Artists Reach Out: Katherine Crockett

Dear friends,

Welcome to Artists Reach Out: reflections in a time of isolation. I dreamed this series of interviews out of grief for my work both as a documenting arts writer and curator of live performance. In this time of social distancing, we are called to responsibly do all we can to safeguard ourselves and our neighbors. It is, literally, a matter of life and death.

But there's no distancing around what we still can share with one another--our experiences, thoughts, wisdom, humor, hearts and spirit. In some ways, there are more opportunities to do so as we pull back from everyday busyness out in the world and have time to honor the call of our inner lives.

So, let me introduce you to some artists I find interesting. I'm glad they're part of our beautiful community, and I'm eager to engage with them again (or for the first time) in years to come.

--Eva Yaa Asantewaa, InfiniteBody


Katherine Crockett

Katherine Crockett
(photo: Adrian Buckmaster)

Katherine Crockett is a New York City-based performance artist. She was a Principal dancer in The Martha Graham Dance Company for 22 years.  She has had works created for her by such diverse artists as Robert Wilson, Yvonne Rainer, Lucinda Childs, Martha Clarke, Richard Move, Larry Keigwin, Maureen Flemming-Odo, Anne B. Parsons and Susan Stroman.

Crockett starred in and choreographed her role as the Queen in the immersive Off–Broadway hit Queen of the Night. She danced as Cate Blanchett’s dancer double in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Crockett was the guest soloist, dancing the role of Helen, alongside Mikhail Baryshnikov with his White Oak Dance Project in The Show--Achilles Heels, choreography by Richard Move. Crockett has been televised performing Graham’s legendary Appalachian Spring (PBS), Herodiade (PBS), and the iconic solo Lamentation (BBC). She also performed Lamentation as a guest artist for the “Return Festival” in Kosovo hosted by Vanessa Redgrave and UNICEF.

Crockett was featured as Helen in the SITI Company’s production of Trojan Women (After Euripides), directed by Anne Bogart. Ms. Crockett is the lead actor of the feature film Fall to Rise, written by Jayce Bartok. She has performed and choreographed for special events and galas worldwide including the Cannes Film Festival with Dame Shirley Bassey, the VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards, the Gala of the Stars of the 21st century, The FYC/Vanity Fair Emmy’s special event for TV series The Alienist, Paramount Pictures Premiere party for I Am The Night, Ovation TV premiere special event for Versailles, the runways of Alexander McQueen and Victoria’s Secret as well and as dancing as the featured soloist for PRADASS2020 Shanghai.

Her company ExquisiteMuse Productions creates and produces immersive experiences, such as Fetish 67 for Steven Klein and Visionaire Magazine at Art Basel, Cirque Du Nuit for The Knot Gala, Yellow Submarine, an immersive cinema experience, Down the Rabbit Hole for TrueX/FOX, and several other projects collaborating with Comcast, House of Yes, Brooklyn Mirage, BBQ Films, Little Cinema, Brooklyn Museum, Park Avenue Armory as well as individual artists.

Katherine Crockett
in Martha Graham's Cave of the Heart
(photo: Albert Watson)

Katherine Crockett's Icarus
(photo: Mark Moseley)

Do you have a current or planned project whose progress is affected by the pandemic?

Yes, I’ve had several things postponed into the unforeseeable future.  One was an immersive multi media performance called Prisma.  Also, I’d received a scholarship to attend the HERE Immersive Summit in LA which was postponed. Another project which is an immersive experience for the premiere party for the TV series SnowPiercer has been adapted to be a virtual experience. I also have several other pieces in progress that are on hold now.

Briefly, tell me about how you got involved in the arts and in your particular practice.

Both of my parents are artists. My father is an abstract painter, and my mother is a performance artist, so I was surrounded by art all my life.  My mom started me in dance lessons at the age of 4. I trained in ballet and then at The Martha Graham School before joining the Graham Company for which I was principal dancer for 21 years. I’ve performed with other choreographers in both film and theater. I moved into immersive theater creating my role as The Queen in Queen of the Night, which lead me to making more of my own work, inspired by ritual, ceremony and intimate site-specific spaces. I create worlds for audiences to step into and allow them to have their own agency to discover. I often have performance moments created especially for one audience member only. 

In a more specific way, what are you practicing? And what are you envisioning?

The practice that developed from performing these one-on-one moments in my immersive theater pieces shifted my approach to onstage performance, as well. I saw that I had to let go of my own trying and self-judgments in order to allow the creative impulse the space to emerge and unfold, like in improvisational dance. I had to remain open to respond in the moment to each unique person or audience, as they are a partner in the unfolding. To allow oneself to be seen, with full vulnerability, is essential for true connection and communication. This is a practice of being present, despite whatever fears I may have, and regardless of other people’s opinions. I choose to re-interpret that pulsing wildness of my heart beat not as fear, but as exhilaration. I choose to trust my instincts, and to leave space for the unexpected to come in.

How does your practice and your visioning align with what you most care about?

There is something incredible about the act of performance, because it is this living moment experienced and shared together in real-time and only existing in the moment. Therefore, it is fully about being in the present. It is also the way I express my heart and ideas.  It is my voice--my language--the way I communicate and connect. To be able to share and connect through my art and performance is like breathing for me.

