Celebrating women in dance

Jean Freebury and Brian Lawson in Femina by Pam Tanowitz (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

Reviewing a 2007 concert of work by choreographer Pam Tanowitz, I noted that,

"[Tanowitz] makes ballet-modern dance hybrids–an effort not unique to her but one that she achieves with uncommon grace and gusto. Balletic movements, performed with affectionate care and not in jest, might look exotic on the modern dance stage, but they are simply as valid as anything else in Tanowitz’s overall scheme. She is a garrulous, multilingual poet of the art of dance...."

Pam Tanowitz troupe (Photo: Matthew Murphy)

See Tanowitz's latest--the world premiere of Recorded forever in between the cracks with real passion--on the special, one-night-only presentation of Working Women at the Gotham Dance Festival at The Joyce Theater, Tuesday, June 5 (7:30pm).

Showcasing work by contemporary American women dancemakers, this concert will benefit programs of the Gotham Arts Exchange. In addition to Tanowitz, the artists include Kate Weare (The Light Has Not The Arms to Carry Us), Camille A. Brown (solo from Mr. Tol E. Rance), Carolyn Dorfman (Keystone), Loni Landon (Don’t Forget to Go Home, a world premiere), Jodie Gates (duet from Delicate Balance), Jane Comfort (excerpt from Beauty) and Monica Bill Barnes (excerpt of Love, Oh Love).

Regular tickets start at $10. Premium seating ($100 and $75) for Working Women includes center orchestra seats and a special post show reception with the artists.

For more information and ticketing, call 212-928-6517 or click here.

For information on other programs of the Gotham Dance Festival, click here.

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street), Manhattan
(directions)

Brian Brooks’ loco motion

Aaron Walter and Brian Brooks in Motor 
(Photo by Christopher Duggan)

Yes, Brian Brooks Moving Company is a perpetual motion machine, surely evidenced by the miraculous ensemble spectacle Motor (2010) but also the manic Brooks solo I’m Going to Explode (2007) and shiny new model of the moment, Descent.

Yes to spectacle. Yes to the glamour of discipline and endurance. Yes to Motor’s starburst cables radiating from deep back in the Joyce Theater stage and high over the heads of audience below, taut strings you want to reach up and strum. Yes to the light rays traveling those lines and to the slippery fleetness and heroism of bodies--Brooks himself, Hollis Bartlett, Meghan Frederick, Jeff Kent Jacobs, Jo-anne Lee, Danielle McIntosh and Aaron Walter.

Yes to the sexiness of the machine. Yes to the human machine. Yes to the surging flow, the ebb, the undertow. Yes to obsession. Yes to agitation. Yes to stepping out of oneself, cracking the armor, going nuts.

Yes to virtuosity with edge. Yes to splintered visions, to unexpected, serious musicality.

Yes, even, to working images half to death. Yes to chewing gum 'til the flavor fades. Yes...perhaps...to the strangeness of dropping a piece without a fancy send-off. (Wait... Did Descent just end? What? That's it?)

Yes, finally, to sometimes saying no and no and no...if only for a moment.

Gotham Dance Festival presents Brian Brooks Moving Company again on Friday (8pm) and Sunday (7:30pm). Click here for details, and be sure to check out the festival's complete--and interesting--lineup of programming through June 12.

Schedule and ticketing

The Joyce Theater
8th Avenue and 19th Street, Manhattan
(directions)