Uplifting Black choreographers: Gesel Mason

Gesel Mason
(photo: Enoch Chan)

Whoops!

Showing up 45 minutes into a concert because I, somehow, had the wrong curtain time just feels awful. More awful is when it's a historic, keenly-anticipated program like Gesel Mason's No Boundaries: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers.

I missed nearly everything in the first half of the show--works by Bebe Miller, Kyle Abraham and Donald McKayle. <<sound of critic kicking self--hard and repeatedly>> I managed to slip in at a break to catch Rennie Harris's You Are Why! (2014) and watch Mason dance the hell out of it alongside Lisa Engleken and Mahayla Rose. The second half featured works by Jawole Willa Jo Zollar (Bent, 2004), David Roussève (Jumping the Broom, 2005) and a piece by Mason (No Less Black, 2000) with her poetry and MK Abadoo's solo performance. This program has been fifteen years in development and represents both a tribute to a diverse range of Black choreographers and an ongoing gift to dance's future.

Happily, the entire program--a presentation of Gesel Mason Performance Projects, co-presented by 651 ARTS and RestorationART at Brooklyn's Billie Holiday Theatre--will be accessible through the digital archive Mason plans to establish to preserve the legacy of Black artistry in dance. The documentation, just like the concert, will include personable video interviews of the choreographers, revealing the context for understanding how these artists saw and felt about their works when first created and how they view them now.

But try to get to the Billie Holiday tonight-- the show's final evening--for so many, many reasons. Among them is Jumping the Broom with its chilling imagery, prescient warning and the heartbreak of Mason's performance. In the short amount of time he allows himself, Roussève not only conjures vivid scenes in our imagination, he taps our empathy and our sense of foreboding. It is dance as an act of conscience, responsibility and courageous love.

Of course, I cannot speak of Mason's dancing in all of the program's pieces, but I do know she should rank high on your list of artists who jump into the fire of a work with the nimbleness and rigor to survive its flames. She's all up in the Zollar solo (an edgy, dissonant portrait of the extreme state of mind in addiction) and the Harris trio (with its unrelenting movement multiplicities upon complexities upon multiplicities). It's almost unbelievable that she would--and could--program demanding works like these two on the same bill as the Roussève piece. She says, now, that she will never do this again--herself, personally, though the works could be danced by others--and that much is believable.

But, for now--at least this evening--you've got a chance to see a great one at the height of her powers. Go!

For information and tickets to tonight's show (7pm), click here.

The Billie Holiday Theatre
At Restoration Plaza, 1368 Fulton Street, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

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Joya Powell, Donald McKayle win early Bessies; nominations announced

Oh, how I deeply regret missing the Bessies press conference last evening, but I am up very early this morning to catch a train out of town for a few days.

Here's all the exciting news you need to know, and my hearty congratulations to the winners and the nominees.

I hope to see you on October 18!

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody

*****

The 32nd annual Bessie Awards, presented in association with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will take place on Tuesday, October 18 at 7:30pm, at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.

Three 2016 awards were presented at last evening's press conference at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center:

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award: Joya Powell

"for her passionate choreographic engagement with issues of justice and race in our communities and our country; for connecting with the audience in ways that make it clear that these concerns belong to all of us—and action is required."

Outstanding Revival: Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder, choreographed by Donald McKayle

"for giving a classic modern dance new and powerful life, transforming the midcentury portrayal of an African American prison chain gang into a searingly resonant cry for our current times, performed with humanity, craft, and beauty by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company, produced by Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance as part of its 2016 season."

Juried Bessie Award: Pam Tanowitz

"for using form and structure as a vehicle for challenging audiences to think, to feel, to experience movement; for pursuing her uniquely poetic and theatrical vision with astounding rigor and focus."

