Mark Strand, 80

Mark Strand, 80, Dies; Pulitzer-Winning Poet Laureate
by William Grimes, The New York Times, November 29, 2014

In this moment with poet Claudia Rankine

A Poetry Personal and Political
Claudia Rankine on ‘Citizen’ and Racial Politics
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

Jacqueline Woodson: Publishing must and will change

The Pain of the Watermelon Joke
by Jacqueline Woodson, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

Roberto Gómez Bolaños, 85

Roberto Gómez Bolaños, the Mexican Comedic Artist ‘Chespirito,’ Dies at 85
by Elias E. Lopez, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

Sabah, 87

Sabah, Lebanese Singer and Actress, Dies at 87
by William Yardley, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

Mary Hinkson, 89

Mary Hinkson, a Star for Martha Graham, Dies at 89
by Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

P. D. James, 94

P. D. James, Creator of the Adam Dalgliesh Mysteries, Dies at 94
by Marilyn Stasio, The New York Times, November 27, 2014

Bunny Briggs, 92

Bunny Briggs, Tap Dancing Virtuoso, Dies at 92
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 26, 2014

Lucien Clergue, 80

Lucien Clergue, Master and Promoter of Art Photography, Dies at 80
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 26, 2014

Petition in support of Dance/USA's Philadelphia branch

Dear William Penn Foundation Board of Directors,

We, the dance community of Philadelphia, write you in response to the sudden dissolution of Dance/UP resulting from the discontinuation of its William Penn Foundation funding. This vital service organization, thanks to seven years of your support, has become indispensably woven into the fabric of Philadelphia dance. In order to ensure the continuation of crucial programming developed by Dance/UP we are making a heartfelt request that the William Penn Foundation provide six months of transitional funding, making it possible to migrate Dance/UP’s programs to the stewardship of other organizations.  

Read more and sign the petition here.

Announcement of closing of Dance/USA's Philadelphia branch: Read here.

Allan Kornblum, 65

Allan Kornblum, Independent Publisher, Dies at 65
by William Yardley, The New York Times, November 26, 2014

Dance/USA Philadelphia, losing major funder, will close

LOCAL PHILADELPHIA DANCE SERVICE ORGANIZATION TO CLOSE

Washington, DC – Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance, has reached the difficult but unavoidable decision to close Dance/USA Philadelphia (Dance/UP), the Philadelphia branch office of Dance/USA, due to the sudden loss in funding from the William Penn Foundation.


“This is heartbreaking news; we are saddened to lose our talented team in Philadelphia and we wish we could keep the branch office going. This decision is not a reflection on the quality of the work accomplished by Dance/UP. Dance/UP Director Lois Welk and her team are doing phenomenal work and were recognized by national funders for their projects and initiatives with the local community, including her theatre subsidy program, New Stages for Dance, that was replicated in Chicago and San Francisco; the exciting Dance in Public Places program that created space for dance in unique public venues; and her portable dance floor rental program that addressed an immediate need in the dance community. We have worked hard to diversify the revenue of Dance/UP. Regrettably no one funder could replace the operating support from the William Penn Foundation.” Amy Fitterer, Dance/USA Executive Director.


Dance/UP serves an estimated 2,000 individual professionals including choreographers, educators, artistic directors, managers, designers, writers, and curators and is an integral part of the vibrant Philadelphia dance community. Dance/UP provides a range of services for the Philadelphia dance community, including hosting oneon-one consultations with Director Lois Welk; helping to underwrite 97 home seasons by local dance companies through the New Stages for Dance initiative; showcasing 37 dance groups in the Dance in Public Places program, which was experienced by 8,000 people; producing the Philadelphia Dance Showcase, and partnering with the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance on the Phillyfunguide, which helps maintain a public-access calendar of dance events in Philadelphia. Page Two Dance/USA hopes to find ways to preserve services currently provided by Dance/UP, including working with local  community organizations to adopt selected programs. It is Dance/USA’s goal to execute this difficult transition as professionally and elegantly as possible, treating staff and stakeholders with respect and leaving as much value behind in the community as possible.


About Dance/UP

Following the recommendation from the Philadelphia dance community to establish a local dance service organization and a report published by The Pew Charitable Trusts and the William Penn Foundation on the Philadelphia dance community’s infrastructure needs, Dance/UP was launched in 2007 with start-up funding from the William Penn Foundation. From the beginning, Dance/UP was supported by the local community, managed by local artists, and provided services to local dancemakers. Dance/UP’s mission is to advocate for dance as an art form and vital component of our culture, to increase the capabilities of dance artists and organizations, and to enhance the public’s awareness and support for dance. For more information, visit www.danceusaphiladelphia.org.


About Dance/USA

We believe that dance is essential to a healthy society, demonstrating the infinite possibilities for human expression and potential, and facilitating communication within and across cultures. Dance/USA is the national service organization for the professional dance field. Established in 1982, Dance/USA
serves a diverse national membership of dance groups working in the genres of aerial, ballet, contemporary, culturally-specific, hip-hop, ice, international, jazz, liturgical, single-choreographer, and tap, dance presenters, dance service organizations, dance agents, dance educators, independent dancers, freelance choreographers, students of arts administration and/or dance and business in service to dance, and individuals related to the field.


Learn more about Dance/USA by visiting our website, www.danceusa.org.

Remembering Ana's beautiful life

A Wrenching Grief Assuaged With Beauty
Jimmy Greene’s 'Beautiful Life' Is a Eulogy to a Daughter
by Nate Chinen, The New York Times, November 26, 2014

Bokaer installation honors women's acts of resistance

Have you read this New York Times article about dance artist Jonah Bokaer's tribute to four little-known women of courage?

