Alan Cheuse, 75

Alan Cheuse, Novelist And Longtime NPR Contributor, Dies At 75
by Colin Dwyer, NPR The Two-Way, July 31, 2015

Hamilton and Zachery at University Settlement's Performance Project

André M. Zachery (left) and LaMont Hamilton
(photo: Layla Zami)

The dance series Five on the Black Hand Side/Dapline! draws its title from the practice of the dap ("dap" meaning "dignity and pride"), a spectrum of elaborate gestural greetings and supportive hugs between Black men. Visual artist/photographer LaMont Hamilton and André M. Zachery of Brooklyn's Renegade Performance Group have curated three programs that can be seen as commentary on, as Hamilton has written about one of the works, "Not 'Black Lives Matter' but blackness as matter moving throughout the space; real and present."

Last evening, the series opened with three works that approached this embodied Black presence in different ways, each with a flavor of dreamlike timelessness.

Oxana Chi
(photo: Layla Zami)

Oxana Chi (Oxana Chi & Ensemble Xinren) comes to us from Germany, a dancer of Nigerian and Eastern European origin. A chart of her dance background would look like a spinning globe--from ballet and Cunningham and jazz to Javanese and Egyptian dance. Her solo Neferet iti, performed to live music by Layla Zami and a recorded score by Gilbert Trefzger and Abdoul Aziz Sinka, dares to draw visual and kinetic elements from different cultures, too, in a quilt-like, multi-textured performance. Her Central American plumed headdress, her yellow-gold harem pants, her hip thrusts and shimmies, her archer's bow draws, Masai jumps, capoeira maneuvers, vogue hands and dervish spins add up to a heady mixture. She believes it all works--you can see that--and makes it work. A somewhat delicate presence, she is, nevertheless, a woman writ large, claiming concert dance space for a diverse and teeming world, blessing that space. I don't claim to understand the two theatrical sneezes--clearly not real afflictions--that punctuated sections of Chi's performance. Perhaps the audience was meant to respond by offering its own blessing.

Hamilton collaborates with sound artist Jeremy Toussaint Baptiste on Evil Nigger (pt 1), a hallucinatory performance in which he sits behind a small table covered in a drop cloth and smears his dark chocolate face and white dress shirt and tie with a succession of gloopy paints--white, red and black. He is flesh-and-blood canvas, wrecking convention, striking out for something unknown in what starts off, it might appear, as a sendup of blackface and veers out of control. Like the droning, distorted music, the streaks and splotches and ungainly blends of stark, gleaming wet color eventually turn him into a still object of art fading from our view as the lighting slowly drains away.

The dap originated in the Vietnam War/Black Power era with Black GIs and spread throughout African American communities as a way for Black men to express cultural identity and support. In Zachery and Hamilton's ensemble piece, Dapline!, six men of color perform a fugue-like imagining of military discipline and, at the same time, reveal a tight community responsive to the pain, frustration and momentary failures of its members. The idea of the dap is addressed both in spirit and, later in the piece, in technical execution. The viewer marvels at the unity and elegance of this corps of men, the clean architecture of their shifting arrangements and movements in space, the softness and tranquility that can emerge when masculinity is unshackled, given more than one narrow definition. We watch some of the daps performed in slow motion, skin sliding over skin, our eyes absorbing the beauty and meaning of these silent interactions. These are duets; one quite fanciful interpretation unfolds like a stretchy, twisting tango. If I could have anything reconsidered about Dapline!, it would be its duration. Portions of it seem unnecessarily repetitious and drawn out. Rounding out the program, it makes for a long evening. But this important work is given magnificent and affecting performances by its dancers--Brian Henry, Andre Cole, Johnnie Mercer, Malcolm McMichael, TJ Jamez and Stephen Galberth.

Five on the Black Hand Side/Dapline! continues this evening with guest artists Candace Thompson/Nehemoyia Young and University Settlement's New Youth Movement Collective (NYMC). On Saturday evening, the series concludes with Laurie M. Taylor/SOULMOVEMENT and Hamilton and Baptiste's Evil Nigger (Part 2). Both programs include performances of Dapline!, not to be missed.

For information and tickets for tonight and tomorrow's performances, both at 8pm, click here.

Speyer Hall
University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street (between Rivington and Delancey Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Viral before Internet: Exhibition on activism through visual arts

Seeing the Power of Political Posters
by Martha Schwendener, The New York Times, July 30, 2015

Listen to their stories: women and the trauma of war

Im Heung-soon Explores the Horrors Women Endure in War
by Jason Farago, The New York Times, July 30, 2015

Gerard & Kelly achieve fair pay for Guggenheim performers

Looking at How Performers Are Paid for Performance Art
by Hilarie M. Sheets, The New York Times, July 30, 2015

Publisher Lisa C. Moore lists most influential Black lesbian writers

I wouldn’t be the editor — or the person — I am today if I hadn’t read the work of these extraordinary women.

 --Lisa C. Moore, publisher, Redbone Press

Read more at:

The Black Lesbian Writers You Need To Be Reading
by Lisa C. Moore, Buzzfeed LGBT, July 28, 2015

Glenn Ligon on The Great Bieri: "A conduit to the ancestors"

These objects change...a subtle reminder that they operate in a different system.
-- Glenn Ligon

The Artist Project: Glenn Ligon on The Great Bieri
from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The continuous relevance of Nina Simone

Posthumously, Nina Simone injects herself into the lifeblood of Black America whenever we need her music.

