One more to see: Rennie Harris gets funky at New Victory

Performers from
Rennie Harris: Funkedified,
a world premiere at New Victory Theater
(photo: Brian Mengini)

Two acclaimed Philadelphia dance crews--Rennie Harris Puremovement and The Hood Lockers--are tearing up the stage at New Victory Theater, now through June 10. If you love popping, locking, breaking and all things street dance, go see Rennie Harris: Funkedified.

The premise of this expert world premiere production is a remembrance of the funk music and dancing of the 1970s--think James Brown and Soul Train--that set Harris on his path to becoming one of the world's best-loved masters of hip-hop artistry. A marvelous five-piece band, led by guitarist Matt Dickey and drummer Doron Lev, brings the funk in a big, joyous way. Several cloth panels, hanging above the band like a quilt, capture projected imagery--some hazy, some abstract, some psychedelic--as well as Bob Steineck's luscious, saturated lighting as we hear Harris's musings on his cultural past. His voice--echoey and phantasmal--seems to emerge from out of a cloud or the depths of a dream--but the ingenious, passionate dancing and music speak for themselves.

The New Vic is a family-oriented theater and, at this Saturday matinee, most folks in the audience were small kids in booster seats sitting quiet and polite throughout the show. I kind of longed for an audience of Black teens who'd know just what to do with what we were seeing and hearing! It took a while for any heads to start bopping to the fantastic music--and they were adult heads. I just hope there were youngsters in the audience checking out, in particular, Puremovement soloist Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad whose fluidity, range and poignancy should prove a powerful inspiration.

Rennie Harris Puremovement: Shafeek Westbrook, Katie Cruz, Joshua Culbreath, Phil Cuttino Jr., Tatiana Desardouin, Leigh “Breeze-Lee” Foaad, Mai Lê Hô-Johnson and Yuko “Uko Snowbunny” Tanaka

The Hood Lockers: Ricky “Glytch” Evans, Joshua “J Peazy” Polk, Andrew “Riot” Ramsey and Marcus “Epic” Tucker

Musicians: Shareef Clayton (trumpet), Matt Dickey (Music Director; guitar), Doron Lev (Music Director; drums), Nicholas Marks (keys), Osei Kweku (bass) and FKAjazz (saxophone)

Sound design/composition/production: Darrin Ross
Visual design: Jorge Cousineau
Lighting design: Bob Steineck

Rennie Harris: Funkedified runs through Sunday, June 10. For information and tickets, click here.

New Victory Theater
209 West 42nd Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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New Victory Theater to offer summer dance program for kids

A Summer Dance Program for Children in New York City
by Roslyn Sulcas, The New York Times, May 15, 2014

HyperISH: Taking it from street to stage

Who's afraid?

These two words are the first uttered in HyperISH, an hour of power presented by the Amsterdam-based troupe ISH at The New Victory Theater, now through May 18. Dancers begin by creeping out under hazy light, wobbling atop a row of drab, ungainly platforms to woozy music--the first and last time you'll believe that any of these seven rambunctious men and women have ever suffered a moment of fear.

Founded in 1999 by Marco Gerris, ISH draws from diverse sources--hip hop, club dancing, acrobatics, ballet, Kathak, capoeira and other martial arts. A choreographic collision for sure, but you'll be happy to know that it works, thanks to Gerris's imagination and the outlandish talent and charisma of dancers like Micka Karlsson, Shailesh Bahoran and especially the unbelievable Martin Barnes. What does not work so well is Gerris's well-intentioned concept, a mess of dramaturgidity obviously aimed at young audiences.

When it is not just about fantastic dancing, HyperISH is sort of about alienation, about finding one's True Self despite the distractions and pressures of conformist, consumerist society, about our obsession with cyber-connectedness and being liked and...Liked. And so forth. The Catcher in the Rye has been cited as an inspiration. It tries way too hard.

But let the dancing help you forget all that. Don't overthink this show. Just go and watch what happens.

HyperISH runs through May 18. For program and ticket information, click here.

New Victory Theater
209 West 42nd Street (Times Square), Manhattan
(map/directions)

It's a Fiasco! In a good way!

Paul L. Coffey (Angelo) and Emily Young (Isabella)
in Fiasco Theater's Measure for Measure
(photo by Joan Marcus)

WHY FIASCO?

