CSI's Paul Nagle on the mayoral candidate forum on education, arts and culture

Paul Nagle, Executive Director of Cultural Strategies Initiatives (CSI), shared his own take on--and ultimate frustration with--last night's mayoral candidate forum.

Read Nagle's post--"But Seriously Folks"--here.

NYC mayoral candidates interviewed on education and arts policies

WNYC's Leonard Lopate (left) and Kurt Andersen, moderators
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa 

Perhaps a month ago, I wondered if any of the current candidates for Mayor of the City of New York had positions on arts policy. As a supporter of Bill de Blasio, a progressive Democrat, I checked his Web site first and then looked at a few others. I didn't find anything. So, I got in touch with Dance/NYC Executive Director Lane Harwell. Harwell said, Hang on: There's a forum in the works.

And now, in no special order, a list of things I learned from last night's Mayoral Candidates forum on The Future of Education, Arts and Culture in New York City at Teachers College, Columbia University:

1. Most mayoral candidates, some of whom have backgrounds related to the educational system, seem on safer, firmer ground when the discussion is posited as "the future of education including the role of the arts in education," not "the future of arts and artists in New York." Which might be why, this event--billed as a forum on the arts when I first learned of it--became one largely addressing arts in our schools.

Lopate and Andersen
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa 

2. Leonard Lopate (The Leonard Lopate Show) and Kurt Andersen (Studio 360) possess Herculean stamina and, in the case of Lopate, the sting of a wasp. Mindful of how someone I know always refers to the radio host as "boring," I was amused to hear Lopate ask provocative (and provoking) zingers and give these politicians and wannabes a verbal smack when he didn't care for their replies. Let's get Lopate to follow these guys around and zap 'em each time they equivocate--which should keep him busy.

City Council President Christine Quinn
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

3. The speed-dating format featured about fifteen minutes with each candidate being grilled by moderators but taking no questions from the audience. Surprisingly, these quick takes provided valuable impressions of each of these men and women, if not in-depth, detailed information about their potential arts policies. Democratic front-runner Christine Quinn, for instance, offered a snapshot of her notoriously aggressive personality by being the only person to employ sports lingo, and weirdly so--"We want to put arts on the offensive in the budget"--and use the expression "when I am Mayor," while managing to evade commitment to any specific solutions short of extending the school day by a couple of hours to add literacy-through-arts programming. Giuliani-backed Joe Lhota not only turned on his reputed charm and humor but also parted company with his former boss, criticizing how Giuliani's administration sidelined arts education. All went nicely until Lopate brought up Lhota's role in the Chris Ofili/Brooklyn Museum incident. "I learned a lot," said Lhota. "I made a mistake."

Staten Island's Rev. Erick Salgado
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

4. Fringe candidates you never heard of might not have a chance in hell, but they sometimes bring information and perspectives that broaden the discussion in a useful way. It fell to an actual working artist--poet and painter Abiodun Laurel-Smith, aka Abiodun Oladewa, Abbey or Smithie--to remind the moderators that artists don't necessarily exist just to entertain or even to educate in any kind of a socially-approved way. "You have to go to the people and find what the real art is," said the Oxford graduate. "Fine artists have an edge," and what they do will not always align with politicians' interests. CUNY professor and Green Party candidate Anthony Gronowicz--one of the few speakers to insist on the provision of more spaces in which artists can do their work--also noted the effect of the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy on students from communities of color. After encounters with the police, "my students come to class shattered," he said. "How can they paint? How can they write?"

George McDonald, 
Founder and President of The Doe Fund
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

5. Then again, not every also-ran-to-be brought experiences and insights of value. George McDonald, founder and president of The Doe Fund--an organization serving the homeless, the formerly incarcerated and people with substance abuse histories--got off on the wrong foot with both moderators and audience by strangely rambling on about houses he owns. Andersen finally cut him off: "Congratulations on owning all this fantastic real estate on Long Island." Matters did not improve as McDonald swiftly went on to hail Bloomberg as an improvement over Giuliani, claiming that Bloomberg's willingness to hold meetings with Black people made New York a less racist place. McDonald put forth his idea for solving the trouble that both the arts and education face in our times: "New York City employees must pay for their health insurance." The topic of public school test scores brought to mind a family member's situation: "Not all students test well," he said. "My grandson, for instance." Andersen could not ignore this transgression, dryly replying, "You've just embarrassed your grandson." Clueless but ever optimistic, McDonald lobbied for our votes--or, at least, our willingness to tap our Republican friends--and ended with a cheery, "I'm conservative with your money and liberal with your rights!"

The Rev. Erick Salgado argued for community-based nonprofits having access to school buildings after hours. This made me wonder if he was talking about churches utilizing space in schools--a controversy--but, as noted before, the audience could ask no questions. Salgado went on to sidestep the topic of arts in education, finally saying he supports the idea of it. Clearly, though, he has no ideas for the integration of the arts and education but seems laser-focused on charter schools and tax breaks for parents who utilize them. John Catsimatidis, the Gristedes and Red Apple mogul, passionately took on the current administration's preoccupation with "bike lanes and building hills on Governors Island." Although he agreed with Andersen's suggestion that every school should have a full-time arts teacher, his main solution to the education dilemma seemed to concede to failure: Why must every student go through an academic program?  Let's offer them trade schools, instead, as a pathway to the middle class. Citing his immigrant family's experience, he said, "Let's teach people how to earn a living. You know what people are looking for? They're looking for hope. I made it, and you can make it, too."

Bill de Blasio, NYC Public Advocate
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Joe Lhota, ex-MTA chair/CEO

(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

6. Bill de Blasio needs someone to light a fire under his ass. Seriously. I can understand that he's being a realist and reasonable about the looming challenge the next mayor will face as he or she simultaneously deals with renegotiating multiple union contracts. Committing to an ambitious increase in arts funding across all five boroughs--such as promoted by One Percent for Culture, a co-presenter of this forum--might be foolhardy, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't come to an event like this prepared for the excellent opportunity to rev people up about why this issue matters to you, what you value and hold dear, what you're willing to fight for. Instead, de Blasio argued that he did not want to pander to us. Okay, no pandering, but Bill, give us something! Maybe the media largely ignore his campaign because--short of the noble, if quickly forgettable, act of getting arrested at a protest while other candidates slinked away--there's no real excitement there. But to give my favored candidate a break, at least he knows how to treat family. Referring to public speaking and noting his son Dante's presence in the front row, he took a moment to laud the teenager's talents as a speaker. Maybe Dante should run for mayor.