-- William C. Anderson

Read more at:
Nina Simone's Insistent Blackness
by William C. Anderson, Pitchfork, July 27, 2105

Chenjerai Hove, 59

Chenjerai Hove, Chronicler of Zimbabwean Struggles, Dies at 59
by William Grimes, The New York Times, July 23, 2015

George Coe, 86

George Coe, Actor and Director of a Bergman Parody, Dies at 86
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, July 24, 2015

Ingrid Sischy, 63

Ingrid Sischy, Doyenne of Art and Fashion, Dies at 63
by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, July 24, 2015

Good medicine from Reagon and Dorrance at Lincoln Center

Toshi Reagon (standing) and some members of BIGLovely
at Lincoln Center Out of Doors at Damrosch Park
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

All of your friends were at The Blues Project last night at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, right?

I know that's right.

And they all tweeted and posted to Facebook and text messaged and Instagrammed. And maybe you were there, too. Most likely, you were. Maybe crowding that space between the seats and the stage, for the first part of the show, and dancing your ass off. So you already know what a celebration that was.

And that's how it goes these days. You don't need me to tell you. You probably don't need any critic.

And why would you need us anyway, since we're talking Toshi Reagon and Michelle Dorrance? And Derick K. Grant and The Empress Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards? And Juliette Jones? And Allison Miller? If the collaboration between musician Reagon (with her band BIGLovely) and tap dance wiz Dorrance (with her Dorrance Dance troupe) hasn't become a sure bet by now, I don't know what has.

Opening the show with her crew, Reagon first called the audience to attention. Basically, she said everything boils down to the environment. Mess that up, and it doesn't matter who you are or where you are: We're all royally screwed. Don't vote for anyone who doesn't get that, who doesn't have environmental concerns top of mind.

"Taking care of the planet will unite all of us past our differences," she said before launching into a clap-along environmental anthem with folk and gospel gleaming through, silver and gold. "No tears will fall, no battle will call/You will miss the world you know...." The set moved on to propulsive, open-throated rock, irresistibly sinuous reggae, and much more--all the confident, stylistic interweaving for which Reagon is noted.

She got folks, young and old, up on their feet. "Don't you need to jump up and down? This is the medicine you need for the hard week we've been through," she said, as we thought about Sandra Bland, about Lafayette. "It's been a horrible week."

For medicine, she and her band brought "sunshine, still shining in the pouring rain," an optimism practiced in music without borders. In the second part of the evening, Dorrance teamed up with, and matched, Reagon and BIGLovely with her own cool blend of old and new across styles, races and genders.

The Blues Project--a suite of ensemble and solo pieces created by Dorrance, Reagon, Grant and Sumbry-Edwards--might be one of the most efficient ways to introduce your newbie friends to concert dance of any kind or to teach them, through subliminal means, what tap's all about. For sure, this is smooth, stress-free education at its finest, right in the middle of pure, nonstop entertainment by dancers giving their best. You see and hear the roots of tap in the African-Irish encounter; the virtues of both polished choreography and expressive improvisation; the comfort of the familiar paired with the kick of new angles and accents and timing; the pleasures of both refined, minimal details and expansive, rip-roaring energy. No filler, and not a bit of cornball to muck it up.

If you are one of the two or three people who did not make it to Damrosch Park last evening, make sure that you find your next chance to see the Reagon-Dorrance collaboration in action. Take your medicine.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors continues through August 9. For all the details and a schedule of events--from Joe Bataan's boogaloo to Afro-punk and Judy Collins--click here.

Sally Gross, 81

Sally Gross, Choreographer of Minimalist Dances, Dies at 81
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 24, 2015

Now, about that Performing Arts Center at Ground Zero...?

Ground Zero Arts Center to Shrink Further
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, July 23, 2015

Candace Thompson: Caribbean dance artists step forward

Dancer-choreographer Candace Thompson
performs her solo, Of Circles and Bright Colours,
in New Traditions: A Showcase for Caribbean Choreographers
(photos: Kearra Gopee)

Questions for 
Candace Thompson

Dance artist and Executive Director
Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE

EYA: How did your Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE come about?

CT: There were choreographers whose work I wanted to see more of, and when I started making my own work, I realized that it was difficult to find places to perform it. One day, I called a friend who's also Caribbean, and we got to talking, and he said, "Oh, I was having the same idea!" We had a meeting, right then and there, outlining a bunch of things that we were interested in making happen. That was the beginning, last December.

EYA: What kind of visibility would you like to see for Caribbean dance artists?

CT: Contemporary dance isn't necessarily interwoven into our Caribbean culture. It's hard to connect with audience members who might possibly appreciate the work. We are interested in taking our work to the community, to people who share our background and heritage, getting them to know about us and invest in us creating work.

EYA: Do you feel that there's a kind of stereotype or a box that Caribbean artists are put into?

CT: To a certain extent. Because a lot of Caribbean work--and this, of course, is a generalization--infuses a lot of concepts and ideas from our culture, folkloric culture, movement and vocabulary, with contemporary dance, it's just hard to put that next to traditional modern dance or contemporary downtown dance. It's hard for people to see them in the same way. It becomes hard to put that on stage in venues that are widely known for producing modern or contemporary work. It gets written off as fusion or whatever term people use when they don't know how to categorize something.

For me, it's still contemporary dance. It's just coming from where I come from, from my background, my nationality. It's like when Urban Bush Women or other companies do work that is part of the diaspora. For some reason it gets separated from contemporary dance because it has this diasporic angle.

Caribbean artists, to a large extent--and, again, I am generalizing--see identity as being a large part of how we think about ourselves. So, a lot of times, work becomes about identity, but Caribbean artists make other kinds of work, too. It gets tricky when people can't see past [identity]. Why can't that work be alongside any other work?

EYA: So far, who's involved and how are they working within the COLLECTIVE?

CT: We had our first meeting in April and decided that we would do a show. I asked people I knew to submit work for the show in June--"New Traditions: A Showcase for Caribbean Choreographers"--at St. Francis College in Brooklyn. We had works by Beatrice Capote, Shola K. Roberts, Maxine Montilus, Alicia C. Dellimore, Davalois Fearon, Adia Whitaker and myself, and it went really well. People gave of their time.