Commissioned by the American Jewish Historical Society and curated by Rachel Lithgow (AJHS's executive director and Bokaer's co-researcher), October 7, 1944 is a multimedia installation inspired by the resistance activities of a network of Polish Jewish women, laborers at a munitions factory near Auschwitz and Birkenau. Róża Robota, Estera Wajcblum, Regina Szafirsztajn and Ala Gertner were among the women recruited by the underground to smuggle out small quantities of gunpowder to be used to create grenades and, on the date of Bokaer's title, destroy a crematorium. Just a few weeks before the advancing Soviet army could reach and liberate the camps, the Nazis arrested, tortured and hanged these four women while their fellow workers were forced to watch.

"These women were not remarkable in any way that is known to us," writes Lithgow in her essay for the exhibition's brochure. "They were young women who believed what they were doing was right."

Bokaer's structurally elegant, haunted arrangement of archival documents, fragmented music instruments, blow-ups of sheet music and projected imagery includes two dance films--one made for this project (Four Women), another from 2012 (Study for Occupant) with eerie echoes of his current theme. Both films feature the dancing of Laura Gutierrez, Catherine Miller, Irena Misirlić and Sara Procopio.

The exhibition is small in size, but its inner density invites commitment of time to lengthy videos and documents in plexiglass display cases. These cases stretch along a white table, oddly protected and recessed just far enough from its edge to make a reader bend in an awkward way to read the typed or printed words. To read each document, you end up leaning over a concrete block in front of each case. Each block has a piece of a musical instrument resting on it. A strange experience, as I saw it: You must decide to skim a selection of a document's words, get a general sense of what's there and move on or to tilt yourself just so, hold that pose and read word for word until you're done. With his dancer's sensibility, Bokaer seems to be trying to create discomfort and effort in our bodies as well as our minds. He introduces a sense that learning all there is to know about the gruesome reality of the Holocaust is both important and impossible.

I keep returning to Lithgow's words about this exhibition's heroes. Are they not, in fact, remarkable? In a sense, they most certainly are. But in another sense--her meaning, surely--they were ordinary women and ones whose small but essential contributions have remained largely obscure except to scholars of the Holocaust. Bokaer does not overdramatize this heroism but his work reminds us that anyone of us, at any time, can choose to do the one thing that will make a difference.

October 7, 1944 will be on view in the Popper Gallery at the Jewish Historical Center (home of the American Jewish Historical Society) through December 30. For visitor information, click here.

Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

maat

maat

night aware awoke

goes down

preordained

maat though

weighs the heart

in every stairwell

dark 

at every step

maat

with her spare scales

and her

interrogation a stairwell

everywhere

she 

asking are you

content

with your bargain

certain

you’ve gotten

value

for your harvest

for your trafficked soul

maat

invincible

invisible in

darkness

maat of a million

forms

a body a

dance against

invisibility

she

asking

are you

content now

are you

(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Black Violin schools 'em in Brooklyn

Black Violin co-founders
Kevin "Kev Marcus" Sylvester, left, and Wil "Wil B" Baptiste
(photo courtesy Black Violin)

The entire world, it seems, knew about Black Violin...except for me. I feel really bad about that. Here are a couple of Black guys from South Florida who became virtuosos of classical strings and then proceeded to turn all that upside down/inside out by folding in hip hop, blues, roots music, rock and more. No lumps in that batter, just streaming, massive energy that does not quit or let you just sit there stony-faced.

Photo: Colin Brennan Photography

Kevin "Kev Marcus" Sylvester (violin) and Wil "Wil B" Baptiste (viola, piano, vocals) and fellow band members have appeared everywhere from Harlem's Apollo Theater to Obama's Inaugural balls to three Super Bowls. They have accompanied Alicia Keys, opened for Kanye West and collaborated with Aerosmith and Aretha Franklin. They've played for our troops in Iraq and wowed a lot of school kids while advising them to "reach for the stars."

So it was time for my ears to join in and, happily, Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts set the stage, yesterday afternoon, with a brilliant, family-oriented show.

Black Violin, including bandmembers DJ TK on turntables and Nathaniel Stokes on drums,
at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College
(photo:Tracey Wood Mendelsohn)

Completely informal and accessible, Kev Marcus and Wil B have great spirit. They also know how to rev up a crowd with a show that flows steady, hardly ever easing off the intensity. They allow no time to question the mix of genres or the unusual way instruments can be played. It's only too bad that the sound muffled quite a lot of their lyrics at the Brooklyn show, but here's the ultimate message, courtesy of....Yes, folks: Last year, they made a TED Talk! Check out the performance of "Virtuoso" at the end.

I promise I will not miss future Black Violin performances in New York, and neither should you. Keep up with Black Violin here.

For news on future events at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts--including appearances by Sweet Honey in the Rock, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, The Klezmatics, National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica and Eddie Palmieri's Latin Jazz Septet--click here.

Richard Eder, 82

Richard Eder, Arts Critic and Foreign Correspondent, Dies at 82
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 21, 2014

Covering up for Luke George

Dancer Luke George (above)
and a scene from Not About Face
(photos: Madeline Best)

Australian-born dance/performance artist Luke George has a pretty hearty notion of what audiences will tolerate. Never before have I been asked, as an audience member, to divest all of my belongings and don a bed sheet with eye holes that would make me look like a little ghostling who got terribly confused on her way back from Trick-or-Treating (with disconcerting, not so subtle visual echoes of chadors and KKK gear). George's current iteration of Not About Face, performed with collaborator Hilary Clark and, yes, every single person in attendance at The Chocolate Factory, has been described as:

An experiment in anonymous intimacy and fake belief, Not About Face questions the nature of the unspoken contracts between performer and audience, and accesses the supernatural and spiritual as a way to investigate how the yearning for belief can make people do many things. For this performance, audience members are robed in full-body shrouds and join a free-roaming and anonymous gathering in the performance space. We will come together. We will become anonymous. We will fake belief or believe in faking it.



