, Ultima” talks about his book reaching the big screen at age 75
by Kristina Puga, NBCLatino, February 21, 2013

Juliana F. May's premiere at New York Live Arts

The three dancers of Juliana F. May/MAYDANCE's new production at New York Live Arts, Commentary = not thing, spend much of their hour with not a stitch on, which makes sense. Subverting cover, artifice and distraction, May exposes more than flesh. She goes for the stark, driven machinery and repetitive, mechanistic action of bodily motion as well as emotion. Here, neither seems under the vigilance of the human intellect although, later in the piece, the rough "machinery" appears to sort itself into somewhat pleasing or, at least, safer-looking, reassuring order and Gregorian-style chanting. The typical viewer's mind wants to follow something logical and not be jerked around or repulsed. Yet, even here and now, there is something suspect.

I see why May's promotion calls this "modern dance opera" because, like opera, it's a story (of the body) rendered in a completely over-the-top way. Rather brave Benjamin Asriel, Kayvon Pourazar and Maggie Thom dance and occasionally vocalize while stark naked for long stretches of time, in odd, often ungainly, alienating locomotion, and with gusts of breath, strangled grunts, gibberish and either hoarse or crystal clear but still inexplicable bickering coming from their mouths. 

The audience sits on the stage, enclosing the dancers' space on three sides. This arrangement heightens the claustrophobic effect of the work to some measure.

With original music by Chris Seeds, lighting by Chloe Z. Brown, set by Brad Kisicki and costumes by Reid Bartelme

Juliana F. May/MAYDANCE continues through Saturday evening with performances at 7:30pm. Seating is limited.

There will be a Come Early Conversation with Sarah Maxfield at 6:30pm this evening and a Stay Late Discussion with Brian Rogers tomorrow.

Ticket information

New York Live Arts

219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan

(map/directions)

Dance as a sustainable art: a panel at 92Y

92nd Street Y

presents

MovementTalks: 

Sustainable Arts - Policy, Practice and Programing

Lise Brenner, Paul Nagle and Judy Hussie-Taylor

moderated by Edward Henkel

Friday, April 5 (8pm)

Let’s talk about artistic communities as tangible social assets, both for the artists themselves, and the role that protecting art-making plays in the daily life of our neighborhoods. What does maintaining the possibility for arts production (i.e. studio space, affordable housing, etc) give to the city? What do small business incentives, producing and curating contemporary dance, zoning laws, ConEd electrical rates for non-profits, and planting street trees have in common? This will be a discussion about choices and the creative ecology that results.

Program and ticket information

92nd Street Y (Buttenwieser Hall)
Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

Also: See Dance and the American Sacred Cows: Meat and Money, May 31, with Carrie Ahern and Zefrey Throwell

The mighty pens of PEN World Voices Festival 2013

PEN World Voices Festival to Focus on Art and Politics
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, February 19, 2013

But it's not the Harlem Shake. At all.

Y'all need to stop that shit!

Harvey Lichtenstein, former head of BAM, to receive city award

Former BAM President to Receive Handel Medallion
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, February 19, 2013

Citywide arts tribute to the late Sekou Sundiata

A Citywide Retrospective for the Poet and Playwright Sekou Sundiata
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, February 18, 2013

Dancing in "The Rain"

Coming soon to iTunes from TenduTV

A series of tableaux of everyday settings with people in various stages of their lives. Relations form and finish, memories of meetings mingle with the yearning for meetings that have not happened yet. The dance slowly takes over, forming a pattern that none of the characters can see - they are all connected. The rain affects them all.

For more essential dance films, subscribe to TenduTV on YouTube.

Beauty on the brain

Why We Love Beautiful Things
by Lance Hosey, The New York Times, February 15, 2013

Audition for DC-based Dakshina dance troupe

Washington, DC-based Dakshina/Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company seeks strong male and female dancers with a solid background in modern dance and/or ballet and release technique for its 2013-2014 season.

New York City audition: 

February 25 (Noon to 1:45pm)

Alvin Ailey Studios

Dakshina has a multi-year partnership with the Sokolow foundation in restaging Anna Sokolow’s iconic modern dance works, works with Bharata Natyam—a South Asian classical dance form, and synthesizes the two forms in a unique three-prong approach to dance.

We are looking for energetic, committed, professional, and positive dancers who love to engage and interact with each other.

To read more about the company, this unique opportunity and audition details, click here.

Telling stories: Camille A. Brown and others celebrate Black griots at AMNH

Join Camille A. Brown, Delfeayo Marsalis, Darryl "DMC" McDaniels and other artists in celebration of Black History Month and Black storytellers and griots in a program for all ages at the American Museum of Natural History.

Saturday, February 23 (11am-5pm)

Free for museum members or with museum admission

For complete information, click here.