After the show, we met again to begin to solidify the structure, form a community board where people would have positions for a year and, at the end of the year, we might see who would want to serve in a new role or who else would want to volunteer their time.

Right now, I'm the Executive Director. Maxine Montilus and Marguerite Hemmings are co-directors. There are also people doing marketing, research and the like, although those positions have not yet been solidified.

About Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE

Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE is a representative body that facilitates and promotes Caribbean Dance, Caribbean Dancers and those that present and practice Caribbean dance forms and/or deal with Caribbean content.

The COLLECTIVE aims to:

* Create a platform for Contemporary Caribbean Dance Practitioners, Dancers, Choreographers, Dance Scholars to network, communicate and share resources

* Representative body for Caribbean Diasporic Dance in the NYC Area community

*Create an information hub listing classes, events, performances, teaching opportunities and other resources for Caribbean artists and dancers in the NYC

* Share information on events happening within the Diaspora worldwide

* Support the creation of new works by Caribbean Artists that represent our Contemporary experiences

* Support newly arriving artists from the Caribbean to NYC/USA

CT: For next year, our goals include designing a curriculum based around Caribbean heritage that we can take into schools through residencies. We will train artists so that they can get more work and be directly involved in the community through the schools.

We also want to start master classes in the city over the next year, bringing Caribbean artists, like Cynthia Oliver, who have extensive experience in this contemporary dance work. Also, we want to start a choreographers task force so that we can plan the year of performances together and support one another in producing and presenting our shows.

EYA: Do you see an eventual path towards establishing relationships with contemporary dance presenters and venues around the city?

CT: I would like that, when what we could do with one of these venues would be mutually beneficial. Right now, it's probably better for us to collaborate with smaller arts organizations. We self-produced our first show in collaboration with the Caribbean Cultural Theatre.

EYA: You're a dancer performing in your own work and those of other companies; a dance instructor and fitness trainer, teaching in various venues around town; and now you're leading this burgeoning organization. How do you manage your time and priorities?

CT: I never really had an option to do less. I guess because I'm an immigrant. The stakes are higher. If this fails, I have to go back to Trinidad to a life that I haven't lived for ten years! I've always had to do more, find more, create what I didn't have.

It's possible because I have people around me who really support me and believe in the work that I do. My family in Trinidad are extremely supportive. And there are people that I have been fortunate to meet here, like Sydnie Mosley and Andre Zachery, the companies I've worked with. Bringing ideas or reaching out to people on my behalf or sitting down to help me write proposals. By no means has it been a single-handed effort. I am only able to do it because other people are involved.

EYA: How did you get started in dance...and why dance?

CT: My mom put me in dance classes when I was five. She’d always wanted to get involved with dance, but her mom was a single parent. It was hard for them, schedule-wise and financially. But when she was able to, she put me in, and I never really turned back.

What attracted me to dance is that it was always a challenge, always something new to learn. You never really arrive!

*****

Candace Thompson will present Colliding Scopes/Circles of Inquiry, a new duet (with Nehemoyia Young) as part of the "Dapline! Five on the Black Hand Side" series at University Settlement on July 31. For complete information and ticketing for Dapline!, click here.

Contact Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE: Click!

Candace Thompson
(photo: Rachel Neville)

Candace Thompson, a Trinidad and Tobago native, is a dancer, choreographer and certified fitness professional, specializing in personal training and group fitness. Her dance training is extensive, beginning in Trinidad and Tobago, where she received instruction in modern dance and ballet, at La Danse Caraibe under Heather Henderson-Gordon. She is a graduate of Adelphi University's BFA in Dance with the Ruth St. Denis Award for excellence from the dance department, and has gone on to perform Afro-Caribbean, Classical Modern, Modern/Contemporary, Contemporary/Floor Technique, Jazz, Soca and West African.

She has worked with several companies in Trinidad and Tobago including Trinity Dance Theater, Astor Johnson Repertory Dance Company and Elle NYTT (for Machel Montano HD) as well as US based companies and choreographers including, Andrea E. Woods-Valdez, Andre Zachery, Christal Brown, David Gordon, Forces of Nature Dance Theater, Germaul Barnes, Leda Meredith, Lynn Parkerson, Makeda Thomas, Sita Frederick, Sydnie L. Mosley and Trebien Pollard.

Candace is driven to perform work that is challenging both physically and emotionally, and is always seeking new performance opportunities and experiences to hone her skills. She currently performs with Areytos Performance Works, Elle NYTT, Renegade Performance Group, Sydnie L. Mosley Dances and in her own solo performance work ContempoCaribe. Candace looks forward to adding to the dance landscape in the U.S. and the Caribbean, through her latest collaborative initiative, Dance Caribbean COLLECTIVE, and to deepening her mastery in performance.

Candace's career in fitness began haphazardly in high school, where she entered and won the aerobic burnout competition. She has since become an IFTA certified Group Fitness Leader, ACE certified Personal Trainer, Int. Pilates Mat instructor, TRX® Suspension Trainer, TRX® Rip Trainer, TRX® FORCE certified instructor and a Level 1 Kettlebell Concepts Instructor. Candace has taught at gyms around NYC including, Harbor Fitness, Lucille Roberts, Fluid Fitness NY, New You Fitness and Crown Heights Yoga & FItness. Currently, Candace does in-home training for clients in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, and teaches Soca Dance at Mark Morris Dance Center.

Wayne Carson, 72

"The Letter" songwriter Wayne Carson dies at 72
CBSNews, July 22, 2015

Theodore Bikel, 91

Theodore Bikel, Master of Versatility in Songs, Roles and Activism, Dies at 91
by Richard Severo and Ralph Blumenthal, The New York Times, July 21, 2015

Sarah Lawrence College Dance Program seeks new director

Job Opening

Director

Dance Program

Sarah Lawrence College

The Dance Program at Sarah Lawrence College is seeking a new Director who is an accomplished teacher for our distinguished program in Dance. The successful candidate will be a prominent and active dance artist with proven achievement in choreography and performance, an established teaching practice and administrative experience. An advanced degree in the field is desired, or its professional equivalent. Familiarity with dance in a liberal arts curriculum for both undergraduate and graduate students is essential. Possibility of early tenure review. Starting date August 2016.

