Marc Riboud, 93

Marc Riboud, Photojournalist Who Found Grace in the Turbulent, Dies at 93
by Richard B. Woodward, The New York Times, August 31, 2016

Gene Wilder, 83

Gene Wilder, ‘Willy Wonka’ Star and Comedic Icon, Dies at 83
by Richard Natale, Variety, August 29, 2016

Max Ritvo, 25

Max Ritvo, Poet Who Chronicled His Cancer Fight, Dies at 25
by John Schwartz, The New York Times, August 26, 2016

Juan Gabriel, 66

Juan Gabriel, Music Star in Mexico, Dies at 66
by Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times, August 28, 2016

Sonia Rykiel, 86

Sonia Rykiel, Fashion Designer for the ‘Fragile, but Strong,’ Dies at 86
by Robert D. McFadden, The New York Times, August 25, 2016

Steven Hill, 94

Steven Hill, Who Starred on ‘Law & Order’ and ‘Mission: Impossible,’ Dies at 94
by Anita Gates, The New York Times, August 23, 2016

Joyce Carol Thomas, 78

Joyce Carol Thomas, Who Wrote of African-American Life, Dies at 78
by Daniel E. Slotnik, The New York Times, August 22, 2016

Toots Thielemans, 94

Toots Thielemans, Jazz Harmonica Player, Is Dead at 94
by Peter Keepnews, The New York Times, August 22, 2016

Connie Crothers, 75

Connie Crothers, Jazz Pianist, Composer and Instructor, Dies at 75
by Giovanni Russonello, The New York Times, August 21, 2016

the CURRENT SESSIONS: Currently at wild project

Choreographer Fana Fraser presents work this weekend
along with other artists for the CURRENT SESSIONS at wild project.
(photo: Quyn Duong)

Movement Currency will focus on how bodies produce, exchange, and perform within systems of value, drawing on figurative and ethnographic practices to consider the lineage of choreographies which qualify our social identity.

--from promo for the CURRENT SESSIONS's new season Volume VI, Issue II: Movement Currency

With New York's fall dance season looming up ahead--and, believe me, it's looming--we can enjoy a breather for a few more weeks. But if you're still craving dance with some bite to it, Alexis Convento's team, the CURRENT SESSIONS, might have just the thing for you.

Last evening's presentation was organized around the concept of Risk--"from fragility to preservation, harm to survival...risk as a performative dimension which trades personal safety for choreographic opportunity." Tonight's show will tackle Debt, and tomorrow's 3pm matinee and 7pm performances, respectively, spin off from Savings and Credit. Each feature a concise mix of emerging artists guest curated by Ali Rosa-Salas, Justin Cabrillos and Sasha Okshteyn.

Risk--well-paced and clocking in at 45 minutes without break--offered work by dance artists Katrina Reid, Jessica Pretty and Amanda Hunt and filmmaker Ben Hagari. Of these four, all intriguing, I found Pretty and Hagari the most compelling.

Hagari's tour de force, Potter's Will (2015), is a sensuous and yet nightmarish ballet for wet clay, hellish fire glow, a man's clay-smeared body and the madly swirling camera of cinematographer Boaz Freund. Set, quite appropriately, to Ravel's La valse, it draws the viewer ever closer to danger--immolation, extinction and perhaps, at this great cost, unimaginable transformation.

Pretty's solo, the third., images a powerful wanting and not having. The dancer is a Black woman with hands often splayed in front of her gentle face, shielding her squinting eyes from the fierce glare of an imagined light source. She moves and folds and shapes her body like a tangle of brambles in big expenditures of energy and motion. She's a powerful, satisfying dancer--all the more reason that the empty platform stage seems confining, as does that invisible light source. Sudden, insistent bursts of song--Kanye West's "Nobody to Love," with its weird exhortation to just "grab somebody" from the party--both kind of name her situation and fragment it into any number of problematic realities.

Movement Currency's series resets the lineup for each show, with some repeats. So, your experience may be different but always an opportunity to discover, engage and be challenged.

Volume VI, Issue II: Movement Currency continues through Sunday, August 21. For programming information and ticketing details, click here.

wild project
195 East 3rd Street (between Avenues A and B), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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FRINGE BENEFITS: Emily Carding--and you!--in "Richard III"

Emily Carding as Richard III
in Brite Theater's Richard III (a one-woman show)
at FringeNYC
(photos: Dixie Sheridan)

Instead of paying actors to play Shakespearean roles, Emily Carding gets them to work for free. By that, I mean most of the people in her small audience, each one sporting a lanyard ID--her "Duke of Buckingham," her "Lady Anne"--and occasional looks of uncertainty as Carding's masterful Richard III shares cynical confidences with one or gruffly orders around another. As the tale of bloody power grabs unfolds, condensed to under an hour, no one in attendance--even those without named roles--can fully relax. We know that Carding's Richard might suddenly lock eyes with us, requiring something of us, find us wanting.

We are not safe, Clarence. We are not safe.

What's more, Clarence, we can easily be offed by little more than an arsenal of office supplies.

An anticipated highlight of this summer's FringeNYC, Brite Theater's Richard III (a one-woman show) comes to New York bearing awards from the Fringes of Prague and Edinburgh. And, by Richard's will and Carding's skill, it will conquer in its US premiere. The set-up of the new-ish Alpha Omega studio on East 4th Street provides just enough space for Carding to pace or impatiently push off on the wheels of her office chair while maintaining intimacy and a tyrant's grip on her audience.

This Richard's world of scheming and endless violence is our own, where battleground reports come via text message and leaders can instantly document their narcissism with selfies.