Martha Graham said, “Practice is a means of inviting the perfection desired." And whether in life or in art, I believe this to be true. I think of the Aramaic definition of perfection, which translates to “ripe." To practice being present so that I am ready, allowing and alive to the impulses, the curiosities, the inspirations, and the spontaneous wonders of the creative process.

How does your practice function within the world we have now?

This is a true challenge, and I’m asking myself this very question. Right now, there can be no group public gatherings, so no live performances can happen until who knows when. I miss performing, and remote digital streaming is not a replacement for that live shared journey. But the necessity to express and connect is much too important for all of us.

I believe this will spark new ways of creating and ways of coming together until we can share physical space safely again. So here is that challenge of entering the unknown and the opportunity for me to practice being present even in the face of fear, and to stay open. To find the connection within myself; my bones, my muscles, my flesh, my limbs, my heart. I am taking daily walks in the park, noticing the spring blossoms change, breathing and letting all that I feel be there, and practicing taking one step at a time.

Self-care tip:

There was a point in my career when I started having a lot of anxiety, and went to see an incredible Biofeedback Performance enhancement therapist. Her name is Dr. Leah Lagos. We worked in particular with specific breathing exercises that through practice help you strengthen the vagus nerve which reduces, stress, anxiety and inflammation by activating the “relaxation response" of your parasympathetic nervous system.

One breathing technique that helped me was to inhale for four counts though my nose and exhale six counts through my mouth--with no pause in between--and repeat this for twenty minutes twice a day. It is recommended to do this for ten weeks straight. It completely changed my performing and my anxiety levels. Perhaps this is a good time to do this as many of us have more time in our days than normal.

******

DISCLAIMER: In addition to my work on InfiniteBody, I serve as Senior Curatorial Director of Gibney. The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views, strategies or opinions of Gibney.

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Rosie Herrera work featured in Limón season at The Joyce

Limón Dance Company performs The Unsung
(photo: Beatriz Schiller)

Amid the historic repertory of José Limón--Missa Brevis, premiered in 1958, and The Unsung, from 1971--Limón Dance Company has added an edgy splash of color and razzledazz to Program A of its new season at The Joyce Theater. It's the New York premiere of Querida Herida (2017), a women's trio by Rosie Herrera, a Miami-based, Cuban-American choreographer. Its clever title translates as dear (or beloved) wound, and its mischief stands out in a program that otherwise underscores the Mexico-born José Limón's earnest focus on the heroism embedded in our common humanity.

For instance, in The Unsung's signature opening ensemble, Limón envisioned a ceremony of beautiful men, each dancer named for an indigenous warrior chief--Sitting Bull, Geronimo, Tecumseh and so forth--something that might raise eyebrows if created today, say, by a white dancemaker. The gorgeousness of the group's work, though, is unquestionable. The patterns of their communal dancing are rich in rigorous geometric structure, and their well-ordered footfalls provide the only music, a bracing percussion reminiscent of Native American drumming.

Missa Brevis--set to Zoltán Kodály's Missa Brevis in Tempore Belli--salutes the endurance of survivors of war-torn Poland and what Limón called their "heroic serenity." He said, "I'm going to do a dance about it--in the ruins I found a dance." He forged a prayerful congregation who become their prayers, whose bodies transform into rung church bells. Made by artistic director and former Limón dancer Colin Connor, The Body is a House without Walls (2017), with its atmosphere of heroic grief and release, fits well with Limón modern dance aesthetics while lacking the boldface visual clarity that makes Limón's craft still affecting even as contemporary dance speaks to us in newer ways.

Which brings me around to Herrera and her beloved--artfully concealed, artfully revealed--wounds. How to take a work that careens between being barely there and over-the-top? Where two women cling to each other, dancing slow drags to Cuban music as if half-asleep, periodically unzipping parts of their skintight, midnight-black gowns as if slicing satiny, raspberry-red gashes into each other's flesh? Where, one minute, there's fake nudity (a dancer stripped down to a pale-colored leotard), and another, the women suddenly cavort in gleaming, gold-spangled party dresses? Where the lovers grapple and shove, leaving one vanquished and abandoned? Where an arterial ribbon of red spans the stage like a guide wire as a third dancer crosses that space in increasingly whimsical ways? How to take a work that makes some viewers chuckle at absurdity while others cringe at violence? And where some might very well do both at the same time? Where can we locate Herrera's fugitive tone and her intent?

Like the bright, picturesque wounds its dancers inflict upon each other, Querida Herida ruptures the sobriety and solemnity of Program A. Is this a good thing? Perhaps. Is it a different take on life and humanity from a Latinx artist of a new generation, new outlook? Something to ponder. Audiences who attend Program B and C--which, respectively, introduce New York premieres by Adam Barruch and Yin Yue--will get to ponder how these young choreographers affect the overall balance and alchemy of the Limón season.

