Discount code for Parsons Dance at The Joyce

Fans of this blog and of Parsons Dance--now at The Joyce Theater through January 27--can take advantage of a special 50% offer on regularly-priced $59 tickets.

Use the promotion code -- BLOG -- here, and get your tickets for only $30!

Not valid for Friday or Saturday evenings

For complete season information and ticketing, click here.

On the run with Parsons Dance

Parsons Dance rehearsing Run to you

(photo: Paula Lobo)

What better match for the exuberant, jazz-infused dance of David Parsons than the gutsy, jazz-saturated rock tunes of Donald Fagen and Walter Becker?

And so, as it launches its Joyce Theater season next week, Parsons Dance will rock out to the music of Steely Dan. Run to you opens with a romantic stroll for two that expands into a buoyant romp ("Aja"), a contentious, despairing walk on the wild side ("The Royal Scam"), a dynamic batch of saucy boy-girl duets ("The Fez") and a big, sweeping finish ("Reelin' In The Years"). Watching the company run through the piece, I found "Royal Scam" too controlled and pictorial to be convincing, but the more upbeat sections have an easygoing musicality, polish and charm. The Joyce crowd is bound to come hungry and leave happy. 

Parsons is blessed with a radiant crew that includes Eric Bourne, Sarah Braverman, Elena D'Amario, Abby Silva Gavezzoli, Christina Ilisije, Jason MacDonald, Miguel Quinones, Ian Spring, Melissa Ullom and Steven Vaughn.

The season (January 26-February 6) will feature three programs of Parsons repertory and includes two other world premieres--Portinari, inspired by the Brazilian artist/activist Candido Portinari, and Love, oh Love, a commission by acclaimed choreographer Monica Bill Barnes, set to music by Kenny Rogers, Lionel Ritchie and Diana Ross.

For complete programming, scheduling and ticketing details, click here.

The Joyce Theater

175 8th Avenue (between 18th and 19th Streets), Manhattan

(directions)

Parsons Dance deal for IB readers!

Parsons Dance is offering InfiniteBody readers a 50% discount on tickets for its upcoming season at The Joyce Theater!

January 26-February 6

Three programs include two premieres by David Parsons and one by Monica Bill Barnes.

Use the code: BLOG (available for all performances except Friday and Saturday evenings)

For full program, schedule and ticketing details, click here.

EVOC is something to remember

David Parsons couldn't give a hoot about what you think if you don't like the kind of dance--on a mission to light a fire under every available ass--that can make a mainstream audience rave. But he's got an audience, and I heard them raving last night about the new work he's created in collaboration with East Village Opera Company. It's a full-evening work called Remember Me, and the Times seems to have deemed it memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Now, I gotta tell you, EVOC's lead vocalists--phenomenal AnnMarie Milazzo and Tyley Ross--make me rave. EVOC specializes in souped-up, often rocked-out arrangements of arias over orchestrations that probably sit better with me than with some people because I am of the generation that swooned over the likes of The Who, Queen and Marvin Gaye, among the many influences on the music of this ensemble. I am more than ready to listen to Rossini, Bizet, Verdi, Schubert and Purcell saucily reimagined by Ross and EVOC co-founder and musical arranger Peter Kiesewalter, mainly because I find EVOC's singing convincing and compelling on both sides of the radical hybrid.

In theory, this should make a ducky combination with the likes of Parsons whose approach to EVOC's music owes much to the aesthetics of Broadway jazz, music videos and So You Think You Can Dance. And, certainly, Parsons's fleet-footed dancers can dance. That's n0t in question here. The Times expressed some sympathy for them for having to sell cheesy product. Hey, the product is not my usual bag either, and I sat there sometimes thinking that I'd be happier if some of EVOC's music went totally unvisualized. But, as I said, Parsons's audience gave it all a big bear hug. It's doing the job it was intended to do.

The inflamed and flower-power projections, the unsurprising aerial work, the awkwardness of the staging and the murky, overheated storyline--a lethal love triangle so crowded and crawling with extras that it needs remedial math--is something that you either resign yourself to or resist with all the energy of Abby Silva, female point of the triangle, fighting off the obnoxious attentions of Miguel Quinones. Me? I kept coming back to those intense voices--heavenly Ross, fiery Milazzo--and let everything else slide.

Remember Me is Parsons's Program A. Program B features several other Parsons works--Fill the Woods with Light, Swing Shift, Ebben, My Sweet Lord, Shining Star and Caught. The season continues through next Sunday, January 18. Click here or here for details on the schedule of both programs and ticketing information.

Healing the Dancer Annual Seminar

2nd Annual Healing the Dancer Seminar

Host: Bebe Neuwirth, founder of The Dancers' Resource program of The Actors Fund

Keynote Speaker: David Parsons of Parsons Dance Company

A panel of experts will address the unique needs of the dance community, offering information and resources for obtaining health insurance and health care, nutrition prevention financial wellness and more.

Presenters

NUTRITION AND INJURY PREVENTION: Sandra Foschi, Nutritionist and physical therapist, Daniel White, DC, Chiropractor and former dancer

EMOTIONAL WELLBEING/MENTAL HEALTH: Donna Fish, LCSW, Psychotherapist and former dancer, Bradley Jones, LCSW, Psychotherapist and former dancer

FINANCIAL WELLNESS: Amanda Clayman, LMSW, Social Worker for Financial Wellness Program at The Actors Fund, Annette Lieberman, Psychotherapist and Author of The Money Mirror.

Sponsored by The Actors Fund, AGMA, Career Transition For Dancers, Dance Magazine, Dance NYC, Dancers Responding to AIDS, Dance Theatre Workshop, The Field, The Harkness Center for Dance Injuries, and New York Foundation for the Arts.

This seminar is FREE and open to professional dancers and those who serve them.

Date: Thu, May 15, 2008
Time: 3PM-7M
Where: The New 42nd Street Studios, 229 West 42nd Street
Program: Entertainment Assistance Program

Contact: Alice Vienneau, MSW

Phone: 212.221.7300 ext. 261

Contact Email: avienneau@actorsfund.org

Jazz-inspired David Parsons

Judy Carmichael--Grammy-nominated jazz pianist and host of one of my favorite podcasts, Jazz Inspired--has a wonderful interview with choreographer David Parsons that I think you'll enjoy. Download it via iTunes (podcast power search: Jazz Inspired).

Carmichael's well-produced radio series features a wide range of creative people talking about how jazz has inspired their own creative process.