American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West at 79th Street
(map/directions)

Envisioning the Practice: call for papers on performing arts curation

Envisioning the Practice:

Montréal International Symposium

on Performing Arts Curation

April 10-13, 2014

A seminal event in the field of the performing arts, conceived by the Arts Curators Association of Québec, and hosted by the PHI Centre and the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), "Envisioning the Practice” will be held in Montréal (Canada) on April 10-13, 2014. The symposium is sponsored by Tangente, and collaborating partners Studio 303 and S.A.T. /La Société des arts technologiques will offer programming for this special event. 

Please click here for a pdf of the Call for Papers.

Paper and panel proposals submission deadline: June 1, 2013

Notification of acceptance: July 15, 2013

Dena Davida, Dominique Fontaine, Jane Gabriels
Planning Committee co-chairs
A.C.A.Q. Co-founders
Arts Curators Association of Québec
info@acaq.ca

Violence in theater: a critic's view

The Culture of Violence
Depictions of violence in theater: Revelation, not nihilism
by Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, February 15, 2013

Critic's Notebook: Disturbing actions can awake an audience's empathy, but lines blur if events tip into a mere celebration of destruction.

Women of color in charge: seminar, panel on arts administration

The Apollo Theater Education Program will present a seminar and career panel--Behind the Scenes: Women of Color in the Arts on Monday, March 11.

Seminar: 4:30pm
Panel discussion: 6:30pm

Free to the public. Reservations required: Click here.

The Apollo's annual Women's History Month celebration features a panel of women of color who work behind the scenes in performing arts administration. A pre-panel seminar on cultural diversity in marketing and public relations for the performing arts will be facilitated by Donna Walker-Kuhne.

Presented in collaboration with Women of Color in the Arts (WOCA)

Director Margarita Aguilar resigns from El Museo del Barrio

Amid Turmoil at Museo del Barrio, Its Director Steps Down
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, February 15, 2013

Fired up with Robert Farris Thompson

New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

presents

ON FIRE WITH AFRICAN DANCE

Staccato Incandescence: The Story of Mambo

with Robert Farris Thompson

Thursday, March 14, 6pm

Robert Farris Thompson, Master T, the Colonel John Trumbull Professor of the History of Art at Yale University, will focus his lecture on mambo, which fuses a variety of dance styles, from Lindy to ballet to bomba to Afro-Cuban dance.

Robert Farris Thompson is America's most prominent scholar of African Art, and has presided over exhibitions of African art at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He lived in the Yoruba region of southwest Nigeria for many years while he conducted his research of Yoruba art history, and is affiliated with the University of Ibadan and Yoruba village communities. Thompson has studied the African arts of the diaspora in the United States, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, and several Caribbean islands. Robert Farris Thompson is also an authority in hip hop. Cornel West, who teaches African American studies at Princeton, calls this white man from Texas "my dear brother" and "one of the greatest pioneers in the study of Afro-American culture and African culture."

The ON FIRE WITH AFRICAN DANCE series is presented by The Committee for the Jerome Robbins Dance Division and the Jerome Robbins Dance Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, and is produced by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Free admission

Click here for more information.

For information on other upcoming programs, including On Fire with African Dance presentations by Ronald K. Brown of Ronald K. Brown/Evidence (April 6) and Djoniba Mouflet (April 11), click here.

Oscar-nominated roles but limits remain for Black actors

Still Too Good, Too Bad or Invisible
by Nelson George, The New York Times, February 15, 2013

Fire at Brooklyn's Pratt Institute

Fire at Pratt Institute Destroys Studios and Artwork of Students
by Joseph Berger and Nate Schweber, The New York Times, February 15, 2013

Bold move for Aviva Davidson's Dancing in the Streets

I have an article in the Winter 2013 issue of Seattle-based Grantmakers in the Arts Reader (GIAreader) on New York's Dancing in the Streets organization and its initiatives in the South Bronx.

Click here to read "Dancing in the Streets Busts a South Bronx Move."

The Reader is also now available as an ePub for Apple devices in the iTunes store, for Kindle on Amazon.com, and for Nook tablets on Barnesandnoble.com.

The Daily Show's Aasif Mandvi in conversation with Brooke Gladstone

WNYC’s “On the Media”

presents

Brooke Gladstone in a conversation with Aasif Mandvi

Tuesday, February 26 (7pm)

at WNYC’s The Greene Space

Aasif Mandvi is best known as the “Senior Muslim Correspondent” on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, but as Charles Isherwood of The New York Times recently remarked, “Those who know this talented performer only from his perky mock-commentaries on The Daily Show may be surprised to discover what a skilled stage actor he is.”

On Tuesday, February 26 at 7pm, the actor and comedian will join WNYC’s On the Media host Brooke Gladstone to discuss the full breadth of his television, film and theatrical work. From reporting “fake news” to creating nuanced roles for South Asians on the New York stage, Mandvi’s work has often engaged the experience of being Muslim in a post-9/11 America. In an evening that is sure to be both entertaining and illuminating, he will discuss all this, as well as what’s next on his plate.

