Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

This week we reconnect for class at the usual place and time followed by a return to City Center to experience a whole different crowd at performances by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater of three works MEMORIA (26 minutes), the world premiere of Judith Jamison's AMONG US (PRIVATE SPACES: PUBLIC PLACES), and the classic and celebrated work REVELATIONS (38 minutes).

Multi-TRaC class will also be attending the performance.

THIS WEEK: Tere O'Connor Dance

As Jean-Luc Godard was to cinema at the height of the New Wave, so Tere O’Connor is to phenomenological dance in his rejection of what he calls “narrative ideologies” or “abstraction as a cliché.”

“My work is not a journey toward aboutness,” O’Connor told Gay City News. “It’s more a kind of immersion or reflection on things without singular meanings.”

O’Connor has been creating important experimental work in New York for almost 30 years, putting theory into practice in the service of allowing dance to exploit its inherent properties.

For his latest work, “Wrought Iron Fog,” the artist is subjecting language to his choreographic process. “The overall experience,” he explained, “is more important than the hieroglyphic elements. I’m allowing experience to teach me how to make that frontal in the work, instead of letting people getting lost reading sign systems. Dance has a different grammar.”

“Inside of dance,” O’Connor asserted, “philosophy and psychology and systemic elements shape the surface. Instead of designing of shapes over time, there is a process that gives birth to dance. There can be elements of the known on that surface, but they are not strung together on a narrow accumulation of time.”

Cultural bias, the artist believes, inclines audiences to approach dance in a manner he called “looking for the ghost of the choreography.” He explained, “People go in trying to read dance like a book. It is not a book. It may have pages, and words are there, but reconfigured.”

O’Connor suggested, too, that dance has more to offer than an artistic experience. “I would like the power of this form to be unleashed,” he said. “It’s the great diffuser of monothematic dogmatic ideologies. It uses complication as a way to undermine linguistic logic, and shows its otherness. It’s a journey away from language, toward letting go of the naming of things. It’s an other experience that has its own value.”

“Dance,” the choreographer-philosopher concluded, “is looking at a constellation of consciousness and daily necessity; a work derived from total experience. I want to erase episodes, to create a sensation cloud where you can fall in and engage with your own narrative.”

Flatland

Vanessa Justice’s Flatland is a world of many dimensions. Maggie Bennett, Kendra Portier, and Alli Ruszkowski weave their way through the many nooks and crannies of Flatland with one part grace, two parts pulsation, and all parts surreal. Throughout the piece, the movements appear to be very much a part of a ritual that we, the audience, are not invited to, but are simply observers.
Using black-and-white clips from the movie, Eraserhead, Justice’s women run, scream, and convulse around a shadowy room. There appeared to be no narrative, which left the piece simply to be interpreted by emotion alone. The hour-long piece produced at times terror, confusion or incredulity, or amusement. The mood was often tense, only relieved by the sudden bursts of lively music or at an instance when the three women stepped up to the audience and offered “the best seat in the house,” so that we might be “comfortable.” However, this display of including the audience only served to alienate the audience more, almost mocking it for watching the women move. Once an audience member was placed in the seat, the women promptly went back to ignoring the audience.
However surreal the show was, it was nevertheless interesting to watch as the women made their way through Flatland, a world where anything could happen—and be almost normal.


Erica Reyes

Guest Speaker Elizabeth Zimmer

Elizabeth Zimmer has been writing about the arts since 1971, beginning as a freelancer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A native New Yorker, she has worked as a writer and editor for The Village Voice, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, and dozens of other publications; she currently contributes to The Australian, Dance Magazine, and New York's free daily paper Metro. She teaches writing to aspiring critics of all ages, and has studied many forms of dance; she has performed in the work of several New York choreographers, and mounted her own show, North Wing, at Here.

Elizabeth will be coming in to speak this Friday, November 6. Please bring your written reviews with you.