Luke George
(photo: Madeline Best)

Funny thing about bed sheet ectoplasm: It underscores the earthly nature of the bodies underneath. Especially when you can easily recognize your friend or colleague or that downtown dance star by their height or their signature sneakers or snazzy boots. The quest for the intangible puts you smack up against the tangible when George directs you to huddle together ever closer, closer, closer to him and your neighbor runs into your toe.

The body also roars back into view with Clark's sudden crying jag, George's tantrums and, finally, George's lengthy, undeniably charismatic dance that concludes the performance. Transparency, here--used as a form of theatrics--is more spirited than spirit-ly.

I don't know about the "fake belief" thing or George's stated interest (see the program notes) in the behavior of crowds. Seems to me, it's pretty hard to see Not About Face, at least for its audience, as anything but an ordered experience that you consciously agree to participate in (with your paid ticket) to the extent of your comfort. Everyone covered up--that was the fun part--but not absolutely everyone followed every direction.

If you go, know that you will spend nearly ninety minutes mostly on your feet, milling around the space, wearing a heavy sheet that traps body heat. (Ah, yes, the body again....) Since it's cold out these nights, dress in layers and, before the show, leave most of them with that nice coat check person downstairs.

Sound/video/set/system programming: Nick Roux
Lighting: Benjamin Cisterne

Not About Face continues tonight and Saturday with performances at 8pm, and there's an additional show on Saturday at 5pm. Plan to arrive no later than 15 minutes before start time. For tickets, click here.

The Chocolate Factory
5-49 49th Avenue, Long Island City, Queens
(map/directions)

Thank you, Ursula K. Le Guin!

I think hard times are coming, when we will be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now.... Power can be resisted and changed by human beings; resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art--the art of words.

--Ursula K. Le Guin

Read more:

“We Will Need Writers Who Can Remember Freedom”: Ursula Le Guin and Last Night’s N.B.A.s
by Rachel Arons, The New Yorker, November 20, 2014

"It's time for courage." Rodabaugh + Orange = DoublePlus

DoublePlus, the smart new artist-curated performance series at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center (280 Broadway), is quickly coming into focus as a space for risk-taking by everyone from maker to presenter to watcher. Without advancing a narrow aesthetic agenda, it is breaking lesser-known artists into potentially wider exposure. More than just a chance for Gina Gibney to host formal performances--still restricted at her original 890 Broadway studios--DoublePlus is shaping up as a contender in the crowded New York dance scene, serving up adventure in a sophisticated container.

Last evening, guest curator Miguel Gutierrez introduced us to the work of Alex Rodabaugh and Rakiya A. Orange.

Alex Rodabaugh with cast of g1br33l
(photo: Alex Escalante)

Alex Rodabaugh channels the archangel Gabriel
(photo: Alex Escalante)

Rakiya A. Orange in her solo, Aziza
(photo: Alex Escalante)

Rodabaugh's ensemble piece, g1br33l, looks like a nightmare that might well start off with spooky space music, cheesy, makeshift costumes, ritual gestures and exhortations to "Breathe and let go" but end in Manson-like bloodshed. Actually, no New Agers are harmed in the making of this movie, but it does veer from Rodabaugh's oft-cited comfort zone into unexpected, suggestive and subversive territory. I think Rodabaugh's channeled alter ego, the archangel Gabriel, might have spent some earthbound time occupying Wall Street as well as a few queer dives. And I found one of his pronouncements intriguing: "We can't change government, but we can change our reaction to government" echoes a familiar spiritual nostrum for all kinds of complicated personal and social ailments. Gabe, as embodied by Rodabaugh, is a modest-looking archangel but with a detectable modern edge, and I think "reaction" might be the word to focus on in that sentence. (Visit Rodabaugh's page here.)

Rakiya A. Orange
(photo: Alex Escalante)

Let me cite the DoublePlus description of Orange's extraordinary solo, Aziza:

...a complicated investigation of self and identity, foregrounded by Stephanie Leigh Batiste’s idea that “The performing black body is material and metaphorical, real and unreal.” Orange’s body becomes a site of infinite feedback, reflecting the gaze of the spectator. She foregrounds her ambiguous status—as a real person, a theatrical representation, and a sociocultural construction—to explore, expose, and explode definitions of blackness.

Orange, when we first see her, dances atop a triangular platform of ludicrous dimensions. It's kind of the size of an American flag folded and handed off to a war widow. But you don't need a lot of space for strip-club moves. Later, she will indeed take the whole of the floor space, and forcefully, but she starts off pinned to this tight spot like the specimen she is for the audience's gaze. And still looks completely in charge. A beautiful woman and dancer, she invites the gaze and is quite good at feeding it while clearly enjoying the rush ride of her powers and savoring music that is nothing short of inviting and wonderful. She's all over a spectrum of being ours and being her own. Her skill, creativity and confidence are clear but complicated by the mundane and exploitative uses to which they are usually put. The world is not necessarily her friend. In silent, strange moments, she might end up upended like a beetle, legs flailing. She seems, at times, to follow ideas and try things out as she dances, raising questions like, Because she smiles, is everything always all right? She seems to be asking questions, too: Is this one thing enough? Is it good enough? How far do I need to go? Can I enjoy this? Can I let you see me enjoying this? Can I let you enjoy this? Who's watching me? Are you WATCHING ME?!!

