doug elkins choreography, etc. at Baryshnikov Arts Center

The theater at Baryshnikov Arts Center was totally packed for the New York premiere of Mo(or)town/Redux, presented by doug elkins choreography, etc. So, while I can't tell you if you'll be able to get in, do try. You get Elkins's exhilarating Scott, Queen of Marys into the bargain--a cocktail blend of Scottish dancing, voguing, capoeira moves and more, first seen in 1994 but ever-fresh with a fine cast that includes very cool/on fire Javier Ninja. Seventy minutes all told, the two-dance program makes quite a very neat package for your weekend.

In the ingenious Mo(or)town/Redux, Elkins brings both Shakespeare's Othello and José Limon's The Moor's Pavane into the age of Motown and soul music. Kyle Marshall plays the Othello figure like a tall, dignified Black athlete; Donnell Oakley, his treasured Desdemona in high spirits and with bright energy just oozing from every pore. Alexander Dones and Cori Marquis--scheming Iago and his dupe, Emilia--make another sexy couple. Elkin's choreography references the lively use of space and the quartet and duet court dance patterns Limon skillfully employed as well as Limon's clever, ultimately treacherous business with a now-you-see-it, now-you-don't handkerchief--all of this arranged against a soundscape Black music hits of the '60s.

The carefully selected music--not the original versions of songs like "Tears of A Clown" and "Just My Imagination," of course--is effective, if borderline obvious and actually my least favorite element in this piece. The choreography rolls out so suave and delicious, the dancers so deft, that I think Elkins could tell the Othello story just as well without the overlay of well-known lyrics. Best of all, these dancers--especially, Oakley and the sensational Dones, who clearly loves dancing so much he can't seem to help making villainous Iago downright appealing--work out with such natural truth that they can draw you right into the dance. Not just great moves well done: This thing is alive, baby!
doug elkins choreography, etc. continues its BAC run tonight and Saturday at 7:30pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), Manhattan
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The dance is wherever you are

At 16 minutes, Marta Renzi's documentary film, Where The Dance Is (2009) offers just a glimpse of choreographer/dance instructor Doug Elkins's work with students of Manhattan's Beacon School. But it's a very nice glimpse, and I especially appreciate the understated way in which Renzi demonstrates how a teacher, with confidence in the value of artistic uncertainty, can make space for students to arrive at their own collaborative solutions.

Amid brief interview clips, we watch the kids learn to put creative twists on their gymnastic tricks and even tackle some safe-enough, Streb-inspired moves. Elkins marvels at how the work brings out positive swagger and a strong sense of identity in these teens.

Where The Dance Is is an official selection of the 2010 NYC Downtown Short Film Festival, to be screened on April 26 at the Duo Theatre. For further information and ticketing, click here.

Evidence and the United Colors of Armitage

Every year, dance events at Lincoln Center Out of Doors bridge the gap between dance artists and New Yorkers who aren't necessarily dance aficionados but who like that certain sexy combination of summer + free + outdoor + entertainment. It's one of the perks of having the endurance to stay in (or visit) New York during the heat stroke season, and this year's lineup shimmers with great opportunities. You can catch up with Fraulein Maria, Doug Elkins's deliciously bite-sized and lovingly-wacky version of The Sound of Music (August 16). And, if you were elsewhere last night, perhaps devastated by John Edwards's revelation, you could instead have witnessed a West African musical phenom--electronica band Burkina Electric, fronted by the dynamic, Angelique Kidjo-reminiscent Maï Lingani--that features some pretty hot dancing of their own.

I haven't yet mentioned Armitage Gone! Dance, with its own stellar and fierce performers, who collaborated with Burkina Electric on Karole Armitage's Summer of Love, previewed last evening at LC's Damrosch Park. This dancemaker is on a natural high, having recently made her Broadway choreography debut with Passing Strange and choreographed the Public Theater's critically-acclaimed revival of Hair. Teaming up with the Burkina Faso troupe is a very smart move. Not only do Lingani and her comrades provide irresistible beats, they also provide the glue that Armitage's loosey-goosey hour requires. Not enough though. In bits and pieces, Summer of Love can be fun--with its aura of a kind of upscale, deliberately multiculti '60s dance party--but its patched-together, song-related sections don't congeal and keep teasing us with potential endings that aren't. It feels shallow and as self-indulgent as neo-cons accuse the '60s counterculture of being. Despite the dancers' technical perfection and their obvious sense of play, AGD in Summer of Love comes off like the United Colors of Armitage. On the other hand, Burkina Electric is the real deal, and I'm glad to have made their acquaintance.

As for Evidence, A Dance Company, second on the Damrosch bill, Ronald K. Brown's troupe lit up the stage just as we knew it would. Brown presented a couple of works from repertory: Upside Down (excerpted from Destiny, a 1998 collaboration with Jeune Ballet d'Afrique Noire) and High Life (2002). Upside Down? Call the FDNY! These people are on fire! Top marks to Shani Nwando Ikerioha Collins and Tiffany Quinn, dancers who go from strength to strength. But it was especially wonderful to see Brown himself dancing with renewed vigor, openness and acuity--evidence of what inspires all his dancers to give their all.

New York pride

Yesterday, after dashing from one show (Doug Elkins's Fraulein Maria at Joe's Pub) to another (Danspace Project's Dance CoOp roundup of artists for the APAP crowd), I realized that an unanticipated feeling had blossomed in me--pride. I felt this pride most intensely while I watched Levi Gonzalez dance tribute, a "research project in progress," as he calls it, a lineup of snippets of movement prepared for him by a virtual Murderors' Row of postmodern choreographers. Before each bit, he'd call out the name of its creator: Luciana Achugar, John Jasperse, Miguel Gutierrez, Beth Gill, Maria Hassabi. I can't say why, exactly, but hearing Gonzalez's clear, resonant voice intoning each name sounded like a roll call of heroes. And I suppose it is. Sitting among all of these presenter folks from all over, I had this flash of pride for New York.

Earlier in the afternoon, I'd been swept away by Elkins's Fraulein Maria, his loving, clever dance-up of The Sound of Music--as hilarious as I'd been promised it would be but completely enchanting and soul-touching, too, which was a total surprise. Elkins packs so much rambunctious dance and comedy into an hour and a stage the size of an East Village bathroom, and his performers could not be more delightful. Too many heroic names to call out here--it takes a village to climb this mountain--but some of the most notable are Arthur Aviles, Nicole Wolcott, Jennifer Nugent, David Parker, Archie Burnett, Mark Gindick, Johnnie Moore and Elkins, the man himself. Next chance you get to see it, just go. You will be charmed and moved to your core.