Aasif Mandvi made his first appearance as contributor on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on August 9, 2006. He is the recipient of the OBIE award for his critically-acclaimed one-man show Sakina's Restaurant. Other New York stage credits include the recently ended Disgraced, the 2002 Broadway revival of Oklahoma!, Homebody/Kabul, Suburbia, Trudy Blue and Speak Truth to Power. His TV and film credits include The Proposal, Ghost Town, Music & Lyrics, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Movie 43, and will star alongside Owen Wilson and Vince Vaugn in The Internship.

For tickets, click here.

The Greene Space
44 Charlton Street (between Varick and Sixth Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Aoki and Kimitch share Danspace

Dance fans treasure St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery. No matter how individual choreographers set up its sanctuary for the best viewing of their shows, the church can feel familiar and comfy like home--indeed, a sanctuary for this art and the people who love it. And yet, there's also something about this setting, maybe its remarkable history as Danspace Project's home, that can challenge the artist. It's not Lincoln Center, not City Center, certainly not a grand cathedral but, especially when left unadorned by set design, it gives off more than a hint of expansiveness--in volume and time--that can sometimes make you feel a little puny. This weekend, two emerging choreographers Aretha Aoki and Benjamin Kimitch are sharing a program at Danspace Project and facing this issue of space in very different ways.

Leaving the two dancers (Julie McMillan and Claire Westby) standing in near darkness and silence for an unusually long time, with their backs turned to us, Kimitch opens discontinuous sounds by creating a space that is, at once, soothingly still, mysterious and withholding. He throws us back into awareness of our expectations to see action and have things handed to us right away. The length of this opening passage is one big--if quiet--"No." So what do we do with this? We sit there and breathe the somber space as it is--sacred, eerie, even dangerous.

When we're finally granted a look at McMillan and Westby in a generous pool of soft light, both wearing loose white costumes like sleepwear, we gaze long at a simple, striking image--the women elevated onto their toes. Each one clasps her neck with one hand; McMillan folds the other hand to her opposite shoulder, while Westby extends her free hand in front of her, palm out and fingers elegantly stretched towards the floor. With eyes closed and faces as pale and expressionless as death masks, the women appear like sonambulists out of a surrealist's vision. Their long-repeated movements--careful, even ritualistic, backward steps and pivots in various directions--suggest an awareness of the space that is either deeply intuitive or well-practiced. After a time, a low, motor-like rumble arises. It is not clear why--or whether we should understand this sound (designed by Matthew Flory Meade) as the product of the environment or its strange inhabitants.

As if the choreographer flipped a switch, the dancers suddenly address the space more assertively, introducing stretched, exaggerated shapes, inclinations and poses, even brightly skimming across the floor. Kimitch's approach to the space of Danspace suggests that it is filled with images that capture moments in strict, material detail. (I sense a perfectionist streak.) While never presuming to fill the space with just two dancers, he nevertheless uses it as an elegant backdrop or lightbox for his collection of wonders and curiosities.

In Las Gravitas, Aoki tackles the hard thing of setting a solo--and herself as soloist--against St. Mark's space and even space, as in the cosmos, itself. Indeed, all of this starts out with a sense of gravitas and considerable boldness of appearance--black clothes, wild black hair--and gesture. All of that eventually breaks down in comic relief truly as much of a relief as it is amusing. In one element of this, dance writer Cassie Peterson's voiceover flips from a dry, labored description of Aoki's "laboring body" in its "endurance and repetition" and its "tectonic shifts" to suddenly throwing shade on her unsuspecting subject. "A fifteen-minute solo? Who does she think she is? Deborah Hay?"

Las Gravitas documents a process of self-awareness--namely, awareness of one's tininess and inadequacy and even incompetence set against expectations, yours as well as others', against everything that has come before you, against the vastness of interstellar space and even the stardom and superior vocal power of one Jim Morrison.

Despite all that, this performer gives it a shot: What if my contribution is small? What if it's messy in shape, aimless, a bunch of doodles and loose ends, desperate to cover itself in the fig leaves of scientific factoids? What if my voice is barely listenable? I am here. Hey, despite everything--and there's a lot of struggle in that everything--I pulled myself and all of this together for you.

"Shared Evening: Aretha Aoki and Benjamin Kimitch" continues through tomorrow evening with performances at 8pm. For information and tickets, click here. 

Danspace Project
131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue, Manhattan
(directions) 

Artist-activists invited to apply for NYU's EMERGENYC 2013

The Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics at New York University is now accepting applications for its fourth year of EMERGENYC, the Hemispheric New York Emerging Performers Program focused on “artivist” (artist/activist) performance.

EMERGENYC aims to support the development of “hemispheric” emerging artists through a program of workshops and events between April 20 and July 13, 2013.

We seek talented, committed and highly motivated young performers/activists/artists whose work functions as a vehicle for political expression and social change, and who examine the broad range of identities, practices and histories of the Americas (the western hemisphere, thus “hemispheric”) through genres such as spoken word, street performance, political cabaret, performance art, video performance, movement, and others.