City Center Bail Out, er um, Stimulus

City Center was daunting: large and stuffy and crowded with wine-sipping sycophants...but we did run into Elizabeth Zimmer in the lobby. When we got upstairs to our seats, we endured a mean usher, twice, and then after accommodating the Eurotrash, had to deal with their incessant seal-like clapping. What put it over the top for me was the presentation itself. Enough that there were there ballets in one program - that's to be expected, and we had discussed protocol about leaving at intermissions at a multi-presentational format, i.e. allowed.

But first, Christopher came out and talked about the company and the process and a film that he then showed about the company and the process. And THEN the first ballet began, and the choreography was masterful, and the dancing exquisite, but the underlying stereotypes of gender and behavior really insufferable, especially, I felt, coming from an openly gay ballet master. This is one of the essential problems of ballet, the deeply rooted conservatism. Still, it was excellent for the students to also have this experience. With one exception, the urge to vacate was palpable.

(Afterwards, I considered why our experience at NYCB last semester was so positive and concluded, that one, we had a pre-show talk with the education director, who was very hospitable, and two, the program included some contemporary work that all of the students were impressed and inspired by (Preljocaj). While we had discussed the significance of Balanchine, those works often do read as culturally out of touch, especially when they are live.)

Jason Samuels Smith

This Saturday, October 24, you'll be meeting Brian at the Kitchen at 2:40 sharp for what should be an incredibly entertaining show.....

The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenue)
Close subways: A, C, E, L, and 1 train.

Jason Samuels Smith: Charlie’s Angels

In less than a decade, Emmy award-winning choreographer and hoofer Jason Samuels Smith has emerged as a leader in the tap dance world. For the New York premiere of his new dance work, Charlie’s Angels, he considers the complex intersections between inspiration, re-interpretation, and creative process, using Charlie Parker’s revolutionary harmonic ideas and tonal vocabulary as a point of departure. Revisiting Parker’s early influential recordings, Samuels Smith relates them to the history of tap dance, as well as to his personal development as a choreographer.

Developed in collaboration with and performed by three of the most innovative women tap dancers in the world, Chloe Arnold, Michelle Dorrance, and Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards, and also featuring Samuels Smith, the piece recontextualizes Parker’s music in the present moment. Samuels Smith takes us on a ride through fast tempos, virtuosic technique, and improvisation based on the harmonic structure that has become the legacy of bebop music.

Curated by Rashida Bumbray

Produced by Divine Rhythm Productions and Dulé Hill

Vanessa Justice Dance

The first dance performance immediately follows the first class! 


Vanessa Justice Dance 
performs FLATLAND @ Joyce Soho, 8 pm
155 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince)
You'll be near the R,F, V, B, D and 6 trains

About the show: 
FLATLAND casts a surrealist tone with implications of anxiety and beauty. Inspired by Edmund Burke's On the Sublime (1756), this evocative, layered work creates an alluring tension while juxtaposing different forms and mediums (dance, film, animation). The dance hatches a dream-like world of precise and pulsating movement set against white-washed walls and featuring sound from David Lynch's 1977 movie Eraserhead. Considered an open-text choreography, the suggestive work makes layers of association to allow it to be received uniquely by each viewer. FLATLAND further develops Ms. Justice's interest in a poetics based on perception. She is honing a relational approach to choreography where divergent sources of information meet and create a context for interplay.

Dance TRaC begins!

The adventure begins, with Brian McCormick as your fearless instructor!  (Click here for images of Brian, probably pontificating about something.....)

First things, first.  Where to meet?????  Dance TRaC meets on Friday afternoons, 4:30-6:30, at the home of our partner, the Dance Theater Workshop (commonly called DTW by those in the know.)

Directions:

Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues in the Chelsea district of New York City.

Subway: 1/9 to 18th Street. 2/3, F, L and A/C/E to 14th Street.




This is what the entrance looks like:


See you there!