Applicants should include the following: a cover letter, a curriculum vitae, three letters of recommendation, and a brief personal statement addressing their approach to teaching and artistic practice, with relevant materials. To apply for the position, please go to:

https://slc.simplehire.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=50777

Application review will begin September 15, 2015. The position will remain open until filled.

Sarah Lawrence College is a small liberal arts college twenty miles from New York City with a unique pedagogy based on small classes, individual tutorials, interdisciplinary study and a strong commitment to the arts. For information on Sarah Lawrence College, our curriculum, teaching methods, and philosophy of education, please see our Web site at: http://www.slc.edu. SLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer committed to achieving a racially and culturally diverse community.

Buddy Buie, 74

Buddy Buie, Producer and Hit-Making Songwriter, Dies at 74
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 20, 2015

E.L. Doctorow, 84

E.L. Doctorow, Literary Time Traveler Who Stirred the Past Into Fiction, Dies at 84
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 21, 2015

Bronx's Dancing in the Streets seeks Managing Director

Dancing in the Streets Seeks

Managing Director

Dancing in the Streets, a 31-year not-for-profit producer of free, public, adventurous performances in unexpected places—that has been based in the South Bronx since 2011—is seeking a dynamic, entrepreneurial, and visionary Managing Director who will build upon and further develop the organization’s mission to commission, produce, and present dance, interdisciplinary, site-specific, and community-based performances that transform the experience of a place; nurture artists; and serve as catalysts for building community and developing safe, vibrant, and economically sound neighborhoods that reflect and foster their distinct character, values, and cultures.

The Managing Director will work closely with a team of curators on planning future programs and on shepherding ongoing projects that contribute to the cultural renaissance of the Bronx through site-specific dance; and through collaborative initiatives (supported by the NEA, the NYC Dept. Of Cultural Affairs, City Council, and the NYC Mayor’s Office) that foster cultural exchange among grass roots, street, immigrant, and contemporary artists. Reporting to the Board of Directors, the Managing Director will be responsible for board recruitment and development; donor cultivation; fundraising; fiscal and staff management; and strengthening existing and developing new arts, community, and business partnerships.

The successful candidate will have an entrepreneurial spirit; a broad vision; a passion for the arts and for community engagement; excellent fundraising, fiscal management, and managerial skills; excellent writing and interpersonal skills; and a minimum of three years of comparable experience.

The position will begin in November 2015.

For the complete job description visit www.dancinginthestreets.org/jobopportunities.

To apply, please email a cover letter and resume to jobsearch@dancinginthestreets.org.

Sierra Leone-born ballerina Michaela DePrince featured in Glamour

Michaela DePrince
(photo: Alique for GLAMOUR)

BALLERINA MICHAELA DEPRINCE 

ON ACHIEVING HER DREAMS

GLAMOUR, August 2015

I Was Orphan Number 27:
Ballerina Michaela DePrince's Inspiring Story

by Erika Hayasaki

Michaela DePrince lost her family as a girl in Sierra Leone during the brutal civil war; now she’s a world-class ballerina, her triumph soon to be a Hollywood movie, Taking Flight. But her biggest goal? To inspire young girls through working with the Girl Scouts and War Child, a group that helps children in conflict zones. DePrince shares her journey in Glamour’s August issue, on national newsstands now and available digitally at glamour.com/app.

How will dancers embody the Afrofuture?

CALL FOR CONFERENCE PROPOSALS: 

DANCING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA: EMBODYING THE AFROFUTURE

Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD) Conference
Duke University, February 19-21, 2016

How might we imagine the impact and import of Black dance within the context of afro-futurism?

What sorts of movement practices reflect an embodied Black feminist/womanist perspective?

What does Black Dance contribute within the context of ongoing brutality and practices of resistance?

CADD's second conference, Dancing the African Diaspora: Embodying the Afrofuture, aims to re-ignite the discourse on defining Black Dance on a global scale by bringing together scholars, practitioners, educators, and other stakeholders for three days of intellectual and artistic inspiration.  Anchored by critical dialogue and provocative research presentations, the conference will also feature breakout sessions, movement workshops, film screenings, and a performance by Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion culminating their Duke residency.

This three-day conference seeks to center African diaspora dance as a resource and method of aesthetic identity. The Collegium for African Diaspora Dance aims to facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion that captures the variety of topics, approaches, and methods that might constitute Black Dance Studies.

"Dancing the African Diaspora" suggests multiple exigencies and interests. We are interested in papers/presentations that consider dance practices throughout the African diaspora, and the specific contexts that engender them. We are also interested in dance as an approach to the understanding/engaging the African diaspora itself. This convening situates black dance as constituted by theories of black performance. We invite you to explore black movement as a technology of African diasporic identity-making. Presentations are invited along any theoretical line of inquiry concerned with African diaspora dance. We welcome papers that engage any site or topic related to black movement and those that represent a rigorous engagement with a number of disciplinary and methodological perspectives.

Possible topics include:

Black dance, virtuality, and technologies of mediationPedagogical politicsIdentity and community makingCorporeality, gender and sexuality in the African diaspora danceColonialism, neoliberalism, commodification

Deadline for Proposals:  October 1, 2015

Confirmations sent:  October 15, 2015

Click here to submit your proposal. 

For questions, click here.