Please forward this call to artists and activists that would be interested in the program. EMERGENYC welcomes applicants outside of the New York area, provided that they are able to be in the city during the full time of the program (April-July).  The Hemispheric Institute is unable to provide housing for out-of-state participants accepted into the program.

For complete information and the application download link, click here. 

Helaine GawlicaArchivist, NYUResearcher, Franklin Furnace

Writing on Dance workshops at New York Live Arts announced

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
(photo by Deborah Feller)

New York Live Arts has just released the official announcement of my annual Writing on Dance workshop series (April 17-June 5).

This spring's focus will be on quality, long-form profiles of artists in dance and live performance. Our work will aim to foster greater awareness and understanding of the arts of dance and live performance through the prism of the individual performer, grounding our writing in the central instrument of these arts--the human body/mind/spirit. 

The deadline for applications is March 4, 5pm EST, and early registration is advised. 

All the information you'll need is available here!

Brown gives "Evidence" at The Joyce

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence looks better than ever. For his season at The Joyce Theater (now through Sunday), Brown has carefully selected a retrospective of works that represent him, his unique aesthetic and his current lineup of dancers with clarity and power.

Program A, which I attended last evening, includes two confident works from 2005--the Order My Steps ensemble and the rapturous solo Ife/My Heart, with guest artist Matthew Rushing absolutely on fire--as well as the 1998 Incidents and the world premiere of Torch. Program B, which I will miss, focuses on Walking Out The Dark from 2001 and Upside Down from 1998.

This most satisfying season offers evidence of this artist's diligent and joyful exploration of texture and time in music, brushing past the strict outer lines of movement to uncover more of what's possible to the dancing body, doing so from a place of mindfulness of the travels of African peoples throughout our history. Brown's through-line, his sustenance--and the fuel for his dancers--comes from the history of Black people uplifted by their connection to a spiritual source and to one another. His dancers help me see this as an experience of being filled to bursting with energies and identities. We carry so many stories and ancestors within our bodies, hence, so many impulses clamoring to be remembered, honored, expressed. The individual body must fragment, loosen, release, become its own orchestra. Yet, at times, Brown's troupe falls into smooth, disciplined harmony. I have always loved the way Brown chooses and reveals the diverse, rich music of the Black diaspora--from spirituals to Marley to house--and, for that, I view him as my teacher.

Torch, a tribute to Beth Young--Brown's friend and student, lost to cancer--opens with a cluster of dancers, wearing costumes of a fabric and color reminiscent of hospital scrubs, elevating then engulfing and concealing Annique S. Roberts while Otis Donovan Herring dances alone. But this obvious setup gives way to jaunty celebration of a relationship and a life, set to South African house music. Roberts, Herring and the entire company shine, and it is fun and moving to see Brown participate in the dancing as well.

See Ronald K. Brown/Evidence at The Joyce Theater through Sunday night. For a complete schedule and ticket information, click here.

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

A Brazilian parade of music

Marching to an African Beat
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, February 12, 2013

One Billion Rising against violence towards women

Dancing on Behalf of a Billion
By Amelia Gentleman, The New York Times, February 12, 2013

One Billion Rising Web site

Political corruption...and fabulous music!

Salon/Sanctuary Concerts

--in partnership with THE FIRE DEPT--

presents

THE HEIRS OF TANTALUS

Music by Handel, Monteverdi, and Scarlatti

Text by Aeschylus, Euripides, and Suetonius

at Broad Street Ballroom

Friday, February 22, 8pm

An evening of site-specific theatre and music interweaving selections from Monteverdi, Scarlatti, and Handel with text from The Oresteia and the biting commentary of the Roman historian Suetonius to illuminate the ways in which political corruption in 1st century Rome was eerily prefigured by the work of the Greek tragedians, and the parallels and resonances of both with the American political landscape of today...

Musicians

Jessica Gould, Soprano and Jose Lemos, Countertenor 

Jory Vinikour, Harpsichord

Members of the Sebastians Chamber Orchestra

Actors

Judith Hawking

Steven Rattazzi

Nick Westrate

Script construction and stage direction

Erica Gould

For ticket information, click here or call 1-888-718-4253.

Broad Street Ballroom
41 Broad Street (between Beaver Street and Exchange Place), Manhattan
(map/directions)

The Black Arm Band: music of Australia's indigenous experience

"dirtsong" from The Black Arm Band on Vimeo.

NYU Skirball Center presents the U.S. premiere of dirtsong--traditional music and new songs from Australia's Black Arm Band.

Friday, February 22, 8pm 

The Black Arm Band brings together many of Australia’s premiere Aboriginal musicians. They hail from across the country and represent diverse musical, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Performed predominantly in Aboriginal languages, against a backdrop of evocative film imagery, the U.S. premiere of dirtsong comprises a series of musical “conversations” in which the artists reflect on their country. The result is a deeply moving show that conjures not only a sense of geographical place, but encounters, memories, obligations, community and nature. Combining traditional music and newly commissioned songs inspired by the beloved indigenous author Alexis Wright (Carpentaria), dirtsong offers a conceptual and emotional map of Australia's heartland.

