Hot Rumsey

by Eva Yaa Asantewaa

Since the combination of hot flashes and hot dance spaces don't work particularly well for me, I had planned to avoid St. Mark's as much as possible this summer. But, thanks to a great tip from fellow critic and blogger Apollinaire Scherr, I found myself sweating it out at a Danspace Project presentation last night where I fell in love with little virtue, a new piece by Glen Rumsey Dance Project. You have two more chances left to see what I mean--tonight and tomorrow--and the weather has cooled down a little bit anyway.

Bring a big fan--the folding kind. Danspace provides the bottled water. And you'll get to see a lush production that will haunt your dreams--gloriously magickal, whimsically gender-blending choreography performed by Rumsey (whose Cunningham pedigree shows in his divine, streamlined dynamics) and eight superb dancers with Carol Mullins's top-notch lighting and charming costumes by David Quinn. Rumsey and Todd Williams, costumed by Tara McManus, interpolate a wild duet from Rumsey's Exquisite Corpse (2006), managing to look hectic and decadently sexy while moving apart and together like wads of pink bubblegum chewed on either side of a huge, invisible jaw.

Glen Rumsey Dance Project is only a couple of years old but already it has a forthright, authoritive--if nutty--stamp. It's a big deal. I look forward to seeing it again. Hell, I would not have minded if last night's show had stretched on. Hot as it was, it was hot!

(c)2007 Eva Yaa Asantewaa

"Now I want to see 'Happy Feet'!"

"I don't want to live in a world without penguins!" (Happy Feet)

My reviews in Dance Magazine's July issue

The July Dance Magazine has a few of my reviews of shows from recent months:

[bjm_danse] -- April 17-22, Joyce Theater (print only)
(This is the company formerly known as Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal.)

DanceAfrica -- May 25-27, BAM Opera House (online only)

Doug Varone and Dancers -- May 16-19, BAM Harvey Theater (online only)

If the above links do not work directly, click here, then click on the Reviews tab, click on 2007 and click on July.

Eva Yaa Asantewaa

An Essential Lesson: The Legacy of Katherine Dunham

On Wednesday night, I attended The Legacy of Katherine Dunham, a panel discussion hosted by Judith Jamison at the 92nd Street Y, co-sponsored by the Y's Harkness Dance Center and the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. Journalist Gil Noble (WABC-TV's Like It Is) moderated panelists including dance critic Zita Allen, dancer-choreographer Ronnie Aul, and dancer-activist Julie Robinson Belafonte as well as E. Gaynell Sherrod (dancer, educator, researcher and choreographer) and Dr. Glory Van Scott (whose long, varied involvement in the arts could keep me here typing hyphens and commas all day).

The evening was a gathering of the faithful with many former Dunham dancers, students, colleagues and associates in attendance. Both panelists and audience members shared warm reminiscences of a wise, formidable genius whose influence reached beyond Afro-Caribbean dance and beyond dance itself. The program was intended to raise awareness that Dunham's soul-deep, powerful movement technique is an endangered treasure, taught by uncertified instructors who, some speakers charged, are watering it down.

Yesterday, the celebration continued with a master class in Dunham technique taught by the Ailey School's Joan Peters, one of only three people certified by the Dunham Institute. Neighborhood residents, workers and other folks just passing by the Ailey building on Ninth Avenue and West 55th Street got an eyeful, stopping in their tracks to gawk through the glass enclosure of the first-floor studio. More than sixty dancers worked through the challenging warm-up and barre and charged across the floor in vigorous repetitions of movements while the supremely calm, authoritative Peters beat out a flawless rhythm with a carved wooden walking stick. The terrific drummers made it hard for me--one of a handful of mere observers seated inside the studio--to keep still.

I glanced around and took in the diversity of races, ages, body types, degrees of flexibility and levels of skill. As the students followed Peters's directions, I saw some movements that I was quick to label incorrect. I also saw a lot of movements that were different and yet wonderfully correct. There are a lot of ways to be wrong about a thing, but there are also a lot of different ways to be right.