 
Conference Committee|Collegium for African Diaspora Dance (CADD)Founding Members

Takiyah Amin, Thomas F. DeFrantz,  Shireen Dickson, Jasmine Johnson, Raquel Monroe, C. Kemel Nance, Carl Paris, John Perpener, Will Rawls, Makeda Thomas, Andrea E. Woods Valdés, Ava LaVonne Vinesett

Sponsors for this event include: SLIPPAGE: Performance|Culture|Technology in residence at Duke; Humanities Writ Large @ Duke; the Collegium for African Diaspora Dance; the Corporeality Working Group @ Duke; the Duke Dance Program; African and African American Studies at Duke.

Lezly Ziering, 82

Lezly Ziering, Professional Skater and Skate Advocate, Dies at 82
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, July 17, 2015

Skakespeare as we like it: out in the parking lot

"Sir, you have wrestled well, and overthrown
more than your enemies."

Jane Bradley plays Rosalind in As You Like It.
(photo: Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation)

In its new home, outback of The Clemente, The Drilling Company's popular Shakespeare in the Parking Lot summer series brightly powers ahead with a Victorian steampunk As You Like It. This en plein air, in-the-round romantic comedy--with its multiple lovers and lasses--has tasty delights, chief among them detailed and zestful performances from Jane Bradley (Rosalind), Elaine Ivy Harris (Celia), Emmanuel Elpenord (Oliver) and Alessandro Colla (Touchstone). Of these, Bradley and Colla seem particularly resourceful--Colla remaining comically inventive and an unsinkable Bradley at sharp physical and vocal energy from start to finish.

Of course, this Lower East Side Forest of Arden has--for its adaptable players and equally adaptable audience--some unique features. Shakespeare's wit and Clancy's motley crew must compete with sirens and churning helicopters and Mr. Softee trucks, odd smells from takeout dinners and the occasional SUV driver scattering viewers as he attempts to back into the street.

Getting to the lot in a tardy fashion means you might have to peer around heads and bodies as you strain to follow the speaking actors. The rare, welcome cool breezes of a mid-July evening carry away the cast's less-robust voices. And if an actor turns the other way or speaks into his partner's neck....well, what did he just say?

But all of that is to be expected, part of the Shakespeare in the Parking Lot homemade fun. Quick costume changes behind a handy car. Simple strings of lights to relieve the dark when night settles in. Creatively shabby costuming and sometimes balky props that add to a feeling of intimacy, of something wonderfully weird and kind of sweet gifted to a neighborhood. And it's all free.

As You Like It runs through July 26 with performances at 8pm. Running time: Two hours. Bring your own chair, if you'd like. And--wonder of wonders!--Shakespeare in the Parking Lot now has its own Port-O-San!

Parking lot behind The Clemente
(The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural and Educational Center)
114 Norfolk Street (between Delancey and Rivington Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Other Shakespeare in the Parking Lot productions this season:

Macbeth, directed by Hamilton Clancy, at The Clemente parking lot, July 30-August 15

Romeo and Juliet at Bryant Park, directed by Dave Marantz, July 17-August 2

The Taming of the Shrew at The Clemente parking lot, directed by Alessandro Colla, September 4 to 20

Click here for complete information and schedules.

Workshops: Dance Without Walls (the nia love underground)

Dance Without Walls (the nia love underground)

co-facilitators:

Nia Love, Jesse Phillips-Fein and Benin Ford

Nia Love
(photo: Nia Love)

Gestures are atoms that make up the sheets of our memory...tissue that travel with us from light years away...traveling on our trajectory biding us both greetings and farewells! 

-- Nia Love

Jesse Phillips-Fein
(photo: Jeca Rodriguez)

Benin Ford
(photo: Nia Love)

This movement-based, multimedia living art workshop creates space where “we the people” can study ways to perform meaningfully, powerfully and truthfully through improvisations at the intersections of dance, nature, and urban structures. With movement, discourse, journaling, drawing, and building small ecological sculptures, we manifest new ideas about about ourselves from which communal and global solidarity can radiate. This work is built on foundation of deep support and trust; we help each other to fertilize our thoughts clearly and to use our bodies as both a landscape and a tool that excavates our power as a people, activates our well-being, and engenders collectivism. Our aim is to create malleable networks that bond and aid us in on-going practices of liberating and reclaiming what lies dormant in our mind-bodies. 

Friday July 17, 6-9pm

Saturday, July 18, 10am-1pm

Sunday July 19, 10am-1pm

$50/1 day

$95/2 days 

$135/3 days

Sliding scale for parents available

Sign up a friend and receive a 25% discount!

We are especially interested in “non-dancers.”

Multiple outdoor locations throughout New York City:

Day 1: River Bank State Park, 145th and Riverside (Manhattan)

Day 2: 98 4th Street between Hoyt and Bond (Brooklyn)

Day 3: Ball Field at 214 Street (The Bronx)

To register, email: undergroundstudiesnyc@gmail.com

Note: the underground is a seasonal event.
there will be a Fall Edition, dates TBD.

Tapilosophy: A dialogue on tap

(Photos: Jane Goldberg; Greg Hines, photo by Greg Gorman)

With her new blog series, Tapilosophy: Gregory Hines to Jane, tap's champion, Jane Goldberg opens her trove of email correspondence with the late, great Gregory Hines. Goldberg describes Tapilosophy as "emails to be read, inspired by, and discussed in your tap lives as you travel the world."

So, was Greg Hines a PC guy? Or a Mac guy?

Definitely a Mac guy, and he had people figured out PC or Mac-wise, too. Like the beloved tap master Buster Brown:

Buster was a Mac. Very attractive to look at and to spend time with. Easy to know. Rarely crashed. Displayed a very intuitiveness about his dancing and made it look easy. Anyone who got to spend time with him loved Buster. Oh yes….. Buster was a Mac.

I grieve that we do not have Hines's voice in the mix today. And certainly his tapping feet.

Thanks for bringing us Tapilosophy, Janie!