For ticket information, click here or call 212-352-3101

NYU Skirball Center
566 LaGuardia Place (at Washington Square South), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Chen center to present a tribute to Remy Charlip

Remy Charlip

As part of Lantern Festival 2013, Chen Dance Center will present a series of performances in tribute to the late dancer, author, choreographer and illustrator Remy Charlip. The program includes performances of Charlip's 39 Chinese Attitudes --one of his celebrated "airmail dances"--and Twelve Contra Dances, a suite set to Beethoven and staged by Lance Westergard. Charlip's Ten Imaginary Dances will be performed by David G. Vaughan. H.T. Chen's Between Heaven and Earth concludes the program.

Thursday through Saturday, February 28, March 1 and March 2 at 7:30pm (with a reception, with refreshments, at 7 PM)

For ticket information, click here.

Chen Dance Center
70 Mulberry Street, 2nd floor
(corner Mulberry and Bayard, one block south of Canal), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Jean Butler prepares a new solo for Danspace Project

Jean Butler in hurry (photo by Ian Douglas)

For many people in the US and abroad, New York-born and raised Jean Butler became the beloved face of Irish traditional dance, most notably through her star role in the megahit musical Riverdance, her partnership with Colin Dunne in Dancing on Dangerous Ground, as well as many appearances on tour with The Chieftains. Most of her fans might not be aware that this highly disciplined artist, so strongly rooted in her Irish ancestral culture, continues to challenge herself through forging impressive connections to New York's postmodern dance community.

In 2010, Butler made her Danspace Project debut, premiering Day, a solo work she commissioned from acclaimed choreographer Tere O’Connor. This winter (Thursday-Saturday, March 7-9), she returns to Danspace Project with a work of her own creation–a solo entitled hurry--that she has developed with Jon Kinzel as her director.

With O'Connor, Butler felt comfortable settling into the role of dancer. "There was a very clear-cut understanding that Tere was the choreographer," she says. "He had the last say, and I was there to put myself firmly in his process."

After decades of excelling in traditional dance, she was ready to try a new path.

"I wanted to challenge myself physically and also performatively, because his work is so nuanced in terms of how you perform it. I was very attracted to Tere’s aesthetic and still am. That felt like a very natural choice for me, especially to introduce myself to New York in a completely different way from my history."

Jean Butler (photo by Conor Horgan)

So, what prompted Butler to look to Irish traditions, once again, for her next solo? It seems to have come out of a desire to understand her identity as a woman and a sharp, specifically-trained instrument of art.

"I thought, It’s time to go back now and start re-evaluating how that experience with Tere affected my approach towards dancemaking, my approach towards vocabulary, my sensibilities–or not, as the case may be. It was time for me to go back into my history and my own body.

"It would be a solo, but I wanted an outside eye. I wanted the director working with me. I’m so close to what I do, and my body is so codified within a particular traditional lexicon, that sometimes I can’t see the woods for the trees. I wanted someone to be a translator to push me deeper into the work, because that’s my interest–going deeper into the body.

"Some of the things Jon brought to the table were things that I had taken for granted. He started taking apart my understanding of rhythm. He recognized that I had an innate sense of duration: How long is a minute? How long is a few minutes? How long is fifteen seconds? We started looking at time in that way. Jon also has a huge improvisation background, and that was something that I wanted to dive into a little bit, specifically with the musical elements in creating this form.

"Sometimes I feel I’m a little island in the New York dance world. Because I work on myself and I work on solos, having Jon in the dialogue, he’s been able to put language on ideas that I haven’t been able to find language for. That’s extremely helpful, invaluable. He helps me identify what I’m trying to talk about and what I’m trying to do, and that becomes a dialogue rather than simply a reflection.

"This does not come out of any conceptual ideas or any outside ideas. It starts with the body, dealing with things that define me physically–my verticality, the innate rhythm and timing that exist within my body, footwork, the idea of stepping, the fact that I’m most comfortable with my limbs close to my center. I’m less comfortable when they’re further away. I’m less comfortable when I’m off my center.

"Instead of ignoring those things, this piece would be about going as deep into them as I possibly can at this moment, finding the dance language that is idiosyncratic to me, and not imposing other techniques or other ideas on top of that, going deeper to locate what motivates me to move."

hurry grew out of a 16-minute draft or, as she also calls it, a "flavor palette of different ideas" that Butler presented for APAP last year. The impetus was a traditional Irish tune, one she had danced to for many years.

"I could sing it to you now, I can sing it in my sleep, like a lot of music that’s in my head. The title of that was 'Hurry the Jug,' and I shortened that to hurry. It really doesn’t mean anything, doesn't symbolize anything. Like 'The Blackbird': In traditional Irish music, they are just names of tunes.

"I took the music's structure as a compositional starting point and created a circular phrase that I could use while this music was going on in my head that nobody else could hear. That was the architecture of one tiny section, the seed to the entire piece. Ironically, as we’re making the piece, more music has come up and embedded itself compositionally, though the audience would be unaware of this.

