Go backstage with the haunted "GHOST LIGHT"

Every exit is an entrance somewhere.

--Elizabeth Carena in GHOST LIGHT

Tumbling down Third Rail Projects' rabbit hole and through their looking glass in the Bessie-winning Then She Fell has long been my most cherished experience of this magical company. But now comes GHOST LIGHT, a worthy challenger, with the immersive dance/theater troupe smoothly roaming the innards of Lincoln Center's Claire Tow Theater, the hidden workings of a show and the psyches of some theater folk who remain unaware that they left their mortal bodies quite some time ago.

Well, the show must go on!

Yes, this work really puts the ghosts in "ghost light," that convention of leaving one light--a single bulb in a wire cage--burning on an unused, darkened stage. As we follow various players through stairwells and a warren of backstage spaces, we eye characters from multiple, imaginative viewpoints--gazing down at them from balcony or stair railings, glancing sideways from the wings at a rehearsal, tucked at the end of a corridor as actors and stagehands dramatically, distractedly and hectically dash in and out of doors with minutes to showtime. That last bit, by the way, is a brilliant farce of fluid, split-second coordination of people and props--a signature for co-directors/choreographers Zach Morris and Jennine Willett. Supported by an excellent collaborative cast and creative team, these two have outdone themselves.

For fans who love the fascinating thingy-ness of TRP's productions--the busy, often quaint decor that colors and flavors their unusual sites--the wonderful set designer Brett J. Banakis has got you covered. But don't expect to have much time to linger and study these intricate visual details. Except for some props you might be handed from time to time, you will mostly be focused elsewhere or hustled past stuff. You will be distracted by noises and voices and music from unseen sources. Two intermission-less hours will fly by as fast as some of this theater's specters.

One character--I think it was the wistful, elegantly-coiffed actress played by Jessy Smith--pondered the possibility that people who have died are truly gone only when no one's left who remembers them. Insight into characters is the least original or interesting aspect of this work; Morris's writing isn't nearly as dreamily graceful or as daring as his and Willett's movement ideas can be. But I did take note of this particular statement and its broader implications.

How often do we encounter a work of art and wish we could make that experience stay with us forever? Keep it fresh, maybe share it--just as we received it--with others? (Why I write....) GHOST LIGHT, in its way, pays tribute to the art and artists passing through our lives, people whom we only think we know and whom we can't hold onto--except in memory. Yes, a wealth of technology can document these artists and the work they do. But, really, human-to-human, heart-to-heart, all of it filtered through your senses and sensibilities, embraced by memory, passed down to others--that is how culture has always been preserved and lovingly transmitted, even if imperfectly.

Cast: Donna Ahmadi, Cameron Michael Burns, Elizabeth Carena, Alberto Denis, Joshua Dutton-Reaver, Julia Kelly, Roxanne Kidd, Josh Matthews, Rebekah Morin, Marissa Nielsen-Pincus, Tara O'Con, Edward Rice, Jessy Smith, Niko Tsocanos, Carlton Cyrus Ward and Ryan Wuestewald

Original music and sound: Sean Hagerty

Co-composer: Isaiah Singer

Collaborating musicians: Craig Akin, Nick Auer, Johnny Butler, Mike Lunoe, Ben Magnuson, Alicia Rau, Isaiah Singer

Sets: Brett J. Banakis

Illusion design: Vinny DiPonto

Costumes: Montana Levi Blanco

Lighting: Eric Southern

GHOST LIGHT's stated end date is August 6. However, if this show is anything like previous TRP productions, it will have extended life by demand--and it should. Come out of the New York summer heat; the A/C's fine! For general information on GHOST LIGHT, click here. For important audience guidelines, click here. For tickets, click here. Don't be late!


Claire Tow Theater
Lincoln Center Theater
150 West 65th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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LC Fest: Japan's Takarazuka Revue takes on "CHICAGO"

Started by a railway magnate in 1914 to attract tourists to the hot springs town of Takarazuka, the all-female Takarazuka Revue has grown into a true cultural phenomenon, with a devoted fan base that clamors for the company’s sparkling adaptations of classic Western and Japanese stories, movies, and plays, and a cultural influence that extends into the realms of anime and manga.