Limón Dance Company: Jacqueline Buines, Terrence D. M. Diable, Angela Falk, Tanner Myles Huseman, David Glista, Logan Frances Kruger, Alex McBride, Brenna Monroe-Cook, Jesse Obremski, Frances Samson, Savannah Spratt, Mark Willis; apprentices Deepa Liegel and Malik Williams

Guest dancers: Carolina Avendano,Terry Springer, Kristen Foote and Julian Nichols

Limón Dance Company continues through Sunday, May 13 on the following schedule:

PROGRAM A:
Thursday at 8pm
The Unsung (José Limón)
The Body Is a House Without Walls (Colin Connor)
Querida Herida (Rosie Herrera)
Missa Brevis (José Limón)

PROGRAM B:

Friday at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm (family matinee)
The Unsung (José Limón)
The Body Is a House Without Walls (Colin Connor)
Conjurations (Adam Barruch)
Missa Brevis (José Limón)

PROGRAM C:

Saturday at 8pm and Sunday at 2pm
The Unsung (José Limón)
The Body Is a House Without Walls (Colin Connor)
No Room For Wandering (Yin Yue)
Missa Brevis (José Limón)

For information and tickets, click here.

The Joyce Theater
175 Eight Avenue (corner of 19th Street), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Films coming soon: Loïe and Isadora; the Afro-Andalusian influence in flamenco

French indie music star and actress Soko stars in The Dancer.
(above and below)

The biopic--which premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival
and was first seen in New York at Lincoln Center Film Society's
Rendez-Vous with French Film Festival this past March--
receives its US theatrical release on December 1.

Lily-Rose Depp as a rivalous Isadora Duncan

The Dancer
directed by Stéphanie Di Giusto
(108 min/France/French with English subtitles)

With her first feature film, The Dancer, director Stéphanie Di Giusto helps us imagine what it must have felt like to see American fin-de-siècle phenom Loïe Fuller (1862-1928) mounting a stage, aswirl in billowing silk and saturating spotlights, a theatrical innovator of monumental spectacle. For her stubborn if put-upon Loïe, Di Giusto deploys the fascinating French indie singer/actress Soko--an early Malcolm MacDowell or Marc Bolan lookalike whose favored black bowler hat might also have you flashing back to Liza Minnelli (Cabaret) and Lena Olin (The Unbearable Lightness of Being) but just briefly. She's far more androgynous than that--one character euphemistically describes her to an ardent male admirer as "standoffish"--and her struggles around sexuality underlie what the director clearly sees as inability to cope with the heedless, cruel pace of a world about to race past her.

Our first sight of Soko shows her nearly smothered in yards of fabric. But, no, she's not performing her famous Serpentine Dance. Instead, she's being rushed by several running men from the stage to either a hotel room or a hospital room; I could not tell which. Although we later learn why, it's enough, in that first moment, to identify Loïe with calamity and vulnerability. The film rarely lets up from that initial impression of her.

Next, we flash back to her as a sturdily-built, gloomy Midwestern girl--a very emo Mary Louise Fuller--sharing rough beginnings with her French-born, alcoholic father. He quickly ends up dead, leaving her at the mercy of a religion-obsessed mother. The cinematography of these early scenes has a heavy, depressing murkiness that rarely lifts from the film even when it is actually better lit. A biopic about an artist who illuminated stages with eye-popping light and magic is taken up with an atmosphere of grim darkness. But, again, Di Giusto seems intent on showing Loïe in pain, insecurity and discouragement.

There's the brutal physical pain of maneuvering those yards and yards of fabric, a feat that leaves her gasping for breath. Despite diligent conditioning, Loïe's body breaks down, time and again, and performing at all becomes a risk. But there's also emotional pain throughout Di Giusto's story--from the loss of Fuller's father to the ultimate betrayal wrought by one Isadora Duncan (Lily-Rose Depp), a youngster more conventionally feminine, at once more graceful and choreographically adventurous in movement and more given to displaying her body before the male gaze.

Mélanie Thierry does fine, delicately nuanced work as Gabrielle Bloch, Fuller's compassionate champion at the Paris Opera. She gives their scenes life and reminds you of Fuller even when the dancer is elsewhere, because you feel how vividly present Fuller is in her thoughts.

Don't come looking for a documentary. As the film opens, we're told that it is "based on a true story." Bear that "based on" in mind, if you will, and grant Di Giusto a little running room with her creative narrative. I suppose an educational film about how the real-life Loïe Fuller first dreamt up the notion of turning silk costuming into both motile sculpture and extraordinary canvases for her unique lighting effects might satisfy some but not many. Actually, we don't get to learn a whole lot more about Isadora Duncan, significant pioneer in her own right, and Depp brings little of interest to her role.

I've long been drawn to both of these legendary artists. I really only perked up when Soko--well-trained by contemporary dance artist Jody Sperling, acclaimed Loïe Fuller specialist and choreographer for the film--dons her costumes and models the sort of transformational stagecraft for which Fuller became famous.

The Dancer opens in theaters Friday, December 1.

Also coming soon...

Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories
directed by Miguel Ángel Rosales
film screening and flamenco performance
Sunday, December 3, 7pm to 9:30pm

Gurumbé: Afro-Andalusian Memories, a feature-length documentary from anthropologist Miguel Ángel Rosales, explores the contribution of Afro-Andalusians to flamenco as the art form developed. Gurumbé (72 min, in Spanish with English subtitles) has won numerous awards in the festival circuit and it is currently premiering around the world.

Flamenco performance by dancer Yinka Ese Graves and live musicians

Roundtable with the performers and the director, moderated by
K. Meira Goldberg, author of Flamenco on the Global Stage and Sonidos Negros: On the Blackness of Flamenco (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)

TICKETS

La Nacional
239 West 14th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Dennis Wayne, 72

Dennis Wayne, Charismatic Dancer With Leading Troupes, Dies at 72
by Richard Sandomir, The New York Times, October 25, 2017

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NEW@Graham: Celebrating a decade of "Lamentation Variations"

Lament not. Janet Eilber plans to keep dreaming up ways to revivify America's longest-running dance troupe, the Martha Graham Dance Company, and Graham's famed solo, Lamentations, continues to show the way.

Last evening, the company celebrated the 10th year of Lamentation Variations, its unusual commissioning project launched in 2007 as artistic director Eilber noticed that the season's opening night would fall on the anniversary of 9/11. Since then, Eilber has invited dancemakers, representing a diversity of aesthetic approaches, to respond to or re-imagine the Graham solo. So, Yes to Judson genius Yvonne Rainer rethinking Lamentation or tap genius Michelle Dorrance remixing it!

The commissioned artists pledge fidelity, more or less, to a set of spartan rules limiting length (no longer than Graham's four minutes), rehearsal time (10 hours tops) and sets (absolutely none allowed). Even given these restrictions, each has managed to re-envision the original in signature ways--for instance, turning the spare, tense, wrenching angularity of Graham's grieving into something eerily luxurious for soloist Katherine Crockett (Richard Move, 2007), bringing the entire company onstage (Larry Keigwin, 2007), turning the solo into an interracial male duet (Kyle Abraham, 2015) or teaching Memphis Jookin to a cluster of nine young Grahamites (Lil Buck, 2017).

"The question became 'How to put new choreography on the stage next to Graham classics," said Eilber as she opened the evening in the company's studio at Westbeth, former home of Merce Cunningham's troupe. "Would I get run out of town?" Ultimately, though, she found that introducing new work helped audiences "appreciate Martha Graham more and remember what a radical she was."

A radical, indeed. Throughout these opening remarks, an early 1940s video of Graham dancing Lamentation played behind and loomed over Eilber, proving her correct. Graham worked that solo. Her concept and vision for it, along with her fierce performance, remain unmatched. Last evening's program featured Variations by Abraham, Keigwin, Gwen Welliver (preparing for a 2018 Tallahassee premiere), Bulareyaung Pagarlava as well as Lil Buck's New York premiere. Each offered elements of interest...and yet...and yet...Graham remains queen.

Lamentation Variations concludes this evening with another informal toast and studio showing at 7pm, featuring Variations by Aszure Barton, Doug Varone, Richard Move, Larry Keigwin and Lil Buck. Click here for information and ticketing.

Martha Graham Studio Theater
Westbeth, 55 Bethune Street (11th Floor), Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Mary Cochran, 54

Mary Cochran, Dancer Who ‘Lit Up the Stage,’ Dies at 54
by Neil Genzlinger, The New York Times, October 15, 2017

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Nancy Meehan, 85

Nancy Meehan, a Dance Choreographer, Dies at 85
by Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, November 30, 2016

"Eclipse": Forces of Nature celebrates 35th Anniversary

Above and below:
Scenes from Eclipse: Visions of the Crescent and the Cross
by Abdel R. Salaam for Forces of Nature
(photos: Erin Baiano)

For its 35th anniversary season, Forces of Nature has gone all out with Eclipse: Visions of the Crescent and the Cross, choreographed and designed by the company's visionary artistic director, Abdel R. Salaam. Presented last evening at Aaron Davis Hall, this bustling ensemble work traces a narrative of interaction and intermingling between people of Christian and Islamic faiths from the Crusades through the Civil Rights/Black Nationalist years and up to the present day. Even that other visionary, Nostradamus, makes an appearance.

That sounds like a lot, I'm sure, and it is. But Salaam balances his fertile imagination with a strict editor's eye. And any didacticism keeps its proper place--in the program notes--as two hours of dance theater simply breeze by.

Were it not for its provocative subject matter, Eclipse, in excerpts or as a whole, would be absolutely Broadway-ready. Salaam has it all--abstract, stylistic battle scenes crafted like cut crystal; idyllic, lyrical entwinement between once shy, now rapturous lovers; energetic villagers breaking out their best Celtic, Mediterranean or West African moves and much, much more. Each scene, with further development, could work as a standalone piece or a self-contained number ready to be neatly, helpfully dropped into someone else's musical. There's old-school entertainment throughout for any audience that wants it, and Salaam's opening night audience digged it the most. Eclipse is best approached with a relaxed attitude of anything goes/what's next?/bring it!