"I don’t want to impose anything on the title but, from a personal point of view, there’s a lot you can read into it: It’s about age, about an older dancer, about the speed at which I can move and working against that as a counterpoint. So, ironically, it became this very relevant word. As the piece goes on, you find more and more connections."

In recent months, Butler has begun lecturing on Irish studies at New York University, offering an introductory survey of the history of Irish dance, its competitions and spectacles and current master performers, such as her colleague Dunne. She rejects the popular notion of "pushing the boundaries" of tradition. Instead, she says, her course material focuses on artists who innovate by "going deeper into it as opposed to pushing away from it; analyzing what is, not putting things on top of it so that it becomes something else."

Clearly, her own work in hurry springs from this quest to find more of the dance that is already there, to see it and show it as if for the first time.

See hurry at Danspace Project, Thursday-Saturday, March 7-9 (8pm). Click here for program information and here for tickets.

Danspace Project
131 East 10th Street (at 2nd Avenue, Manhattan
(directions)

and a few more things...

In the course of preparing for my talk with Butler, I made a surprising discovery: For a few years now, she has maintained a jewelry business filled with elegant, lyrical designs inspired by her Irish heritage. She describes her interest in jewelry as “an opportunity to be creative in something that is not ephemeral, something completely solid in front of you.” Visit Jean Butler Jewellery at this link.

Also, click here for a lovely portrait of Butler in a video series for The Gathering Ireland 2013, a year-long celebration of Ireland and all things Irish.

BIO

Jean Butler has been dancing for over thirty years. Trained in Traditional Irish Dance under revered NY based teacher Donny Golden, Jean  spent her childhood on the competitive circuit winning regional, national, and world awards. As soloist, Jean has toured with many Irish recording artists, most notably the Chieftains for a period of 6 years. In 1994 she joined the original production team of Riverdance as co-choreographer, creating and performing the principal female role. Jean performed with the company for three years before leaving to team up with colleague Colin Dunne to produce and choreograph Dancing on Dangerous Ground, which had exclusive engagements at Drury Lane, London (1999) and Radio City Music Hall, New York. (2000). In April 1999 she was awarded the prestigious Irish Post Award for her outstanding contribution to Irish Dance. Jean holds a BA in Theatre Studies from Birmingham University, England and in 2003 completed a Masters in Contemporary Dance Performance at The World Academy, Limerick University where she was also Artist in Residence between 2003-2005. During this time, Jean became interested in a different physicality. 

In 2007, Jean choreographed her first contemporary solo piece, does she take sugar? which ran at Project Arts Centre, Dublin. The show was awarded ‘most innovative production’ in the critics’ survey in Ballet-Tanz Magazine Yearbook 2007 and was remounted at the Dublin Dance Festival 2008, mentored by Jodi Melnick. Her  solo works have been commissioned and supported by The Arts Council of Ireland,The Dublin Dance Festival, Culture Ireland, The Project Arts Centre (Dublin), Daghdha Dance Company (Limerick), Plankton Productions (Japan), Movement Research (New York), the Abbey Theatre (Dublin), Danspace Project (New York), Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and Lower Manhattan Cultural  Council.

Jean is also a 2012 Project CATALYST, an initiative of Project Arts Centre. Recently Jean had the privilege of working with Tere O’Conner on DAY, a solo, choreographed by Tere. Commissioned by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, DAY was first co-presented at the Dublin Dance Festival 2010 and at Danspace Project in Nov. 2010. 

Jean currently lives in New York and lectures in Irish Studies at NYU.

Quilts tell stories of survival

Survivors’ Stories of Abuse, Sewn Tight
by Tammy La Gorce, The New York Times, February 8, 2013

Lenzu to unveil "Unveiling Motion and Emotion"

Dance artist and author Anabella Lenzu (photo (c) Todd Carroll)

Argentine-born choreographer Anabella Lenzu proudly presents her new book, Unveiling Motion and Emotion, at a special celebration at the Consulate General of Argentina.

Thursday, March 7 (6pm)

Exploring the importance of dance, community, choreography and dance pedagogy, Argentinean choreographer Anabella Lenzu celebrates 23 years of teaching dance in a book of her writings in Spanish and English. Having opened her own dance school at 18, Lenzu recounts her experiences teaching in South America, Europe, and the US, as well as publishing an arts magazine and creating repertory for her dance company. Lenzu's eloquent prose reveals reflections of a life devoted to dance performance and education. Photography by Todd Carroll fully documents the performances and provides a glimpse into the creative process. This book is an inspiration to dancers and teachers alike, and the first of its kind as a bilingual text on dance pedagogy. Set for international release in March 2013. 

The program will feature a reading, dance performance and photography by Todd Carroll. Refreshments will be served.

Admission is free, but seating is limited.
RSVP required: Click here.