Orange and Rodabaugh continue tonight through Saturday with performances at 7:30pm. Tonight's show will be followed by a Q&A with the curator and choreographers. For schedule information and tickets, click here.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis
Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Mike Nichols, 83

Mike Nichols, Celebrated Director, Dies at 83
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 20, 2014

Jimmy Ruffin, 78

Jimmy Ruffin, Singer of a Memorable Motown Hit, Dies at 78
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 19, 2014

New film on dance educator Martha Hill

MISS HILL: MAKING DANCE MATTER

a documentary film 

by Greg Vander Veer

opens Friday, January 23

at New York City's Quad Cinema

Martha Hill
(1900-1995)

Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter reveals the little known story of Martha Hill, a visionary who fought against great odds to make contemporary and modern dance a legitimate art form in America. In a career spanning most of the 20th century, Hill became a behind the scenes leader of the field and the founding director of The Juilliard Dance Division. Stylistically weaving together over 90 years of archival footage, the film is a celebration of dance and an examination of the passion required to keep it alive.

Showtimes: 1pm, 2:45pm, 4:30pm, 7pm, 9:15pm

Running Time: 1:20

Q+As with filmmaker Greg Vander Veer and Martha Hill Dance Fund president Vernon Scott will follow the Friday and Saturday 7pm shows, and the Saturday and Sunday 4:30pm shows.

For additional information on this film and the Martha Hill Dance Fund--including the November 24 gala honoring Martha Myers and Mary Hinkson--click here.

QUAD CINEMA
34 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
(directions)

Thanks so much, Maria Bauman!

Maria Bauman
(photo: Lucilene Barbosa)

Last evening, dancer and community organizer Maria Bauman led a rousing community movement workshop ("Amplification and Scale"), an event of the Community Action Hub at Gibney Dance Center. Alas, the ninety minutes flew by, certainly not time enough to deeply explore Bauman's resourceful tools for engaging diverse communities around racism and other social justice issues. However, a roomful of people, who either did or did not identify as professional dancers, got completely caught up in the joy of our bodies' expressiveness, interacting with one another in an atmosphere of trust, permission and play. Wouldn't it be cool for Bauman to come back and launch an ongoing group that could bond and expand on this promising beginning?

Interested in future Community Action Hub workshops? Keep posted on all events at Gibney Dance Center here.

Ken Takakura, 83

Ken Takakura, Japanese Film Actor, Dies at 83
The Associated Press, The New York Times, November 18, 2014

Charles Champlin, 88

Charles Champlin, Critic and Memoirist, Dies at 88
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 18, 2014

Leslie Feinberg, 65

Transgender Pioneer and Stone Butch Blues Author Leslie Feinberg Has Died
by Minnie Bruce Pratt, The Advocate, November 17, 2014

Dancing before the Lord with all his might...RIP, Bunny Briggs

Bunny Briggs

February 26, 1922 - November 15, 2014

Job: Asst. Professor, Modern Dance, Choreography

University of Florida

School of Theatre + Dance Job Opening

Assistant Professor of Modern Dance and Choreography

Position Description: Full-time, nine month, tenure accruing faculty position

Date of Expected Hire: August 16, 2015

Salary: $57,000 plus a full benefits package.
 
www.arts.ufl.edu/theatreanddance

Responsibilities:  Include teaching all levels of Modern Technique, Dance Composition, and Repertory. Expertise is also desirable in one or more of the following areas: Improvisation, Dance Pedagogy, Jazz/Hip-Hop, Kinesiology/Somatics, Dance Media and Technology, and/or Ballet.

Further responsibilities include direction and/or participation in the organization of annual dance concert and showcases; commitment to teaching excellence and creative collaboration; serve on school, college, and/or university committees; effective student guidance; organizational and administrative duties in dance activities; and leadership in recruitment efforts.

Minimum Qualifications: MFA or PhD (or equivalent professional experience) with experience and currency in the field as a performer/choreographer. Two years teaching experience in higher education or professional dance setting beyond graduate school that demonstrates an outstanding record of conduct of inclusion and diversity in the arts and higher education.

Preferred Qualifications: Vita should contain evidence of a strong and growing national and international presence in the field of performance and creative research in dance.

Application Deadline: Applications must be submitted via the University of Florida's online application system at http://jobs.ufl.edu/postings/58996. Online applications must include the following: (1) a detailed letter of application; (2) professional résumé or CV; (3) 10-15 minute sample of creative work(s) on web link/video sharing site; (4) statement of teaching philosophy; (5) teaching sample on web link/video sharing site; (6) three professional references with complete contact information. The Search Committee may request additional materials at a later time.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2014 and continue until the position is filled. To ensure full consideration, all application documents must be submitted by December 1, 2014.

Additional materials may be sent to:

Ric Rose, Chair, Dance Search Committee, School of Theatre and Dance
University of Florida
P.O. Box 115900
Gainesville, FL  32611-5900
Email: rarose@ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 273-0506

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call +1 (352) 392- 4621 or the Florida Relay System at +1 (800) 955-8771 (TDD).

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty and staff; seeking faculty of all races, ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and those who practice conduct of inclusion.

The selection process will be conducted in accord with the provisions of Florida‘s Government in the Sunshine and Public Records Laws. Search committee meetings and interviews will be open to the public, and applications, resumes, and any other documents related to the search will be available for public inspection.

SCHOOL OF THEATRE + DANCE:

The School of Theatre + Dance has an international full-time faculty of 21 people who are recognized artists and researchers in their own right, complemented by adjunct and guest faculty and staff, including full- and part-time professionals. The School offers MFA curricula in acting and in design/technology, which includes scene design, lighting design and costume technology; BFA programs in acting, musical theatre, scene design, lighting design and costume design; and a B.A. in general theatre. The School's B.F.A. degree in Dance Performance includes four interlocking streams of dance study: choreography and performance, intercultural dance studies, dance and medicine, and dance theatre. Approximately 200 students major in the artistically diverse curricula of the School of Theatre + Dance. Through its production program, outreach and innovative programming, the School of Theatre + Dance provides multiple cultural opportunities annually to thousands of members of the University and the greater community. The University of Florida is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the National Association of Schools of Dance.  For more information, visit www.arts.ufl.edu/theatreanddance.