Salaam is a man for every season, every mood and every dance technique--from modern to ballet, from step dance to flamenco to hip hop--with an equally eclectic, and quite wonderful, ear for music. He meets each opportunity to create characters and tell stories with panache--for instance, turning the competition between "The Cross" (Jeffrey Freeze) and "The Crescent" (Nathan Trice) into a boxing match that, ultimately, neither wins, though, from the look of Trice's stance and form, I'd give him the clear advantage in any rematch.

A work this demanding and ambitious calls for a lot from its dancers, and Salaam is blessed with a disciplined and ardent ensemble with notable work from Trice, Petra Duskova (as a Crusader's widow) and Jason Herbert (as her Muslim suitor).

See the repeat of Eclipse tonight at 7pm. For Program B, tomorrow evening at 7pm, the company presents classic repertory--Terrestrial Wombs, Fallen Idols, B’Flowin B’Smoove, The Word Made Flesh and Lamban Plus!

Get information and tickets for Forces of Nature here.

Aaron Davis Hall
on campus of The City College of New York
between West 133 and 135 Streets, Convent Avenue, Manhattan

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Memorial celebration for Kazuko Hirabayashi, November 7

Kazuko Hirabayashi
(photo courtesy of Daniel Madoff)

Organized by Daniel Madoff, Stephanie Tooman and Terese Capucilli, a memorial celebration for legendary dance teacher and choreographer Kazuko Hirabayashi has been set for Monday, November 7 (7:30pm) at New York's Symphony Space.

Ms. Hirabayashi, born in Japan, was an influential mentor to numerous leading dance artists. She died in March at her home in Harrison, New York. She was 82.

Featured performers include a stellar lineup from American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Batsheva Dance Company, Martha Graham Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, Abraham.In.Motion and Limón Dance Company as well as students from The Juilliard School, The Conservatory of Dance at Purchase College, SUNY, The Ailey School and The Martha Graham School.

Choreographers represented will include:

Kazuko Hirabayashi
Merce Cunningham
Martha Graham
Antony Tudor
Robert Battle
Ohad Naharin
Doug Varone
Kyle Abraham
Takehiro Ueyama
Alberto Estébanez Rodriguez
George Faison

Tickets are free with your RSVP by email to

kazmemorial2016@gmail.com

Symphony Space
2537 Broadway at 95th Street, Manhattan
(map/directions)

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Kazuko Hirabayashi, 82

Kazuko Hirabayashi, Choreographer and Dancers’ Mentor, Dies at 82
by Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, April 5, 2016

Experimenting with Miss Ruth: Lionel Popkin at Abrons

(Left to right) Lionel Popkin, Emily Beattie and Carolyn Hall
in Popkin's Ruth Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(photo: Cristal Jones)

Ruth Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, says dancer-choreographer Lionel Popkin. And why not? Well, maybe that's because Ruth St. Denis--illustrious modern dance pioneer--was a white woman who got famous for pushing a vaudevillian Orientalist fantasy, and Popkin is a contemporary dancer of Jewish-Indian lineage who is more than ready to go toe-to-toe with her. His hour-long dance at Abrons Arts Center--a trio performed with enchanting Emily Beattie and Carolyn Hall--asserts a right to mess in and mess up her space in the greater interest of, perhaps, starting to clean up his own ambivalence.

Popkin takes a leaf blower to St. Denis's legacy, the way he takes a leaf blower to Beattie's abundant hair, stirring up swirls of theater dust in the process. When we first see them, both are dressed in a uniform of blue-collar workers--heavy, navy-colored coveralls--suggesting a certain no-nonsense approach to dance, the hallmark of more recent dance eras. By contrast, the glam St. Denis was all about sparkly artifice and nonsense and just plain making shit up.

Lionel Popkin
(photo: Brian Mengini)

Like a Ghostbusters crew, Popkin and his dancers venture deep into an ectoplasmic detritus of discarded saris and veils, the haul of St. Denis's far and frequent travel, strewn across the theater floor. Choreographic instructions (projected in white type on the backdrop) will be indifferently observed because, modeling St. Denis, Popkin says, they have given themselves leverage to excavate, appropriate and revise.

Watching a Hall solo, in particular--the one with the green skirt we're told "she found at a thrift store for seven dollars"--I have a sense of Popkin thinking through what he, as an American dancer, inherited from St. Denis and her age. He tips his hat to her ingenuity, her self-assurance and way of presenting herself, showing us something in her that transcended the wrongheaded aesthetics. Something useful in the way the mothers of modern dance clawed out a place for this art in the world's imagination and fought to keep it alive so folks could do and see it differently today. Like with more awareness. When we actually have awareness, that is.

Ruth Doesn't Live Here Anymore is well danced and fun. But who wins out here? Well, from Popkin's final words, it's clear that, as activists always say, the struggle continues.

Music composed and performed live by Guy Klucevsek (accordion) with Mary Rowell, violinist (ETHEL); costumes and set design by Marcus Kuiland-Nazario; lighting design by Christopher Kuhl; video design by Cari Ann Shim Sham

Ruth Doesn't Live Here Anymore, curated by Laurie Uprichard for her Travelogues series, continues through November 1 with performances tonight and Saturday at 7:30pm and Sunday at 3pm. For information and tickets, click here.