Consulate General of Argentina
12 West 56 Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Anabella Lenzu DanceDrama Web site

James DePriest, 76

James DePreist, a Pioneering Conductor, Dies at 76
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, February 9, 2013

Memorial planned for cultural historian Delilah Jackson

Delilah Jackson

A public memorial tribute to Delilah Jackson, Harlem's cultural historian, who died on January 12, is planned for St. Peter's Church--New York's world-renowned jazz church--on Friday, March 8 (7-10pm).

Organized by Al Heyward, Michela Marino Lerman, Mable Lee and Cobi Narita, this tribute will feature nearly 100 jazz musicians and tap dancers along with special guest Jill Jackson, Delilah's daughter. A coffee and dessert reception will follow.

All are welcome!

St. Peter's Church
619 Lexington Avenue (at 54th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Tough times for Nuyorican poetry pioneer

Poet and Prophet of El Barrio May Soon Be a Pauper
by David Gonzalez, The New York Times, February 8, 2013

Theater takes on climate change

Fate of the Earth Takes Center Stage
by Jason Zinoman, The New York Times, February 7, 2013

Signs of (artificial) intelligent life

 A scene from I, Worker (Photo: Osaka University & Eager Co. Ltd.)

This weekend, Japan Society presents Seinendan Theater Company and Osaka University Robot Theater Project in a haunting pair of one-act plays written and directed by Seinendan founder Oriza Hirata. Hirata's plays were developed in collaboration with noted robotics researcher Dr. Hiroshi Ishiguro of the Intelligent Robotics Laboratory at Osaka University. Dr. Ishiguro's work posits a future for useful human-robot coexistence and interaction. The plays--Sayonara (2010) and I, Worker (2008)--feature performances by robots and androids as well as human actors. Guess who ends up making the stronger impact?

Meet, for example, Geminoid F, which made its theatrical debut in Sayonara. This "female type tele-operated android...resembles the person it was originally modeled after," we learn from the android's bio in the program. Indeed, Geminoid F looks precisely like a youngish, well-bred brunette, her modest black clothing stylishly accented with high-heel black suede bootlets. Now check this out: "Geminoid F is equipped with 12 motorized actuators powered by air pressure, which allows it to mimic human facial expressions."

Delicate of features, demure of expression, Geminoid F portrays an android acquired by a man to provide poetic talk therapy for his terminally-ill daughter. The two characters--therapist and client--sit across from each other in a spare, black-and-white set. Geminoid F, hands folded in its lap, might make a minute turn or inclination of its head or convincingly blink its eyelids, but it stays put. Although the daughter is given more movement range and even rises from her chair on occasion, you might find yourself assigning more human-type reality to the artificial intelligence gazing at its client and reciting tankas.

Client and therapist quietly converse and trade tankas in several languages. The dialogue seems crafted to allow for spaciousness--and, perhaps, in a practical sense, time for the human actor to insert her lines between those of the android. It's not clear whether the emergence of Geminoid F's words is manually prompted or if those lines have been pre-recorded, but the latter seems the more likely case.

Sayonara takes a spell-breaking turn at one point, which I won't reveal here. Still, it leaves a viewer enchanted and wondering what brave new world we face when a machine designed to alleviate loneliness can effectively mimic compassion and poetic wisdom.

From the start, I, Worker brings a charming, gentle humor to the same question. Here, the attendant robots--Takeo and Momoko--are the household help for an amiable young Japanese couple. (Momoko is said to be a really good cook, and it looks like her human clients are chowing down on slices of pizza. Yum, yum.) Cute and cartoony--and far more conventionally AI-looking than Geminoid F--the pair of robots verbally express and physically exhibit sensitivity of thought and feelings. (Momoko: "The hardest thing for robots used to be holding an uncooked egg. Now, we can hold a human baby.") With prefabricated but, nevertheless, subtle movements, they show wit, worry, sadness, guilt, bashfulness and empathy. Clearly, we will need to think less about the possibility of losing our jobs to an army of mechanized workers and more about the chance that, one day, they might better us at connecting and loving.

We're expecting a fairly rough storm, but if the weather eases up, consider taking a chance to see these two unforgettable plays. Remaining shows are Friday, February 8 and Saturday, February 9, both at 7:30 PM. Running time is 75 minutes with a brief intermission.

Ticket information

Japan Society
344 East 47th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

*****

Upcoming stops on this production's tour

Philadelphia, PA: Philadelphia Live Arts, February 15-16
Burlington, VT: Flynn Center for the Performing Arts, February 21-22
Toronto, Canada: Canadian Stage, February 26–March 2
Pittsburgh, PA: Andy Warhol Museum, March 8-9

Get rhythm!

