Dance Critics on Dance Criticism

Dance Magazine

I completely agree with Deborah Jowitt. I'll let readers decide about Joan Acocella and Alastair Macaulay...

Gerald Casel Dance this Friday!

Save The Robots! borrows its title from a 1980’s after-hours club in the Lower East Side of NYC. This physically powerful dance is an abstract response to the loss of artistic expression and integrity brought on by gentrification. Contemplating life in a big city-particularly the vulgarity and clumsiness of ’starchitechture,’ the ubiquitous Starbucks and American Apparels, this piece asks questions about how people are considered in the creation of urban spaces. It navigates through the porous and often emotional area between public and private space.

Friday | Nov 21 | 8.30 pm
Click here to see the show info listed on the Dance New Amsterdam page!

280 Broadway, 2nd Floor (entrance on Chambers)
New York, NY 10007

An Afro Latin Halloween

Reminder: There will be no Dance TRaC class this Friday, October 31st. It's HALLOWEEN!

So.....

We'll see you on Saturday, November 1st for Arturo O'Farrill and the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra's Dia de los Muertos!


On Saturday, Nov. 1st, the whole Teen Reviewers and Critics program will come together along with over 100 other High 5ers to celebrate la Dia de los Muertos with Arturo O’Farrill's Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, a Grammy-nominated ensemble, melding rhythms from African and Latin American countries with jazz harmonies from the United States. The concert features the world premiere of the Day of the Dead Suite, the extraordinary Aztec Suite and special guest performers including Folkloric Dancers.

Before the concert, Arturo O'Farrell is holding a High 5 exclusive workshop on Afro-Latin Jazz, so we'll be heading over to the show by 6:30 p.m. Come prepared to jump on stage and learn first-hand what it takes to be a Afro-Latin Jazz All-Star....

WHEN: Saturday, November 1st. 6:30 - 10:15 p.m. (with two intermissions)

WHERE: SYMPHONY SPACE at 2537 Broadway and 95th Street in Manhattan

DIRECTIONS: Take the 1, 2 or 3 subway to the 96th Street stop. Exit train and walk south on Broadway. Symphony Space will be on your right-hand side. OR Take the B or C subway to the 96th Street stop and walk west until you hit Broadway.

Costumes
are
optional.....

:)

see ya'll on Saturday, muertos!


~eric

Luciana Achugar - Performance

Friday, October 24 (tonight) we go see Luciana Achugar's "The Sublime is Us" at Dance Theater Workshop (the same place we have class).

The show starts at 7:30 and runs about an hour.

Fall 2008 Dance TRaC begins!

Make sure to think outside the box....and the lines.... and rules.... and pre-conceptions.
Open your mind!

and enjoy.

~eric


(for more BANSKY - the graffiti artist who painted the above - click here.)

Update

Hello All,

I know It's been a while so lets see if I can get you up to speed. 

Over spring break we saw Akram Kahn at City Center, well a few of us at least. We went with the people at Visual TRaC. We had mixed opinions about the piece but that only fueled our discussions further. At some point in the past month we tried to tackle the question "What is dance?" We compared all the dance forms we saw this spring. Streb's Action Mechanics, Grupo Corpo, Jonah's motion capture, and most recently Akram Khan's dance theater piece. Can walking, sports or Streb be considered dance? what are their qualified features? 

Safe to say we exhausted the subject but could not come up with a definitive answer, and it seemed that, that was a better solution than a strict definition.

Following on the philosophical trend on May 6th we saw Nora Chipaumire at DTW which featured our very own B-Mac as the post-show moderator. The following friday we were scheduled to have Nora come and talk to us but due to scheduling mix-ups it was just us, that didn't prove for much of a problem. We then tackled the process of how dancers gain exposure, how they get shows and who has the power to choose what will be presented to the public. This led us to this week's discussion of how we decide what is "good" or not? Is it based on our opinion of the piece, do we use other people's opinions to influence our decisions or do we base it on what we know and have been exposed to previously? Also do we have to like something to think it's "Good" how does that influence our reviews and opinions. This was a heated conversation at times and at others we had so many questions to ask that most went unanswered.

 I think this just goes to show how many different opinions there are and that there is never one right answer, especially when critiquing something. We all have different view points and writing styles and that just makes what we write and say more important and unique. Let's face it who would want to live in a world where everyone agrees and has one view point. 

Next Week we are at DTW as usual, no more shows :(  , but we have guest scholar Charmaine Warren. 

See You Then

P.S. Hopefully we can get out a news letter listing upcoming dance performances that we can possibly all go to together. 

at STREB S.L.A.M. in Williamsburg

Check out Emily's update and the Jonah Bokaer reviews below, too!

Catching Up

Hello Everyone this is your new Blog Captain Emily this is my first post. And I will be honest this is my first time ever posting on a blog so bear with me .

