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| Left to right: Justin Cabrillos, Jen Rosenblit and Addys Gonzalez in a performance at Judson Memorial Church |
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| from Anne Zuerner's Light House |
There are lessons for the creative sector in the story of 280 Broadway, whose new tenant, Gibney Dance, opens its doors to the community to shape the future. In a real estate climate where too many are losing space and reporting escalating costs -- real threats to creative life -- some, like Gibney Dance, are making solutions.[Read more here: Making Space Solutions for Making Arts and Culture]
Having received phone calls from the cultural community regarding Lane’s blog “Making Space Solutions for Making Arts and Culture,” I must respond. It is imperative that a deeper investigation regarding the 280 Broadway transition from DNA to Gibney Dance be initiated before any attempt of a qualified statement regarding “lessons learned” be made. As the executive and artistic director of DNA, 2007-2013, Lane’s post is devoid of information that sets the stage for the DNA to Gibney transition. DNA’s original renovations, partnership negotiations, efficiency practices and financial modeling, legal battles, bankruptcy filing and its unnecessary dissolution enabled Gibney Dance to “reengage” the 280 Broadway dance space.Yesterday, I reached out to Lane Harwell for a response to Peila's concerns, and he agreed to forward a written reply by 10am this morning. I have not received his response in time to include it in this post. Business travel over the next few days will delay my ability to post a follow-up, but I still hope to receive and append anything that Harwell would like to share with the readers of InfiniteBody.
DNA successfully saved a space in NYC for dance, which represented nine years of unflagging work by its staff and board, thousands of artists, pro-bono lawyers and financial analysts, foundations and individual donors, elected officials, city cultural representatives, and Fram Realty. Gibney’s team received all the benefits without the burden of DNA's renovation debt, which proved to be its ultimate unraveling. Lane omits vital information that shows the cultural, funding and government sectors colluded to transfer the assets of DNA's/Dance Space Center’s 30 years of community building and program development to what they considered to be a healthier business. 280 Broadway is reengaged. I recognize Gina Gibney's commitment, but it is important to publicly analyze 280 Broadway’s transition so a proper list of “lessons learned” will aid in strengthening the non-profit field and this city’s cultural policy.
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| Dancer Albert David of Black Cockatoo Dance Company Australia's indigenous peoples are a culture so old that it takes us through history but is also current. These artists are about the present and the future...about what it means to be human and what it means to be on the Earth. -- Rachel Cooper, Director of Global Performing Arts and Cultural Initiatives, Asia Society |
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| Black Cockatoo pair (photo by Snowmanradio) |
Son of the singer El Moreno and dancer La Farruca, Farruquito is the chief proponent of the unique dance style founded by his grandfather, El Farruco. Farruquito made his Broadway stage debut at age five, starred in Carlos Saura's film Flamenco at twelve, and was directing his own shows by fifteen. After years of successes—and some personal tragedies—he makes a triumphant return to NYC after more than a decade. He’ll present his new work, Déjà vu.Ticket information
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| Christal Brown (photo by Kimara Dixon) |
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| Dana Michel (photo by Valerie Sangin) |
And it is because Oriental dance poses a challenge to a religiosity that sees any form of display as an act of impurity that it has always been misunderstood and associated with dishonor.Read more from Al Aswany here.
That is precisely what makes it a subversive art: The dancer who shakes off the shackles of the patriarchal order strikes fear into the hearts of religious conservatives, and may even pose a threat to tyranny. Hence its periodic repression.
When the anthropologist Eduardo Kohn arrived in a small village deep in the Amazon, people slept largely outdoors in an open thatch house, surrounded by other people. They would wake at night to drink tea, because it was cold, or because of the calls of animals. "Thanks to these continuous disruptions," he writes, "dreams spill into wakefulness and wakefulness into dreams in a way that entangles them both."--from "To Dream in Different Cultures" by T. M. Luhrmann, The New York Times
To my mind, the intriguing question is whether different sleep cultures encourage different patterns of spiritual and supernatural experience. That half-aware, drowsy state is a time when dreams commingle with awareness. People are more likely to have experiences of the impossible then.
I discovered Frankie Knuckles through his music, one that was, gentle, lush with a subdued, understated power that rocked many a dancefloor. I had the privilege to hear him once in the heyday of his legendary residency at Sound Factory Bar in New York. I was submerged, sonically and emotionally by the beauty of the music I heard that night. I remember very clearly saying to myself that this would be impossible to ever equal. That was 20 years ago, and I never got to hear this magic combination again.