--from "Takarazuka: A History"

Granted, I did not have the best vantage point for Japan's Takarazuka CHICAGO, seated near the rear of the Koch Theater's hall (my bad, I guess, for waiting too late to try for a press ticket). From there, I could see, very well, that Takarazuka Revue's cast--nearly all women, often taking male roles--had brought their sharpest knives to the Fosse (via Ann Reinking) banquet. But I couldn't make out facial expressions or the subtleties of gaze and body talk that usually connect and even bond me to performers and the characters they play. I struggled to recover some sense of the 1975 Kander-Ebb-Fosse musical I had seen and enjoyed only in its 2002 movie version. It didn't help to have to continually aim my gaze nearly to the ceiling, away from those distant faces, to catch whatever English supertitles I could catch. I felt lost and got lost more often than I'd care to admit.

At the outset, the CHICAGO of Takarazuka CHICAGO seemed sluggish. Post-intermission, though, it took on a certain charge, and I did get a kick out of Saori Mine (playing flashy, celebrated celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn) and the moxie of foxy Roxie Hart (played by Hikaru Asami) and Velma Kelly (Yoka Wao), our two vaudeville-era lady killers. But I did not really start rooting for Takarazuka Revue until the hard-working performers lowered the curtain on CHICAGO and gifted us with one their famous encores, a show in itself.

To Takarazuka Revue, "encore" does not mean one or two quick, rousing sendoffs. Oh no. It means a string of numerous songs, each a mini-production with different performers, about twenty minutes more of material--Takarazuka's own material, this time, and what material! Glittering light effects sweeping the theater's walls and ceiling; sexy, romantic tangos between women dressed to the nines; Vegas showgirl feather costumes and Rockettes-style lineups. It's also fun to notice how audience members, many of them Japanese or Japanese-American, recognize and hail specific players as they take the stage for their encore segments.

As I giddily discussed this, via Facebook app, with a Takarazuka fan who has seen the troupe in Japan, we hit on the same explanation for why these encores slay. It's really hard to separate how gaudily over-the-top they are from the exquisite technical excellence of the performances. Your brain instinctively says, "Wait, no. I can't believe this," but you're grinning. Confections coming after the dark meal of CHICAGO, they feel like acts of sincere generosity, feel-good rewards and guilty pleasures. Each number is bite-sized but packs a lot of calories, and everyone goes away richly fed.

The North American premiere run of Takarazuka CHICAGO continues at Lincoln Center Festival through Sunday. Remaining shows are:

Friday, July 22, 7:30
Saturday, July 23, 2:00
Saturday, July 23, 8:00
Sunday, July 24, 2:00

Note: The show runs roughly three hours with one intermission.

Get information and tickets here.

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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"Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter" opens January 23

Modern dance is not a system. It's a point of view. -- Martha Hill

Greg Vander Veer's 80-minute documentary, Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter, explores the visionary path of dance educator Martha Hill, from her Bible Belt upbringing and first sight of a Graham dance through her poignant final years at the Juilliard Dance Division. Bursting with archival footage, photographs and interviews, the film traces dance history through the many lives and careers influenced by Hill. It notes the significance of her support for America's early modern dance pioneers and her prescient insistence on building the total dancer, one grounded in both modern and balletic training.

Vander Veer gives Hill her due as an insightful, nurturing and inspiring leader, tough when she needed to be. He has not shied away from addressing the professional struggles she faced--a society that, when not damning dance as a sinful pursuit, considered dance training to be little better than Phys Ed and for girls only. And then there was Lincoln Kirstein's aggressive move to poach Hill's Juilliard studios for Balanchine and New York City Ballet. The going gets a little heavy here--moneyed, privileged, well-connected NYCB once again pulling focus--but you soon see this ugly episode's relevance to a narrative about fighting for what matters. It takes a strong woman, but it takes a village, too.

See Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter, starting Friday, January 23, at Quad Cinemas. A Q & A with Vander Veer and Coordinating Producer Vernon Scott will follow Friday and Saturday (7pm) and Saturday and Sunday (4:30pm) shows. 

Future public screenings are scheduled for Spokane, WA, Columbus, OH, and Boston.

Distributed by First Run Features. For more information on future screenings or purchase, click here.

Quad Cinema

34 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan

(directions)

Brazil's passinho dancers in US debut at LC Out of Doors

A Batalha do Passinho dancers
Below: Batalha host Zuzuka Poderosa
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

When New York's summer weather cooperates, as it certainly did last evening, Lincoln Center Out of Doors can be a great way to soak up and savor the positive energy of arts from nearly everywhere in our world. Last night's show brought an organized group of performers of passinho, the Rio de Janeiro party dance, in their US debut together with Rennie Harris Puremovement, the celebrated Philly troupe that revolutionized a sophisticated blending of hip-hop moves with more conventional dance theater techniques and aesthetics.