Legend has it the word “fiasco” was first used to describe commedia dell’arte performances that went horribly (and hilariously) wrong. In those instances the performer would have to fare fiasco or “make a bottle.” In other words “You’re buying!” While we hope to avoid on-stage disasters, we do believe that it is only when artists are brave enough to risk a fiasco that the possibility exists of creating something special. 

-- from Fiasco Theater Web site

Gotta love it.

Anyway, the fiasco going on at New Victory Theater, as of last evening's opening of Measure for Measure, is not the work of the delightful Fiasco Theater, but the fix that Shakespeare's comic characters have gotten themselves into.

The laidback Duke of Vienna (Andy Grotelueschen) suddenly decides to take a powder--or so it seems--and dump all governing responsibility onto his deputy. He grabs a valise and scrams. The deputy, Angelo (Paul L. Coffey), turns out to be a vindictive law-and-order type, upsetting people's lifestyles and livelihoods and even chance of continuing to live at all. Fiasco!

Funnily enough, the errant duke actually remains right there in the city and in the thick of things, disguised as a friar, closely monitoring developments and, in the nick of time as only Shakespeare could nick it, setting things aright.

Before we get to the Happily Ever After with an Big Ol' Asterisk, Fiasco's performers, singing English Renaissance vocal works as lovely preludes to each act and doubling up characters, take us through twisty complications and disturbances of the social order. As physical actors, they have charming vitality--in particular, Ben Steinfeld (Lucio and Froth), Jessie Austrian (Escalus and Mariana), Noah Brody (Claudio and Pompey) and the terrific Emily Young (Isabella and Mistress Overdone). Unlike his colleagues, Grotelueschen has a tendency to rush through and sink back behind his lines. We know the duke is a man in a hurry, yet this actor need not be. But Grotelueschen pulls off a flawless Act Two scene as the friar conversing with Steinfeld's Lucio. Steinfeld is a hoot throughout the play but never more focused than here as these two guys lock eyes and bring out the best in each other. Electric!

Co-direction: Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld
Set: Derek McLane
Costumes: Whitney Locher
Lighting: Tim Cryan

Fiasco Theater's Measure for Measure runs now through March 16. Get tickets here.

New Victory Theater
209 West 42nd Street (between 7th and 8th Avenues), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Making it funky: Rhythmic Circus in "Feet Don't Fail Me Now"

When you're Dancin' with the circus

No cloud in the sky can get ya

--from "Singin' in the Rain" in Feet Don't Fail Me Now!

Watch this year-old promo video (below) from Rhythmic Circus--not an actual circus, but an award-winning tap dance and music ensemble--and imagine everything you see and hear in this video now, one year later, cranked up in cleverness and intensity to a great degree. That ought to give you some idea of what's happening in Times Square at The New Victory Theater where the Minneapolis-based troupe has installed its masterpiece, Feet Don't Fail Me Now!, now through December 1.

I'm assuming you want to be entertained, because Rhythmic Circus is wildly entertaining in the very best blue-eyed-soul way (and I have no idea what color their eyes are, and I don't care). Hot dancing, hot music--you want brassy salsa? hard-pumping Southern rock? funk? R&B? beatbox?--they're selling it, if you're willing to be sold to, and if you aren't, don't buy. Good. That leaves plenty for the rest of us.

How did Ricci Milan (dancer/artistic director) and Nick Bowman (dancer/executive director) manage to pack so much content and value into a single hour? Don't know, but the set list gives these performers a chance to show off their amazing versatility. Not just really good tap dancing, but exciting dancing, period. And Aaron "Heatbox" Heaton's devilish ability to mimic nearly any musical instrument. And that band, Root City, rocking the house with a lead whose voice...well, forgive me, but I can only say it like this: Close your eyes and tell me if this isn't a brother singing...and gorgeously.

Here's more from 2012.

The New Victory curates its programs with families in mind, but you don't have to be a kid--or a parent with kids in tow--to get into this production. Just go, and when the Rhythm Circus crew invites you to get up off your chair and dance, just say, "Feet don't fail me now!"

Dancers: Ricci Milan, Nick Bowman, Galen Higgins, Kaleena Miller with Michael Keefe

Root City musicians: Alex Rossi (guitar, vocals), Aaron "Heatbox" Heaton (vocals, percussion), Cornell Blanchard (keys, vocals), Patrick Nelson (drums, tuba, vocals), Dan Ristrom (bass, vocals), Peter Vircks (saxophone), Aaron Wiener (trumpet).
Sound/Audio: Miles Hanson
Lighting: Mark Ruark

Feet Don't Fail Me Now! runs through December 1. For complete schedule and ticketing information, click here.