Julia's responses & reviews

Living outside the…… box of anything I have seen before……
By Julia Lisa


Monstah Black, the Artistic Director and Performer, created not only a mesmerizing dance show but also an inspiring vocal and audio piece. Moving and harmonizing with the recorded music (Monstah wrote and produced) is no easy feat. These modern/experimental/weird dances turned very erotic at times and had a Rocky Horror vibe. I wanted everyone to get up and do the Time Warp. I also got this vibe from the footwear of Monstah. He wore fabulous sparkly super platforms or no heeled platforms that made him stand on the balls of his feet and look like a dinosaur.

These dance pieces addressed issues like gender politics, and aspects of living or finding a way outside the…(box). Many dances seemed to be about freeing the oppressed in these situations by taking off restrictive clothing and opening umbrellas. In one part the “box” was represented with masking tape squares on the floor and walls, where the dancers confined themselves. I was left with the question, “How do we get in the box in the first place?”

Monstah’s three Starclusters help perform these stories, his female back up dancers, who resembled punk pixie ballerinas with their bright pinks and purple tutus, leggings, and sparkly faces. But my favorite dancer was Jupiter, Andy Miyamotto, who reminded me of Aaron Yoo from Disturbia and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. He came out first and started giggling and quietly dancing like he was listening to the radio, making everyone in the studio audience laugh. Through most of the show you could find him off in the corner dancing his heart out by himself, like a DJ watching over a dance club doing his thing.

Through these performers I have come to the conclusion our society has built the box around us, and Monstah has smashed his way out.

DanceBrazil
Julia Lisa
3/22/09

DanceBrazil at the Skirball Center at New York University, combined dance and capoeira, the traditional dance/martial arts form developed in Brazil by slaves to practice fighting. Strong, sexy, Brazilian dancers now perform it.

Act I: Ritmos (rhythm) was a colorful, energetic, and fun taste of Brazil by Jelon Vieira. The capoeiristas playfully danced and fought with each other through tight, precise choreography. The timing had to be, and was impeccable. Dancers flipped and kicked so precisely, just missing the others heads. Ritmos had a realistic feel to it, like being on the streets of Brazil with the dancers being part of a well-trained street crew. At times they would try to top each other’s moves and show off for the audience. Other times they moved completely in sync. The mix of Latin and African (Afro-Brazilian), capoeira, and break dance styles were accompanied by a lively band of Brazilian musicians (led by Tote Gina), whose rhythms from the drums seemed mimicked in the movement on stage. These sexy, powerful dancers maintained extremely high-energy throughout this piece. Their controlled movement and bare bodies displayed their incredible strength. The male dancers wore no shirts most of the time and the two women wore only bras with white or bright color pants. The nearly naked, muscular dance gods enthralled the audience. Ritmos had a variety of solos, duets and group numbers of continually fascinating, fierce, lyrical movement.

Act II Premiered Inura (manifestation) by Carlos Dos Santos, Jr. This piece was more of a modern, contemporary dance style with a tribal premise. The program said, the piece conveyed the power; sharing; teaching; understanding; respect; desire; humor, and manifestation. The intense live music of Inura by Tania León created a spiritual atmosphere, which the dancers adapted to their movement. The two women wore goddess costumes, one of gold and one of blue. With the help of the strong-bodied men these goddesses executed the most incredible lifts as if they were weightless. One man laid down a reflective board that he then proceeded to dance on. A beam of Burke Wilmore’s light fell from directly above casting a glow about the dancer, who created the most beautiful shapes with his body. Projected on the back wall throughout this piece were drawings of eyes and faces, like those found in a tribal temple. These images by artist Guilherme Kramer set the stage for the spiritual energy.

These two contrasting pieces complemented each other, and captured the audience. I imagine a common thought while leaving the theatre was, “I have to work on my abs.”

