For Jack Ferver, "Everything Is Imaginable"

Choreographer Jack Ferver
premieres Everthing Is Imaginable
this week at New York Live Arts.

So...where are we?

Sometimes, that's a useful way to begin looking into a dance.

Jeremy Jacob's visual design frames, while never neatly containing, Jack Ferver's Everything Is Possible--a bifurcated evening at New York Live Arts. The first part of the work features an old-timey set, theatrically artificial and cartoonish in its vague pastel flourishes. For the second, Jacob substitutes an unpainted model of the set which Ferver--petite as he is--looms over. The indistinct look of both sets and the Alice in Wonderland-like shift in size open the possibility that we have quit daytime reality and fallen into a queer space where time dissolves, where things and identities overlap, intersperse or become malleable.

The first act features four solos built around the childhood icons of each of their dancers, starting with ballet star James Whiteside's take on the beloved Judy Garland--resplendent in her spangled dress, physically expansive and exuberant just short of flying to pieces. She looks as some of us will remember her on tv in the early '60s. Cole Porter's "I Happen to Like New York," especially Judy's version, strikes just the right clunky note of intensity--sort of "I'm telling you I like it, but I'm gonna break it--and you--before it breaks me." But Whiteside ends up flopped on his back, as will all the dancers to come.

Martha Graham dancer Lloyd Knight--in a shapely standout performance--gives us an exquisite portrait of Graham over the dance rebel's voice--for instance, her thoughts on how "spontaneity" and "simplicity" in dance require years of grueling work, "costing no less than everything." Garen Scribner invokes figure skater Brian Boitano--an Olympics champ from the '80s who came out as gay in 2013. Ferver slows down or fragments or zooms in on details of a skating routine; Scribner's energy reflects the mix of exhilaration and amusement his viewers might feel. And Reid Bartelme, in a bizarre--if still adorable--twist, trots out as the lavishly pink-maned My Little Pony.

The end of intermission brings on apprehension. We've learned that, during an accident in rehearsal, Ferver tore his calf. Now, turned from the audience and towards the model of Jacob's set, he relates that story, painful to hear. It's worse to watch him make his way through revised choreography; though avoiding jumps and other demanding moves, he really dances far more than anyone might have expected and looks grimly determined as he keeps talking. The injury brings up memories of betrayal, trauma and loneliness, transparently shared. His long exposition throws a different light on the earlier solos; it renders damage and lingering vulnerability all too imaginable.

Costumes: Reid and Harriet Design
Lighting: Lauren Libretti

Everything Is Imaginable continues with performances tonight, Friday and Saturday at 8pm; and Friday at 10pm. For information and tickets, click here.

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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ADI/NYC presents new Jack Ferver dance at The Kitchen

Jack Ferver in I Want You To Want Me
(photo: Paula Court)

Jack Ferver,
writer, choreographer, director
and rather terrifying star of
I Want You To Want Me,
running now at The Kitchen

I thought I would try to make something for everyone. You know, like ballet or a good subscription audience kind of play. I consider myself a populist, but some people really hate my work. They even hate me they hate my work so much. So I thought: ‘Well, why don’t I make a really pretty ballet or a play about a straight couple and their issues?’ So that’s what I’m going to do. Oh, I also just wanted to say, that not everyone is going to make it. I don’t mean make it to the show. I mean make it out of the show alive.

– Jack Ferver on I Want You To Want Me

To whom does ballet technique belong? Katy Pyle--with her intersectionally queer ballez--joyfully throws its age-old doors wide open to pretty much everyone. Jack Ferver, with his premiere of I Want You To Want Me, claims it for the camp camp with a mixture of love and sheer wickedness.

Presented by American Dance Institute/NYC at The Kitchen, this hour-long quartet samples classical technique and stagecraft--puffs of fake fog amusingly mist Reid Bartelme's authentic danseur noble stylings--combined with a wry plotline, all infused with enough melodrama to outdo the likes of Black Swan and Flesh and Bone. A wide-eyed American ballerina (Carling Talcott-Steenstra) quarrels with and ditches her boring, resentful boyfriend (Ferver) for opportunity in France and gets far more than she bargained for.

Above: Carling Talcott-Steenstra
partnered by Barton Cowperthwaite
below: Reid Bartelme
(photos: Paula Court)

There she meets the Ferver-embodied Madame M, an American expatriot so counterfeit in her new self-presentation that she can never decide whether to give words their English or French pronunciation. The role triggers every Ferver skill in speech, gesture, anguished vulnerability and killer stare while offering this fun performer a variety of classy, sultry looks in an adjustable, midnight black gown by Reid & Harriet Design (Bartelme and Harriet Jung).

The lovelorn and lusting Madame--equal parts Graham, Duncan, Liza Minelli, Bette Davis and Nosferatu--has a way of controlling her dancers (Bartelme and Barton Cowperthwaite) even from what should be a safe distance. Observe her standing at the barre, demurely gazing into the mirror, one lower leg cocked and twirling behind her while, some feet away, the handsome boys just happen to be flicking their own calf muscles more times than is absolutely necessary. No good will come of this.

I Want You To Want Me continues tonight at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm and 8pm. For information and tickets, click here or call 855-263-2623.

The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Hooray! We've got another NTMT panel in the works!

Friends, I have a blessed life. Not a perfect life but blessed. And one of the strongest blessings is being almost constantly surrounded by artists and getting to experience and think about their work. It has been a saving grace in times of personal and societal struggle. I have learned so much from artists, and that is one reason I love the opportunity to invite artists to speak at my Not The Master's Tools panels at Gibney Dance Center so that they can share what they know. Last evening's session, our third, was HIGH ENERGY, and I thank Ali Rosa-Salas, Dan Safer, Maria Bauman and Jack Ferver for their forthright and motivating contributions. Thanks also to Craig Thomas Peterson, Margaret Tudor and Nora Alami at Gibney for their welcome and support.