Abrons Arts Center (Experimental Theater)
466 Grand Street (between Pitt and Willett Streets), Manhattan
(map/directions)

Clark Center NYC pays tribute to Thelma Hill

Dance artist and educator
Thelma Hill
(photo courtesy of Clark Center NYC)

On Tuesday, November 17, Clark Center NYC and 651Arts will join forces at MOCADA in a symposium to honor the life and legacy of acclaimed dance educator Thelma Hill.

CCNYC Steering Committee member Jill Williams writes, "Thelma was one of the architects of Clark Center and a major influence and mentor."

Hill in the studio
(photo courtesy of Clark Center NYC)

"Delores Brown who danced with Thelma in The New York Negro Ballet will moderate.  She'll be joined by Otis Sallid who began studying with Thelma as a teenager and continues to work as a choreographer, producer (recently with the James Brown project, Get on the Good Foot at the Apollo Theater), Mickey Davidson who was a student of Thelma's at Clark Center and works as a dancer, choreographer and director of her own company and Kathe Sandler who will share her short documentary gem, Remembering Thelma."

For further information on the symposium and to purchase tickets, click here.

MOCADA
80 Hanson Place, Brooklyn
(map/directions)

Isadora and more: Jucovy takes her visions to LI

Beth Jucovy (left) and Adrienne Ramm
in Morning Star
(photo courtesy of Beth Jucovy)

Beth Jucovy's Dance Visions NY--a contemporary troupe devoted to the choreography of Isadora Duncan--will present a series of free shows this fall at several Long Island locations. The program includes the full Duncan repertory to the 2nd act of Orfeo ed Euridice as well as Jucovy's new Through the Portals and works from repertory.

Oct. 11, 2pm:

West Hempstead Library

500 Hempstead Avenue, West Hempstead 

516-481-6591

Oct. 16, 7:30pm:

East Meadow Library

1886 Front Street, East Meadow

516-794-2570

Nov. 1, 1:30pm:

Universalist Unitarian Congregation Shelter Rock

48 Shelter Rock Rd, Manhasset

516-627-6560

Dec. 6, 2:30pm:

Bryant Library

2 Papermill Road, Roslyn

516-621-2240

Click here to learn more about this troupe and its upcoming projects.

TIPDI 2015: It's boot camp for dancers!

Summer's here, and the time is right!
TIPDI presents its 2015 workshops
in classical and modern dance!

Two days:
Technique and choreography

Attend a dance performance on Saturday night.

See below for more information,
or click here.

Mary Hinkson, 89

Mary Hinkson, a Star for Martha Graham, Dies at 89
by Anna Kisselgoff, The New York Times, November 28, 2014

New film on dance educator Martha Hill

MISS HILL: MAKING DANCE MATTER

a documentary film 

by Greg Vander Veer

opens Friday, January 23

at New York City's Quad Cinema

Martha Hill
(1900-1995)

Miss Hill: Making Dance Matter reveals the little known story of Martha Hill, a visionary who fought against great odds to make contemporary and modern dance a legitimate art form in America. In a career spanning most of the 20th century, Hill became a behind the scenes leader of the field and the founding director of The Juilliard Dance Division. Stylistically weaving together over 90 years of archival footage, the film is a celebration of dance and an examination of the passion required to keep it alive.

Showtimes: 1pm, 2:45pm, 4:30pm, 7pm, 9:15pm

Running Time: 1:20

Q+As with filmmaker Greg Vander Veer and Martha Hill Dance Fund president Vernon Scott will follow the Friday and Saturday 7pm shows, and the Saturday and Sunday 4:30pm shows.

For additional information on this film and the Martha Hill Dance Fund--including the November 24 gala honoring Martha Myers and Mary Hinkson--click here.

QUAD CINEMA
34 West 13th Street (between 5th and 6th Avenues), Manhattan
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Job: Asst. Professor, Modern Dance, Choreography

University of Florida

School of Theatre + Dance Job Opening

Assistant Professor of Modern Dance and Choreography

Position Description: Full-time, nine month, tenure accruing faculty position

Date of Expected Hire: August 16, 2015

Salary: $57,000 plus a full benefits package.
 
www.arts.ufl.edu/theatreanddance

Responsibilities:  Include teaching all levels of Modern Technique, Dance Composition, and Repertory. Expertise is also desirable in one or more of the following areas: Improvisation, Dance Pedagogy, Jazz/Hip-Hop, Kinesiology/Somatics, Dance Media and Technology, and/or Ballet.

Further responsibilities include direction and/or participation in the organization of annual dance concert and showcases; commitment to teaching excellence and creative collaboration; serve on school, college, and/or university committees; effective student guidance; organizational and administrative duties in dance activities; and leadership in recruitment efforts.

Minimum Qualifications: MFA or PhD (or equivalent professional experience) with experience and currency in the field as a performer/choreographer. Two years teaching experience in higher education or professional dance setting beyond graduate school that demonstrates an outstanding record of conduct of inclusion and diversity in the arts and higher education.

Preferred Qualifications: Vita should contain evidence of a strong and growing national and international presence in the field of performance and creative research in dance.