John Liu, Comptroller of the City of New York
Above and below (c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

7. Politics is a far nerdier profession than I'd ever imagined. Bill Thompson--another basically cautious soul--revealed that, as a child, he'd had "a love affair with dinosaurs." Quinn, quickly rounding on the moderators, defended the right of science to be considered culture: "Ask the Museum of Natural History!" John Liu, after critiquing the Board of Education's reliance on expensive consultants, and after laying out boilerplate, sounds-good stuff about nurturing talent in small community groups and immigrant neighborhoods--joked that he's "an actuary--that's an accountant minus the personality." The only certified comic on hand--Randy Credico--might consider updating his shtick. A Louis Armstrong impression in 2013? Really?

Jack Hidary, Founder and Chairman of Samba Energy
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

8. "Twenty years ago, I studied art and painting in this building," said Democrat Jack Hidary, an energy and Internet entrepreneur. He spoke those words with pride and a refreshing sense of living connection to the issue on the table. He ticked off benefits of the arts: economic development, revival of neighborhoods, increased tourism, investment in students and in teachers. Through a public-private partnership, he said, the 1% target is achievable. He vowed to get there and to forge partnerships between arts institutions and the 300 New York City schools that do not have these valuable links. He spoke of creating shared collaborative space for artists in neighborhoods of all five boroughs. Citing the dramatic drop in arts in education funding from $65 per student (ten years ago) to the current $2 per student, he argued that he would seek restoration of that money over a period of two years.

"Art," he said, "is core and part and parcel" of the educational experience. It should not be relegated to after-school activities. He exhorted New York to "teach for the real world, not the test," a world of industries seeking innovative people. "Get the kids participating in teams and on real projects," he said. "We're not in the 18th Century anymore. We're in a century that values teamwork, problem solving and creativity."

Sal Albanese, former City Council member
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Other candidates appearing--or not:

Sal Albanese, former City Council member: Uses words like "synergy" and "holistic." Does not advocate an art tax but thinks that One Percent for Culture's call for an increase in city arts spending to a full 1% of the budget "makes a lot of sense." He would work in concert with the unions to modernize the city's pension plan--"a clunker"--along the lines of the Toronto system. He would partner with insurance companies to bring down healthcare costs. He is not against tax breaks for arts organizations. His campaign does not accept money from developers, lobbyists or anyone doing business with the city. He wants to set up pediatric wellness centers--one in each borough--to deal with the root causes of many issues our children face.

Ceceilia Berkowitz, accountant and academic: last in the forum lineup, and the less said, the better about her bizarre presentation in front of two probably exhausted moderators and a nearly-empty hall

Hilda Broady-Fernandez: not present

Adolfo Carrión, former Bronx Borough President (2001-2009) and Deputy Assistant and Director of the White House Office of Urban Affairs: Arrived as the forum progressed, sat in the front row for a short while, then got up and left.

Neil Grimaldi, Assistant District Attorney (Bronx County) and Special Narcotics Prosecutor, background in high school and grammar school teaching: not present

Walter Iwachiw, registered nurse: not present

James McMillan, famed Rent Is Too Damn High Party candidate and Viet Nam vet: not present

Carl Person, attorney: not present

And last, certainly not least...

Anthony Weiner: No, neither Weiner nor his alter ego, Carlos Danger, had time for this forum. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd ("Quit is the Way to Roll," July 31) explained the whereabouts of the embattled warrior and most of the media, too.

At an event Tuesday evening in Times Square with advocates for New Yorkers with disabilities, the 48-year-old seemed tired, slight and young as he was thronged by the fierce Hydra-headed press beast. He looked as if he were running on raw will.

He apologized for being late, saying something about the “time-space continuum.”

Weiner tried to focus on the issues at hand, like wheelchair-accessible cabs. The auditorium was mostly empty, except for reporters following Weiner to see if he was going to drop out or admit that he had sexted recently.

*****

Forum co-presenters:

One Percent for Culture

Teachers College, Columbia University

Young Audiences New York

Richard Thomas, 88 [UPDATE]

Richard Thomas (1925-2013)
Photo courtesy of the family of Richard Thomas

Richard Thomas, prominent ballet teacher, passed away July 27 in Kentucky.   Born December 3, 1925, Thomas was a dancer with New York City Ballet and owned the New York School of Ballet, where he and his late wife Barbara Fallis trained many prominent dancers.

Three of his former students, Eliot Feld, Christine Sarry, and Daniel Levans, placed the following obituary in The New York Times:

Richard Thomas, known affectionately as Dick, master ballet teacher, mentor, willful iconoclast, sublimely human and adored by umpteen generations of dancers, is said to have died on Saturday morning July 27.   For those of us who knew him, who were privileged to brush against his vital and provocative nature, he lives on!   The ripples from his kindness, wisdom, sensibility and wit endure.  So too, his divine lickety-split petit allegros, even his excesses, which were excessive, his passion for dancing and dancers, and his knowledge of ballet technique combined with this intellect and his gift for cajolery to impart the lesson to we who were eager, so eager.   He lives forever within us.   He has become a part of who we are.  Indelible.   It seems only appropriate that Dick should have the last word, as was his wont and dessert deserved.   Accordingly: in ballet class, half a century plus ago, though it seems like yesterday, at the conclusion of the Grand Allegro, he opined to the class and to the Gods if they would only listen and learn - "the cow jumped over the moon but he was still a cow."