--Dimitri from Paris, music producer and DJRead more here.
Since her introduction to the American marketplace in 2007 with her album Mi Niña Lola (My Little Girl Lola), Buika has experienced a meteoric rise, earning lavish praise from The New York Times, The Miami Herald, and The Wall Street Journal, as well as NPR which quickly included her in their "50 Great Voices" radio gallery. Her next release, Niña de Fuego (Fire Child) paved the way for relocation to Miami in 2011. After achieving success in Europe, her works were compiled on the 2-CD set En Mi Piel (In My Skin) to coincide with the Pedro Almodovar movie of the same name in which she appeared. Buika was nominated for a Grammy for best Latin Jazz album this year, for her latest album La Noche Mas Larga.Marques Toliver
Marques Toliver burst onto the scene via the UK with an arresting television performance in 2010 and a declaration from Adele as her "new favorite artist." Toliver has played live and on records for the likes of Holly Miranda, Grizzly Bear, and Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson. After a move to London, Toliver signed to Bella Union and released his well-received debut EP Butterflies Are Not Free. Following worldwide tours, he began work on the mixtape Studying For My Ph. D, a cornucopia of music, speech, loops, and news reports from the London Riots. Through the mixtape he would also delve in to some of the themes and ideas that would eventually influence his full-length debut Land of CanAan, a work brimming with his own unique R&B and Classical music influences.For more information on this show, click here.
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| DD Dorvillier (photo by Eileen Travell) |
In conjunction with the Cultural Services of the French Embassy's DANSE: A French-American Festival of Performance and Ideas, this conversation traces the legacies of French feminism – the fierce re-imagination of writing through sensuous intellect, an écriture for dancing as it touches on desire, on language, on power.Moderator: Jenn Joy
Following the Conversation, Danspace Project Executive Director Judy Hussie-Taylor will receive the insignia of Chevalier of the Ordre des arts et des Lettres for her significant contributions to the arts. The medal ceremony begins at 6:15pm with remarks from Antonin Baudry, Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy, followed by a reception.Admission: $10 suggested donation at the door. RSVP recommended. Click here or call (866) 811-4111.
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| Novelist Maggie Shipstead (c) Michelle Legro |
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| Qurrat Ann Kadwani (photo Bolti Studios) |
THEY CALL ME Q is the story of an Indian girl growing up in the Boogie Down Bronx who gracefully seeks balance between the cultural pressures brought forth by her traditional parents and wanting acceptance into her new culture. Along the journey, Qurrat Ann Kadwani transforms into 13 characters that have shaped her life including her parents, Caucasian teachers, Puerto Rican classmates, and African-American friends. Laden with heart and abundant humor, THEY CALL ME Q speaks to the universal search for identity experienced by immigrants of all nationalities.Program, schedule and ticket information
En Piste invites ten cultural journalists from Canada and the northeastern United States to participate in a residency program in Montreal, during the festival Montréal Complètement Cirque, July 3-6, 2014.
During the 4-day program, participants will contribute in a series of moderated thematic discussions, attend lectures by key circus experts, see three to five shows and meet with artists taking part in the festival.
At the end of the residency, participants will each be required to deliver one article (2,000 words) in English or French. These articles will be published on En Piste’s website and on all other pertinent media: social networks, newswire, blogs, etc. Journalists will also be invited to publish the articles in their respective media.
En Piste will cover costs related to the residency: plane or train tickets, local transportation, accommodation, meals, tickets for shows. There are no participation fees.Get complete information and an application form here.
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| Isadora Duncan (photo by P. Aresu) |
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| Choreographer Luca Veggetti and musician Kuniko Kato collaborated with dancer Megumi Nakamura on a multimedia work inspired by the music and theatrical ideas of Iannis Xenakis. |
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| Above: Kato (l) with Megumi Nakamura in Project IX--Pleiades Below: Kato in action (photos by Julie Lemberger) |
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| David Thomson leads the international cast of Alain Buffard's "choreographed opera," Baron Samedi, at New York Live Arts, now through Saturday evening (photo by Ian Douglas) |
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| Dancers Mickey Mahar (l) and Miguel Gutierrez (before he went fabulously blond) (photo by Eric McNatt) |