March 28th Elizabeth Zimmer a known dance critic for the Village Voice and now the Metro ( that free paper that you get on the subway every morning ) came in and did an intensive writing workshop working with our reviews of Jonah Bokaer, which I will post soon. She was very impressed with the class and even said "we took the criticism better than some of the other writers she has worked with". Great Job everyone.

April 4th Jonah actually came in and talked with our class about his piece and he also gave us a rundown of how Image Capture works and what he uses it for. It was a large component of the piece that we saw and it seems that this technology will contribute greatly to dance and how it evolves in this age of technology. There are programs that make choreography as simple as clicking a mouse, which brings a lot to the table for non-dancers and perhaps injured or retired dancers. It was a possible glimpse into the future by a the person who is making the future present now in dance.

Jonah also talked about Chez Bushwick, an arts center in brooklyn that has free and very low cost performances, and also performance space to rent for only 5$ an hour. Also there are shows that anyone can sign up to showcase their work no matter the art form. This is great for you artists out there who wouldn't mind an audience.

After class we went upstairs to DTW's smaller performance space to see a work in progress by Ursula Eagly.

Also last week on April 4th after class we went upstairs to DTW's smaller performance space to see a work in progress by Ursula Eagly. Which you should all read about in our reviews in the coming weeks.

Note to Dance TRaC, Please complete your Ursula review and send it to me as soon as possible, the choreographer contacted me and would like to see what we wrote. Thanks

And Finally, On friday we saw STREB"s Slam Show #11. Which we will all write reviews for and I will post shortly along with all the other ones.

So till next time.

Ciao

Jonah Bokaer reviews

Check out your reviews of Jonah Bokaer's "The Invention of Minus One" on the Reviews page of the High 5 website.
These are the ones I got. If you'd like to submit yours, send it to Eric. If you'd like to edit anything or submit a revision, feel free!

Cathy's review
Emily's review
Jennifer's review
Kesi's review
Michelle's review
Rachel's review

Brooklyn, we feel ya.

Dance TRaC OUTING #2!

Grupo Corpo perform BENGUELÊ AND BREU this Thursday night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

BAM!

Make sure to get there by 7:00 to meet Brian! The show starts at 7:30.

BAM is within walking distance from the 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, N, R, M, G, B, D, and C trains.

Click the map below for more specific directions.


enjoy!

~eric

Dance TRaC meets Jonah Bokaer, tonight!

From the hyped- press release:

Named one of Dance Magazine’s “25 To Watch” in 2006, award-winning media artist and choreographer Jonah Bokaer debuts the world premiere of his new multi-media dance work The Invention Of Minus One in a co-presentation by Danspace Project and the Abrons Arts Center.

With this full length evening of technology-infused work, Bokaer endeavors to propel dance and motion capture into new realms of innovation. The program opens with False Start, a solo animated, choreographed, and performed by the artist with the use of state-of-the-art digital choreographic software. Bokaer examines the erasure of the moving body and the trace of its presence, while paying homage to Jasper Johns’ renowned painting of the same title. False Start completes a trilogy of solos of similar aesthetic concerns that includes Charade (2006) and Nudedescendance (2005).

The program also features the world premiere of The Invention Of Minus One, an epic investigation resulting from one year of motion capture research on the moving bodies of four dance artists. The Invention Of Minus One is performed by award-winning dancers: Holley Farmer, Rashaun Mitchell, and Banu Ogan. Music by Christian Marclay, virtual décor by Michael Cole, lighting by Aaron Copp, and original costumes by Isaac Mizrahi complement the work.

(I found this write-up on Craig's List. Has anyone ever gone to Craig's List to find out about shows before??)

Check out the New York Times Review from Friday's paper.

enjoy!
~eric

Spring TRaC Application now available!

Another season of Dance TRaC is around the corner!

Go the TRaC Homepage at www.high5tix.org and download the Spring 2008 TRaC Application. Also available are a flier for the new TRaC season and an invitation to the Open House on February 13th (4:30 - 5:30). Please download those and distribute to any friends or teachers or mentors who you think would be interested.

I hope to see you all at the Open House - if not before! It's only a month away already. As many of you know, having been to a TRaC Open House before, I'll need some volunteers for speaking on the alumni panel. Volunteers? Contact me if you're interested. The rest of you can just hang out, snack, and mingle with any teachers or students who are interested in learning more about the program.

And of course you should bring a friend or two! Maybe they're interested in signing up for Spring TRaC and don't even know it yet....

Looking forward to the new season!

~eric

Parsons Dance

Join High 5 Tuesday January 8 for a peformance of the Parsons Dance company. Great technical dancing and charismatic performers. A pleasurable experience is practically guaranteed!