InfiniteBody Honor Roll 2018

Eva Yaa Asantewaa
InfiniteBody Honor Roll 2018

Michael B. Jordan (left) and Chadwick Boseman
face off as rivals for power in The Black Panther.
(courtesy of Marvel Studios)

Two marvelous stars--
Alex Borstein (left) and Rachel Brosnahan--
of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
(courtesy of Amazon Studios)

Alice Sheppard (above as "Andromeda")
and Laurel Lawson ("Venus")
duet in DESCENT.
(photo: Rain Embuscado)

Acclaimed hip hop choreographer Rennie Harris
accepted the challenge of crafting a two-act dance, Lazarus,
for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in record time

in celebration of the beloved troupe's 60th Anniversary.
(photo: Paul Kolnik)

The year 2018 started off with me nursing the flare-up of an old back injury, avoiding subfreezing climes and a "bomb cyclone" and going stir-crazy while catching up to these excellent streams:

@The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon Prime (premiered 2017)

@One Mississippi, Amazon Prime (premiered 2015)

@Six Feet Under, Amazon Prime (premiered 2001)

@Scandal, Netflix (premiered 2012)

I was grateful to finally heal and make it out to my first live show of the year: @Panorama by Enrico Casagrande and Daniela Nicolò with actors of the Great Jones Repertory Company at La MaMa, December 29, 2017-January 21, 2018

@Caleb Teicher & Company at American Dance Platform, The Joyce Theater, January 9 and 14

@Mugen Noh Othello, directed by Satoshi Miyagi, for The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival at Japan Society, January 11-14

@8th Annual Bronx Artists Now: Showcase & Conversation, produced by Jane Gabriels for Pepatián, January 12

Thomas F. DeFrantz
(photo: SLIPPAGE/Shonda Corbett)

@White Privilege, a lecture performance by Thomas F. Defrantz/Slippage with Sonicscape by Quran Karriem, American Realness festival, Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, January 15

@We Wait In The Darkness by Rosy Simas, American Realness Festival, Abrons Arts Center, January 13-15

@THIS by Adrienne Truscott, American Realness Festival, Abrons Arts Center, January 14-16

@Unexploded Ordnances (UXO) by Split Britches, The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival at La Mama, January 4-21

@The Post (film), directed by Steven Spielberg (20th Century Fox/Dreamworks), released 2017

Left: Choreographer David Thomson with Paul Hamilton
in he his own mythical beast(photo: Maria Baranova)

@he his own mythical beast by David Thomson at Performance Space New York, January 31-February 4

@Reflecting Rhythms: Kazunori Kumagai and Kaoru Watanabe at Asia Society, February 2

@Come Ye finale by Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE at The Joyce Theater, February 6-11

@"Everything you have is yours?" by Hadar Ahuvia at 14th Street Y, February 8-10

@The Black Panther (film), directed by Ryan Coogler (Marvel Studios), released February 16, 2018

@In a Rhythm by Bebe Miller Company in The Making Room: Bebe Miller Company & Susan Rethorst at New York Live Arts, February 21-24

@Golden Kingdoms: Luxury and Legacy in the Ancient Americas at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 28 through May 28

@Rosalie by Marion Spencer at Work Up 4.1, Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, March 2-3

@Okay, I'm Gunna Start Now by Evelyn Lillian Sánchez Narvaez at Work Up 4.1, Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, March 2-3

@Eurythmics in the Southern Burn by Jonathan González in The Dossier Charrette: A Series of Working Dance Essays, part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches and Downtown Dance (Platform 2018) at Danspace Project, March 8-10

@leaning by Angie Pittman in The Dossier Charrette: A Series of Working Dance Essays, part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches and Downtown Dance (Platform 2018) at Danspace Project, March 8-10

@Oba Queen King Baba--Excerpt One by Ni'Ja Whitson in A Shared Evening: Keely Garfield Dance, Same As Sister and Ni'Ja Whitson, part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches and Downtown Dance (Platform 2018) at Danspace Project, March 15-17

@The Exciting Event... by Same As Sister, part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches and Downtown Dance (Platform 2018) at Danspace Project, March 15-17

@DESCENT by Alice Sheppard, New York Live Arts, March 22-24

@...they stood shaking while others began to shout by Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group, part of Dancing Platform Praying Grounds: Blackness, Churches and Downtown Dance (Platform 2018) at Danspace Project, March 22-24

Dance artist Gesel Mason
(photo: Enoch Chan)

@No Boundaries/Dancing The Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers by Gesel Mason Performance Projects at The Billie Holiday Theatre, April 6-7

