Kyle Abraham's "Watershed" moment

Kyle Abraham (front) and company in The Watershed
(photo: Ian Douglas)

Kyle Abraham's The Watershed is, in no way, a work about opulence in the usual sense.  But at the end of my evening at New York Live Arts, that word quickly came to mind. I guess I mean an opulence of intention, conception, execution. An opulence of confidence. More than just making a new work. Really feeling that, for once, you've got the goods. And there's the deftly coordinated look, across a color spectrum I associate with humble yet versatile clay, of the set (by visual artist Glenn Ligon), lighting (Dan Scully) and costume designs (Karen Young). Your partners got this, too, clicking together all over that stage like the pieces of a solved puzzle. Satisfying. This production is large. My guest said she envisions it at Lincoln Center, but I was thinking BAM.

I have enjoyed KyleAbraham/Abraham.in.Motion without really understanding how the choreographer's female dancers, no matter how focused their presence and rigorous their technique, never seem to pop from their surroundings like the male ones almost always do, and that has not changed. My most vivid memories of The Watershed will always be what men--individually or together--do, even how they radiate a palpable and purposeful individuality when they merely walk out into the space. And that includes Abraham himself, in one scene, sashaying in a satin gown and cottony wig and smearing light concealer all over his face.

Kyle Abraham in a scene from The Watershed
with set by Glenn Ligon
(photo: Ian Douglas)

Far from some overt, linear discourse on America's issue with race (and gender and sexuality), The Watershed appears to have been dreamed up like a series of scrims placed one behind another, each bearing a saturated or filmy stream of visual information. (There's sonic information, too--from Otis Redding to Chopin.) At any moment, you reach in as deep as you want, taking in what the dancers are doing--as dancers, as dancers of different genders, as dancers of different races--and making associations, perhaps according to your generation, your memories, your strongest concerns. The Watershed is, well, watery, a place of integration and transition, a turning point for many currents. Which one will carry you now?

So many ways to swim. Some of the music (Redding) takes me. The choreography, made in collaboration with the dancers, is an abundant--yes, opulent--gush and, true to this troupe's fashion, mercurial and full of flair. ("Beautiful," my guest called it, even as she felt that useful ambivalence about the way artists like Abraham, like Kara Walker, can draw us ever closer to disturbing things--like the most explosive racial stereotypes--by the beauty of their presentation.) When I zoom in on the dancers as dancers, I think I see Abraham quietly shaping an understory about how race plays out in the dance world. If I pull back, I see all of this in a more historical and societal context--literally, as projected images of civil rights demonstrators set upon by police dogs or cops beating a man into the ground play across the stage's wall. And it makes me wonder. The two things--artistic current and societal current--are they, in essence and effect, so different?

In a brief passage that made me ponder this, two Black dancers, contentedly going about the business of dancing, suddenly assume a submissive posture--chests sunken, heads bowed--when a white dancer suddenly enters and stands watching them. He maintains his dominant posture, his silent gaze, just long enough for it to register in our heads as a threat with all kinds of historical resonance. Just long enough. Then--surprise or no surprise--he peaceably slips into formation with them as they all finish out their dance.

If you noticed this moment at all, you might ask, "What did I just see?" Or, "Did I really see that, or did I see it/read it right?" All sorts of slippery stuff like that goes on in The Watershed, where irresistible rhythms and the dancing they inspire pull people of different cultures together. The work is chock full of images--some subtle, some blatant, some proffered with a wicked sense of humor and entitlement--that can only be willfully ignored.

I'm set to see Abraham's other New York Live Arts premiere, When the Wolves Came In, on September 30. More will be revealed.

KyleAbraham/Abraham.in.Motion includes Abraham, Matthew Baker, Winston Dynamite Brown, Tamisha Guy, Catherine Ellis Kirk, Penda N'diaye, Jeremy "Jae" Neal, Jordan Morley and Connie Shiau. Sound design by Sam Crawford.

Remaining performances of The Watershed: Friday, September 26*, Wednesday, October 1, Friday, October 3** at 7:30pm, all reportedly sold out. For additional information, click here.

*September 26 at 6:30pm: Come Early Video Screening and Talk: Visual Artist and Videographer Carrie Schneider discusses her dance on camera collaboration with Kyle Abraham/AIM

*October 3: Stay Late Discussion: Aesthetics of Jazz and the Performance of Protest, moderated by Carrie Mae Weems

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

40th anniversary of "For Colored Girls..." celebrated in Harlem

Schomburg Center Plans Exhibition on ‘For Colored Girls’
by Felicia R. Lee, The New York Times, September 8, 2014

Rosie Perez offers master class for young performers

Rosie Perez holding a master class
at Baryshnikov Arts Center's Jerome Robbins Theater
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

Actress, dancer, choreographer, director,
Rosie Perez has had to acknowledge and push past her fears
in order to be the accomplished, authentic artist she wants to be.
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

Rosie Perez majored in biochemistry. That scientific headset remains with her, she says, making it easier for her to function in theater onstage--more in the moment, finely analyzing and managing each and every aspect of her performance--than in film, where so many, many others have control of the product.