‘Sooner Than You Think response
Julia Lisa
3/22/09

“Places and spaces and all the rest is fiction.” These first words projected on screens started Jeremy Nelson & Luis Lara Malvacias’: Sooner Than You Think. I wish they referred to the end of this monotone piece. This interesting phrase had nothing to do with the hour of unrelated elements; a recurring video of trees and telephone poles through a moving bus window; four flats that the performers moved around to make different shapes; weird movement that had no clear meaning; and sporadic beeps and tones for music. It seemed like a bunch of mismatched puzzle pieces had been forced into a picture, creating nothing.

Having about 10 possibly very talented dancers rolling a ball across the floor, walking in circles, and writhing on the floor was a waste of dancers. One of them had the stage to himself, and just hit his head against a wall over and over. I wished that had been me. I sat there, in pain, trying to think of what they could be going for and what I could possibly say that didn’t involve my dislikes. I found the performers must be very dedicated to the art of dance to endure this piece. They also have amazing memories to remember the “choreography,” which had no corresponding music or story. They also committed themselves to the work 100%, taking it very seriously, never smiling. In what could have been interesting, one of the two main performers had a “scene” where he had a breakdown in gibberish. Even though he spoke nonsense, the audience could still understand what he felt, just as it would be in a dance. It was the most exciting part. But they moved on without relating it to the rest of the piece.

Surprised, I discover that the music was live. Ivo Bol sat in the back of the theatre with his laptop putting together sounds. Unlike traditional dance pieces where the dancers move to the music, this piece did the opposite.
The first 5 minutes of “music” I found interesting. The sounds of a campfire crackling and burning with the chirps of crickets played. For the last five minutes I found myself praying for it to end and wishing for a wall against which to hit my head. Whatever Nelson and Malvacia had aimed to achieve seems to have missed the mark. But seeing bad shows made me appreciate the good shows even more.

The New York City Ballet Review
By Julia Lisa
5/11/09

A night of concentrated dance, contemporary discoveries and classic fairytales enchanted an audience on May 8th. Friday evening at the New York City Ballet in Lincoln Center featured 3 wonderful and unique ballets.

George Balanchine, who is now held up as the greatest choreographer ever, created The Four Temperaments, first performed in 1946, based on the four humors corresponding to a different personality type. Today the choreography consists of the same brilliant moves, but the kicks and leaps are higher and the turns are tighter. The ballerinas wore traditional leotards and tights in front of a backdrop of Mark Stanley’s colorful lighting. Balanchine wanted the audience to focus on the dancing without distractions. When the mellow temper came out alone on the stage the piano soloist, Susan Walters played the somber tune. Mellow man struggled with himself to join the three vibrant circling women and would be pulled down to the ground by his mood. This piece had no purposeful story but enthralled the audience.

La Stravaganza by Angelin Preljocaj has been around little more than a decade. This more modern ballet, danced barefoot and with electronic music and sounds, still has a strong balletic foundation. 3 contemporary couples in earthy tones and 3 right out of the 17th century in colorful peasant garb explored sensuality, relationships and violence though their segregated dance styles. But curiosity for the other party led one girl to discover true love. The sounds of birds chirping and water trickling opens the dance as 5 of the earthy dancers intertwine hands and move mesmerizingly like flowing water while our Pocahontas stand off watching. When the couples from the 1600s appeared from beneath a rising upstage curtain as if they just touched down from their spaceship the music became very robotic and futuristic. These historic aliens caressed each other’s feet and rolled around on the floor. Preljocaj composed his classic merger of fantasy and reality in La Stravaganza.

Chaconne by the brilliant Balanchine premiered 33 years ago on this very stage. According to the program Chaconne comes from a phrase used by composers in the 16 and 1700s to end an opera in a festive mood and this dance certainly lived up to its namesake. With a large ensemble of lords and ladies in whites and mints this classic courtly ballet ended the night in a delightful flourish. The ballerinas spun on perfect point as the strong-bodied men supported them.

The evening offered wonderful and diverse program that the New York City Ballet is known for.