Pavel Zuštiak and Storyboard P take early Bessie honors

The New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies), New York City's premier dance awards honoring outstanding creative work in the field, today announced the nominees for the 2014-15 season at its annual press conference. The 37 nominees were selected by the Bessies Selection Committee, an independent committee of 39 dance industry professionals. Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, Bessie Award categories include Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design.

Dance artist and awards selection committee member Walter Rutledge (left)
greets nominee Storyboard P before press conference.
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Craig Peterson (Gibney Dance Center Director of Programs and Presentations)
welcomes the crowd at Gibney's Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center.
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Choreographer and jury member Susan Marshall
reads citation for the 2015 Juried Bessie Award,
presented to choreographer Pavel Zuštiak.
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Zuštiak accepted his award in a video statement from Minneapolis
where he is preparing a new work for the Walker Arts Center.
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Award selection committee member Kay Takeda
reads citation for the Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award,
presented to flex dance artist Storyboard P.
(c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Storyboard P accepts his
Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award.
photo (c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Bessies director Lucy Sexton
photo (c)2015 Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Dance artists and award selection committee members
Edisa Weeks and Gus Solomons Jr.
read the remaining categories and names of nominees.
The 2015 New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies)
will return to Harlem's Apollo Theater for its fifth presentation
on Monday, October 19, 7:30pm.
 photo (c)2015, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

The 2015 Bessie Nominations

Outstanding Production:

600 HIGHWAYMEN
Employee of the Year
FIAF/Crossing the Line

Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
Antigona
The Joyce Theater

Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIGLOVELY
The Blues Project
The Joyce Theater

Neil Greenberg
This
New York Live Arts

Roger Guenveur Smith
Rodney King
BRIC

Xavier LeRoy
Retrospective
MoMA PS1 and Crossing the Line

Shwe Man Pwe
Music and Dance from Myanmar
Asia Society

David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group
I Understand Everything Better
Abrons Arts Center co-presented by The Chocolate Factory

Justin Peck
Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes
New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center

Lemi Ponifasio/MAU
Birds with Skymirrors
Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music

Pam Tanowitz
Broken Story (wherein there is no ecstasy)
The Guggenheim's Works & Process

Vuyani Dance Theatre Project
Umnikelo
Fall for Dance, New York City Center


Outstanding Revival:

Alexei Ratmansky
The Sleeping Beauty
American Ballet Theatre


Outstanding Performer:

Alexandra Albrecht and Andrew Champlin
in Polly Pocket: Expansion Pack by Jillian Peña
Danspace Project

Michelle Boulé
For her body of work with Miguel Gutierrez

Lawrence Cassella
Sustained Achievement in the work of Ivy Baldwin

Talya Epstein
in Star Crap Method by Larissa Velez-Jackson
The Chocolate Factory

Robert Fairchild
in An American in Paris
The Palace Theater

Ellen Fisher
For Sustained Achievement in Performance in the work of Meredith Monk

Lauren Grant
For her overall body of work with Mark Morris

Ryan Haskett, Daniel Price, and Lil Buck
Live Performance following NYC premiere of Pharaohs of Memphis
DAMN! Film Series
TheaterLab Annex

Juan Ogalla
in Antigona by Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca
The Joyce Theater

Amar Ramasar
New York City Ballet

Ryoji Sasamoto
in OQ by Kota Yamazaki
Japan Society

Melissa Toogood
For her body of work during the 2014-15 season in the work of Kimberly Bartosik, Merce Cunningham, Rashaun Mitchell, Stephen Petronio, Sally Silvers, Pam Tanowitz, among others.


Outstanding Emerging Choreographer (*indicates award recipient):

Yve Laris Cohen

Moriah Evans
For Social Dance 1-8: Index at Issue Project Room

Troy Schumacher

Storyboard P *


Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:

Tei Blow
for I Understand Everything Better by David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group
Abrons Arts Center co-presented by The Chocolate Factory

Robyn Orlin | Compagnie Jant-Bi
At the same time we were pointing a finger at you, we realized we were pointing three at ourselves... by Robyn Orlin | Compagnie Jant-Bi
Peak Performances at Montclair State University

Ublado Perez Conde
for CAMBUYÃN by Enlace S.C.
The New Victory Theater

Kate Valk, Bobby McElver and Max Bernstein
for Early Shaker Spirituals by The Wooster Group
St. Ann's Warehouse


Outstanding Visual Design:

Reid Bartelme in collaboration with Harriet Jung
For body of work

Kathy Kaufmann
for Bloowst windku by Rebecca Davis
HERE Art Center

Lemi Ponifasio and Helen Todd
for Birds with Skymirrors
Next Wave Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music

Design Team: Geoff Sobelle (Creator), Steven Dufala (Scenic Installation Designer)
Christopher Kuhl (Lighting Designer), Nick Kourtides (Sound Designer), Jamie Boyle (Integrated Archive Designer), Rachel McIntosh (Specialty Props Designer)
for The Object Lesson by Geoff Sobelle
BAM Fisher

For complete information 

on The New York Dance and Performance Awards, 

see About The Bessies.

For information about and tickets for

the Monday, October 19 presentation 

at The Apollo Theater, 

click here.

Mass Live Arts launches performance program for college grads

Mass Live Arts (MLA) is a festival of experimental theater and performance at the Daniel Arts Center [Bard College at Simon's Rock] in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

MLA is proud to introduce our new educational initiative: The Mass Live Arts Institute. 

Class with Phil Soltanoff
at Live Mass Arts
(photo: Seth Roseman)

It is a program designed for recent college graduates looking to advance their career as performing artists. Throughout July, Institute fellows will participate in daily workshops and master classes, working hand in hand with festival artists. They will also create and perform their own work under the guidance of internationally renowned director and educator Phil Soltanoff, who will direct the institute show presented as part of the MLA/15 summer offerings.