The New York Times obituary by Jennifer Dunning, August 3: click here

Historic appointment at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: First Black woman president

Cheryl Boone Isaacs Chosen to Head Film Academy
by Michael Cieply, The New York Times, July 30, 2013

Eileen Brennan, 80

Eileen Brennan, Stalwart of Film and Stage, Dies at 80
by Anita Gates, The New York Times, July 30, 2013

Ronnie Cutrone, 65

Ronnie Cutrone, a Warhol Assistant, Dies at 65
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, July 26, 2013

A little songbird told me

Finding the brain's common language
by Erin Wayman, Science News, July 22, 2013

Harlem Stage's "Makandal" opera will tour Haiti and South Africa

Harlem Stage Prepares to Export Its Own Opera
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, July 28, 2013

Musician Yomo Toro honored in the Bronx

In the Bronx, Honoring a Virtuoso of Latin Music
by Mona El Naggar, The New York Times, July 28. 2013

Steve Berrios, 68

Steve Berrios, Master of Latin Jazz and Drums, Dies at 68
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, July 27, 2013

Carline Ray, 88

Carline Ray, an Enduring Pioneer Woman of Jazz, Dies at 88
by William Yardley, The New York Times, July 27. 2013

J.J. Cale, 74

J.J. Cale, Musician and Songwriter, Dies at 74
by Ravi Somaiya, The New York Times, July 27. 2013

"HOT" fun in the summertime

Keeping this short and sweet: Get your butts over to Dixon Place's HOT! Festival tonight for the closeout of The Loudest Show on Earth (10pm). I don't know if any tickets remain--likely not--but you have my permission to mug someone for theirs.

Loud and hilarious, potty-mouthed Lea DeLaria--who now bills herself as "the fisting consultant for Orange is the New Black"--and motor-mouthed Maggie Cassella rarely slacken the pace in this tight, roughly hour-long gallop through the personal and the political. Again, let me keep it simple: What have you and your best friends been talking and thinking about lately? Okay. You'll find all of that right here but wilder and wackier than you could ever have imagined.

But beyond the stand-ups and character sketches, there's also delicious music. So good to hear DeLaria swing and swoop her way through "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" again and to subvert her own presentational subversion with a sweet rendition of "I Enjoy Being A Girl" while looking like the second coming of Fiorello La Guardia. And later Cassella steps up to the challenge of translating DeLaria's fierce scat singing into English--yeah, right--cracking DeLaria up in the process.

Also repeating tonight on the HOT! bill: Sacha Yanow's solo performance, The Prince at 7pm.

Yanow depicts the prince as a prisoner of her own bedroom--"a fantastical palace...deep in the well of loneliness"--charmingly rendered in her own drawings, which create the set and props. Innocence and sophistication, raw vulnerability and the strength of creative imagination interact in this intimate piece about learning to take a chance on the world and yourself. Yanow has a great face for performance: Under a set of over-determined eyebrows--dashes of black face paint--and madly sculpted hair, she can fix us with a gaze of sad, pleading eyes or a flash of delight. She's a good physical comic with attention to detail and timing.

For program and ticket information about these and other HOT! shows, click here.

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

Walter De Maria, 77

Walter De Maria, Artist on Grand Scale, Dies at 77
by Roberta Smith, The New York Times, July 26, 2013

Paul Szilard, 100

Paul Szilard (1912 – 2013) died peacefully at home on Friday, 26 July 2013, at the age of 100.  He was born in Budapest, Hungary (August 24, 1912) and became a United States citizen in the 1950’s. A former leading dancer, Paul Szilard has performed throughout the world with such famous dancers as Nora Kaye, Colette Marchand, Sonia Arova and others.

As a world-renowned impresario, he has presented such prestigious dance companies as Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (for whom he was the exclusive international representative for almost 40 years), New York City Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Martha Graham Dance Company, Dancers of Bali, Madrid’s Ballet Víctor Ullate, Universal Ballet and the American premiere engagement of the Bunraku Japanese Doll Theater.

The list of internationally-acclaimed artists presented by Paul Szilard is impressive, including such legendary stars as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Eric Bruhn, Patrick Dupond, Judith Jamison, John Taras, Violette Verdy, Donna Wood and many others.

Mr. Szilard produced the first Japanese tour of West Side Story with an American cast rehearsed by Jerome Robbins.  It was the first English language Broadway show from New York to appear there. The entire company (cast and musicians) came from New York. In 2007 in Paris the Theatre du Chatelet and Michael Brenner for BB Promotion in collaboration with Paul Szilard Productions, Inc. presented a sold out 50th Anniversary Production of this classic musical, with an American cast that performed in English.

He was responsible for countless celebrated cultural events and galas throughout Asia, Australia and Europe as well as in the United States. He produced and presented the Bavarian National Ballet of the Munich State Opera at the New York State Theater. He presented American Ballet Theater at the Nouveau Festival International de Danse de Paris. He also presented Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the same festival in 2001.

His much-awaited autobiography, Under My Wings: My Life as an Impresario, was published in 2002.

In 2010, Mr. Szilard was presented with a special tribute by the New York City Ballet in honor of his work for the School of American Ballet, specifically for his philanthropic contributions to the School via his bookings of Balanchine’s Symphony in C. Also in 2010, Szilard was honored by the mayor of Gyor, Hungary, for his lifelong contribution to the world of dance.

In 2012, in honor of his years of bringing great dance to France and for his outstanding and numerous contributions to French culture, Mr. Szilard was decorated by the French Ministry of Culture.  He was presented with the decoration at a gala in his honor in Paris on June 25, on the occasion of the Opening Night of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s four-week season at the Theatre du Chatelet.

Last September there was a Celebration Party in honor of his 100th birthday with numerous luminaries from the dance world and friends and associates gathering to salute this unique man who did some much for the arts and for so many.

Obituary courtesy of KPMAssociates

August application deadline for NY Film Festival's Critics Academy

Aspiring film critics are invited to submit applications for the 2013 Critics Academy of the New York Film Festival.

DEADLINE: Friday, August 9
NOTIFICATION: by September 1

Emphasis will be placed on a diversity of voices, backgrounds and cinematic interests.