@We live this (film), directed by James Burns (2016), at Moving Body-Moving Image: A Dance on Screen Festival, Barnard College, April 7

@Six Solos (film), directed by Simon Fildes with choreography by Sang Jijia (2016), at Moving Body-Moving Image: A Dance on Screen Festival, Barnard College, April 7

@Shamar Wayne Watt in The Dark Swan's Last Breath of Life by Nora Chipaumire at The Rubin Museum of Art, April 18

@(re)Source, an investigation-in-process (showing) by Maria Bauman, MBDance, at BAX, April 27-28

@Indumba by Fana Tshabalala, performed by Deeply Rooted Dance Theater at BAM Fisher, April 28 and 29

Kyle Abraham solos in INDY at The Joyce Theater
(photo: Steven Schreiber)

@A.I.M. (Kyle Abraham) season at The Joyce Theater, May 1-6

@Sen Koro la (work-in-progress) by Lacina Coulibaly at e-moves at Harlem Stage, May 2-5

@Living Our Legacies, featuring Maria Bauman and work by J. Bouey with Wendell Gray II, Shelby "Shellz" Fenton, Alethea Pace and Jason Samuels Smith, curated by Rashida Bumbray, at Dancing While Black 5th Anniversary, at BAAD!, May 4

@Dear White People (Season 2), Netflix, streaming from May 4

@The Story of Tap: 20th Anniversary, hosted by Hank Smith, with Derick Grant, Jason Samuels Smith and Ayako Shirasaki at Dixon Place, May 16

@Untitled (NYC 2018) (showing) by Keith Hennessy at Movement Research at Judson Memorial Church, May 21

@Raising the Bar at Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, May 25

@to ascend past numbness and witness birth. showing of a "process-memoir" by Johnnie Cruise Mercer at Jack Crystal Theater, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, May 31-June 1

@Rennie Harris: Funkedified at The New Victory Theater, May 31-June 10

@Four Questions (featuring Regie Cabico, Gary Champi, Aviva Jaye, Ni'Ja Whitson and Shannon Matesky), curated by Shannon Matesky for La MaMa's Squirts at La MaMa Downstairs, June 10

Rachel Bloom as Rebecca,
titular lead character in Netflix's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

@Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Netflix (premiered 2015)

@THEM by Chris Cochrane, Dennis Cooper and Ishmael Houston-Jones at Performance Space New York, June 21-28

@garment (Director's Choice) by Sidra Bell at New York Live Arts, June 28-30, July 1

@Fairview by Jackie Sibblies Drury at Soho Rep, June 2-July 22

@Tap City's Rhythm in Motion at Symphony Space, July 11

@50 Years of Dance Theatre of Harlem: Experiencing History on Pointe and in Color panel at New York Public Library of the Performing Arts, August 4

@Hot to Trot (film), directed by Gail Freedman (Hot to Trot Productions, LLC; distributed by First Run Films), August 24

@Homeland, The CURRENT SESSIONS at wild project, August 18-19

Top: Members of Move(NYC) Young Professionals
(photo: Matthew Karas)
Below: Move(NYC) executive team
left to right: Niya Nicholson, Nigel Campbell and Chanel DaSilva
(photo: Lelund Thompson)

@Move(NYC) Young Professionals Program Summer Finale Showcase, August 25-26

@Magdalena by Gabri Christa at Theaterlab, September 12-22

@Pino-Latino: The Intersection of the Latino and Asian Cultures, featuring Ballet Hispanico in works by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and Bennyroyce Royon at Fridays@Noon at 92Y Harkness Dance Center, September 14

@Elena Rose Light and Evelyn Lillian Sánchez Narvaez in By Association: Elena Rose Light, Pallavi Sen, Bully Fae Collins at Abrons Arts Center, September 20-22

@A Memorial and Celebration of the Life of Sam Miller (1952-2018) at Danspace Project, September 15

@What Remains by Claudia Rankine and Will Rawls at Danspace Project, September 25, 27-29

@Ten by Deborah Hay in Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done at Museum of Modern Art, October 4-6

@Y by RoseAnne Spradlin at New York Live Arts, September 27-29, October 4-6

@another piece apart by Jennifer Nugent & Paul Matteson at New York Live Arts, October 10-13

@Emily Coates & Josiah McElheny/Emmanuéle Phuon/A Shared Evening of New Work at Danspace Project, November 8-10

Musician, vocalist and actor Rhiannon Giddens
(photo: David McClister)

