Ready to Fall for Dance?
August 31, 2008
One week from today, tickets will go on sale for the 5th annual Fall for Dance Festival at NY City Center. Over the course of ten days, audiences can enjoy six different programs – each featuring multiple companies that cover ballet, jazz, hip hop, tap, contemporary, tango, and many other styles – for just $10 per ticket. Last year the line to purchase tickets snaked around the block and down 7th Avenue, so I suggest arriving early if you plan on buying from the box office. If you purchase tickets online, there is a service fee (which of course isn’t advertised on City Center’s website), so tickets end up costing slightly more than $10.
The festival programs usually present a combination of larger, more established companies or artists with lesser known ones. I’m particularly excited to see Hofesh Shechter Company in its New York debut. Shechter is a London-based, Jerusalem-born choreographer whose company dazzled audiences last year at Sadler’s Wells and this past July at Jacob’s Pillow. Shechter used to dance with Batsheva Dance Company in Israel and studied music at the Jerusalem Academy for Dance and Music. In fact, he moved to London specifically to continue studying music, but now mainly focuses on choreography. Shechter composed the percussive score for Uprising, a 2006 piece for seven men that will be performed at Fall for Dance. Above is an excerpt of Uprising from the Jacob’s Pillow YouTube channel.
Dance Performance from Uganda
August 26, 2008
Ndere Dance Troupe in Kampala, Uganda
Since this past June, my older sister Jordan has been living in Uganda and working at a health and human rights non-profit organization. She has ample time on weekends to travel, and every Monday I look forward to an email that fills me in on her weekend adventures. If I’m lucky (and if her internet connection is working – Uganda has frequent blackouts that sometimes last for days), I even receive some photos. This past weekend Jordan and some friends went to Kampala, the capital and largest city in Uganda, and she excitedly wrote to me about a dance performance she attended. Here’s an excerpt from her email:
“We went to see a local Ugandan dance troupe (Ndere Dance Troupe) which was fabulous. Evan, you would have loved it. The dancers had gorgeous costumes and balanced many different objects on their heads – including enormous wooden drums and stacks of porcelain urns – while dancing around rather vigorously.”
There seems to be a lull in live dance here in New York City, so I was thrilled to read about an international dance performance. Here are some of Jordan’s photos showing the Ugandan dancers and musicians in elaborate costumes.
Final Thoughts on The Copier at Cedar Lake
August 24, 2008
Ana-Maria Lucaciu in The Copier, photo by Evan
I returned to Chelsea on Friday evening for a final viewing of Jill Johnson’s The Copier. As I mentioned in my review of the opening night performance, every viewing of an interactive installation such as The Copier provides a unique and slightly different experience. So I was eager to observe the installation again and see what new subtleties I would discover.
David Poe’s score, which is filled with digital chaos, resonated with me even more as I became aware of the sounds around me: the distant blare of an ambulance, cell phones beeping before the performance began, the sound of people shifting from one part of the room to another, even the faint sound my camera made when I took a photograph. But the harsh technological sounds in the score are balanced by melodic piano solos, and the choreography reflected the distinctions between the two. The dancers moved as an ensemble to the jarring city noise or the sound of a copier, often rushing about at lightning speed and following – or at least recognizing – each others’ movement. To the more serene sections of the score, they danced slowly, almost delicately, in duets or solos – without any noticeable copying. The piece’s peaceful closing, with dimmed lighting that distinctly contrasted with the fluorescent white lights that hung along the sides of the theater, emphasized the significance and rarity of an individual moving freely and independently. Copying was the inspiration for and theme of The Copier, but I found the moments of individuality to be the most poignant and striking.
Cedar Lake’s The Copier: Opening Night, Part 2
August 22, 2008
Ana-Maria Lucaciu in Jill Johnson’s The Copier, photo by Gillian Crosson
Gillian Crosson, a friend of David Poe (the composer of Cedar Lake’s The Copier), was generous enough to send me some of her beautiful photographs from opening night of the installation. You can view all of her photos from the performance here. Enjoy!
Soojin Choi in The Copier, photo by Gillian Crosson
Cedar Lake dancers in The Copier, photo by Gillian Crosson
Acacia Schachte in The Copier, photo by Gillian Crosson