MLA Institute participants in tech
for Andrew Schneider’s YOUARENOWHERE
(photo: Seth Roseman)

Our goal is for the Institute’s fellows to become intimately familiar with the rigors of making cutting-edge contemporary performance, establish personal relationships with a network of award-winning artists – and, above all, gain real-life experience producing large-scale contemporary works. Over the past two years, MLA has been successfully connecting freshly minted young artists with renowned performers and companies, giving them a chance to participate in hands-on, face-to-face training that has translated into real, professional opportunities. Many of our participants garnered work performing, designing, and some found entry level positions at our partner organizations in NYC.

Soltanoff envisions this production as a form built from fragments — pieces of choreography, text, lights, sound, etc. The emphasis is placed on the theatrical vitality of each fragment and what they do, not what they mean. “Meaning is created through juxtaposition, and meaning isn’t known until something happens next to something else.” – says Soltanoff. In creating this show institute fellows will immerse themselves in the process of using juxtaposition as an essential tool for building work.

Three questions 

for Phil Soltanoff

EYA: Phil, what do you have planned for this summer's eight participants?

PS: We’re aiming for a performance on July 26. Five to six days a week we (the Institute fellows and myself) rehearse with a particular notion in mind—what does something do as opposed to what it means. For instance, we might introduce a simple choreographic gesture (like walking or sitting) then double it, speed it up, do it in unison, etc. to see what that produces in the space.

We care only if the gesture produces something interesting right now--free of preconceived associations and ideas. And then we make more gestures, not exclusively choreographic--also gestures of text, sound, lighting, voice, etc. We keep doing this until we have a whole encyclopedia of what I call theatrical “fragments.”

In the last day or two, I organize a sequence of these fragments into a performance. I should add we’re working very lo-fi, with minimal resources. We’re creating big, cheap art. I love that!

EYA: What's the most valuable thing about the program for these young artists ?

PS: I want these young theater makers to grasp two big ideas. First, I want to help them understand what I call the creation of a still pond in space. If you toss a pebble in a still pond, you can really see the ripples it makes. This still pond becomes a starting place, something we (and the audience) can agree upon. I want each participant in the Institute to recognize what a theatrical still pond is, where it lives, in both themselves and in the space.

Secondly, I want them to grapple with the art of juxtaposition. How meaning can be created when different fragments happen next to each other. This is a tough notion for them to understand. They’re so used to absorbing and blending every gesture together into a narrative--before they’ve even explored what the gestures do. For me, this method of juxtaposition is like a multitrack audio recorder--choreography, sound, light, voice, text--they’re all running on separate tracks that converge and diverge during the course of the performance. Rehearsing with juxtaposition in mind--demands constant mentoring. It’s great to be able to offer such close guidance to the fellows here at the institute.

EYA: What's the most fun thing--for you--about this program?

PS: I’ve been working on these ideas for years (juxtaposition and the “still pond” concept) mostly in Europe with CIE111 of France. It’s rare that I get a chance to work with young American artists who are steeped in theater, but who want to do something different with their training.

It might sound corny, but opening new vistas, awakening possibilities--is really thrilling for me. I’m a hybrid artist drawing from theater, dance, visual art, technology and sometimes circus. All the artists at MLA are searching for their next steps--can we do this? Can we do that? What’s under that rock? I really enjoy that process of doing what I don’t know and being in an environment that supports that idea.

For more information about Mass Live Arts, click here.

Film review: Dean Hargrove's "Tap World"

New York-born tap star Jason Samuels Smith (left)
 and the late Kathak guru Pandit Chitresh Das forged an unexpected and electrifying
cross-cultural partnership, as noted in Dean Hargrove's new feature film, Tap World.
(photo courtesy of tapworldfilm.com)

Tap World's run at New York's Village East Cinema has been extended through next Thursday, July 23. Hooray, and let's talk about the important thing that this award-winning documentary from Tap Heat's Dean Hargrove does absolutely right.

No, Tap World does not offer an intellectual primer on tap history or tap technique or how hard tap dancers train, as the New York Times critic appears to have needed. It does allude to tap's origins in the African-Irish encounter in colonial America. And the mad skills necessary for its proper execution should be crystal clear to everybody--just try it--as should the discipline and loving dedication.

So if Hargrove's 72 minutes--largely derived from footage submitted by dancers from many nations--focus on how much joy, and soul healing, these dancers get from this art and how much joy they give, what of it?

Tap World does what the rest of U.S. dance could and should do. It shows why dance matters to this society and to our world. It reaches past the official arbiters of what's important about dance and instantly, solidly connects with the public. It moves people. Just like the best tap does.

"Rhythm is the language of life, the international language," says acclaimed dancer/actor Ted Louis Levy, one of numerous tap artists and teachers sharing thoughts and personal narratives here. "The simple things--rhythm and love--transcend difference," says Chloé Arnold, the dynamic performer and dancemaker who, along with sister Maud Arnold, is one of the film's producers. That philosophy informs the entire film. We're treated to a virtual world tour watching how this once uniquely American art form has enchanted and fulfilled dancers of one country after another--from France to Taiwan, from Brazil to India. Dancers the world 'round use tap to expand and express themselves.

Yet, as Kathak soloist Rachna Nivas lucidly explained in last evening's post-screening Q&A, tap remains itself, never blending in a "fusion" with other cultural forms. Hargrove includes a tantalizing sample of one such intercultural moment, an excerpt from a shared performance by two greats in their respective fields--Jason Samuels Smith and Nivas's teacher, Kathak guru Pandit Chitresh Das, who died this past January. When these two live wires connect, the energy will rock you right out of your seat.

See Tap World in New York City--now through July 23--
at Village East Cinema (directions).
Click here for times and tickets.

Now playing

at select theaters nationwide

Click here for scheduled screenings,
live performances and Q&As.

Watch for the DVD release this November.