That was one interesting revelation from a master class the multi-talented performer and Puerto Rican activist offered for high school arts students enrolled in this year's YoungArts New York week-long intensive. Held yesterday afternoon at Baryshnikov Arts Center's Jerome Robbins Theater, The 90-minute session gave a group of about twenty students in jazz, singing, dance and acting an opportunity to be observed and critiqued by this exceedingly sharp-eyed, frank and caring artist. And it also gave her a chance to share hard lessons learned from decades in the entertainment industry:

First off, check your attitude at the door, or you might get shown the door. 

"You're going to be dealing with a lot of older people who've been around a long time," she said. "When you get older, you don't have time to put up with people's BS, with chips on their shoulder."

Next up: Just plain do your art.

"If you're an artist and you aren't doing what you do, a part of you will be dying."

Nerds are it.

"That feeling that you have of never fitting in? That you're kind of weird? The reason you stand out as an artist is that you are not the norm. Embrace your oddity. Embrace it, honor it and cherish it."

No slacking off.

"You have to bring 100% professionalism, being prepared and pushing through your fears and stepping into your greatness, knowing who you are."

It was director George C. Wolfe who gave Perez that advice--"Push through your fears and step into your greatness"--and who once confronted her, as she waited to go onstage, with this:

"Are you still scared?"

"Yeah," she said.

"Good. Use it."

Passion. Use it, too.

"Have you seen my YouTube Soul Train compilation? Passion was leaking out of my pores. I learned to control it, manipulate that passion."

Your authentic self is your artist self.

"I used to spend a lot of time being someone else in my performance, thinking that that's what it is."

She thought she had to be Meryl Streep--although, she jokes, her accent was kind of a liability. But she watched jazz drummer Max Roach at a White House gig being nobody but Max Roach and was blown away by his cool. That gave her a clue. And she watched Sutton Foster, then a virtual unknown, step into the lead role in Thoroughly Modern Millie at nearly the last minute when another actress was fired--"Sutton Foster was read-day! Bitch was read-day!" Foster got her break and more than proved herself. And went on to win a Tony. Perez resolved to always be read-day, too.

"Where you find who you are and how you perform are those moments alone. That's how you develop the person you want to be."

Perez intently watching as
YoungArts New York participants perform.
Photo by Robert Leslie
courtesy of the National YoungArts Foundation

My favorite part of Perez's master class came when she quietly asked some members of a jazz combo, who had just played for her, to each take a moment to describe one of their colleagues as a musician. Each of the students did his or her best with this assignment but, as I see it, might have missed Perez's point. 

I think she was trying to get them to see that ability, and even style, is not enough. You have to have that little something something that is absolutely yours alone and that identifies you to your peers and your fans. Your signature. 

But they have time to work that all out.

* * * * *

YoungArts New York is a program of the National YoungArts Foundation, established in 1981 to "identify and nurture the next generation of artists in the literary, performing, visual and design arts, and to contribute to the cultural vitality of the nation by supporting the artistic development of talented young artists."

During YoungArts New York, March 31-April 7, 2014, approximately 100 YoungArts Winners in the visual, literary, performing and design arts will take part in a week-long intensive, working with masters in their field. These talented young artists will then present their work through several multidisciplinary performances at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, and a visual art, photography and design exhibition, writers’ readings and cinematic arts screenings at the MoMA PS1. The week will culminate with a special screening of the HBO documentary series Anna Deavere Smith: YoungArts MasterClass at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

For a schedule of YoungArts New York exhibitions, readings, screenings and performances open to the general public this weekend, click here.

Applications to participate iin 2015 programs will be open from April 15 to October 17, 2014. For eligibility requirements, click here.

BAX offers free Artist Services Day, February 9

Park Slope's BAX (Brooklyn Arts Exchange) announces its first Artist Services Day, a lineup of talks and workshops for working dance, theater and performance artists and their supporters. Free (by pre-registration) and open to the public, these sessions are designed to benefit teaching artists, artists who are parents to children and teens, queer-identified artists and more. In addition, one session will present information on application for BAX's 2014-15 residencies.

Sunday, February 9 (1pm-7pm)

BAX

421 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn

(map/directions)

For complete information on BAX's Artist Services Day and to pre-register, click here.