The 2016 Bessie Nominations

Outstanding Production:


luciana achugar

An Epilogue for OTRO TEATRO: True Love

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center



Souleymane Badolo

Yimbégré: Replanting roots in the name of freedom

BAM Fishman Space



Camille A. Brown

Black Girl: Linguistic Play

The Joyce Theater



Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson

Chambre

The New Museum co-presented by FIAF



Pat Graney

Girl Gods

Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University



Maria Hassabi

PLASTIC

MoMA



Heather Kravas

dead, disappears

American Realness at Abrons Arts Center



Ralph Lemon

Scaffold Room

The Kitchen



Dada Masilo

Swan Lake

The Joyce Theater



Justin Peck

Heatscape

Miami City Ballet

David H. Koch Theater



Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard

For Claude Shannon 

The Kitchen



Safi A. Thomas with H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory

Sleeping Beauty

Flamboyán Theater



Outstanding Revival (* indicates award recipient):



get dancing

By Andy de Groat & Catherine Galasso

Danspace Project



Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder  *

Choreographed by Donald McKayle

Performed by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company

Produced by Paul Taylor American Modern Dance

David H. Koch Theater



Outstanding Performer:



Ephrat Asherie

Sustained Achievement with Dorrance Dance, Doug Elkins, Bill Irwin, Gus Solomon jr., Rennie Harris, Cori Olinghouse, and many others



Nicolas Bruder

In Custodians of Beauty by Pavel Zuštiak

New York Live Arts



Omar Edwards

In FLY

New Victory Theater



Paul Hamilton

For his body of work including Ralph Lemon’s Scaffold Room and the work of Jane Comfort, Keeley Garfield, and others



Parisa Khobdeh

For her body of work with Paul Taylor Dance Company



Kazunori Kumagai

For his body of work including Live at the Blue Note Late Night Groove Series



Jennifer Lafferty

In Catacomb by Beth Gill

The Chocolate Factory



Molly Lieber

For her body of work with several artists including luciana achugar, Maria Hassabi, and Donna Uchizono



Aaron Mattocks

In Big Dance: Short Form by Big Dance Theater

The Kitchen



Gillian Murphy

Sustained Achievement with American Ballet Theatre



Aakash Odedra

In Rising

Skirball Center for the Performing Arts



Jamar Roberts

Sustained Achievement with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

 

Outstanding Emerging Choreographer (* indicates award recipient):



John Heginbotham



Jillian Peña



Joya Powell *



Larissa Velez-Jackson



Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:



Admanda Kobilka

For Clap Hands by Jen Rosenblit

Invisible Dog Art Center / New York Live Arts



Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste

For #negrophobia by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko | anonymous bodies

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center



Dan Trueman, Sō Percussion, and Mobius Percussion

For There Might Be Others by Rebecca Lazier

New York Live Arts



Ustatshakirt Plus

For Dream'd in a Dream by Seán Curran

BAM Harvey Theater



Outstanding Visual Design:



Holly Batt

For the visual and set design of Girl Gods by Pat Graney

Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University



Design Team: F. Randy deCelle, Ralph Lemon, Roderick Murray, Naoko Nagata, R. Eric Stone, Mike Taylor, and Philip White

For the visual design of Scaffold Room by Ralph Lemon

The Kitchen



DD Dorvillier and Thomas Dunn

For the lighting and visual design of Extra Shapes by DD Dorvillier

The Kitchen



Eamonn Farrell

For the new media scenography of Forgiveness by Emily Berry | B3W Performance Group

BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center

ABOUT THE BESSIES

Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, the NY Dance and Performance Awards have saluted outstanding and groundbreaking creative work in the dance field in New York City for 32 years. Known as “The Bessies” in honor of revered dance teacher Bessie Schönberg, the awards were established in 1984 by David White at Dance Theater Workshop. They recognize exceptional work in choreography, performance, music composition, and visual design. Nominees are chosen by a 40-member selection committee comprised of artists, presenters, producers, and writers. All those working in the dance field are invited to join the NY Dance and Performance League, as members participate in annual discussions on the direction of the awards and nominate members to serve on the selection committee. www.bessies.org

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American Dance Guild's call for choreography

American Dance Guild (ADG) invites applications from contemporary dance artists of diverse backgrounds, ages and aesthetics throughout the United States and internationally for its 2009 Performance Festival (September 10-13, 2009):

We are very excited to be holding our festival at the beautiful new Manhattan Movement Arts Theater located at 248 West 60th Street in New York City. This is a terrific space -- 32' x32' performance area, high ceilings, and an audience capacity of 170. Four different programs will be presented during the festival.

