Carella dance fusion troupe marks ten years

Dalia Carella Dance Collective presents its 10-Year Retrospective, Friday, September 23 (8pm) and Saturday, September 24 (6:30pm and 9pm) at Manhattan's Dance New Amsterdam. For complete cast, program and ticketing information, click here.

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

July 8-11

Dance New Amsterdam (and other locations)

280 Broadway (near Chambers Street)

Stage performances will feature a diverse array of professional bellydance artists. Participants of all experience levels will have the opportunity to perform in open-stage nights at local bellydance hotspots, along with live bands from New York’s vibrant local Middle Eastern music scene. The conference is co-directed by Ranya Renee and Anasma Vuong, both professional bellydance teachers and performers.

Over the course of three days of intensive instruction, students will participate in workshops with fifteen teachers whose styles run the gamut of the bellydance genre, from modern Egyptian to hip-hip fusion and Gothic. 

Conference registration is available for single day and three-day packages; tickets may also be purchased separately for the evening theatrical performances. 

For more information, to register or to purchase show tickets, click here.

Carella's salon

I think Dalia Carella was channeling Dorothy Lamour last night at the tiny White Box Theater of 440 Studios, flower in hair and everything, at least for Turkish Roman and Near Eastern Contemporary Dance, two girlishly cute solos that demonstrated her fastidious muscular control. It's tempting to go macro with these types of movements, to wow the crowd. It's harder and less obvious--and, it turns out, more crowd-wowing--to make these movements small, keeping energy close, like silver electricity racing through one's veins. Carella does this very well and with a movie star smile that tries to convince us that it's no trouble at all. It's plenty trouble.

She's also capable of elegantly channeling Ruth St. Denis, as she did in Destiny, a sculpted solo inspired by fado, the lamentful music of Portugal. But as an artist noted for straying across cultural boundaries with abandon, she's hard to label. From Near Eastern to flamenco, from Bollywood to Roma dance, from ballet to salsa, Carella has absorbed the finer points of the world's most flavorful dancing. I've no doubt she's still learning, still picking up and tucking things away in her satchel. Wonderful! Except when it comes to convincing a presenter to take you on. So, she self-produced her evening in this less than optimal space, calling it a salon and showing off not only her admirable skills but also the performing and choreographic talents of members of her Dalia Carella Dance Collective.

The resulting mixed bag offered much to appreciate, especially the economical use of time in the service of the idea of a dance. Hannah Nour's self-made solo Yearning, Davey "Mashala" Mitchell's handsome performance in his MotherEARTH, and Carella's Oulid Nayli, an ensemble based on Berber women's dances, show that their creators understand the focusing, illuminating power of just enough.

The Mad Marionettes, an awkward satirical ensemble by Carella, was the only piece that overstayed its welcome. In this dance, as well as the company's two-part premiere--Stepford Jives and Miss Manners Has a Meltdown--Carella uses contemporary dance movement and broad theatrical style to take on the issue of what it means for a woman and, surely, for a woman dancer, to be under male gaze and male control, and what it would mean to bust out from under. While the idea is far from new, Carella manages to perk it up in the newer work with attention to sharpness in all things, from movement to imaginative costuming, reminding me, in a way, of Monica Bill Barnes, another exacting maker of often exquisite, humorous dance theater.

So, with Carella, you get a little bit of everything--a fair amount of it of good value. She's an old-school entertainer that way, a rarity in these days. Let's hope she'll find a presenter with an all-embracing worldview to match her own.

Places to go, people to see...

You're in New York. You really shouldn't lack for something to do at any given moment. But, just in case, here are some ideas...

Last night, Camille A. Brown & Dancers hit the floor at Joyce SoHo and, let me tell you, you don't want to miss the chance to see these performers from the Ailey and Ron K. Brown troupes and other companies. Camille A. Brown, an enormously talented dancer, has dropped onto the dancemaking scene like a whirlwind. If you've seen her solos or the delightful Groove to Nobody's Business ensemble, which is on this program, you know that her work, while intricately detailed, has the power to project to the farthest reaches of an ample space. Well, just imagine that energy up close and personal. In addition to The Groove, Brown is showing the premiere of Matchstick (a men's ensemble piece); 1 Second Past The Future, a work-in-progress collaboration with the wonderful J. Michael Kinsey; and an excerpt from her defining 2007 solo, The Evolution Of A Secured Feminine. Other program highlights include an astonishing performance by Kyle Abraham in his premiere solo, Untitled Mixtape Phase 1 and Francine E. Ott choreographing and at the helm of Need to Be Needed (2009). It's a long show but such a rewarding one, I didn't mind. The run continues through Sunday evening. Curtain times are 8pm all nights in addition to a 3pm matinee on Sunday. Tonight's show will be followed by a Q&A led by Abraham. Tickets, if not already gone, will go quickly. Don't snooze.