For complete program information and application guidelines, click here.

Guillermo Bert: weaving tradition and technology

What’s a QR Code Doing on That Blanket?
Artist Guillermo Bert is weaving together technology and Native American tradition
by Maggie Ryan Sandford, Smithsonian magazine, July-August 2013

On the "Glitter" trail at Abrons

Rebecca Warner's dancers (photo by Steven Schreiber)

Summer's here and the time is right...for glitter. Lots of it.

It's in the spirit of play, of independence, of risk and change, of eros, ecstasy, the unknown and the burgeoning.

Ben Pryor's got glitter--namely, Festival TBD: Emergency Glitter, the first summer festival to arrive from the founder of winter's annual, critically-acclaimed American Realness fest. If you've slipped into a creative funk or a rut or a case of the way-too-serious, pick up some emergency glitter at Abrons Arts Center, now through Sunday, where Pryor will showcase Niall Jones, Emily Wexler, Rebecca Patek and other young creative talents in contemporary dance and performance.

Rebecca Warner and Burr Johnson's shared program, which opened last night and repeats tonight at 8:30pm and Saturday at 4pm, is a beaut. Both artists lavishly honor the Abrons main stage with the glitter of theatrical excitement. Both bring the thrill of open, brisk, upbeat, clearly designed movement to this theater as audience members, seated onstage, watch closely from within the perimeter.

This intimate closeness produces pure magic, acting like a magnifying glass on everything. Warner's Into Glittering Asphalt distills entertainment dance (Broadway, movies and the like) for the big, expansive moments and movements that rev up energy in performers and viewers alike. Alone or in unison, dancers skim, turn and skate across the floor in numerous arrangements and repeating patterns. The last to join in, Siobhan Burke introduces an especially coltish element, but her colleagues--Evvie Allison, Rachel Berman, Ashley Handel and Juri Onuki--are also sharp and exhilarating to watch.

Johnson's gorgeous duet with Reid Bartelme also uses the stage in reverse, also directs the stage-bound audience's gaze towards bits of action in the theater aisles and seats they would normally occupy. (By the way, Miguel Gutierrez tried this same subversive trick at Abrons years ago, and I loved it then, too.) But unlike the theater-centered feel of Warner's ensemble piece, Johnson's Shimmering Islands conjures a beach scene out of thin air, pulls memories and images over the stage space like a rippling net.

Dressed in colorfully printed jumpers (designed by Bartelme) that feminize their sleek, sculpted, perfectly aligned physiques, the dancers invoke spaciousness as they prance, bound, lunge and leap. The modest space does not seem sufficient to contain everything that they bring to it--from the wingspan of pelagic birds to the sensuous and powerful tumbling of surf. The lighting reflected off Abrons' shiny white floor alters along with the temperature of the music--from Robyn's "Indestructible" to Dvorak's New World Symphony, that latter choice encoded with connection to the Apollo moon landing. (Neil Armstrong took a recording onboard.) Shimmering Islands looks like optimism, joy and the marriage of the pleasures of this world with the promise of breakthrough to worlds yet unexplored.

For tickets and information on this and all other Festival TBD: Emergency Glitter events, click here.

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street (corner of Pitt Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Wild "Seas" at Wild Project

The annual Between the Seas Festival, directed by Aktina Stathaki, creates opportunities for performing artists from the Mediterranean region to show work as well as connect and collaborate with their counterparts in New York. Now in its third season, the festival runs through Sunday, July 28. On last evening's shared program at a little Lower East Side gallery and performance venue called Wild Project, two dark, intense dance productions made use of the tiny stage space to varying degrees of effectiveness.

D R T or possible other titles!--a world premiere by the Turkish artist Korhan Basarn for Brooklyn's Mari Meade Dance Collective-overcomes its awkward title as well as its copious program notes/manifesto/open letter through fervent performance. One sentence--set off from the rest and rendered in boldface--contains what might be a flash of specific intention: "#brokenangel will be there as an elegy to the ones we recently lost as a victim of violence." This likely alludes to Taksim Square, but audiences must still grapple with the enigma of the dance itself.

D R T opens in silence, with a ritualistic vision: four long-skirted women cupping votive candles close to their hearts, aligned in a row in front of four strapping men in bikini briefs, crouched low with the tops of their heads planted onto the floor. The women advance, carefully stepping off the stage's edge, coming to nestle between the viewers and the stage as they quietly watch the men shamble forward.

The men bear patches of white feathers on their shoulder blades. Streaks of fake blood crust at the base of these vestiges of wings. The men's propulsive movements are heavy, wrenching and torturous. They grapple, sometimes alone, with one another or with a wall. Meade's dancers seize this rough material with eagerness and competence. We might not fully comprehend what's going on here--something about the confinement of embodiment and imperfection, perhaps-- but we understand the dancers' commitment.

The notion of endless struggle gets upended, though, by a reversal of roles and a radical change in tone. The men watch from the edge, and the women regain the stage, the women's interactions leading to frequent catfights and audience amusement. Stranger still is the conclusion--the appearance of an additional wounded man--a dancer not listed in the program but, apparently, the choreographer. His long, spastic thrashings extend an already protracted piece.

Portugal's Pedro Goucha Gomes
(photo courtesy of the artist)

Amongst Millions
Photo by Flavia Zaganelli

By contrast, Pedro Goucha Gomes offers no lengthy manifesto, no compatriots to share the burden. And, in fact, he stands naked before his audience. At the beginning of his solo, he barely moves.

His US premiere work, Amongst Millions, does have strong social justice intent, clearly stated. A few lines of notes refer to Europe's crisis and "feelings of frustration, alienation and fear" among the people of his homeland, Portugal. The notes continue, "The stylized, polite, urban and civilized body is replaced by ...crude expressiveness." True enough, yet that description does not sufficiently convey the extraordinary achievement of this singular and challenging performance.