The New Victory Theater

209 West 42nd Street, Times Square, Manhattan

(map/directions)

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca

Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca, concluding its run today at Time Square's New Victory Theater, has long been one of my favorite troupes of any discipline, offering an unvarnished, powerful brand of flamenco dance, guitar and song. But that doesn't mean that Martin Santangelo's world-renowned company is above making a few missteps.

Despite New Victory's own modest size, the theater managed to dwarf Santangelo's production, and S. Benjamin Farrar's tenebristic lighting scheme nearly obscured much of it. I wanted to liberate the company from its setting, scrape the awkward darkness away from these familiar faces. I longed for Theatre 80, the teeny-tiny East Village hall where Barrio and her colleagues usually make their Manhattan stand, proximity and lighting invoke an intimate tablao, and audiences feel the passion in every cell.

Even at Theatre 80, I would have found this show wanting. The program notes for the opener --Camino, a world premiere by Santangelo--allude to the struggles of refugee children and to the work of a UN agency that provides protection and aid. One could say that much of flamenco expresses human pain and, often, a proud, stubborn heroism in the face of life's unpredictable challenges. Although the allusion is sincere, any connection between flamenco and refugee children is not clearly reflected in this presentation. And, though New Victory specializes in family-oriented, kids-friendly companies, I wonder just how much the small children attending this show could grasp of either the culture of flamenco or Santangelo's stated inspiration.

Noche Flamenca still packs great value. The blending of guitarists Salva de Maria and Eugenio Iglesias is as rich, warm and dreamy as ever; Manuel Gago and Emilio Florido, royal lions of flamenco song, continue to go from strength to strength. Dancer Manuela Vargas--earthy in form and manner, sometimes a Fury--turns the simplest pivot into a matter of gathering focus and contemplation. And, most of all, Barrio's dancing seems to become more pliant with every performance, transcending technique to infuse every solo or duet with character, drama, color, life. Heart's blood is in everything she does.

Since Noche Flamenca devotes itself to a pared-back purity, the reliability of each artist becomes paramount. The troupe would not be able to hide weaknesses behind a glitzy, pumped-up theatrical production. Which, uncomfortably, brings me to guest artist Manuel Reyes, ideal for a flamenco Riverdance.

Reyes--wiry, intense, dramatically bald-headed--has absolutely drop-dead perfect technique. Sad to say, he's not a good fit for Noche Flamenco. He is like a piece of steel dropped down in a field of wildflowers. While admiring his sharp line, his crisp attack, even the choreographic sass of his farruca--De Aquí, de alli, de hoy, de ayer--I was alienated by the fact that he fails to radiate genuine feeling. (And Reyes's De Aquí is a very, very long dance to watch if you're not having a good time.) Watch him dancing beside Barrio in their alegrías duet and see who is just delivering the steps and who is the more giving, creative interpreter of choreography.

In past seasons, the company has benefited from great male dancers like Antonio Jimenez "El Chupete" and Alejandro Granados, each, in his own way, a rivetting soloist and a worthy match for powerhouse Barrio. This loyal fan hopes Santangelo will bring them back.

Read my July 2008 review of Noche Flamenca's El Mar at Theatre 80.

Luna Negra Dance Theater

More about Chicago...

Congratulations to Luna Negra Dance Theater, the lovely Chicago troupe making its New York City debut at the New Victory Theater through February 3. Founded in 1999 by artistic director Eduardo Vilaro--a Cuban-born former Ballet Hispanico principal dancer--the troupe showcases a contemporary stylistic hybrid of dances by Latino choreographers. The current program features work by Pedro Ruiz (Sonetos de Amor, 2005), Michelle Mazanales (Sugar in the Raw, 2007) and Vilaro (Quinceañera, 2006) with fresh design, delectable musical choices, and an ensemble of gifted performers who enliven the stage with fluid, intricate musicality. It's especially nice that this troupe does not seem to feel the need to sell the work; they simply dance it the best way they know how. The sparkle comes from clean, grounded technique radiant with warmth from the inside. The families at this Saturday's matinee adored the entertainment, and I hope Luna Negra will be motivated to visit our city again and often.

For more information about Luna Negra's New Victory run, click here.