Three luminaries of New York's urban and contemporary dance scene
served as the passinho battle's judges.
Left to right: Rokafella, Akim Funk Buddha and Doug Elkins
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

A Batalha do Passinho dancers (c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa
The showcase was created in 2011 by co-artistic director Julio Ludemir
after this Rio favela dance trend went viral on YouTube.

Opening the two-hour show, the Brazilians burst on the stage with a rawness and sense of adventure and fun that would be hard to top. Rapidfire twisting of their feet made their bent legs look like massive, lethal grinders. The daunting contortions of flexing and bone breaking, the smooth illusions of moonwalking, b-boying acrobatics, Cossack folkdance and even voguing all flow through passinho, offered in a spirit of good-natured competitiveness. The batalha (battle) format of the Brazilian presentation, facilitated by the merry host, Zuzuka Poderosa, gave the Lincoln Center audience an active investment in the proceedings as we watched closely to make distinctions between the competitors' styles and specialties.

Marcelly Miss Passista,
champion of the Lincoln Center batalha
(c)2014, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

The Brazilian dancers trained our eyes for a kind of reckless derring-do that seem combed out of the silky, glamorously sexy Puremovement with Harris's oddly safe, placid approach to arranging dancers across a stage--line them up, slide the frontal lines side to side. It's funny to come away feeling that I would have preferred to see Puremovement "where they belong now"--in formal, and well-managed, indoor staging. Put a frame around them.

The interesting encounter and dialogue of troupes that could have been did not pan out. Maybe next time both crews could be tossed together in a residency to experiment and cook up something surprising.

New York knows and loves Rennie Harris's endless seductions, the way his dancers' bodies bounce like rubber against air as if it were a hard surface; the way they float inside and around the edges of music's rhythms, each body addressing multiple, discrete segments of time in individual ways even when everyone's working the same moves. Puremovement demonstrates the basic silliness of trying to make dance where everyone looks exactly like everyone else, where visual homogeneity is privileged. Everything offered up is going to be a little different, according to who gives it, and that's a fine, instructive thing.

*****

There's much more to come from the Lincoln Center Out of Doors festival, running through through August 10--all programs absolutely free. Click here for a schedule of events including tomorrow's 1pm Family Day dance class with dancers from A Batalha do Passinho!

Lincoln Center Out of Doors
Damrosch Park Bandshell, Lincoln Center
West 62nd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues, Manhattan
(map/directions)

At last: one protest against naming theater for rightwing Koch brother

The Curious Incident Of The New York City Ballet Dancing In The David H. Koch Theater
by Todd Essig, Forbes, February 24, 2014

SF Ballet union dispute quickly settled, NY shows saved

San Francisco Ballet Reaches Agreement With Dancers’ Union

by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, October 3, 2013

Labor dispute might disrupt SF Ballet plans for NYC shows

San Francisco Ballet in Dispute With Dancers

by Dave Itzkoff, The New York Times, October 2, 2013

Rubén Blades at Lincoln Center Out of Doors

Rubén Blades
(photos above and below by Darial Sneed)

After four decades in music, just how big a superstar is Panama-born salsero (and actor, activist, lawyer, politician) Rubén Blades? Well, if you already know his work, you know the answer. But, if you don't, check out this note I received from the Lincoln Center press office the day following Blades' Wednesday night appearance at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell:

By the way, we just got the official head count from LC Security and it's 10,000+ -- -- that includes people in the official seating area, plus crowds in the back section of the park going all the way to the Koch Theater and spilling over a bit on to Josie Robertson Plaza.  There were also folks standing and listening from the sidewalk of West 62nd street, but these were not included in the count. 

Yes. Sure enough, despite threat of rain--a threat never made good on--there were people stretched back from the park's entrance barriers as far as my eyes could see. Many had been waiting there for hours. They were let in, a handful at a time, and then the trickle stopped--no more admitted. I had never seen anything like that at a Lincoln Center Out of Doors show.

Similarly, the line for the women's restroom was ridiculous, made bearable only by the way a spirit of solidarity and wicked humor tends to break out in these situations. After my more than half-hour wait, I just barely made it back to my seat to hear Blades well into his first number, "Plástico," with Roberto Delgado Orchestra, Panamanian musicians making their US debut.