Application Deadline: Applications must be submitted via the University of Florida's online application system at http://jobs.ufl.edu/postings/58996. Online applications must include the following: (1) a detailed letter of application; (2) professional résumé or CV; (3) 10-15 minute sample of creative work(s) on web link/video sharing site; (4) statement of teaching philosophy; (5) teaching sample on web link/video sharing site; (6) three professional references with complete contact information. The Search Committee may request additional materials at a later time.

Review of applications will begin December 1, 2014 and continue until the position is filled. To ensure full consideration, all application documents must be submitted by December 1, 2014.

Additional materials may be sent to:

Ric Rose, Chair, Dance Search Committee, School of Theatre and Dance
University of Florida
P.O. Box 115900
Gainesville, FL  32611-5900
Email: rarose@ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 273-0506

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call +1 (352) 392- 4621 or the Florida Relay System at +1 (800) 955-8771 (TDD).

The University of Florida is an equal opportunity institution dedicated to building a broadly diverse and inclusive faculty and staff; seeking faculty of all races, ethnicities, genders, backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and those who practice conduct of inclusion.

The selection process will be conducted in accord with the provisions of Florida‘s Government in the Sunshine and Public Records Laws. Search committee meetings and interviews will be open to the public, and applications, resumes, and any other documents related to the search will be available for public inspection.

SCHOOL OF THEATRE + DANCE:

The School of Theatre + Dance has an international full-time faculty of 21 people who are recognized artists and researchers in their own right, complemented by adjunct and guest faculty and staff, including full- and part-time professionals. The School offers MFA curricula in acting and in design/technology, which includes scene design, lighting design and costume technology; BFA programs in acting, musical theatre, scene design, lighting design and costume design; and a B.A. in general theatre. The School's B.F.A. degree in Dance Performance includes four interlocking streams of dance study: choreography and performance, intercultural dance studies, dance and medicine, and dance theatre. Approximately 200 students major in the artistically diverse curricula of the School of Theatre + Dance. Through its production program, outreach and innovative programming, the School of Theatre + Dance provides multiple cultural opportunities annually to thousands of members of the University and the greater community. The University of Florida is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and is an accredited institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Theatre and the National Association of Schools of Dance.  For more information, visit www.arts.ufl.edu/theatreanddance.

The University of Florida:

The University of Florida is a comprehensive learning institution built on a land grant foundation. We are The Gator Nation, a diverse community dedicated to excellence in education and research and shaping a better future for Florida, the nation and the world. Our mission is to enable our students to lead and influence the next generation and beyond for economic, cultural and societal benefit. UF is a graduate research institution with 50,000 students and membership in the prestigious Association of American Universities. Gainesville, which is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s most livable cities, is located midway between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Together, the University and the community comprise the educational, medical and cultural center of North Central Florida, with outstanding resources such as the University of Florida Performing Arts (Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, the Baughman Center, University Auditorium), the Harn Museum of Art, the Florida Museum of Natural History and the Hippodrome State Theatre.

COLLEGE OF THE ARTS:

The College of the Arts fosters creative activity, scholarly and artistic excellence and innovation across disciplines. We achieve the university’s mission by training professionals and educating students as artists and scholars, while developing their critical thinking and inspiring a culture of curiosity and imagination. The College offers baccalaureate, masters and doctoral degrees. Approximately 1,100 students are pursuing majors in degrees offered by the College of the Arts under the direction of 100 faculty members in its three accredited schools — the School of Art + Art History, School of Music, School of Theatre + Dance. In addition to its schools, the college comprises the Center for Arts and Public Policy, Center for Arts in Medicine, Center for World Arts, Digital Worlds Institute, University Galleries and the college program of the New World School of the Arts in Miami.

CENTER FOR WORLD ARTS:

Founded in 1996, UF’s Center for World Arts (CWA) advances diversity and internationalism in arts praxis, policy, research and education. Recognizing the power of the artist to voice the unique human condition, the CWA values arts processes as critical resources to shape and interpret our interconnected—but not unified—world. In dialogue and exchange with artists, scholars, diverse cultural communities and interdisciplinary partners across the campus and the globe, the Center tests new paradigms of curriculum, scholarship, media, cultural exchange and entrepreneurship. The CWA has been recognized as the artistic arm of UF’s prestigious US Department of Education, Title VI National Resource Centers and the research arm of the bi-continental Africa Contemporary Arts Consortium. Through its practices, the CWA seeks to enhance the role the arts play for the responsible world citizen and to equip the UF student to imaginatively engage and contribute to an increasingly global community. For more information, visit www.arts.ufl.edu/cwa.

Margaret O'Sullivan, Weidman dancer and educator, has died

Margaret O'Sullivan

An announcement from Robert Kosinski, President, Board of Directors, The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

It is with great sadness and a broken heart that I tell you Margaret O’Sullivan – dear friend, mother, grandmother, dancer, teacher, colleague, and Co-president of the Board of Directors died Tuesday October 21, 2014. The cause was cancer.