@Sisters Present (Rhiannon Giddens Residency) at Symphony Space, November 17

@DoublePlus: Kayla Hamilton + Jerron Herman at Gibney, November 29-December 1

@Skeleton Architecture: An Evening of Performance at Danspace Project, December 8

@Lock 'em Up by DANCENOISE at New York Live Arts, December 12-15

@BBB by Fana Fraser, DoublePlus at Gibney, December 13-15

@Lazarus by Rennie Harris for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, New York City Center, November 28-December 30

@Soles of Duende at Dixon Place, December 7-21

@A Star is Born, directed by Bradley Cooper (Warner Bros.), released October 5, 2018

@Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Participant Media and Esperanto Medio; Netflix), released November 21, 2018

#StillTheBoss.
And those of us without the $$$ for Broadway got to see why.

Thank you, Netflix!

@Springsteen on Broadway, directed by Thom Zimny (Netflix), released December 15, 2018

@If Beale Street Could Talk, directed by Barry Jenkins (Annapurna Pictures), released December 25, 2018

Okay, that's my honor roll for 2018! 
What's on yours?

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

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Zahava Griss: the sacred work of transforming white culture

A list of the skills Zahava Griss has amassed and roles they have played might fill this entire blog post--gender-transcendent dance artist, erotic ritualist, bodyworker, educator, coach, anti-racist activist and so much more. Recently, Griss contributed a chapter of perceptive writing to a new anthology of essays, Sacred Body Wisdom: Igniting the Flame of Our Divine Humanity, out soon from Flower of Life Press.

Their chapter, “Transforming the Culture of Whiteness in Dance and Sexuality Communities,” outlines ways in which white artists and activists like themselves can approach creative and social justice work--as well as the relationship with their own and others' bodies--with greater openness, awareness, respect and joy.

Sections of the essay deal with issues of white culture within ballet (where authoritarian traditions predispose dancers to follow rules and not speak up for themselves), within sexuality and within the complex challenges of community building across differences. Griss notes, "so many of the body-centered events and communities I have explored are mostly white people, white leadership and white culture." And, by that, Griss means “certain ways of communicating, an aesthetic of what is valued and acceptable, an unspoken way of framing what being a body is, what ‘safety’ is, what spirit is, what having a body means, what success or beauty means that is familiar to a dominant white culture...an often unconscious culture that has been created by those who came before us that does not acknowledge or reflect awareness and respect for people of color, who make up the majority of people on this beautiful earth.”

Griss continues, “I wrote this so we could better observe white culture, vision what we want to replace it with, clarify what diversity means to us personally, and take action to create the society we want to live in.”

Sacred Body Wisdom: Igniting the Flame of Our Divine Humanity will become available on Amazon.com on January 21. Learn more about it here. For more on Zahava Griss and their projects, visit www.EmbodyMoreLove.com.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Get ready for '(W/HOLE)" at Invisible Dog

AORTA Films and the A.O. Movement Collective proudly present (W/HOLE), an artful work of queer-feminist--if otherwise uncharacterizable--porn commissioned by The Invisible Dog and sure to be a highlight of its season.

Directed by Mahx Capacity, this evening-length film is handsome in choreography, performance and camera work, sometimes sunlight bright, sometimes dungeon dark, with robust poetry and wit. From a symphony of f-bombing in all its expressive permutations to an extended sex scene where watchful attendants--as elusive as black-clad kuroko--hold glass spray bottles at the ready, keeping the lovers moist and dewy. The way the cast affirms that every body, and everything about the body, is erotic can be both amusing and profound. Leave it to dancers to come up with something like this.

(W/HOLE) runs at The Invisible Dog on Friday, January 4 (9pm), Saturday, January 5 (7pm) and Sunday, January 6 (2pm and 7pm). Hurry for tickets, though. They're selling fast. Click here.

The Invisible Dog
51 Bergen Street (between Smith Street and Boerum Place), Brooklyn
(map/directions)

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Soles of Duende asks Can We Dance Here? Please do!

Left-to-right: Amanda Castro, Arielle Rosales
and Brinda Guha of Soles of Duende
(photo: Spinkick Pictures)

Can We Dance Here?
Soles of Duende
Dixon Place
December 7-8, 14-15 and 20-21

I'm not sure I follow the progression of existence to seeking permission to gaining trust to arriving at freedom alluded to in program notes for Can We Dance Here? Something about the "Transtheoretical Stages of Change" as the underpinning of the story this new dance wants to tell. But while I'm not hip to all that, I do know the three grounded, skillful and vivacious dancers of Soles of Duende--Amanda Castro, Arielle Rosales and Brinda Guha, 2018 Artists in Residence at Dixon Place--make a compelling argument for the power of women and the joy of women making really big sound together. Six pounding feet rattled the floor beneath our chairs like a tremblor. Anyone placing their bar drinks on that floor surely risked a spill.