Blades with Panama's Roberto Delgado Orchestra
(photo by Darial Sneed)

Getting their shots
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Dancing had already broken out in the aisles with salsa dancers of different ethnicities exchanging partners and displaying intricacies of personal style--a delightful visual accompaniment to the stage show. With few moments of lilting effervescence, Blades' set hewed to a sober, steady roll--his vocals sliding over the disciplined brass, percussion and keyboards of the orchestra. No eye-candy or sonic flash whatsoever, just a baseline for a reliable Everyman storyteller and his tales of social and political realities--in songs like "Decisiones," "Caína," and "Amor," the last, written as his mother was succumbing to cancer--and his sharing of comfort and wisdom.

I want to share with you one of my earlier and most fervent Rubén Blades obsessions--"Cuentas del Alma," a Latin jazz piece from Escenas (1985). So much do I love this song--a curiously soaring reflection on abandonment and bitter loneliness--that I'm going to share two versions of Blades singing it with different bands. Here's the first.

For the second, you'll have to go here.

Lincoln Center Out of Doors continues through this Sunday, August 11. Click here to enjoy more wonderful--and free-shows.

Lincoln Center Plaza fountain
(c)2013, Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Plans for massive arts center to rise in Hudson Yards

City Allots $50 Million to Arts Project Tied to Bloomberg Allies
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, July 31, 2013

NEA names new Jazz Masters

National Endowment for the Arts Names New Class of Jazz Masters
by Nate Chinen, The New York Times, June 27, 2013

They did it anyway: Women in jazz [UPDATE]

THE GIRLS IN THE BAND, written, directed and produced by Judy Chaikin, tells the poignant, untold stories of female jazz and big band instrumentalists and their fascinating, groundbreaking journeys from the late 30′s to the present day.

“A vivid experience…I sat there watching and just wiping tears away… tears of joy.” -- Herbie Hancock 

LINCOLN CENTER 
SCREENING SCHEDULE

NYC Premiere Screening (invitation only): May 10, 7:15pm at Walter Reade Theater

Public Screenings at The Beale Theater, Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center

May 10, 11am
May 10, 1pm
May 10, 3pm
May 10, 5pm
May 10, 9:15pm
May 11–16, 11:30am
May 11–16, 2pm
May 11–16, 4:30pm
May 11–16, 7pm
May 11–16, 9:30pm

TICKETS

For further information on The Girls in The Band, click here.

UPDATE

Playing Jazz in High Heels and Skirts

‘The Girls in the Band,’ a Documentary by Judy Chaikin

by Jeannette Catsoulis, The New York Times, May 9, 2013

Music great Eddie Palmieri gets his due

Borders and Epochs, Dissolving at His Keyboard
by Larry Rohter, The New York Times, December 13, 2012

Meet pianist André Watts

New York Philharmonic Offstage with André Watts

Monday, December, 3 (7pm)
Admission: Free

Meet this season's artists and members of the Orchestra as they engage in conversation with 105.9 FM WQXR's Jeff Spurgeon, completely free of charge.

New York Philharmonic subscribers and donors may reserve their spot in advance by emailing offstage@nyphil.org.

David Rubenstein Atrium
61 West 62nd Street (at Broadway), Manhattan 
(map/directions)

UKanDanz...the night away

UKanDanz, based in Lyon, France, made its US debut at Lincoln Center Out of Doors last evening before a sparse but increasingly impressed audience. Earlier rain, and the threat of thunderstorms, had kept initial attendance down. But the deepening night sky stayed dry, great music kept coming from this French/Ethiopian quintet and two other bands over the next few hours, and more people arrived to partake and enjoy.

It took me a couple of songs to warm to UKanDanz, with its raucous collision of high-pitched, passionate Ethiopian melisma and hard-charging rock. But vocalist Asnaqé Guèbrèyès served as a magnetic center to keep all the components from flying off in different directions. After awhile, it just worked.

Oumar Konate (photo by Darial Sneed)

Due to the ongoing conflict in her country, Mali's esteemed vocalist Khaira Arby could not join her band in New York, but guitarist-singer Oumar Konate took up the leadership role, bringing the funk and the rock with a majestic glide. These guys--especially Konate--really rock out in the classic style on their beautiful guitars and do so without losing the slightest degree of crystal clear precision.

I stayed for only half of the last set--Yemen Blues, fronted by an electrifying Israeli-Yemenite vocalist, Ravid Kahalani--but I was glad to hear that much.