The University of Florida:

The University of Florida is a comprehensive learning institution built on a land grant foundation. We are The Gator Nation, a diverse community dedicated to excellence in education and research and shaping a better future for Florida, the nation and the world. Our mission is to enable our students to lead and influence the next generation and beyond for economic, cultural and societal benefit. UF is a graduate research institution with 50,000 students and membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Gainesville, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most livable cities, is located midway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the University and the community comprise the educational, medical and cultural center of North Central Florida, with outstanding resources such as the University of Florida Performing Arts (Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Baughman Center, University Auditorium), the Harn Museum of Art, the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Hippodrome State Theatre.

COLLEGE OF THE ARTS:

The College of the Arts fosters creative activity, scholarly and artistic excellence and innovation across disciplines. We achieve the university’s mission by training professionals and educating students as artists and scholars, while developing their critical thinking and inspiring a culture of curiosity and imagination. The College offers baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees. Approximately 1,100 students are pursuing majors in degrees offered by the College of the Arts under the direction of 100 faculty members in its three accredited schools — the School of Art + Art History, School of Music, School of Theatre + Dance. In addition to its schools, the college comprises the Center for Arts and Public Policy, Center for Arts in Medicine, Center for World Arts, Digital Worlds Institute, University Galleries and the college program of the New World School of the Arts in Miami.

CENTER FOR WORLD ARTS:

Founded in 1996, UF’s Center for World Arts (CWA) advances diversity and internationalism in arts praxis, policy, research and education. Recognizing the power of the artist to voice the unique human condition, the CWA values arts processes as critical resources to shape and interpret our interconnected—but not unified—world. In dialogue and exchange with artists, scholars, diverse cultural communities and interdisciplinary partners across the campus and the globe, the Center tests new paradigms of curriculum, scholarship, media, cultural exchange and entrepreneurship. The CWA has been recognized as the artistic arm of UF’s prestigious US Department of Education, Title VI National Resource Centers and the research arm of the bi-continental Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium. Through its practices, the CWA seeks to enhance the role the arts play for the responsible world citizen and to equip the UF student to imaginatively engage and contribute to an increasingly global community. For more information, visit www.arts.ufl.edu/cwa.

Dancers--with Hilary Easton--at Danspace Project

Cast of Hilary Easton's I Am With You,
notably minus the choreographer
(photo: Joshua McHugh)

At the top of I Am With You--Hilary Easton's new, three-part ensemble at Danspace Project--the choreographer, although uncredited as a performer, files out with everyone else. She will appear in just these few moments of dancers lining up and rearranging their lines in different directions. When she leaves, I immediately miss her yet sense her knack for precision everywhere. So much so, that I catch myself fretting when one or more of the teens sharing space with Easton's seasoned dancers looks earnest but a little wet behind the ears. Then I drop that fretting because, for sure, Easton wants us to notice that burgeoning in all its freshness.

One thing these young special guests--Jahmir Duran-Abreu, Tara Eagen, Zach Farnsworth, Iris Feldman, and Sidne Norman--have yet to master is a way to pull their individual selves up and back from the posable mannequin adjustments Easton has threaded through this piece, material for this section--"I Am With You (the first part)"--adapted from The Constructors, a work from 2012. One simple thing happens at a time, each doll-like body occupying its own patch of floor, each dancer attuned to the same pattern as everybody else. Bodies shift orientation, hands flip, heads shake, chins trace semicircles in the air--all affectless motion set to the fast clip of Mike Rugnetta's metronome-like music--until Michael Ingle first breaks rank and peels away, followed by one or two others.

The start of this first section of the piece shows us set and then reorganized lines of its performers, each presented as if for our inspection. But eventually, we find ourselves looking through and around dancers to see others behind them. Easton's layers and interactive connections between bodies form little windows, appearing, closing, reappearing somewhere else. We notice dancers gently touching others to facilitate their moves and a flow of lifts. I Am With You becomes a thicket of relationships so clean and calm and smooth, despite the real-world potential for human confusion, as to be idealized--which might or might not be intentional.

A blackout precedes the next section, "I Am With You (the middle part)." Then Jessica Weiss appears in a far corner of soft light before quitting it to take in more of the fullness that space allows. Limber, in superb control and with an expression of supreme confidence, this dancer is joined in her Edenic space by others who calmly lounge like felines or try their wings.

Michael Ingle and Alexandra Albrecht
dance the final section of I Am With You.
(photo: Joshua McHugh)

The full, complicating flower of Easton's work emerges in the conclusion, "I Am With You (the last part)," a lengthy, demanding duet for Ingle and Alexandra Albrecht set to passages from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. The choreographer separates two of her most remarkable mannequins across space yet bids them move in unison, down to every swivel and dip and flutter, with only an occasional glance in one or the other's direction. But the air around their mutual isolation heats up over time; they gradually move with more abandon than their untroubled faces will reveal. Glances, coming late in the duet, remain fitful, tentative, leading to nothing. Nothing there, at least. But Easton's final image of Albrecht excites: I think this doll has found her life.

Hilary Easton + Co.: Alexandra Albrecht, Hilary Easton, Michael Ingle, Pareena Lim, Joey Loto, Joshua Palmer, Emily Pope-Blackman, Jessica Weiss, and Evelyn Wheeler.

I Am With You will have its final performance tonight at 8pm. For ticket information, click here.

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

Ernest Kinoy, 89

Ernest Kinoy, a Writer of TV’s ‘Roots,’ Dies at 89
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, November 14, 2014

Thomas O. Kriegsmann to direct NYLA programming

New York Live Arts Names New Director
by Allan Kozinn, The New York Times, November 13, 2014

Batsheva BAM opening protested

50 Protest Batsheva Dance Company Opening at BAM
by Mostafa Heddaya, Hyperallergic, November 13, 2014

Daria Faïn and Gillian Walsh share a Gibney DoublePlus

Daria Faïn, above and below, in is as if alone
(photos: Alex Escalante)

Gibney Dance Center's DoublePlus performance series, curated by invited dance artists, continues to fascinate. Last evening's show, repeating tonight and through Saturday at 7:30pm, presented the work of Daria Faïn and Bessie-nominee Gillian Walsh, curated by RoseAnne Spradlin.