Jay's Responses: InDance (Joyce SoHO); NYCB @ Lincoln Center (Koch Theater)

In Dance
By Jay Reist

In Dance’s performance has many original interpretive creations. I walked out loving it and would see it again in a heartbeat. All the pieces have a mysterious sensuality that links them together in perfect harmony. Inverse, the first creation of the night is filled with jungle-like pulses and sways from the dancers. The lighting is forest-inspired with many deep, vividly rich colors. The second creation, BOX, has bright lighting against the black stage. The movements are very quick and precise. The costumes contrasted each other, one dancer in black and the other in an Indian cultural costume. The live music was splendid and brings more life to the meticulous movements. OWNING SHADOWS shows an erotic version of the tale of Ramayana. MEA CULPA is another entertaining creation. IT is the depiction of the god Siva the Destroyer. The dancing was very sexy and playful and had a very ballet-gone promiscuous theme. BOLLYWOOD HOPSCOTCH is extremely entertaining with a S & M theme. It incorporated typical Bollywood film clips with some Bollywood-style dancing. I recommend In Dance to anyone looking for a alternative look at dance and at Indian culture.

New York City Ballet Response
By Jay Reist

New York City Ballet’s Spring Season holds a variety of ballet pieces. The first piece, Four Temperaments has the original choreography by George Balanchine with love orchestra music written by Paul Hindermith. The costumes are very formal; black and white. I have seen ballet before, mainly “Nutcracker” style dances, but this is very new to me. The dancing, you could say is traditional but I did see movements that I would never see anywhere else. Each variation holds a new emotion that is portrayed by the dancer’s movements. La Stravaganza is an original piece by Angelin Preljocaj, a choreographer new to the New York City Ballet. It portrays the relationship between native people and European colonists. The dancing is a breath of fresh air to ballet, with its deep stretching and partnering that displays an intimate relationship between dancers. The music is recorded, bouncing between techno and classical. Chaconne has original choreography by George Balanchine with live orchestra music written by Christoph Willibald von Gluck. It is a “traditional” ballet piece, with defined hierarchy and even princes. It shows a lovely tale (with many frills and white) between royal characters. This is my second time attending New York City Ballet and I may return in the near future.

THE BARNARD PROJECT AT Dance Theater Workshop

Featuring, as Claudia Larocco said, the youthful energies of Nicholas Leichter, seen here rehearsing at Mark Morris studios in Brooklyn:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1_O0fEJq90&feature=channel

This guy (Nicholas Leichter, will be coming in to talk next Friday, April 24, along with Monstah Black. The two are collaborating on a piece "Killa" for 13 performers including Leichter and Black that will have its world premiere June 24, 26, & 28, 2009 at The Joyce Theater in New York City.

inDance

http://www.indance.ca/home_new.html

inDANCE is a Toronto-based South Asian dance company established in 1999 as a vehicle to encompass the entire range of artistic director Hari Krishnan's creative output: choreography, performance, touring, and teaching. The primary mandate of inDANCE is to form creative partnerships with Canadian and international collaborators, including choreographers, dancers, musicians, designers, scholars and presenters.

The company's objectives are two-fold:

To produce work that is bold, full of risks and adventurous. Dancers who work with inDANCE come from a variety of dance backgrounds and bring to the company technique and aesthetic expertise that moves the company in ever-expanding directions. The company produces invigorating and progressive dance productions that challenge dominant discourses about culture. The experimental approach of the company addresses and entertains a diverse range of audiences.

To present exponents and scholars of historically-oriented Bharatanatyam in Canada, thereby exposing audiences to the specific origins and historical contexts of the form.

Show #3 - Masha (of Music TRaC) takes some shots

After the show, we gathered on the steps to break, it, DOWN.

Eric made outlandish claims even he doesn't believe.

Andrey and Brian are suspect. (Not suspects.)

Julia saw the light, and it all comes together.....

New York Times review

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/arts/dance/20nels.html

Sooner Than You Think (this sunday at 2pm)

DanceBrazil - video 1 from DanceBrazil on Vimeo.