Ravid Kahalani (photo by Darial Sneed)

These musicians play trombone, trumpet, flute, viola, cello, violin, oud, gimbri, percussion and keyboards. I hear blues, funk, North and West African rhythms and Latin jazz influences threaded through the fabric, a big, colorful, sophisticated sound, powerful enough to rattle your chest. Kahalani's sexy exuberance carries the Life Force; in fact, his first utterance, upon taking the stage, was to cry "Adonai!!!" Audience members flocked to empty spaces near the stage to sway and dance in complete enchantment. All in all, a sensational night at Lincoln Center.

Here's a taste of Yemen Blues from a 2010 trailer:

Get a schedule of remaining Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival events here.

Latin American sounds at Lincoln Center Out of Doors

Sergio Dias (Photo: Darial Sneed)

Guest blogger Darial Sneed offers her photographs and reflections on a great show at Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park Bandshell:

After Thursday’s rain cancellation, Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival returned Friday with a South-of-the-Border-themed program.

Brazilian guitarist and composer Sergio Dias, in traditional attire, opened with a rousing guitar and vocal rendition of Brazilian songs. Dias is best known as a founding member of popular rock band Os Mutantes. The crowd enjoyed the rare treat of Dias’ first solo performance since 2006.

Wil-Dog El Gavachillo (photo: Darial Sneed)

Wil-Dog El Gavachillo with Banda Viento de Oro pulsated with punk rock beat and rhythms. The charismatic bassist Wil-Dog Abers--of Los Angeles-based Latin band Ozomatli--donned a hat and with pumping fists assumed his alter ego “El Gavachillo”. He was backed by the Mexican-inspired brass band, Banda Viento de Oro, making its first New York appearance.

Colombia's Los Irreales de Ondatrópica (photo: Darial Sneed)

Nidia Góngora of Los Irreales de Ondatrópica (photo: Darial Sneed)

Eagerly anticipated was the new Colombian group Los Irreales de Ondatrópica, fresh from its debut at the London Olympics. The 12-member group, which just completed a new CD at the fabled Discos Fuentes studios, includes Colombia music legends and rising stars. Performing traditional Cumbia updated with electronics and hip-hop drums, the band’s energetic, undulating pulse brought many in the audience to their feet, swaying and dancing enthusiastically. Vocalist Nidia Góngora was captivating as she playfully flirted with male band members and the audience.

It was a foot-stomping evening of Latin-based music under clear, crisp skies.

--Darial Sneed

NEWFEST LGBT film festival starts Friday

NEWFEST, New York City's festival of LGBT films, starts this Friday at Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater. Click here for complete program schedule and ticketing details.

Turn off that damned phone!

New York Philharmonic Interrupted by Chimes Mahler Never Intended
by Daniel J. Wakin, The New York Times, January 11, 2012

NYCB revises controversial ticket policy

City Ballet Offers New Discount Program
by Robin Pogrebin, The New York Times, August 10, 2011

Dancers to commemorate 9/11

The Table of Silence Project
conceived by choreographer Jacqulyn Buglisi and Italian artist Rosella Vasta

The Table of Silence Project represents the common threads of humanity which unite all mankind into a single force with common goals and aspirations, regardless of race, culture or religion. Through this event we wish to achieve the dual purpose of celebrating and honoring peace through listening - a united moment of silence - a call for Peace in our world from NYC's community of artists. -- Jacqulyn Buglisi

Sunday September 11, 8:20 AM, ending at 8:46 AM
Josie Robertson Plaza, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Complete information here

Sarah Skaggs Dance
9/11 Dance -- A Roving Memorial
 
An 11-minute meditative dance for large groups of dancers, performed simultaneously on September 11 from Noon to 3pm at multiple locations:

• Three New York City parks (Union Square, Washington Square and Battery Park)
• Washington, DC in the atrium of the National Museum of Women in the Arts and as part of the Arts on Foot Festival
• Shanksville, PA at Memorial Park

In shaping the work, Skaggs was driven by such questions as: What is the function of dance post-9/11? What is the role of the body in an anxious and fearful climate? And can multiple bodies moving slowly in space create a shift in public consciousness?

The project will be broadcast on YouTube following the events. Visit Sarah Skaggs Dance.

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's "Sutra"

Here's my Dance Magazine review of Sutra, part of the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center (November 2-4, 2010). Click here and scroll down the page.