For an application, click here (deadline: March 30).

ADG is dedicated to presenting the range and diversity of expression in current dance art practice and how it interfaces with our historical modern dance roots. Last year, we featured work by Murray Louis and Anna Sokolow.

This year we will be featuring work by Donald McKayle and Erick Hawkins (celebrating his 100th birthday.) Our theme this year will be Influence and Innovation.

If you applied in the past and were not accepted, PLEASE apply again!

For questions, contact Tina Croll at tina@horsesmouth.org or Gloria McLean at gloria.mclean@americandanceguild.org.

Black and Boundless: Gesel Mason and Faustin Linyekula

As a young dance student, fan and developing writer, I straddled the dividing line between firmly-defined, traditional modern dance (Graham, Ailey, etc.) and experimental postmodern dance. I remember how confusing and even upsetting it used to be for some audiences and critics to see Black dance artists color outside the box and explore uncharted territory.

DC-based dancer-choreographer Gesel Mason forthrightly addresses that moment in time and its lingering issues with her video-and-dance presentation, No Boundaries: Dancing the Visions of Contemporary Black Choreographers, presented through tonight at Joyce SoHo.

Mason's program features works by provocative choreographers from different generations--Donald McKayle, Reggie Wilson, Bebe Miller, David Rousseve and young Samantha Speis--and includes her own solo, No Less Black (2000). Interspersing video clips of these artists and others talking with Mason about their work provides both helpful context and charm. Wilson cheekily reveals what he likes about being a choreographer--"organizing and telling people what to do." Later, when asked pointblank for a definition of Black dance, Wilson drops his head and laughs. Miller--like Andrea E. Woods, who appears in the video but does not have a work in the show-- expresses a lack of interest in people's assumptions about how she, as a Black woman, should make dance. Jawole Willa Jo Zollar considers the work of Miller and of the early Bill T. Jones (with his partner, the late Arnie Zane) and detects the influence of Black culture where other observers might be prone to see only avantgarde edginess. McKayle notes that no one is ever asked to define what, if anything, white dance is.

The evening's highlight is Mason's harrowing and heartbreaking performance in Rousseve's Jumping the Broom (2005). This solo overlaps the stories of a lynching victim clad in her wedding gown and a proud, hopeful lesbian couple turned away at the last moment from City Hall.

Mason's project, running for just two evenings, deserves to be seen again and before sold-out audiences. First of all, it's rare in New York to see work by several keenly innovative Black choreographers showcased on a single program. Let's have more of this. Second, Mason's bright skill, enthusiasm and sense of fun serve her aims well. (How to Watch a Modern Dance Concert or What in the Hell Are They Doing on Stage is the name of one piece she has performed in Washington, DC for last year's version of No Boundaries.) She's clearly an artist on a mission but one who does not wear out her welcome.

Congolese dancer-choreographer Faustin Linyekula of Les Studios Kabako--who debuted Festival of Lies at BRICK Arts/Media/Bklyn this week--also concludes his run tonight. This is another show that deserves a return engagement. Using the format of a late-night ndombolo party--with a cabaret set-up featuring food and drink for purchase and hot, irresistible music by the band Asiko--Linyekula and his performers mix cool, impeccable design, cool but increasingly engaged performance, storytelling, projected text from political speeches, installation-style props and somewhat-edgy audience participation for an evening of mostly oblique and sometimes direct critique of lying politicians. Yes, the text--projected off to the side on the wall above the band where it's quite easy to ignore--comes from the mouths of Linyekula's countrymen but, given who's been ruling Washington lately, Americans can certainly relate.

The show runs way over two hours, including cast and audience dancing together at the end. Some of it feels excessive, less than necessary. But the music--swift as river rapids and as unrelenting--rocks steady, and the movement of the Damballah-pliant dancers--Linyekula, Papy Ebotani and Djodjo Kazadi--amid continuously-rearranged flourescent light bulbs is almost always fascinating. And Linyekula brings a message that Gesel Mason would surely endorse--that a people must ignore how they are defined by others and take back the power to define themselves. Let's dance!

(c) Eva Yaa Asantewaa, 2007