Michael Masser, 74

Michael Masser, Composer Who Wrote Hits for Whitney Houston, Dies at 74
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, July 13, 2015

Roger Rees, 71

Roger Rees, Actor Who Won Tony as Nicholas Nickleby, Dies at 71
Ashley Southall, The New York Times, July 11, 2015

James Tate, 71

James Tate, Prolific Pulitzer-Winning Poet, Dies at 71
by William Grimes, The New York Times, July 10, 2015

A wonderful afternoon with Barnard's Dance in the City!

An afternoon well spent at Barnard College
with Sydnie Mosley and her lucky group of Dance in the City students!
(photo: Christine Jowers)

Many thanks to the resourceful artist/educator Sydnie Mosley and all the students from her Dance in the City 2015 summer program at Barnard College for a warm welcome, interesting questions and discussion of issues and strategies in dance criticism and advocacy with my treasured colleagues, Marissa Perel and Christine Jowers!

I wish the students continued fun and revelations as they complete their stay in New York City. Please feel free to keep in touch!

For information on Dance in the City's multifaceted residency program, click here.

Marga Gomez has a big problem--and shares it in POUND!

Marga Gomez
(photo: Kent Taylor)

Now that Pride weekend is done and gone, and the USA women's soccer team has its way through New York's Canyon of (She)roes, what's left to do, people?

Opening night's standing ovation made the answer clear. The Dixon Place to be is at POUND, a presentation of the 2015 HOT! Festival and the latest one-lesbian show from Marga Gomez, directed by David Schweizer. You'll need some stamina; the monologue feels much longer than its advertised 75-minutes and could use a few scissor snips. But if you find Hollywood movies involving lesbians in any way absurd and surreal--and why wouldn't you?--you'll laugh your head off.

Gomez whip-blends encyclopedic knowledge of movies and culture, rambunctious physicality, and tireless ability to zip from character to character, decade to decade and gentrified coast to gentrified coast without much mussing her lumberjack flannel. If Bound is on your Favorites list, try POUND. If you agree with Gomez that Basic Instinct made America "a little afraid of lesbians," and that's a really good thing, try POUND. If, like Gomez back in the day, you relied upon the National Legion of Decency to actually be your dyke-flick recommender, try POUND.

POUND continues Fridays and Saturdays, July 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25 at 7:30pm. Click here for information and tickets.

Comic monologist Reno
performs free shows at Dixon Place
during the 2015 HOT! Festival.

Another HOT! tip: Also see Ignorance Is No Excuse, Reno, an hour with the matchless comic provocateuse at Dixon Place--free!--Mondays, now through August 3, at 7:30pm. Click here.

For more HOT! Festival events, click here.

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

Chen's TRANSLATE: New voices, new dances

Some of Jen Roit's dancers in the comical and hyperkinetic Tropes,
curated by Jessica Chen for TRANSLATE (the voices of dance)
(photo: NYCreative Photography)

Below: Cody Potter in Shauna Sorensen's Circular Shift
(photo: Vanessa Gonzalez-Bunster)

Jessica Chen's dance festival, TRANSLATE (the voices of dance), offers developing choreographers ground to network with their peers, trade ideas and tools, build work and show it to a paying audience. A July 9th performance at Dixon Place, curated by Chen, gave us a look at what can come of these opportunities for creative exchange.

The show featured brief works by select troupes:

Simona De Tullio/Breathing Art Company

Ellen Sickenberger/Ellen&Artists

Jen Roit/Armada

Cleo Carol Knopf/Poemdance Co

Rachel M. Hettinger

Robert Moore

Shauna Sorensen and Dancers

with Chen's J Chen Project rounding out the evening in Training the Devil, the electric, contentious duet she choreographed with Chien-Hao Chang. A highlight of Chen's spring season at Ailey Citigroup Theater, it shines again, now with performances by Melissa Wu and Sean Nederlof. You can tell the sort of things that matter to Chen--character and feelings grounded, shaped and revealed in sharp imagery and rigorous, dynamic motion. Her curated artists hit those marks--or nearly so, clearly aspiring to them. They are all promising and worth encouragement, but I will note here two works that reached me and stick with me for two distinct reasons.

from Rachel M. Hettinger's Unfocused Blues
(photo: Vanessa Gonzalez-Bunster)

Rachel M. Hettinger's Unfocused Blues, with its many oddities, comes across like a smartly-designed calling card delivering just enough flair and mystery to make a viewer remember to seek out this artist in the future. New lifeforms erupting in motion, the ten dancers maneuver swift turns and scoops, with spongy knees and smoothly articulate torsos. A soloist can resemble tumbleweed, and a chorus splash movement like graffiti on concrete. The piece and its well-rehearsed corps--which includes the choreographer--have a steady, indeed brazen, confidence.

I'll admit I tried to resist Awakening Earth, a solo by and for Cleo Carol Knopf. An aerial dance set to "We Shall Overcome," sung by a Gay Men's Chorus, city undefined, and Holly Near's "Singing for Our Lives, a song I haven't heard in decades, sounds a bit much, a bit treacly. Yes, it almost is. Social justice anthems mixed with a circus act? I backpedaled. But Knopf grounded her sincerity in strong discipline, and that pulled me back. As she worked within her aerial hoop--ascending, coiling, stretching and yearning--it was impossible to not get carried along with her effort, skill and emotional momentum. Her dance, ultimately, is about giving one's all, one's best. A quest and a personal tribute to all who have struggled for social change we have seen and have yet to see.

Closed. To keep informed on future plans for Jessica Chen's TRANSLATE program, visit her Web site here. For Dixon Place's summer schedule, click here.

Omar Sharif, 83

Film star Omar Sharif dies aged 83
BBC News, July 10, 2015

Tap. Coming to a world near you.

Opening July 10 

at select theaters nationwide.

Attend a Tap World screening and artists talk

Tuesday, July 14 at 7:25pm

Village East Cinema (directions)

Click here 

for information and tickets.