Queen GodIs pregnant with our future

Multi-talented Queen GodIs, showing an as-yet-untitled work-in-progress at Dance Theater Workshop, taps deep into myth, metaphor and the soul-expressive powers of movement. In her duet with actor Erwin E. A. Thomas, GodIs, known for her hip hop poetry and music, returns to an old love--dance--and passionately weaves movement into her storytelling.

This choreo-poem, directed and choreographed by Nicco Annan and developed through DTW's Studio Series residency, was presented last evening in the David White Studio (and runs again this evening at 7:30). During an informal post-performance Q&A, the small audience explored the work's themes and inquired about various aspects of the creative process.

The piece raises issues of the often-fraught and troubled relationship between Black men and women and calls men to account for sacrificing their true sensitivity for a false sense of power. Beyond those specifics, though, I feel that it holds us all accountable for the right use of our own creative powers, and I am reminded of the well-known quote from the Gnostic Gospels, said to have been spoken by Jesus: "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring will save you. If you do not being forth what is within you, what you do not will destroy you."

The point is that not bringing forth the sensitivity and love that is within us also destroys the planet. It is in turning our backs on our own creative, relational roles in the world--whatever those roles may be--that we withdraw and wither, and the result for our partnerships, for our communities and for the well-being of all nations has been dire.

In that respect, GodIs's performance piece is generative and inspirational; how appropriate that her central metaphor is one of pregnancy! GodIs envisions a society in which we are all pregnant with something, and she appears to ask each of us, what are you pregnant with? What are you bringing forth?

In particular, she reminds men of the primal power of words. She will accept the word bitch, for instance, only in its ancient meaning: queen of wolves.

A tall pole, painted red, rises atop a small platform, swathed in gauzy, white fabric, where Thomas portrays GodIs's womb-borne "Sun." GodIs sometimes undulates around that pole like a pole dancer, and I am reminded of the multiplicity of ways in which poles and pole-like objects have blended the sacred and the mundane or profane in the archetypal imagination of the world's peoples. Think of maypoles, an integral symbol of the intercourse between the Great Goddess and her consort at Beltane; or voudou's poteau-mitan, the central post, which unites the heavens and the underworld; or various culture's spiritual symbols of the generative phallus.

GodIs will offer one more showing of this interesting performance--tonight at 7:30pm--but seating is very limited. Call 212-924-0077. Tickets are free with a suggested $5 donation.

The East is Burning!

DTW's two-night studio showing of The East is Red by The Legendary House of Ninja--heirs to the legacy of the late, extraordinary Vogue master Willi Ninja--ends this evening. Curated by Hip Hop artists Kwikstep and Rokafella of Full Circle, conceived by house father Benny Ninja, and written by Paris Greeneyes Ninja, this work-in-development liberally combines drag ball culture, elements of Asian culture and martial arts and Hip Hop, showcasing the personal style and sometimes mindblowing movement skills of each of its performers. About half of the small studio's space is taken up by a very lucky group of watchers. So the audience gets an up-close-and-personal infusion of energy and fabulousness. Such fun!

Admission is free. Seating is very limited. Reservations are required, and you'd best be on time! To try for a reservation, contact DTW's box office at 212-924-0077 or click here. While you're there, you can also get information on DTW's upcoming studio showing by Michel Kouakou/Daara Dance, curated by Bessie Award winner Nora Chipaumire.

On YouTube:

Willi Ninja on Vogue

Deep in Vogue

Father Almighty -- Willi Ninja and the House of Ninja

Much ado about...something

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Curator and artiste provocateur Tere O’Connor has given the City That Always Seems to Need One More Dance Festival a new festival in which choreographers start off with nothing–no concept, no music, no whatever–and come up with...something. (Funny, I thought that was the way it usually worked. In creativity, isn’t there always that moment right before the initial, germinating idea emerges?) This week and next, DTW’s showing The Nothing Festival (www.dtw.org for details and tickets) with work by Douglas Dunn, HIJACK, Sam Kim and Dean Moss (April 18-21) and Luciana Achugar, Walter Dundervill, Jon Kinzel and Susan Rethorst (April 25-28). On Saturday, April 21, DTW will host a panel discussion with O’Connor and the choreographers (1-4pm).

Opening night’s lineup included:

–the interminable but harmless and attractively danced Zorn’s Lemma, in which Dunn makes like a senescent, disoriented speedskater surrounded by fairies wearing wonderful Mimi Gross costumes,

–Colin Rusch and Angelina Jolie, in which the Minneapolis duo Kristin Van Loon and Arwen Wilder (aka HIJACK), two clever, technically-gifted women who regularly subvert all of that, get a lot of mileage out of and put a lot of mileage into a very different form of social studies class,

--Sam Kim’s Cult, a tedious duet for the choreographer and her collaborator Justine Lynch in which these two–check out that hair, those scary fake nails–appear to be having the sleep-over party from hell, and

–States and Resemblance, a work-in-progress (collaborators/performers: Dean Moss, Ryutaro Mishima and Restu Kusumaningrum) that is such an accomplished, elegant piece of art at this point that you have to ask what the heck more they think they need to do to it. Yeah. Seeing this one dance again is all I want to do right now.

(c)2007, Eva Yaa Asantewaa