Walsh, in Hasbro™ Procedures took the measure of the theater's bare space, treating it as the board of a kind of board game involving regular and formally regulated repositioning of game pieces/ dancers, it would seem, in accord with a script consisting of numbers that the dancers softly recite as they execute affectless steps, hops, lunges, shifts of weight and redirections. Notably, Walsh and her three dancers--Maggie Cloud, Mickey Mahar and Nicole Daunic--mostly do not face audience members; they never directly engage them. Nevertheless, some watchers might find themselves swiftly reeled in by this curious play.

Where, for instance, is the number 3? When I gradually became aware of its absence in the litany, I listened hard for it, subsequently hearing it intoned, I believe, only once. I have no idea what relevance that absence and momentary insertion might have, but I note it here to show that there are ways to get caught up in the gentle and esoteric nature of the game. Awareness comes along in unassuming moments like that. I have no idea what other bits and bytes of information my conscious perception might have missed.

Scenes from Gillian Walsh's Hasbro™ Procedures (photos: Alex Escalante) 

What a pleasure, what a revelation, to witness Faïn performing solo. The choreographer--who, along with poet-architect Robert Kocik, usually plays with big choruses of moving vocalists/vocalizing movers--here inhabits a roomy space and a dance on her own, and she is beautiful.

The piece, is as if alone, seems like a rite of emergence, starting with husky, dry sounds issuing from Faïn's mouth as she very slowly walks along the dance mirror at one side of the space, solo but doubled in the glass. Dressed in a long, silvery skirt and black halter top, under the cooling gleam of Kryssy Wright's elegant lighting, she looks both severe and glamorous. The feeling is "Take this as seriously as I do." She starts to sound like the north wind--serious, indeed.

She pinches, stretches, coughs and pumps syllables and vowels, enjoys a few variations on the word "wow," her arching, crouching body expressing itself in voice and enigmatic gesture. A more dancey segment finds perhaps her remembering to explore the interior of the theater's space, the middle space. There she shows us the beauty of going off center. Her maturity and her way with timing, with pacing, with shaping, lends itself to grace and power and strangeness. There are spectral visitations from Graham and, I suspect, infusions from the East--Japanese theater, Sufi spinning. And sometimes, a sentence might arise, fully formed, from Kocik's text.

With no room, nothing could have gone wrong for the better.

Like the absence/presence of the number 3 in Walsh's game, these words hook into me and stay.

For more information and tickets for this program and future weeks of DoublePlus shows, click here.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis
Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Carol Ann Susi, 62

Carol Ann Susi, Unseen Actress on ‘Big Bang Theory,’ Is Dead at 62
by Peter Keepnews, The New York Times, November 12, 2014

Harry Pearson, 77

Harry Pearson, Founder of Absolute Sound, Dies at 77
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 12, 2014

Daniel Meltzer, 74

Daniel Meltzer, Protector of the Beacon Theater, Dies at 74
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 12, 2014

In memory of dance journalist Valerie Gladstone

Valerie Gladstone
1939-2014

I have received the following announcement from dance publicist Audrey Ross.

Dear Friend:

It is with great sadness that I share news of the passing of Valerie Gladstone, writer, editor, curator, author and teacher, who died of cancer, October 21st in New York City.

Born in New York in 1939, Valerie grew up on Long Island and attended Connecticut College. She worked as an editor at Harper's Magazine, Channels Magazine, and Americana Magazine, and was published regularly in The New York Times, The Washington Post. LA Times, The Boston Globe, Travel and Leisure, Town and Country, and ArtNews, among others. A major writer on dance, she authored Balanchine's Mozartiana: The Making of a Ballet and A Young Dancer: The Life of an Ailey Student. She also worked on a documentary on The Juilliard School's  jazz workshop at the Vitoria Festival in Spain.

Also active as a curator, Valerie curated the programs Dance Under the Influence at the Museum of Art and Design, as well as a dance series at the West End Theater in New York City and Long Island's Emelin Theater.
 Valerie is survived by two children, Nicholas Brooks and Sara Rouviere; three brothers; five grandchildren, and numerous nieces, nephews and sisters-in-law. She will be missed by her family, friends, and the dance world. A memorial is being planned and details will be announced soon.

Audrey Ross

Jerry Tallmer, 93

Jerry Tallmer, Theater Critic and Creator of Obies, Dies at 93

by Douglas Martin, The New York Times, November 10, 2014

Sofian studio spotlights emerging bellydance artists

Brenna Crowley leads the tribal fusion group
Zilla Dance Ensemble.
(photo: Pixie Vision Photography)

Nisreen specializes in Egyptian-style dance.
(photo: Stacey and Clement Lespinasse)

What's new on the bellydance scene?

Now there's a question seldom asked by typical New York City dance observers. Then again, some of us are far from typical.

America's Middle Eastern dance--which boomed in the 1960s and '70s through the popularizing work of New York's Serena Wilson, Morocco and Anahid Sofian, among other star dancers and teachers--would appear to have settled into an obscure "ethnic dance" niche with fewer cabaret venues for shows and few, if any, connections to the broader pipeline of contemporary dance ventures, resources and advocacy. But is that the complete picture?