Supported by the live music of Anjna Swarminathan (violin), Frank Malloy IV (drum) and JADALAREIGN (DJ), Castro brings tap; Rosales, flamenco; Guha, Kathak, all with great conviction that these three percussive dance forms belong in conversation. Can We Dance Here? is the perfect package for that exchange of life force--no more than an hour in length, superbly focused in structure, its staging of trios, duos and solos tight as a drum.

I caught the next-to-last evening of a show that has been running on weekends since December 7. So, you have one more shot--tonight. Can We Dance Here? is an offbeat holiday-season treat, but a treat it is.

Can We Dance Here? runs at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Dixon Place
171 Chrystie Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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The Bessies to honor Japan Society's Yoko Shioya

Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of Japan Society will receive
a Bessie: the 2019 Presenter Award for Outstanding Curation.

The Bessies organization (New York Dance and Performance Awards) has announced the recipient of its 2019 Presenter Award for Outstanding Curation--Yoko Shioya, Artistic Director of Japan Society. “Yoko has been an amazing force for good in the New York dance world, curating with a bold and discerning eye and bringing important work across cultures,” said Bessies Executive Director Lucy Sexton. “I am so pleased she is being honored with this award.” And I agree!

Celebrate with Shioya at the Bessies Presenters Gathering on Sunday, January 6 (5pm to 7pm) at La MaMa La Galleria. Free and open to all! RSVP here.

La MaMa La Galleria
47 Great Jones Street (between Bowery and Lafayette), Manhattan
(map/directions)

BIO

Yoko Shioya became artistic director of Japan Society in 2006, overseeing the organization’s performing arts and film departments. Since assuming the position of Director of Performing Arts in 2003, she has enlarged the scale and number of commissions for the creation of new works related to Japanese culture by non-Japanese artists, and increased the number of tours of Japan Society-produced works throughout North America. Shioya also launched new initiatives, including co-producing commissioned work by international artists with presenting organizations in Japan, presenting works from East Asian countries, and establishing artists’ residency projects in New York City. Known in Japan as a writer and researcher on the public and private arts support systems in the U.S. and Japan, Shioya has been invited to speak at numerous symposia and lectures and on TV programs presented by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Japanese government, Keidanren, the Academy of Cultural Economics, and the Japan Council of Performers’ Organizations, among others. She has been a regular contributor to arts columns on performing arts and exhibitions for the Asahi newspaper, and has served as a committee member and selection panelist for numerous programs, including the Bessie Awards, Rolex Mentor and Protegé International Program, and the Toyota Choreography Awards. Shioya holds BAs in musicology and dance history from Tokyo National University of the Arts.

About the Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating

Established in 2017, the Bessies Presenter Award for Outstanding Curating recognizes a presenter or curator of work performed in the New York City area. It is presented to an individual or curatorial team whose work has had a palpable impact on artists, audiences, or the dance and performance field in general. While the award can recognize sustained achievement in curating or presenting over time, it can equally recognize a particular project, festival, or season that occurred in the past year. Visiting or guest curators, as well as full-time curators and presenters, are eligible. The recipient is chosen jointly by the Bessies Selection and Bessies Steering Committees. The first Presenter Award (in 2017) went to Judy Hussie-Taylor, Executive Director and Chief Curator of Danspace Project, for her curation of A Body in Places, Danspace Project Platform 2016 by Eiko Otake. The second awardee (in 2018) was Joseph V. Melillo, Executive Producer of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, for his championing of dance on the stages of BAM.

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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DANCENOISE makes some noise on West 19th

Connie Fleming performs in Lock 'em Up
(photo: Lola Flash)

Lock 'em Up

DANCENOISE
New York Live Arts
December 12-15

There's no business like show business, and the best in the biz know how to zing you with surprises here and there. So, the only thing I'll say about the opening of DANCENOISE's Lock 'em Up is some advice. Keep your coat on and your cellphone camera ready. Night's are cold, and there's so much to see and hear in our fair city.