If you haven't yet attended a NTMT panel, know that we already have another one in the works. You will get a lot from listening to these artists.

Save Tuesday, April 5 (6-8pm)!

All of the artists on my wishlist for this panel have said yes, and I can barely wait to bring them to you. So hold April 5, tell your friends and colleagues and watch for the announcement and RSVP link. Thanks!

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Join us on Wednesday for "Not The Master's Tools Part III"

Ali Rosa-Salas

Jack Ferver

Maria Bauman

Dan Safer

We're all expecting you! So, join us this Wednesday, February 17 (6-8pm) for the third edition of Not The Master's Tools at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center.

I'm excited to be moderating a new panel including:

Maria Bauman

Jack Ferver

Ali Rosa-Salas

and

Dan Safer

sharing their experiences, discoveries, alternative strategies and philosophies as artists, arts advocates and activists in New York.

If you've joined us for previous editions of NTMT at Gibney, you know how full and valuable these discussions have been. Please don't miss your opportunity to meet and learn from our speakers, and bring your own thoughts and questions for our Q&A period.

NTMT is FREE. Please pass this announcement along to your friends and colleagues in dance and performance.

RSVP here!

We look forward to seeing you!

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan

(map/directions)

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Save the date--February 17--for "Not The Master's Tools"

Ali Rosa-Salas

Jack Ferver

Maria Bauman

Great news!

Join us on Wednesday, February 17 (6-8pm) for the third edition of Not The Master's Tools at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center.

I'm excited to be moderating a new panel including:

Maria Bauman

Jack Ferver

Ali Rosa-Salas

and

Dan Safer

sharing their experiences, discoveries, alternative strategies and philosophies as artists, arts advocates and activists in New York.

Dan Safer

If you've joined us for previous editions of NTMT at Gibney, you know how full and valuable these discussions have been. Please don't miss your opportunity to meet and learn from our speakers, and bring your own thoughts and questions for our Q&A period.

NTMT is FREE. Please pass this announcement along to your friends and colleagues in dance and performance.

RSVP here!

We look forward to seeing you!

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center

280 Broadway (enter at 53A Chambers Street), Manhattan

(map/directions)

If you like what you're reading,

subscribe to InfiniteBody!

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Infinitebody

On the APAP Trail: Jack Ferver

Fred Herko was a dancer, an actor, a choreographer, and he took a bath and got out and danced naked in front of his friend to Mozart, finally dancing out of a window to his death. I am a dancer, an actor, a choreographer, and I love taking baths and I have danced naked though have yet to jeté out a window. I have often talked about suicide with my childhood friend Reid Bartelme. Reid will join me in the work. Reid is a beautiful dancer. Reid will make sure I don’t jump.

– Jack Ferver

I'd say there you have it in a nutshell, except there you don't have it.

Jack Ferver's duet with Reid Bartelme, Night Light Bright Light--an American Realness presentation at Abrons Arts Center--runs faster than you can and will leave you panting. It is death-ridden but keeps its audience chuckling. Chock-full of play and humor, nevertheless it harbors the terrible and the irrevocable. It dwells in absurdity as well as precision, grandiosity as well as sincerity, trauma as well as release. There's so much splicing (convulsions of narrative, of tone) from moment to moment that one can get rather annoyed at Mr. Ferver even while marveling at his adorableness. I'm convinced that, with every performance, Ferver must turn his audience into his collective therapist, and that his actual one is somewhere out there in the night, grappling with confusion and doubt and self-medication.

Ballet, sex, torture, anxiety, singing, laughter, death, Tennesee Williams. These things belong together? Well, of course they do!  But see for yourself as the wondrous Night Light Bright Light repeats tomorrow night at 10pm and Sunday, January 18, 7pm. For information and tickets, click here.

For details about other American Realness festival events at Abrons Arts Center and beyond, click here.

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

That rumbling ghost...

Enough with the carols!

Click here for free downloads from Calder Kusmierski Singer's original score for Jack Ferver's Rumble Ghost, and read my December 9th review of the PS 122 production here.

This house is...unclean.

"No one is going into the kitchen until I know what's happening!"

I actually don't remember much about the 1982 Tobe Hooper film Poltergeist, but if that's the case for you, too, no worries. In Rumble Ghost, running now at PS 122, writer-choreographer Jack Ferver and composer Calder Kusmierski Singer serve up enough of an impression to give you the willies. It's sly, fine-tuned dance theater with a supernatural twist and an emerging, parallel track--Inner Child therapy and the peril of being different within dysfunctional families and society--that's even more unsettling. The American Dream--so tightly bound up in the notion of home ownership--has certainly gone awry of late, has it not? Ferver's long, obsessively-looping opening scene, where he and Christian Coulson explore and lay claim to each of the twi-lit rooms of their imagined new house begins to resonate not only with silent ghosts from the Hooper film but also a brooding presentiment of other, worldly forms of horror yet to manifest. Be afraid, be very afraid...of what's really going on here!

With dancing by Ferver, Coulson, Benjamin Asriel, Reid Bartelme, Carlye Eckert, Michelle Mola and Breanna O'Mara

Rumble Ghost runs through Sunday, December 12--tonight, Friday and Saturday evening at 8pm; Saturday at 10pm; and Sunday at 6pm. For tickets and more information, click here.

Performance Space 122

150 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Streets), Manhattan