Some students clearly got the movements wrong, and I might have stopped to fuss over each of them, although Peters did not. But, in so many other cases, the variety of interpretations of a movement or phrase proved to be inspired. Each of these students put his or her own flavor into it. Sometimes that looked like the natural effect of a body dancing in its own way, putting its own spin on things, and not necessarily the student's conscious choice. It looked beautiful--whole, healthy and, I realized, both true to the African spirit and, more broadly, very human. I relished this diversity that is so often shed from contemporary dance companies and choreography in an effort to create a supposed coherence and consistent tone.

(c) 2007 Eva Yaa Asantewaa

New fall series for DTW's "Writing on Dance" course

Writing on Dance
with Eva Yaa Asantewaa
Tuesdays, 5:30pm - 7:30pm, September 4 – October 9
at Dance Theater Workshop

By application only
Fee: $110 Dance Theater Workshop members / $130 non-members

Description: As a participant in this writing salon guided by Eva Yaa Asantewaa, of the InfiniteBody dance blog, you will share supportive space for deepening your engagement with dance and performance. You will discover ways to enhance your perception, receptivity and empathy so that your dialogue with the art witnessed will become in itself a gift of art. While developing confidence in your ability to describe and evaluate what you have seen, you will also find the courage to redefine writing about dance and performance as a personal act of human response with room for questioning, passion, humor, anger, wisdom and transformation. All are welcome, experienced and prospective arts journalists as well as anyone interested in exploring the power of dance and writing.

To apply, submit a one-page letter (350 word maximum) via email to Richert Schnorr (richert@dtw.org) by July 16, 2007 detailing why you want to take this course. Please place the letter in the body of the email and include all of your contact information.

Serena on You Tube

Myriam Eli also sent the following links:

Serena obituary, photos and links in the ShakeMyDay.com newslettter

See Serena on YouTube, dancing at the Egyptian Gardens nightclub (1968) and demonstrating the Turkish finger snap and karsilama rhythm on her TV program (1975). Click here and here.

A Serena Tribute by Myriam Eli of Harmonic Motion

Serena and Myriam Eli at Serena Studios’ A Night at the Casbah,
one of Ms. Eli’s first performances, September 1979.

IN GRATITUDE OF SERENA

By Myriam Eli

Serena, my first Middle Eastern dance teacher, passed away on 17 June 2007. She was a major force in the first wave of this dance that took place in the United States in the 1950’s. She was also a major force in my life and my career. I am forever grateful to her. Serena, the “trailblazer,” as my brother described her, created a Middle Eastern dance technique, with positions as in ballet, that I use to this day to teach and create. I first saw her dance while I was in college on 24 February 1974. There was an “Oud Concert” that day at Serena Studios on West 53rd Street in New York City featuring her son Scott Wilson on oud and guitarist Maurice Sedacca. Serena’s dance in the “Surprise Finale” was a great source of inspiration for me.

I studied many years with Serena and her wonderful Serena technique teachers, LaDonn Amato and Michele Rousseau, beginning in 1978 at Serena Studios. I remember it as a small but highly stimulating artistic space. The list of what I learned from Serena is endless but includes improvisation and the thrill of creating and being in the moment that accompanies it. It also includes dancing to live music, as she generously gave us opportunities to perform with her husband Rip Wilson on dumbek and son Scott on oud.



Serena sent me on my first teaching job, which was in the basement of Alexander’s store in the East Side. She also sent me on my first Caribbean cruise job, in which I got to approach my island home, Puerto Rico, from the ocean for the first time. With her, I learned to play zills and to dance to my first odd-metered rhythm, the 9/8 or karsilama, now one of my favorites. She also coached me and sent me to my first Egyptian nightclub audition, which was at the Ibis when it was on East 50th Street. With her I had the first opportunity to perform in a dance company, the Serena Dance Theater, which at the time included my teachers LaDonn and Michele, as well as my colleagues Terri Bernen and Roberta Watts. The titles of the dance pieces included Sahara City, Palesteena, Egyptian Village Dance, and my favorite, Offerings. With the company I had the first opportunity to perform in many different venues, such as schools and theaters, as well as at the Central Park Bandshell and Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park.

Now, 29 years into my career, I pray that I am doing justice to these prized gifts that I received from Serena as I also try to pass down to my students and audiences the endless beauty of this dance form.

Thank you, Serena, for leading me into the path of this dance career and the spiritual fulfillment and exuberant joy that it offers. May you enjoy the Big Kef in the Sky.

Myriam Eli

Harmonic Motion