DanceBrazil March 19-22 at NYU's SkirballCenter.

DanceBrazil, from Bahia, under the artistic direction of Jelon Vieira, presents "Inura" at the Skirball Center with choreography by frequent DanceBrazil guest artist Carlos Dos Santos and a commissioned score by Cuban-born composer and conductor Tania León; and "Ritmos" (2008), Vieira's homage to Capoeira, the Afro-Brazilian martial art unique to his home state of Bahia, and the Samba, Brazil's iconic popular dance.

On March 20, stay for a Q&A with the artists themselves after the performance. Participants include Inura Composer Tania León, Inura Choreographer Carlos Dos Santos, Ritmos Composer and Music Director Tote Gira, as well as Ritmos Choreographer and Artistic Director Jelon Vieira.

Dance Theater Workshop
presents
Monstah Black and The Sonic Leroy
in
Living Outside The…….
as part of the
Studio Series
March 13-14, 2009 at 7:30pm

New York, NY, February 10, 2009 – At the close of his 100-hour residency in Dance Theater Workshop’s Studio Series, Monstah Black & The Sonic Leroy bring falsetto vocals, digitized beats, and an elevated shoe clad persona to the stage. In Living Outside The……., Black creates Electro Afro Punk Funk sound and a visual performance that explores gender fluidity and racial assumptions with movement, theater, glitter, and glam. Living Outside The……. features Black along with the performers of Motion Sickness - Toija Riggins, Sarah Van’t Hull, Ashley Brockington, Kendra Jeniece Ross, Christina Reeves, Andi Miyamotto, Jill M. Vallery, and Melana Lloyd, with styling by Black and accessories design by Torkwase Dyson. Music has been produced by World Eater Recordings, DJ Krunchy, and Monstah Black.

“Black erupts in a fit of spread arms and leg swirls that set pulses, ours and probably his, racing.”
– Capital Fringe

Performances will take place at Dance Theater Workshop in David R. White Studio on the third floor, March 13-14 (Friday – Saturday at 7:30pm). There will be a Post-Performance talk with Marya Whethers on March 14 (Saturday). Tickets are free with a suggested donation of $5 at the door. Tickets can be reserved in person at the box office or by calling (212) 924-0077. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues.

http://www.dance-tech.net/profile/MonstahBlack

important TRaC announcement

Important safety video up on the Main TRaC Blog! Make sure to check it out....

www.High5TRaC.blogspot.com

Have a safe day.

~eric

Here is the performance schedule for Dance TRaC spring 2009:

1. FRI, March 13 @ 7:30 pm DTW: MONSTAH BLACK
2. FRI, March 20 @ 8 pm NYU’s Skirball Center: DANCE BRAZIL
3. SUN, March 22 @ 2 pm Ailey Theater: JEREMY NELSON & LUIS LARA MALVACIAS
4. FRI, April 3 @ 8 pm Joyce SoHo: InDance
5. WED, April 22 @ 6:30 pm DTW: BARNARD DANCE PROJECT
6. FRI, May 8 @ 8 pm Lincoln Center: NEW YORK CITY BALLET

Dance TRaC 2009 has begun!

Dance TRaC begins this Friday at the Dance Theater Workshop. Dance Theater Workshop is located at 219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues in the Chelsea district of New York City. Take the any of the following subways to 14th Street: 2/3, F, L and A/C/E. Or take the C, E, F or V train to 23rd.

It is imperative that you get to Dance Theater Workshop by 4:30. Brian McCormick, your instructor, will meet you in the lobby, then you will go up to the room you’ll be meeting in on the 2nd floor.

Any problems you can contact your instructor Brian McCormick at bjjmcc@aol.com.

NOTE: Your first show will be immediately following class on Friday. Monstah Black and The Sonic Leroy w/ Motion Sickness will perform Living Outside The........, which part of Dance Theater Workshop’s Studio Series at 7:30pm. Bring some food and/or money for a snack, just in case.