In everyday life, Gomes has the form, visage and bearing of a knight. He has danced with some of Europe's most notable ballet troupes. Yet the extreme physical tensions in this solo give him the appearance of a man writhing with starvation or suffering torture. His stretchy face grows gaunt. His head morphs into a skeleton's skull with an alternately desperate, manic or lewd grimace of gleaming, terrifying teeth. The soundtrack, starting in a barely perceptible rumble, might issue from inside this frightening head. At times, it blares in volume, complexity and force.

The work, though profoundly disturbing, exerts a hypnotic pull and must be experienced. Gomes performs again on the festival's Thursday performance at 9:30pm, in a program shared with Meade's troupe and Vanessa Tamburi/FLUSSO Dance Project.

For complete program, schedule and ticketing information for Between the Seas, click here.

Wild Project
195 East 3rd Street (between Avenues A and B), Manhattan
(map)

Brazilian protests give new charge to New York City music fest

Soundtrack to a Party, and Unrest in Brazil
At Brasil Summerfest, More Pointedly Political Lyrics
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, July 21, 2013

Open your eyes, find your way

For me, the search for meaning in the wake of tragedy led in an unpredictable direction, but the end result was an enriched view of the world. -- John Edward Huth, author, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way

Losing Our Way in the World
by John Edward Huth, The New York Times, July 20, 2013

Ashton Springer, 82

Ashton Springer, Producer of Broadway Shows, Dies at 82
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, July 20, 2013

Willing Participant group responds to Zimmerman verdict

A note from Todd Shalom (Elastic City, Willing Participant) and colleagues:

Everybody, Willing Participant whips up urgent poetic responses to crazy shit that happens. Last night, about 20 people met with us to consider the death of Trayvon Martin. From that meeting, we have decided to create a response that invites the public to show greater respect for the lives of young black men.  We have decided to make a slow-moving sculpture in Times Square that will morph our bodies into various versions of the hoodied self.

Tuesday, July 23rd at 10:15pm

Duffy Square in Times Square

Duffy Square is the northern triangle of Times Square. It is located between 45th and 47th Streets, Broadway and Seventh Avenue.

Duration: 30 minutes

Admission is free. No RSVP needed. All ages welcomed.

Yours,
Todd Shalom, Niegel Smith & Ben Weber
Ringleaders
Willing Participant

Willing Participant is a labor of love and grrrr. An all-volunteer project created by members of non-profit participatory walk organization Elastic City.

For information, click here.

Curtis Harnack, 86

Curtis Harnack, Writer and President of Yaddo, Dies at 86
by William Yardley, The New York Times, July 18, 2013

Park yourself in front of Shakespeare

Municipal Parking Lot
at Ludlow and Broome Streets
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

No, it's not.

It's a theater.

Because I say it is. 

And so does The Drilling Company whose open-air "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" production of Cymbeline plays out across the asphalt now through July 27.

But as muggy summer evening gives way to night, and a few SUVs pull into parking spaces, the magic charm starts to wear off just a bit. 

But not before Hamilton Clancy's talented ensemble, the Lower East Side vibe and Con Edison ("Thanks for the street light," says Clancy) conspire to build up that charm over a straight two-hours and fifteen-minutes of charged action.

Keldrick Crowder as Cymbeline, King of Britain, with audience
(photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Lightsabers at the ready
L-r: Mark Byrne, Skylar Gallun and David Sitler
(photo by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Cheekily anachronistic elements--like characters wielding lightsabers or snacking on a bag of chips--appear to be remnants of time-shifting ideas Clancy had for this production. But their appearance in this vestpocket of the urban everyday has a funny way of making the players look like neighborhood kids gathered to put on a show. In this case, pretty sophisticated, highly trained kids. But kids, nonetheless, making do with their makeshift platform stages and curtains and props. And Clancy's actors--notably Andy Markert as comically apoplectic Cloten and the electric Mark Byrne as Guiderius--foreground a heady playfulness in Shakespeare's overstuffed plot that wins out over other elements like romance and horror. 

Amanda Dillard as Imogen, the princess
(photo by  Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

Playing Shakespeare outdoors and unamplified runs the risk of losing choice words to the air. Some of Cymbeline's performers were largely inaudible when out of range. Amanda Dillard (Imogen) delivered nearly everything at irritating screech pitch. But Philip Rossi's Posthumus Leonatus and Lukas Raphael's Iachimo, the two enemies, have wonderful voices that project just enough while retaining suppleness and subtlety. The same can be said for Byrne. For the show's vocal champion, though, see Keldrick Crowder, Cymbeline himself, who has a voice like solar wind and body language to match. If you go, you might catch a glimpse of Crowder "offstage," practicing what looks like qigong and silently mouthing his upcoming lines before heading back for the final scene. All part of the fun!

Admission is free, though donations are happily accepted. Bring cold drinks and fans. Come early for a good seat, or bring your own chair. And, no worries: Friendly nearby bars and restaurants welcome you to make a pit stop, if need be.

Thursdays-Saturdays at 8pm through July 27. For information, click here or call 212-873-9050.

For information on The Drilling Company's upcoming "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" production of Richard3, click here.

Municipal Parking Lot

Ludlow and Broome Streets, Manhattan (one block south of Delancey Street)

(map/directions)

Bessie Award nominees, two recipients announced

Lucy Sexton, Director of The Bessies
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

In a press conference at the Gibney Dance Center, the New York Dance and Performance Awards (aka, The Bessies) announced two award recipients for 2013 and the slate of this year's nominees in various categories including outstanding performance, production and visual design. The awards ceremony returns to Harlem's famed Apollo Theater for the third year on Monday, October 7 (8pm).

Darrell Jones, winner
Juried Bessie Award
above and below
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Darrell Jones

Third annual recipient of the Juried Bessie Award, selected by Ishamel Houston-Jones, Eiko Otake and Jason Samuels Smith and presented by NY State DanceForce member Paz Tanjuaquio, Director of Topaz Arts. The award includes residencies and performance opportunities through organizations in the NY State DanceForce network.

