Writing About Gaga for BAM
February 26, 2012
BAM asked me to share some thoughts on Gaga, the movement language created by Batsheva Dance Company’s artistic director Ohad Naharin, in anticipation of the company’s performances next month at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. I was happy to do so, and am looking forward to seeing Batsheva in Hora. You can read my blog post here, and enjoy the above footage from MAX.
A Farewell to Cunningham
December 26, 2011
Merce Cunningham Dance Company in "Roaratorio" at BAM, photo by Julieta Cervantes
One of my college professors told me that letting your eyes focus in different ways while watching dance can offer endless enlightenment. Zoom in on something, then zoom out, or let everything blur together and then come into focus. I tried this approach many times while watching Merce Cunningham Dance Company perform Roaratorio on December 7th at BAM. Whether everything was crystal clear or swirling together, I was mesmerized from start to finish. The company’s Legacy Tour comes to an end on December 31st, but this was my very last Cunningham performance. I was clinging to everything on stage – the colors, the sounds, the dancers’ gorgeous lines and shapes and patterns, the eerily beautiful, disorienting score by John Cage. It was momentous, riveting, and then all too soon, over.
I haven’t enjoyed everything I’ve seen by Cunningham, and the first few performances I saw by his company several years ago left me confused, perhaps even irritated. But with every performance that I’ve watched, I’ve felt more and more certain of two things: 1. These dances are extraordinary and unlike anything else, and 2. Cunningham is the most groundbreaking choreographer of our time, and absolutely brilliant. On the 7th, it was exciting to witness such a monumental performance, and simultaneously heartbreaking to witness the end of the company at a time when I’m so eager to see more of Cunningham, to keep reveling in his brilliance.
Created in 1983, Roaratorio pulls from Irish step dancing and is inspired by James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake”. This lively, textured work shows couples coming together for festive social dancing featuring rapid footwork fused with dramatic tilts of the torso. The stage was busy yet clean, with dancers moving at different tempos or joining others to build something new altogether. John Cage’s richly layered 1979 score, ”Roaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegans Wake,” is remarkable on its own, but even more beautiful when paired with Cunningham’s choreography. Sounds from everyday life – a crying baby, traffic, a leaky faucet – blend with traditional Irish music. I strained my ears at times to identify the different sounds, to determine where one sound ended and another began. Running through the mesmerizing soundscape was text from “Finnegan’s Wake”, adding yet another dimension. Like Cunningham’s movement, the score was busy but never messy. It felt like a long, hazy memory – or strands from many memories – that was strikingly reflected in the lighting design by Mark Lancaster and Christine Shallenberg. At one moment the dancers are bathed in sunlight, at another shadows are cast across their faces. Whether encompassing a whole day, a week, or a year, Roaratorio reflects the passing of time.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company in "Roaratorio" at BAM, photo by Julieta Cervantes
I Believe in Forsythe’s “Outer Space”
October 28, 2011
William Forsythe's "I don't believe in outer space", photo by Dominik Mentzos
I’m still processing William Forsythe’s I don’t believe in outer space, which opened at BAM on Wednesday evening. For the first twenty minutes or so, I worried that it was going to be a repeat of Decreation, which I reviewed in 2009. That work was irritating, but the harsh and jarring qualities of the piece were ultimately a commentary on how we communicate with one another. And so with outer space, it initially felt and looked quite similar, with exaggerated voices, chaotic interactions, and disorienting sounds. But as the piece progressed and mixed hilarious use of lyrics from Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” with profound reflections on mortality, I was deeply moved. And how satisfying to watch as the various threads from the work came together and cohered. Just when it ended – after a poignant scene in which the audience heard Dana Caspersen’s natural voice (as opposed to her exaggerated ‘character’ voices earlier in the work) – I wasn’t quite ready to let go, and clung to the final moments of outer space for as long as I could. Forsythe’s work has always challenged me, and has even bothered me at times. Outer space was no exception. But it struck a chord more so than previous Forsythe works that I’ve seen, perhaps because it so smartly – albeit still messily – blended humor with sadness.
A final thought: The New York Times review says that the characters we see are “freaks”, possibly meant to be laughed at, and that Forsythe creates a “hellish anti-world”. Freaks? No, I’m certain that the characters we see are us. We laugh because we recognize ourselves in these characters. And Forsythe’s “hellish anti-world”? That’s our world.
Like this:
Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment in HD at BAM
October 9, 2011
BAM’s Performance in HD program brings opera, dance, and theater from around the world to the screen. But next week, BAM will show the first of two works this fall by emerging, provocative artists. Young Jean Lee’s The Shipment will be screened in HD on October 17th. Called “a subversive, seriously funny new theater piece” in The New York Times (it premiered two years ago in New York), The Shipment is a “black identity politics show” that dares audiences to question their own preconceived notions about race and culture. It’s sharp, smart, and witty – and definitely worth seeing if you missed it in 2009 (or, if you did see it, come watch it again!). Tickets are now on sale. And mark your calendar for December 5th, when choreographer Diana Szeinblum’s Alaska will screen in HD. Both The Shipment and Alaska in HD were filmed by On the Boards as part of OntheBoards.tv.
Beijing Dance Theater’s Haze
August 11, 2011
While doing some research I came across this riveting rehearsal footage of Beijing Dance Theater‘s Haze, choreographed by Wang Yuanyuan, with music by Henryk Gorecki and Biosphere. If you’re in the New York area, you can see the company perform Haze at BAM’s Next Wave Festival this fall.