Celebrating the 35th anniversary of DANCENOISE, the duo of Anne Iobst and Lucy Sexton are back to remind us that feminism not only co-exists with raunchy humor and pugnacious slapstick, yelling at the top of one's lungs and symbolic bloodletting/bloodwearing at the expense of patriarchy but might absolutely require those things. Making space for the rageful Id we'd rather not contemplate, they are all about sprawling across the breadth of New York Live Arts' theater, filling it with the irritating noise of crumpled wads of packing paper, the insistent, rhythmic churning of half-naked dancers and a Goth-friendly, less-than-merry spill of black balloons. What's up with the dancing swastikas? Well, those noxious symbols, regaining open popularity these days, absolutely belong in the universal and cautionary time capsule that Iobst and Sexton is designing for the future of our world. Lock 'em Up is both the audacity of Nope! and a blast of energy to make you get busy with the painful and painstaking work of snatching our country back from the fascist bastards. And it's fun. You must get there.

Choreographer/directors Iobst and Sexton have lots of (great) help with this. So, here come the credits:

Performers: Tyler Ashley, Laurie Berg, Heidi Dorow, Connie Fleming, Melanie Greene, Greta Hartenstein, Anne Iobst, Madison Krekel and Lucy Sexton

Lighting design: David Jensen with Tsubasa Kamei

Video: Charles Atlas

Additional dancers on video: Yoshiko Chuma, koosil-ja, Richard Move, Heather Robles, John Walker, Edisa Weeks, Ashley R.T. Yergens

Production Direction: Lori E. Seid

Production Management: David Jensen with Tsubasa Kamei

Lock 'em Up runs through Saturday with performances at 7:30pm. Tonight's show will be followed by a Stay Late conversation moderated by Cynthia Carr. Saturday's show will be followed by an after party with DJ Johnny Dynell of Jackie 60 in the lobby, free with ticket purchase. For information and tickets, click here.

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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In an octopus's garden at Performance Space New York

Performance Space New York
introduced its new Octopus series
with an afternoon of performance
curated by Gillian Walsh.

Octopus: Inverted Jester
Organized by Gillian Walsh
Presented by Performance Space New York
Saturday, December 8, 2018

Performance Space New York has a cooler way for us to think about activated networks--not spider webs this time but, instead, an octopus with arms stretching, flexing, rippling and sensing in multiple directions, each of these arms a nimble outpost of the central brain. Wouldn't you like to have what is, essentially, nine brains with which to navigate this mad, mad world?

For the first of Performance Space New York's four, artist-curated Octopus programs, dance artist Gillian Walsh ran with this concept and produced a smart show entitled Inverted Jester, a name that, for me, immediately called up the image of that jester's many-tentacled fool's cap as another octopus-like thing in our universe. And sure as can be, Walsh's many-tentacled program also invoked the historic role of jester as provocative wiseass.

We had Davon Rainey, in barely-there sparkles and stilettos, lip syncing Björk ("Bachelorette") and Nina Simone ("I Loves You, Porgy"), both songs supercharged by the blend of race and gender in one glamorous, sinewy body. It was enough of an exacting performance at a comfortable distance from Rainey's audience, but when he strode into the aisle between seats, a viewer could clearly see, close up, the intelligent complexity of his body, especially his face, in every moment and movement.

Sophia Cleary's website describes her as "a genreless, childless & interdisciplinary artist working with jokes, video, dance, music, and more," and I thank Walsh for making sure I can add Cleary's intense, aggressive weirdness to my long list of experiences in life. Our paths might not have crossed otherwise. Like electric coils wrapping ever more tightly around your sensibilities, her humor demands, and it dares, and then it delivers an unbelievable, nightmarish lap dance to someone you know.

The last Octopus arm I saw--I couldn't stay for Cherry Iocovozzi and Silver Cousler--was Lorelei Ramirez's stand-up act plus her Joy of Painting-style demo. For the latter, just imagine if the late Bob Ross had not been Bob Ross but, rather, a queer Latinx with a laptop loaded with Adobe Illustrator and a mind loaded with a sneaky kind of scary. As her website reveals, "my mother thinks I am possessed and I have accepted this as my only beautiful truth." Mom might know what she's talking about. I had to leave after Ramirez to go feed my cat and get a bite to eat before an evening show elsewhere, but I came away with a serious case of Adobe Illustrator-envy--that Brush Library!!--and I am not at all a visual artist.

Performance Space New York's Octopus is potentially fun and worth checking out if you like taking a chance on something unexpected. Future editions, all at 4pm include:

Saturday, February 23—organized by the Ethyl Eichelberger Committee
Saturday, March 23—organized by Richard Kennedy
Saturday, June 1—organized by Charlotte Brathwaite

For program details and ticketing for each show, click here.

Performance Space New York
150 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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