Joanna Kotze, winner,
Outstanding Emerging Choreographer
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Joanna Kotze

2013 New York Dance and Performance Award for Outstanding Emerging Choreographer, presented by Beth Gill, the 2011 winner of this award. Kotze was nominated for her work It Happened It Had Happened It Is Happening It Will Happen (Danspace Project). Other nominees were Justin Peck for Year of the Rabbit (New York City Ballet), Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith for Tulip (Roulette) and Ephrat Asherie for A Single Ride (Dixon Place).

Lane Harwell, member,
Bessies Steering Committee
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Beverly D'Anne, member,
Bessies Steering Committee
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Paz Tanjuaquio, member,
Bessies Nominating Committee
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Fatima Kafele, member,
Bessies Nominating Committee
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Aaron Mattocks, nominee
Outstanding Performer
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

The 2013 New York Dance and Performance Award

winners and nominees

Outstanding Performer

Shantala Shivalingappa in Shiva Ganga
Choreographed by Shantala Shivalingappa
Fall for Dance, City Center

Herman Cornejo
American Ballet Theatre
Works by Mark Morris, Twyla Tharp and Alexei Ratmansky
City Center and the Metropolitan Opera House

Aaron Mattocks
Works by David Gordon, Stephen Petronio, Jodi Melnick, Christopher Williams, Faye Driscoll, John Kelly, Dean Moss, Doug Elkins and more

Annique Roberts
Evidence Dance Company
Works by Ronald K. Brown

Charles "Lil Buck" Riley and Ron "Prime Tyme" Myles
Le Poisson Rouge

Kayo Seyama in BELL
Choreographed by Yasuko Yokoshi
New York Live Arts

David Wampach and Tamar Shelef in SACRE
Choreographed by David Wampach
The Invisible Dog Art Center as part of Performance Space 122’s COIL Festival

Jennifer Monson in Live Dancing Archive
Choreographed by Jennifer Monson
The Kitchen

Melissa Toogood in Interface, Choreographed by Rashaun Mitchell at
Baryshnikov Arts Center and The Spectators, Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz
at New York Live Arts

Sebastien Ramirez and Honji Wang in AP15
Choreographed by Sebastien Ramirez and Honji Wang
The Apollo Theater, Breakin’ Convention

Hari Krishnan in The Frog Princess
Choreographed by Hari Krishnan
La MaMa, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Jaro Viňarský in Bastard (The Painted Bird Trilogy Cycle part I)
Choreographed by Pavel Zuštiak
La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer

Justin Peck for Year of the Rabbit
New York City Ballet

Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith for Tulip
Roulette

Ephrat Asherie for A Single Ride
Dixon Place

Joanna Kotze for It Happened It Had Happened It Is Happening It Will Happen
Danspace Project

Outstanding Musical Composition/Sound Design

Omar Sosa for Miriam
Choreographed by Nora Chipaumire
BAM’s Fishman Space

Marty Beller for A Single Ride
Choreographed by Ephrat Asherie

Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells for The Quiet Volume
Created by Ant Hampton and Tim Etchells
Performance Space 122 and PEN World Voices Festival

Liam O Maonlai for Rian,
Choreographed by Michael Keegan-Dolan of Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
Lincoln Center, White Light Festival

Outstanding Visual Design

Suzanne Bocanegra, costume design for Ich, Kurbisgeist
by Big Dance Theater at The Chocolate Factory

Pontus Lidberg, set and media design for Within (Labyrinth Within)
by Morphoses at The Joyce

Fleur Elise Noble, visual design with media for Two Dimension Life of Her
by Fleur Elise Noble at Under the Radar Festival, The Public Theater

Akiko Iwasaki, costume design for BELL
by Yasuko Yokoshi at New York Live Arts

Outstanding Revived Work

Dionysus in 69
Rude Mechs from a work by The Performance Group
New York Live Arts

State of Heads
Choreographed by Donna Uchizono
New York Live Arts

Scott, Queen of Marys
Choreographed by Doug Elkins
Baryshnikov Arts Center

D-Man in the Waters
Choreographed by Bill T. Jones
The Joyce

Outstanding Production

(performed in a large capacity venue of more than 400 seats)

Rian, Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
Choreographed by Michael Keegan-Dolan
Lincoln Center, White Light Festival

Shostakovich Trilogy, American Ballet Theatre
Choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky
Metropolitan Opera House

The Legend of Apsara Mera, Royal Ballet of Cambodia
BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House

Outstanding Production

(performed in a small capacity venue of less than 400 seats)

Then She Fell
Created and choreographed by Third Rail Projects
Kingsland Ward at St. Johns

Everything You See
Choreographed by Vicky Shick
Danspace Project

The Painted Bird Trilogy Cycle
Choreographed by Pavel Zuštiak and Palissimo
La MaMa, La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival

Outstanding Production

(of a work stretching the boundaries of a traditional form)

Paseo
Choreographed by Joanna Haigood
Dancing in the Streets

red, black, & GREEN: a blues
Choreographed by Marc Bamuthi Joseph
BAM’s Fishman Space

Mo(or)town/Redux
Choreographed by Doug Elkins
Baryshnikov Arts Center

Outstanding Production

(of a work at the forefront of contemporary dance 

and performance practices)

Watch It
Choreographed by Liz Santoro
Museum of Arts and Design

The People to Come
Choreographed by Yanira Castro
The Invisible Dog Art Center

Organ Player
Created by Narcissister
Abrons Arts Center

*****

Join the NY Dance and Performance League!

Support The Bessies by becoming a member of the NY Dance and Performance League with benefits:

--Nominate Selection Committee members.

--Receive invitations to discussions of all things Bessies and to the annual press conference

--Buy tickets to the awards show before they go on sale to the public.

Click here for information.

TIPDI: Go to adult dance camp this summer in New York City!

Artistic Director Paula Wilson invites you The International Partner Dance Intensive (TIPDI), a three-day, four-night multi-dance intensive for adult dancers, August 15-18.

"TIPDI," Wilson says "is 72 tracked/leveled classes in ballet, Argentine tango, salsa, modern, West Coast swing, and Afro-Haitian dance, taught by a world-class faculty, with social dancing every night, all geared towards adults. In a nutshell, it's a rigorous, friendly, conservatory-style dance training program for adults."