The narrow runner of space between two rows of seating--accommodating perhaps 25-30 people--is charged with the energy of Richard's malevolence and excess. Directed by Brite's founder Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir, Carding interprets Shakespeare's Richard--a man of visible disability--with bearing and even speech that I'm greatly tempted to call dance. Dark business suit and skinny red tie askew, her body seems, at once, frozen and propelled in multiple directions even when still. And her speech, if failing in rhythm, moves with varying, unpredictable angles of attack. Deep into the performance, Carding seems to drop into a flow state from which she yields improvised snark--snapping at an unexpectedly stubborn "Lord Grey," Well now I know what you are getting killed for!--or minute, quite convincing facial expressions of fear and disintegration.

Make Richard III (a one-woman show) one of your priority stops along the Fringe. See it today at 4:30pm or tomorrow, Saturday, at 5pm. For information and tickets, click here.

And here's a special note to Fringe veterans and newbies alike: Happily, there's ample AC at Alpha Omega. In fact, you might want to bring a little wrap to throw over your shoulders.

Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company
70 East 4th Street (Lower Level), between Bowery and 2nd Avenue, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Arthur Hiller, 92

Arthur Hiller, ‘Love Story’ Director and Box-Office Magnet, Dies at 92
by Dave Kehr, The New York Times, August 17, 2016

Bobby Hutcherson, 75

Bobby Hutcherson, Vibraphonist With Coloristic Range of Sound, Dies at 75
by Nate Chinen, The New York Times, August 16, 2016

Fyvush Finkel, 93

Fyvush Finkel, Pillar of Yiddish Theater, Dies at 93
by Joseph Berger, The New York Times, August 14, 2016

John Vaccaro, 86

John Vaccaro, Iconoclastic Director, Dies at 86
by Bruce Weber, The New York Times, August 11, 2016

Chicago dance artists rock latest NEFA RDDI Dance Lab

Chicago-based dance artists from NEFA's NDP RDDI Dance Lab 2016
at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Back row, l-r: Erica Mott, Molly Shanahan, Jenn Freeman, Jonathan Meyer,
Ayako Kato, Jan Bartoszek, Julia Rae Antonick
Next row, l-r: Sara Zalek, Nico Rubio, Kristina Isabelle (behind Rubio), T. Ayo Alston
Front: Jessica Cornish
(photo courtesy of NEFA)

The Regional Dance Development Initiative (RDDI) is part of NEFA's National Dance Project (NDP), which provides professional growth for dance artists in regions across the U.S. through programs including a ten-day dance lab designed to help dance artists clarify goals, develop strategies, hone public presentation skills, and strengthen partnerships between artists and presenters. Since 2004, RDDI dance labs have been held in the Pacific Northwest, the San Francisco Bay Area, New England and Minnesota. RDDI Chicago (July 29-August 8, 2016) was produced by NEFA and the Chicago Dancemakers Forum.

I'm certain that serving on the faculty of this summer's RDDI Dance Lab for Chicago choreographers at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign will prove to be one of the great turning points of my life. Working with talented faculty peers and twelve remarkable artists has inspired renewed commitment to dance community and sparked the sense that I can contribute even more to the field than I have in the past.

Heartfelt thanks to Sara Nash (Program Manager, NEFA's National Dance Project) for inviting me to join the project and for her calm spirit of generosity throughout the many twists and turns of an intense, high-energy process.

Nash was not alone in making and holding this unique space. Thanks, also, to the delightful and supportive Jane Preston (Deputy Director, NEFA); Ginger Farley, Victoria Bradford and our indispensable logistics coordinator Shawn Lent (all of Chicago Dancemakers Forum); consultant Elspeth Revere (formerly of the MacArthur Foundation); and our steadfast leader Michèle Steinwald, charged with keeping the faculty--and pretty much everyone else--on point.

As faculty, I shared responsibility and laughter with an ideal team including Rob Bailis (of CAL Performers), knowledgeable, impassioned veteran of RDDI; Peter DiMuro (Public Displays of Motion, The Dance Complex); choreographer Dayna Hanson; independent consultant David Sheingold; and independent manager, producer and curator Marýa Wethers. Their sensitivity and adaptive creativity made each day an adventure and a reward.

For the final few days, presenters came from as far away as California, Oregon and Florida to meet with our artists and enjoy showings of samples of their work. They relaxed into RDDI's atmosphere of discovery and offered the artists their best strategic ideas and encouragement.

But my biggest thanks go to our cohort of artists who, from the first day we met, knocked our socks off. Clearly, they came ready to rock'n'roll--each one smart, accomplished, emotionally available and artistically curious. We ended each work day with them in amazement and gratitude, hungry for more. As for literal hunger, we had little of that. Thank you, NEFA, for treating us to the culinary charms of Urbana-Champaign!

I will remain connected to each of these good folks, new friends:

Julia Antonick of Khecari

T. Ayo Alston of Ayodele Drum and Dance

Jan Bartoszek of Hedwig Dances

Jessica Cornish

Jenn Freeman/Po'Chop

Kristina Isabelle of Kristina Isabelle Dance

Ayako Kato of Ayako Kato/Art Union Humanscape

Jonathan Meyer of Khecari

Erica Mott of Erica Mott Productions

Nico Rubio (Groundhog)

Molly Shanahan of Molly Shanahan/Mad Shak

and

Sara Zalek

and deeply interested in their growth as artists. Chicago is fortunate to have these committed "ambassadors for dance" and creators of community.

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Pete Fountain, 86

Pete Fountain, 86, Dies; Clarinetist Popularized Spirited New Orleans Jazz
by Peter Keepnews, The New York Times, August 6, 2016

David Huddleston, 85

David Huddleston, the Title Lebowski in ‘The Big Lebowski,’ Dies at 85
by Sam Roberts, The New York Times, August 5, 2016