Rock of Ages. A guilty pleasure. If you always loved loud, big-hair arena rock--or even if you didn't but you do love a good laugh--you should have fun with this rollicking mashup of Spinal Tap and Hair with nostalgia--or nausea--inducing songs by the likes of Journey, Foreigner, Whitesnake and Pat Benatar. Believe it or not, Chris D'Arienzo's book actually patches these indelible tunes together into a credible, hilarious story, helped mightily by the fantastic performances of Constantine Maroulis, Amy Spanger, Mitchell Jarvis, Adam Dannheisser and James Carpinello, the core group of an entertaining cast. At the Brooks Atkinson Theater.

next to normal is a musical about a dysfunctional family with a mom who's mentally ill. Do I still have your attention? Yes, I said a musical, a gorgeous one. And, dance folks, it's a very movement-driven, physically-expressive thing. You'll see what I mean. Don't argue. Just go order your tickets now. Alice Ripley is God. Seriously. And the rest of the cast ain't bad either. This powerful show will grip you. Take a few tissues. At the Booth Theater.

In the mood for something more on the quiet side? There's Mesa 2.0, a lovely collaboration by Tom Pearson (2008 Bessie Award winner), Louis Mofsie and Donna Ahmadi at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, near the tip of Manhattan at One Bowling Green. As described by its makers, "...this contemporary dance was borne from shared travels in the Southwest and examines what it means to be urban Indians, specifically New Yorkers." Twenty minutes. Performed with heart and beauty. Admission is free. Second and final showing is tomorrow, Saturday, at 2pm.

So that's what you're doing this weekend. Agreed?

Me? I'm seeing Dalia Carella's show tonight at 440 Studios, heading out to Hoboken tomorrow for a friend's art exhibit, and trying to find some clear time to attack the mound of books building up in my reading basket.

Have a good weekend! Hope to see you next Tuesday at DTW!

Dalia Carella: Body and Soul podcast

Dalia Carella is one of those bold, glamorous, old-school entertainers clearly born to rule the stage. And she's a serious creative artist whose painstaking approach to the dances of diverse cultures has been shaped by mentors of notable integrity. I interviewed her in October 2007. She was then a new member of the faculty of Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), and we spoke about her career and her pioneering involvement in DNA's Performance Project where she introduced students to the rich music and dance traditions of the Near and Middle East and the Maghreb.

GUEST BIO

Dalia Carella is a world-renowned Near/Middle Eastern contemporary dancer, choreographer, instructress and global fusion artist. Audiences from around the world have applauded her mystical and innovative dances and choreographies that are taken from the tradition of the countries she is representing. Carella has delved deeply in the studies of dances from the Near and Middle East including Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, as well as North Africa including Morocco and Algeria. Her dances are both traditional and contemporary with a spiritual essence behind each and every movement that she creates. Some of Carella's new works represent both traditional and contemporary movement and range from sacred rituals to ethnic contemporary theater pieces and cabaret macabre inspired by the 1920s and '30s.

Her dance background also includes studies in Flamenco, Indian/Bollywood/Bhangra, African, Samba, Salsa, Bomba and Plena from Puerto Rico as well as jazz and ballet. Carella also created her signature dance form in 1985, "Dunyavi Gypsy (Roma) Dance," for which she is known throughout the world. The core of Dalia's Dunyavi work is extensive research of the Romany trail, focusing primarily on the Roma dances of Spain, India, Turkey and most recently, movements from North Africa. Dalia has also been performing and teaching a second style of Gypsy Rom dance, "El Mundo," that is evolving from her continuing studies of Middle Eastern, Andalusia and Latin dance influences. For more information, visit http://www.daliacarella.com/bio.html.

LINK

http://www.daliacarella.com

Body and Soul is the official podcast of InfiniteBody dance blog at
http://infinitebody.blogspot.com. Subscribe through iTunes or at
http://magickaleva.hipcast.com/rss/bodyandsoul.xml.

(c)2008, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

MP3 File

Oh, one more thing! A podcast interview with Dalia Carella!

One more thing before I go!

A Body and Soul podcast interview with Dalia Carella from Dance New Amsterdam's Performance Project. Click here to listen!