Artichoke Dance Company’s Human Mapping Project
August 30, 2010
It’s site-specific, environmentally conscious, historically reflective, and interactive! Artichoke Dance Company combines performance with ecological activism and volunteerism in a new project on New York shorelines, Your Planet: The Human Mapping Project. Director and choreographer Lynn Neuman collaborates with scientists and architects from the Urban Design Lab’s Plastic Trash Patch Project, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, to focus on one of New York’s greatest assets, its shoreline (there are over 600 miles of shoreline across the five boroughs). Performances, which are aligned with beach clean up days, sponsored by the American Littoral Society, bring awareness to the impact of human consumption on local littoral areas while celebrating the earth. The dancing draws on movement rituals historically connected with the earth and capitalizes on the unique surface area of sand.
Audience members can join the company at the culmination of the performances with a walking ritual to the water. Community members can become more involved by lending their hands to help implement Olek’s costume design in an Assembly Line Project, sponsored by the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts on September 1, 6:30 to 9 PM, or participate in beach clean up from 10 AM to 1 PM prior to each 1 PM performance.
Saturday, September 18 at 1 PM at Manhattan Beach
Oriental Avenue at Hastings Street (ocean side of the bath house)
Rain Date: Sunday, September 19 at 1:00pm
Public Transportation: Route 1: B or Q train to Sheepshead Bay, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B49 bus to Hastings Street; Route 2: Q train to Brighton Beach, then the Kingsborough Community College bound B1 bus to Hastings Street.
Saturday, September 25 at 1 PM at Coney Island
West 8th Street at Surf Avenue/New York Aquarium (at the boardwalk)
Rain Date: Sunday, September 26 at 1:00 pm
Public Transportation: F or Q train to West 8th Street/New York Aquarium. Exit at West 8th Street and follow the footbridge to the boardwalk.
Saturday, September 25 at 6 PM at West Harlem Piers Park
125th Street at the Hudson River
Public Transportation: 1 train to 125th Street. Walk 2 blocks west to the Hudson River.
Legendary Ballet School to Close
August 25, 2010
Irine Fokine, photo by Chris Peters for NorthJersey.com
After more than sixty years, the Irine Fokine School of Ballet of Ridgewood, New Jersey is closing. Founded by Fokine, the Russian-born daughter of Maryinsky Theater prima ballerina Alexandra Fedorova and the niece of choreographer Michel Fokine, the school was a mainstay of Ridgewood. It also happens to be the school where I studied ballet intensively for many years, starting when I was seven. I took my first point class and first partnering class there, and performed in my first of countless Nutcracker productions. The environment at the school was strict, sometimes frighteningly so, and Ms. Fokine herself was a rigorous taskmaster. But the myriad performance opportunities allowed me to share my love of ballet, and the training was my introduction to ballet technique. I am eternally grateful for having studied with Ms. Fokine, and very saddened to learn of the school’s closing. I always imagined it would go on forever. The closing truly marks the end of an era. Read more about the school here.
Crossing the Line 2010
August 23, 2010
Once again, the lineup for FIAF’s annual Crossing the Line festival looks fantastic. The offerings include performances by Raimund Houghe, Farm City’s fair, film, and tour celebrating urban agriculture, a site-specific performance of the play Hetero, Willi Dorner’s Bodies in Urban Spaces at sunrise and sunset, and a conversation with Philip Glass and Matthieu Ricard on contemplation and creativity. The festival opens September 10th. Watch the nifty little trailer and get excited.
Casting Call for PS 122′s Fall Season
August 20, 2010
Be a part of Performance Space 122’s 30th Anniversary Season by auditioning for roles in Dominic Huber’s Hotel Savoy and Ishmael Houston-Jones’s THEM. Hotel Savoy, a world premiere that was highlighted in the recent New York Times feature ‘Theatre for Audiences of One’, will be performed at the Goethe-Institut on Thursdays from September 30th through October 31st. THEM, which premiered in 1986, will be remounted from October 21st through October 30th at PS 122. The casting call information is below.
Dominic Huber’s Hotel Savoy – Casting Call for non-actors:
Looking for 5 individuals to guide patrons through 1014 5th Avenue, a six-floor mansion located directly across from the Metropolitan Museum. This project is an exploration of space and memory; it is a slice of the diversity of New York; it is a series of real conversations in a frame of experience. We are searching for individuals who consider themselves near or exactly how the characters are described. Some theatrical experience and an appreciation of the arts is a plus, but we are not seeking professional actors.
The ‘characters’ are as follows:
The Bartender Female. Age 40s-60s.
Elevator Operator Male. Age 40-60s.
The Girl Female. Age 15-19.
The Clerk Male. Age 25-45.
The Haircutter Male. Age 30-50.
To schedule an interview or inquire about the project please contact Phillip: international (at) ps122 (dot) org
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Auditions for THEM, conceived and directed by Ishmael Houston-Jones
Are you a boy, do you like to dance, are you fearless, do you want to perform at both the New Museum and Performance Space 122 in the same month? How do you feel about dancing with a dead goat? Be a part of this historic reconstruction, 25 years later.
For this revival of THEM we are looking for 6 MALE PERFORMERS who are strong DANCE IMPROVISERS and who are not afraid of on-stage INTIMACY and VIOLENCE.
Following an intense 4-week rehearsal/development period at the New Museum, THEM will run at PS 122 October 21 – October 30.
The audition will be held at the New Museum on Saturday, September 11th from 11 AM to 2 PM with call-backs the same day from 4 to 6 PM.
Please RSVP: THEMrsvp (at) gmail (dot) com
Black Swan Trailer
August 18, 2010
It’s intriguing and scary to think about whether a Hollywood psychological thriller set in the cutthroat world of ballet will alter widespread perceptions about ballet as a profession.