Margaret was a member of the last generation of dancers to dance with Charles Weidman in his theater dance company in the 1970’s. She appeared in Mr. Weidman’s works including the Christmas and Easter Oratorios, Lynchtown, Brahms Waltzes, Opus 51 Opening Dance, Bargain Counter, the Thurber Fables, The War Between the Men and the Women, and others. Margaret was a member of the CWDF Board of Directors since 1989 and was involved in the production of our award-winning documentary Charles Weidman: On His Own. She also participated in The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation’s presentation of our Humphrey-Weidman Gala at The Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College in New York in 1994. Later Margaret was instrumental in arranging, staging, coaching, and teaching Mr. Weidman’s works in our educational outreach initiative at several institutions including New York University, Montclair State University, and the José Limón- Professional Dance Program. With Janet Towner she staged excerpts from the Easter Oratorio at NYU that was performed in New York City at the 92nd Street Y Legacy Series in 2010. In 2011 Margaret staged Brahms Waltzes at NYU while coaching MSU students in Lynchtown. Both dances were performed at the 92nd Street Y for the 110th anniversary of Charles Weidman’s birth, the 75th anniversary of Lynchtown and the 50th anniversary of Brahms Waltzes. Margaret staged Lynchtown for Nimbus Dance Works, which was performed at the Alvin Ailey Theater in 2012 and all over the Northeast for Nimbus’ Lynchtown/Thistown Project in 2013. She had been tireless in her dedication to the legacy of Charles Weidman and The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation. We will miss her dearly.

I want to express how heart broken I feel as a result of the loss of my dear friend and colleague. Margaret and I were not only members of the CWDF board, we were members of Charles Weidman’s Theater Dance Company and performed together at the Expression of Two Arts Theater on West 29th Street in New York City. We would often reminisce about the Sunday night performances Charles gave 52 weeks a year. Margaret and I “starred” as Mary and Joseph in the Christmas Oratorio. During the recitative describing their plight in Bethlehem looking for a room, there would be a pause in the dancing. Then Margaret and I would make our way, on our knees, around the perimeter of the stage miming a knock on the door of the inns – then being turned away by the innkeeper. Sometimes, with our backs to the audience, we would kibitz with each other while making our way from inn to inn. After each performance Charles would always invite us back to his living quarters in the back of the studio where we would talk about the performance and the audience reaction and any flubs we made during the performance – Charles spotted everything. We worked hard in class and during rehearsals, but those Sunday night performances were worth all the sweat and hard work. Margaret always remembered them fondly. She liked to tell the story of her first visit to Charles’ studio. On her first day she arrived a little early and climbed the stairs to the second floor. She knocked on the door and was flabbergasted when Charles himself opened the door and welcomed her in. After introductions, Charles showed her the “dressing” room, which was a small alcove near the front door separated from the studio by a white sheet – the men and women dressing rooms were separated by another sheet. A few more words were exchanged and as Charles headed back to the living quarters he turned to Margaret and said “And by the way, you’re very pretty!” And so shall she remain to me.

Robert Kosinski, President

Board of Directors

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation would like to invite all who knew Margaret to send us your remembrances of her, whether through dance or not, which we will post on our website, Facebook page, and blog. We want to do this to pay tribute to her dedication to Charles Weidman and the Charles Weidman Dance Foundation and to celebrate her life. Send your remembrances to:

charlesweidman@gmail.com

 or to our mailing address:

The Charles Weidman Dance Foundation, Inc.

340 East 64th Street #10N

New York, NY 10065 

While we will miss Margaret dearly, we know that she would want us to continue to carry out the Foundation's mission. In the words of Charles Weidman, we will "carry on." Visit the CWDF's website to learn more about our efforts and initiatives for 2014-2015.

New film traces dance career of Ze'eva Cohen, November 10

Ze'eva Cohen in Anna Sokolow's Rooms (photo: Jack Mitchell)

I think Anna Sokolow saw in me a certain naïveté, a certain rawness. She saw that I could give myself completely to a role and become the role, and she could see that I would go with her all the way.

--Ze'eva Cohen

Award-winning television/video editor Sharon Kaufman makes her directorial debut with the documentary, Ze’eva Cohen: Creating A Life In Dance, to be screened next month at Downtown Community Television Center.

photo: Jack Mitchell

A half-hour portrait of the Yemeni-Israeli modern dancer and educator, the film traces the development of Cohen's distinct sensibility and career with many vintage samples of her lyrical, elemental performances and choreography. A gorgeous dancer with--as dance historian Elizabeth Kendall calls it--a "touch of the raucous," Cohen serves as a model of surviving and thriving as an independent artist.

Free screening: 
November 10, 6:30pm

RSVP: bkwright4@gmail.com

Downtown Community Television Center (DCTV)

87 Lafayette Street, Manhattan

(map/direction)

Clark Center welcomes dance star Dudley Williams

A Clark Center Conversation 

with 

Dudley Williams

Dudley Williams

Thursday, October 23, 6pm

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Bruno Walter Auditorium

Free with reservation [click]

Dance journalist Jennifer Dunning talks with acclaimed modern dancer Dudley Williams about his roots at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts and his long and illustrious career with the Martha Graham Dance Company and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

NYPL for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Manhattan
(map/directions)