Click here for complete program and registration information.

Silence will not protect you.

I was going to die, sooner or later, whether or not I had even spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.... What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear more than our own need for language."

I began to ask each time: "What's the worst that could happen to me if I tell this truth?" Unlike women in other countries, our breaking silence is unlikely to have us jailed, "disappeared" or run off the road at night. Our speaking out will irritate some people, get us called bitchy or hypersensitive and disrupt some dinner parties. And then our speaking out will permit other women to speak, until laws are changed and lives are saved and the world is altered forever.

Next time, ask: What's the worst that will happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end.

And the speaking will get easier and easier. And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose some friends and lovers, and realize you don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." And at last you'll know with surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking. 

― Audre Lorde, "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action," Sister Outsider

Tango in Finland? Yes.

Finnish Tango: The Passion and the Melancholy
by John Tagliabue, The New York Times, July 15, 2013

Women artists featured prominently in Latin Alternative Music shows

Music That Transcends Borders
Latin Alternative Music Conference in New York
by Jon Pareles, The New York Times, July 14, 2013

Malcolm Low: Keep focused on what's important

Malcolm Low

Malcolm Low was selected in 2011 for a Choreographic Fellowship in Robert Battle’s New Directions Choreography Lab at Alvin Ailey. Originally from Chicago where he first trained with Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Company, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, Homer Bryant and the Ruth Page Foundation, Malcolm went on to perform with Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Co., Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Ballet British Columbia, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Stephen Petronio, Complexions, Zvi Gotheiner and Dancers, Margo Sappington and most notably the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Co., where he spent 5 wonderful years and had the great pleasure of touring with Bill T. Jones on his solo show, As I Was Saying.  In 2005, Malcolm worked with Crystal Pite and her company, KIDD PIVOT, on the project, LOST ACTION. Malcolm has most recently worked with David Thomson on a new duet called Velvet that premiered at Roulette in February.  As a choreographer Malcolm has been showing work since 1999 at the River to River Festival in collaboration with DJ Spooky (2003), The House That Jack Built (2009), Catch n Release Variations #35 at Harlem Stage/Emoves (2009), Luscious Colors of an Unclear Canvas at the Wave Rising Series (2009) and (2011), Bookoo Space Grant (2011), Pushing Against Sisyphus at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (2011) and Summer Stage at Red Hook Park (2011). Malcolm was awarded a BAX Passing It Down Award (2011), a Fund for New Work/Harlem Stage Gatehouse Grant (2009), and in 2012 was awarded the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Grant. 

Malcolm Low (photo by Art Becofsky)

On learning to keep an open mind:

My brother, sister and I grew up in Chicago, where my father was a policemen and my mother was a school teacher. My family showed me that there was a variety of ways of thinking about things, not just one way.

Every Sunday and every Tuesday night, we went to church--at least my mother and the kids did. I remember leaving my father by the television, or he might be in the garage, working. One day I asked him why he didn't go to church with us. He said, "Oh, that's because your mother believes in the church and in God, and I don't. So, I don't go. But you guys are too young to decide. So, you have to go with Mom." 

His answer stuck with me. It showed me at age nine or so that different ideas can, and possibly should, coexist. 

I just said, "Cool. Okay, see ya later, Dad!"

On the irresistible theater of church:

For me, church was my first theater. This huge choir would march in to the music's rhythm. At a certain point, the choir would start singing low as the announcer started to speak for the television broadcast. At the end, they'd get loud again. Drama!

There was the usher with white gloves. He seated you and also acted as a barrier if anyone got the Holy Spirit and started dancing.

I first saw dancing, from an early age, in church. And they can dance. Old, young, short, tall, women, men. Everybody danced. But I never thought of getting into dance. My mother was hellbent on getting a musician in the family. So, we all had piano lessons at the house.

Everyone plays make-believe, and I was no different. I played Church. Everyday, I'd go to the living room, close the sliding door and become all the characters I saw in our church: the pastor, the choir marching in. I'd dance around. We call it Shout. Unbeknownst to me, my mother was listening. She came in and played Shout with me. Great times!

Soon after that, she decided that I should leave my all-boys high school--a horrible place--and go to a performing arts school.  Pretty soon, I was dancing all the time. My father would come to the local dance studio to see me, watching recitals in his full uniform. Very cool.

He paid $3,000 for me to go to Lar Lubovitch's summer workshop in Saratoga Springs because I had seen Lubovitch's company in concert in Chicago and had said, "That's how I want to look." Dancing gave direction to my directionless teenage mind. 

On the serendipity of auditioning for and joining Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal at age 18:

I had never been to an audition and was only there because some member of the Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Company wanted to go and knew I had a boyfriend there at the time. Did I want to go see my boyfriend? Of course, I did!

My friend said, "Since you're here, why not audition?" So, I did and got the job. I was fearless. I didn't even know I was auditioning for some major dance company! 

When you're meant to do something, it comes to you. Mom says, "You can't miss your blessing. You will get ready." 

I was ready.

On developing a career and discovering--and being discovered by--New York dance:

My first professional show was at London's Saddler's Wells Theatre--before they fixed the raked stage. Oh, hey, I didn't know what a raked stage was. Whew, the terror I felt! 

But I danced flawlessly in works by Margo Sappington and James Kudelka. I set in motion a wonderful career of working with some of the best, most amazing choreographers, then went on to Ballet British Columbia. That's when my friend, Torya Beard, invited me to come to New York for the summer. I did and never left.

I took class at Dance New Amsterdam, a Kevin Wynn class, and asked Torya if I could get a job doing this stuff. She said, Yes. I called Ballet BC and said, "I'm not coming back." I had found modern dance. 

First up: Ronald K. Brown, followed by Zvi Gotheiner, Complexions, Stephen Petronio. 

And then I saw him: Bill. At Lincoln Center. Dancing to Jessye Norman. And I was like, "Him. Please. Him."

I had the opportunity to audition for Bill T. Jones and got it.