American Tap Dance Foundation

presents

Rhythm in Motion

Friday, March 22 and Saturday, March 23
Two shows each night: 7pm and 9:30pm

Sunday, March 24, 3pm

An evening of new work by New Yorks finest tap dancers and choreographers including Brenda Bufalino, Michelle Dorrance, Derick K. Grant, Kazu Kumagai, Max Pollak, Lynn Schwab, the Tap City Youth Ensemble and Cartier Williams, directed and curated by Tony Waag

Ticket information

The Theater at the 14th Street Y

344 East 14th Street (between 1st and 2nd Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Come celebrate--and bid fond farewell to--Joyce SoHo

An announcement from Cathy Eilers

As you may have heard, The Joyce Theater Foundation is in the process of negotiating a deal to sell Joyce SoHo.  This will allow The Joyce to further its mission of serving and supporting the art of dance by purchasing The Joyce Theater.  At the same time, we are looking at new and alternative ways of addressing the needs of the artists we served at Joyce SoHo.

We are excited about these developments and want to share some love with you, our closest colleagues, who have had the opportunity to create, perform, learn, teach, fund, support, present, and connect with us over the years at Joyce SoHo.

Please join us on Monday, February 11 from 5-9pm for I heart Joyce SoHo! at Joyce SoHo to visit with old friends, roam the building, share your stories, have a drink, touch the wall!, and leave your mark on this historic piece of New York City dance. 

Please invite your dancers, colleagues, etc.  We just ask that you please RSVP to iheartjoycesoho@joyce.org by noon on Monday so that we have an idea of how many people to expect.  Our electronic records do not span our entire 16 years - or Dia Art Foundation days prior - so we’re sure to have missed some folks; feel free to pass the information along.

We hope to see you next week!

Cheers,
Cathy :o)

P.S.  Joyce SoHo will remain open for rehearsals for an undetermined period of time, so if you have rehearsals booked there already, there is no need to panic!

Cathy Eilers (Programming Manager and former Joyce SoHo Program Manager)The Joyce Theater Foundation, Inc.)

Poetry as a therapeutic force

Finding Poetry in Cancer
by Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, February 4, 2013

Good, funny, beautiful: Taylor Mac at La MaMa

For a play that ends by starkly reminding viewers of our responsibility to right the world's wrongs--and thus write the happy ending its lead character clearly deserves--Good Person of Szechwan can be a rollicking good time. At least, that's the way this Brecht classic is delivered at La MaMa in The Foundry Theatre's charming production, directed by Lear deBessonet with Taylor Mac as sweet-hearted hooker Shen Tei.

Suddenly given a chance for financial stability--a reward for showing hospitality to a trio of visiting deities--the empathetic, well-intentioned Shen Tei seems only to attract all the greed and mendacity this sorry world holds. Among other inevitabilities, she falls hard for a questionable guy and lands in quite a messy pot of trouble.

Taylor Mac--first seen spewing azalea-colored petals from his lips as his bald head emerges from a hole in the ground--can render Shen Tei's physical delicateness just so in every moment. Catch this one: "Please be patient [giving the skirt of his tomato-red gown a lyrical swish] just a little." Yet when disguised as "cousin" Shui Ta in a pin-striped suit, bowler and curly mustache, the romantic and put-upon Shen Tei turns quite kickass. In the end, adversity and necessity lead her to understand the imperfection in people and glimpse the fierce range of possibility within herself.

Mac's juicy central performance, the terrific physical work of David Turner (as the Waterseller) in the first act and Lisa Kron's comic touches throughout are unforgettable.

Matt Saunder's re-imagining of the Ellen Stewart Theatre--lit by Tyler Micoleau and energized by the hipster folk music of César Alvarez, performed live by The Lisps--transforms it into an even more intimate space while utilizing quite a bit of airspace above the usual stage. It resembles a pop-up book. With influences as diverse as vaudeville, doo wop and drag theater, the Foundry gives Brecht's political soap opera irresistible glow and buoyancy.

Now through February 24. For schedule and ticketing information, click here.

La MaMa (Ellen Stewart Theatre)
66 East 4th Street (2nd Floor), Manhattan

Women, spirituality, healthy relationships: a talk at BAAD

I'm happy to announce that I've been asked to give a talk at the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD) on the topic of spirituality and healthy relationships, specifically for queer women and transpeople.

Sunday, February 17 (5:30-7:30pm)

Admission is free, and this informal, interactive talk will be followed by a free screening of Cheryl Dunye's film, co-written with Sarah Schulman, Mommy is Coming ("a sassy, raunchy, romantic sex comedy set in the edgy underground of Berlin where love and taboo affairs collide.")

Light refreshments will be served.

Click here to RSVP or call 718-482-5223.

BAAD
841 Baretto Street, The Bronx
(map/directions)

A celebration of contemporary Black composers

Raising Voices and Awareness for Overlooked Works
Da Capo Chamber Players at Merkin Concert Hall
by Steve Smith, The New York Times, February 3, 2013

Through the eyes of Met museum curators

The Metropolitan Museum of Art--under the imaginative leadership of its Director and CEO, Thomas P. Campbell--has launched 82nd & Fifth, an online video series in which each of one hundred curators discuss "a work of art from the Met's collection that changed the way he or see sees the world."

"One work. One curator. Two minutes at a time."

Six episodes are now posted and will be followed by two episodes weekly, every Wednesday at 11am—through December 25, 2013.

Click here for information and here to sign up to receive announcements of each new episode.