The venerable Sofian, herself, has kept career and company going for decades, and last evening she gave the fourth presentation of her Atelier Orientale series of evenings at her small studio on West 15th Street. Curated by Kaitlin Hines--a Sofian company member and choreographer of her own Raqs Uncommon troupe--the show was created to highlight up-to-the-minute styles in bellydance (or Oriental dance, as Sofian chooses to call it). The form remains vibrant and, in Sofian's words, can claim a 21st Century renaissance. She writes:

Interest in this ancient dance is now at its highest since the Sixties and Seventies and continues to grow world-wide. Nearly every state in the U.S. and every province in Canada has teachers and troupes, and the dance enjoys immense popularity abroad, especially in Brazil, Europe, Australia and Japan. Articles continue to appear in major international publications, and there are hundreds of websites dedicated to the dance. Many of the movements have found their way into our own dance culture through break dancing, hip hop and the performances of such pop stars as Shakira and Britney Spears, and appreciation of middle eastern music is also at an all time high thanks to the world music explosion, which has brought many of the great middle eastern musicians and music styles to renown in the West. This explosion, however, has brought with it a mixed blessing to those of us who fear that the beautiful mother of all these styles has all but disappeared.      

And what of that "beautiful mother," as Sofian calls the generative form? By evidence of last night's show, I'd say Mom manages to hold her place in the mix but, at times, might be a little stressed by what she finds around her. Or maybe I'm just projecting.

For my taste--formed in the '70s by my training with a disciple of Serena Wilson--this dance genre has much variety and power on its own without the infusion of external, sometimes jarring elements. Some of the participants in this atelier--with their odd and gimmicky theatrics, Halloween-like costuming and blunt choreography--did justice neither to this gracious dance nor their own dancers. But there were sublime moments, too--most notably, Tatianna Natalyja's The Unveiling, a solo to music by the great Nubian oud player and singer Hamza El Din--that served as testament to the elegance and ingenuity of the Middle Eastern dancer.

Tatianna Natalyja
(photo by Andrea Qasguargis)

Natalyja displayed skillful control of her polyrhythmic isolations, sharp accents, expressive flow, dignity and inherent drama. Although she was, by far, the program's most polished performer, others also contributed interesting work. I greatly enjoyed Brenna Crowley (leading her Zilla Dance Ensemble in an excerpt from Four Chambers), the kind of dancer who so clearly, and with every fiber of her being, feels the music--in this case, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson and Justin Timberlake--that you completely understand why she dances and, actually, why you dance, too. Nisreen's Ya Hanady solo delivers a sly yet precise and fairly straightforward Egyptian cane dance with its twirls and strikes of a slender cane. Leading her trio of three graces in the atmospheric Rapture, Refuge and Release, curator Hines also brought a grounded and luxurious sensibility to performance. If not every curatorial choice demonstrated that wisdom and beauty, her own presence embodied it.

To learn more about the Anahid Sofian Dance Studio and Sofian's future projects, click here.

Lois Weaver's Tammy WhyNot brings fun for all ages

Lois Weaver as Tammy WhyNot with three of her
"sexy senior divas," the WhyNets, singing backup
(photo: Jonathan Slaff)

Lois Weaver brings fun for all ages in What Tammy Needs to Know about Getting Old and Having Sex: The Concert Tour, (November 6-23 at La MaMa). The veteran, beloved performance artist from Split Britches becomes twangy alter-ego Tammy WhyNot--part-time country-western singer, part-time researcher in senior centers from Zagreb to Chelsea. (Tammy even landed in the place where I take my yoga and Zumba classes, recruiting a few of her cast members, but I missed my chance!) Her topic of deep study (aka, "intense porch-sitting")? Sex in the golden years.

The marvelous WhyNets
dance choreography by Stormy Brandenberger.
Foreground, left to right: Carmen Estrada, Jorge Escalera and Dora Chu
(photo: Jonathan Slaff)

Weaver with Peggy Shaw
(photo: Jonathan Slaff)

The hour-long variety show is a charmer--a little sugar, a little spice. Weaver doesn't so much break the theatrical fourth wall as completely ignore it, with her disarmed audience, spanning many decades in age, contributing nearly as much fresh hilarity to the content as she and co-writer/Head of Security Peggy Shaw has.

Of Tammy's songs, The Time I've Wasted, a sad tale of KMart shopping "to fill the shopping cart I call my heart" might be my favorite, but it's hard to choose. But the greatest thing about Tammy is her generous heart and her welcome to a stageful of colorful seniors--like dancers Jorge Escalera and Carmen Estrada who will wow you with their spirit and talent.

There's no resisting Tammy. Let yourself go! You have until November 23 to get your tickets--and your sexy on--right here.

La MaMa
First Floor Theatre
74A East 4th Street (between Bowery and 2nd Avenue), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Richard Schaal, 86

Richard Schaal, TV Actor and Second City Veteran, Dies at 86
by Paul Vitello, The New York Times, November 6, 2014

Manitas de Plata, 93

Manitas de Plata, Superstar of the Flamenco Guitar, Is Dead at 93
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 6, 2014

David Redfern, 78

David Redfern, British Photographer of Jazz and Pop, Dies at 78
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, November 6, 2014

Emily Johnson: A vision board for neighborhoods

Emily Johnson

What a treat to take part in Emily Johnson's Community Visioning workshop at Gibney Dance Center 280 Broadway this afternoon! It was totally fun.

All photos (c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Born in south central Alaska of Yup'ik descent, Johnson is an internationally acclaimed performer and choreographer on the Minneapolis scene. She won a 2012 Bessie for The Thank-you Bar (Outstanding Production) and made another deep impression last year with the beautiful Niicugni at Baryshnikov Arts Center (read here). Now Johnson is building a New York edition of SHORE--originally presented in June in Minneapolis--for next spring at New York Live Arts. As part of her local research and development process, she offered today's free workshop, an event of Gibney Dance Center's Community Action Hub, inviting participants to think about where we live and work and what parts of our city hold special meaning for us.