Dancing was the only thing in my life that, when I caught onto something in it, the answer was never No. It was always Yes. My confidence built up. I hadn't been great in school, but in this field I felt what it feels like to excel at something in a major way.

Bill teaches grace. He taught me how to be a man. How to stand up for yourself through articulating what you desire. I learned to speak, to use my words. To get in touch with who I am as a person, as a gay man and a human. Who am I? What do I believe?  He was the first to ask this. So I went on a five-year quest, looking for answers while dancing with him.

I will forever be grateful for what I learned from Bill--and what I continue to learn from him. Doing the As I Was Saying tour with him was a validation that, in this art, I can and will be able to lift myself up out of anything. Dancing saved--and is saving--my life.

On losing--and regaining--focus:

New York, New York. I was fired from Bill's company because I got reckless and got unfocused. New York can make you lose your mind if you are not focused.

I didn’t go to college, but joining the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company was pretty much like going to college! I hadn’t been around people who were free spirits and loving and open to trying things. 

I was fired because I was in a relationship that was not working, and it was affecting my work. I had to deal with a substance abuse issue taking over my life. Bill saved me by letting me go–the only thing that could be done at the moment. Weeks before he fired me, I told him that I’d had enough, that I was tired of not living at my fullest.

Right away, Crystal Pite of Kidd Pivot asked me to join her for a season in Canada to create a work called Lost Action.

At the time, I was between apartments, staying with several different people. She called and asked if I remembered her. Again, dancing saved my life. I left and had the most transforming experience to date. I got re-focused on the physicality of my dancing, not my story.

Crystal saw me struggling with something and told me to forget it and go to the movement. Let everything else be. She reminded me that I’m a Canadian-made dancer. I learned my ethics in the studio from the Canadians. So, being with her was like going home. It changed my life to be reminded to always go to the moves. I always look to the physical to tell the story.

Official trailer for Crystal Pite's Lost Action

Excerpts from Malcolm Low's One Forgotten Moment for Ailey II

Working with these companies and choreographers, I stored lots of information, and that info-ration serves me now as I venture into the second phase of my life and career--as a choreographer.

Ronald K. Brown, Stephen Petronio, Bill T. Jones, Crystal Pite, John Jasperse–they all gave me tools. I was gathering information on how to make work, how to throw stuff away, too. Now that I’m making my own work, it’s all rushing back to me. Crystal Pite is my strongest influence right now. The systems that I learned from her seem to be an endless well of information on making dances.

I'll never stop dancing. I'll always hire myself. Moving, and moving on the stage, is important for me: It's where I can continue to practice excellence and letting go, all at the same time.

On the acquittal of George Zimmerman:

The injustice sent down is so hard to swallow. They are after us; this is true. But they won’t prevail. We have been here just as long as the white man in this country. It is ours, too.  

The only thing I can do is to go deeper in my art, be as honest as I can be, show up for myself and for the work. It’s a way to have control over the things that I can control. 

I can control what I do. I choose to dive into my work and to push myself, not to just make dances but to really honor my craft. By doing exactly what I want, with no compromise, no holding back. 


I’m not a lawyer who can go deeper with the law or make changes that way, though that’s  very much needed. I’m an artist. So, I must speak the truth of the world through dance.  To live a brilliant life in the face of all of this. To shine.

***

Related: Dance Saved My Life! by Eva Yaa Asantewaa (July 8, 2013)

(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com

Celebrating a world of tap in New York

The world is a stage. 

The stage is a world of entertainment.

Arthur Schwartz/Howard Dietz, "That's Entertainment"

Tony Waag, mayor of Tap City
at last year's Tap It Out event at Battery Park City
(photo by Eva Yaa Asantewaa)

Thanks to Tony Waag's week-long Tap City summer fest, New Yorkers get to see and hear what a world of artists has made of the great American art of tap dance. The festival's "Tap Internationals" performance program--showcasing performers from the four winds and local talent working out to global rhythms--has long been my favorite Tap City feature. I only regret that we get but one chance per year to see it.

Last evening's show at Symphony Space has come and gone, taking with it these most engaging experiences:

Tembang Alit: a gem of a solo for Claudia Rahardjanoto (Chinese-Indonesian native of Germany), who played clear, discrete steps like tinkling bells against Cicilia Yudha's equally spare and delicate piano work

Kazu Kumagai
(photo by Leslie Kee)

Journey to the Soundscape: a solo for Japan's arresting Kazu Kumagai, an all-time favorite of mine, who channels dissonance and passion, taking tap to a stormy place beyond the familiar sunshine

Confirmation: another solo, this time splashed across space by Corey Hutchins (from Connecticut), a bold, original stylist with variegated musicality

Tap en Clave: crackling rumba riding atop taps by wiry live-wire Jaime Moran of Cuba

Not to forget El Guararey de Pastora, a handsome arrangement of song, body percussion and tap created by Max Pollak for his Rumba Tap ensemble, looking and sounding better than ever

And more:

Carson Murphy aglow, a model of confident ease and flow in the cast of Nicholas Young's Environments

Brenda Bufalino
(photo by Lois Greenfield)

Brenda Bufalino, master performer/educator at her best here, laying out fluttery, skimming tuneful steps and showing the kids how it's done

Speaking of kids, Susan Hebach and Tamii Sakurai have done a magnificent job of staging Molutsi Mogami's Izzici (Stomping Feet) for seventeen teen dancers from Tap City Youth Ensemble. The youngsters demonstrated high discipline and coordination--as individuals and as a group--in this demanding South African boot dance.

Which brings me to Tap Future. There is one. Watch American Tap Dance Foundation's students do their thing tonight at 8pm. Check in here, and hurry! Tickets go quickly.

But if you don't make it tonight, you don't even need tickets for tomorrow afternoon's Tap It Out extravaganza. Just head to Father Duffy Square in Times Square (map/directions) tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon to see a huge ensemble--160 dancers in all, at last count--performing 20-minute shows at noon, 1pm and 2pm.

For more about the American Tap Dance Foundation, click here.