Johnson started us out with black-and-white maps of the five boroughs taped to the wall, but they soon came alive with color as we decorated them with stickers (for our place of residence) and doodles (for places that strongly resonate with us).

Later, we brainstormed hundreds of ideas for fostering wellbeing for ourselves, our families, friends, streets and neighborhoods, and we turned the studio's wall into a candy-colored vision board. Choosing a few of these items at random, we gathered in small groups to further brainstorm individual actions that might help manifest those specific desires.

Visions take shape.
all photos (c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

We had a great, and fairly sizable, bunch of folks, and our collaborative work took off right away with much good-natured laughter. It was wonderful to honor parts of New York that, though I might not have seen them in years, have shaped my life. I loved sharing, with everyone, a city's worth of hopes and dreams.

Learn more about Johnson and her upcoming projects at her Web site:

catalyst, dances by emily johnson.

DoublePlus: impressive launch for new series at Gibney 280

Sean McElroy (left) and Tei Blow
of Royal Osiris Karoake Ensemble
in The Art of Luv (Part 1)
(photo: Maria Baranova)

Time will tell if DoublePlus--presented at Gibney Dance Center's new Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center near City Hall--proves to be more than the sum of its parts. But last night's performance, the first for this new dance series, represented a bold move by programmer Craig Peterson and his first artist-curator, Annie-B Parson.

Not springing from any centralized aesthetic, each segment of the six-week DoublePlus season has been curated by a different dance artist invited by Peterson. In addition to Parson, the curatorial lineup for Fall 2014 includes RoseAnne Spradlin, Miguel Gutierrez, Donna Uchizono, Jon Kinzel and Bebe Miller. Each have invited two emerging or mid-career choreographers to share a four-evening program. Parson's program introduces works by the multidisciplinary Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (the partnership of Tei Blow and Sean McElroy) and dancer-choreographer Audrey Hailes and continues through this Saturday with all shows at 7:30pm.

Blow and McElroy of Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, working in multimedia performance installation, describe themselves as "a musical priesthood that explores the metaphysics and mythologies of love, desire and courtship at the end of the 20th century." Nice...and bland...but that doesn't quite prepare you for The Art of Luv (Part 1), for being wafted on a nonstop magic carpet ride through a live and video landscape of New Age meditations, channelings, video blogs for makeup and jeans, and hyped-up self-improvement infomercials, all seamlessly connected to one particularly sinister video centerpiece. ROKE's stated aim--take it as sincere or, given the hokey costumes, decor and projections, ironic or possibly both--is to heal the world, particularly where masculine insecurity is concerned. Maybe everything seen and heard here shares a certain underlying pathology. And maybe, through the wizardry of highlighting those toxic interconnections, these dedicated karaoke masters are among the best healers going.

Hailes calling herself "a so-called theatre artist" seems fitting, given my overwhelming sense of her, in Death Made Love to My Feet, as someone often thrown into space and landing at odd angles, weirdly and precariously attached to things like stools or columns or just air, as if these things had just arrested her fall. I also locate her as she appears to locate herself--as an artist amid decades of sticky social and entertainment history. A Black woman in the arts who finds herself walking past or through energy fields that contain things like Ailey's Revelations, and Beyoncé, and Miss Mary Mack-style clapping games (with co-performers Jasmine Coles and Alison Kibbe), and Barbara Walters training her laser eyes on a ravaged Richard Pryor. There are women warriors in there, too. Do I see Hailes because of these layers or despite them? Or both? And it is just wild when the door to the theater's greenroom opens in a burst of light, and we get our first glimpse of Coles and Kibbe--or, really, just parts of them--while Hailes soldiers on right in front of us. Where to look? The light from that room is undeniable--also, the mystery of who the hell these other people are. What the hell are they doing? Confusion ensues. And I kind of loved it all.

For more information and tickets for this program and all upcoming DoublePlus shows, click here.

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis
Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Donald Saddler, 96

Donald Saddler, Dancer, and a Choreographer on Broadway, Dies at 96
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, November 4, 2014

The cinematic Sally Silvers: "Actual Size" opens at Roulette

Dylan Crossman and Melissa Toogood
in Sally Silvers's Actual Size
(photo: Karen Robbins)

Of course, if you want dancing most immaculate, you'll do no wrong by turning to artists like Melissa Toogood, Dylan Crossman, Alicia Ohs, Carolyn Hall and Luke Miller. The internal, shifting, watery evanescence of a piece like Actual Size--an hour-long fantasia on a theme by Alfred Hitchcock--requires something steady to grab hold of, even if only for a moment. These dancers take the best of what choreographer Sally Silvers has on offer here--the clear shapeliness of her Hitchcock-evocative movement and interactions--and makes that even more vivid as bodies drift or struggle in a noirish snow globe of evocative sound snippets, atmospheric lighting, and projected imagery including, at times, photos of their oversized, incongrously grinning faces. To borrow words from Bruce Andrews's puckish and self-conscious voiceover text, Actual Size exists as "a closeup of confetti" and a blurring of motives."

Crossman and Toogood
(photo: Karen Robbins)

I think I'm not supposed to say here which avant-garde luminary will be on hand as guest dancer--a different one each night--but you'll find the complete list of all of them right there in your program. For opening night, Silvers "surprised" us by dancing with Pooh Kaye, which introduced a different way of being with Hitchcock--two little scamps or kittens tussling underfoot in a darkened living room, making their own fun, heedless of everyone else's fascination with North by Northwest.

Video: Ursula Scherrer
Text/sound: Bruce Andrews
Music: Michael Schumacher
Lighting: Joe Levasseur
Costumes: Elisabeth Hope Clancy

Actual Size continues through Friday, November 7 with performances at 8pm.

Roulette
509 Atlantic Avenue (corner of 3rd Avenue), Brooklyn
(map/directions)