Another Year, Another Wrap-Up
December 23, 2009
Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s MAX, photo by Gadi Dagon
It has been an eventful year for dance, and at times, a sad one. We lost Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, and Michael Jackson, many companies folded or laid off dancers due to financial troubles, and individuals everywhere involved in the arts – as writers, managers, choreographers, directors, you name it – are scratching their heads and having conversations about how to do more with less. But there were also some new, thriving initiatives, like the Performance Club (which just celebrated its one-year anniversary), Arts in Crisis, and FEAST, which will continue into 2010 and undoubtedly grow stronger. And of course, there were many great performances over the past year that have kept me optimistic and confident that even during the most challenging times, talented artists are creating exciting work. Here are some highlights from 2009, with links to my full reviews.
Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey’s the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t at Dance Theater Workshop: A gorgeously harrowing piece that featured distorted balletic movement and a rich emotional history filled with convulsions, gasps, and haunting stares.
Dancers in Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey’s the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, photo by Justine Avera
Emanuel Gat’s Winter Variations at Lincoln Center Festival: This duet for two men played with pauses and fluid motion within a deserted atmosphere that used light and dark to create personal and emotional boundaries. Their rhythmic movement to The Beatles’ “Day in the Life” is unforgettable.
Neal Medlyn in Why Won’t You Let Me Be Great!!!, photo by Zack Brown
Why Won’t You Let Me Be Great!!! at PS 122, conceived by Brendan Kennedy and presented by Neal Medlyn and CATCH: This evening-length show was inspired by Kanye West’s album 808s and Heartbreak, and featured a handful of downtown performing artists who engaged with his songs to convey loneliness, sex, and masculine power, among other themes. Some of the performers even got attention from – or confronted – Kanye West when he attended.
Steve Reich Interpreted Through Dance at the Guggenheim’s Works & Process: Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz both choreographed works to Reich’s Double Sextet. The results were excellent, albeit remarkably different, and both made use of the Guggenheim’s unique performance space.
Dancers in Larry Keigwin’s Sidewalk, photo by Richard Termine
Batsheva Dance Company’s MAX at Brooklyn Academy of Music: Ohad Naharin’s piece for ten dancers layered movement, sound, and lighting to create a heavily structured, non-theatrical work. Naharin’s chanting, in what sounded like gibberish, was a powerful guide throughout the work.
Rachel Maddow’s PillowTalk at Jacob’s Pillow: Sadly, I did not attend this, but a detailed press release left me wishing I had made the trip to Becket, Massachusetts. Maddow’s speech on arts advocacy and the importance of arts education is itself a work of art. An excerpt is below. Thank you, Rachel!
“Not just in wartime but especially in wartime, and not just in hard economic times but especially in hard economic times, the arts get dismissed as ‘sissy’. Dance gets dismissed as craft, creativity gets dismissed as inessential, to the detriment of our country. And so when we fight for dance, when we buy art that’s made by living American artists, when we say that even when you cut education to the bone, you do not cut arts and music education, because arts and music education IS bone, it is structural, it is essential; you are, in [Jacob’s Pillow founder] Ted Shawn’s words, you are preserving the way of life that we are supposedly fighting for and it’s worth being proud of.”
Gallim Dance in Andrea Miller’s Blush, photo by Christopher Duggan
Gallim Dance’s Blush at the Joyce Soho: The three women and three men in this work, choreographed by Andrea Miller, showed raw, intensely physical movement set within an emotional climate that shifted from dangerously cold to achingly tender and warm.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Event at Rockefeller Park: Performed one week after Cunningham’s death at the age of ninety, this site-specific work was a beautiful farewell overflowing with intriguing contrasts and nuances.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Event at Rockefeller Park, photo by Julieta Cervantes
Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino at the Park Avenue Armory: There was no performance here, but the interactive installation provided a sensual playground that made it easy to watch people of all ages take in the sights, sounds, smells (1650 pounds of spices were used), and textures of Neto’s massive creation.
ad hoc Ballet’s HER at the Joyce Soho: Deborah Lohse’s work explored female intimacy, aggression, and desire, and the two main women beautifully captured the complexities of their conflicting characters. Their cruelty and vulnerability felt honest and powerful in the Joyce Soho’s intimate space.
Cedar Lake dancers at the Chelsea Art Museum, photo by Kokyat
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s installation at the Chelsea Art Museum: Photographs, sculptures, and paintings by the fifty-six Iranian artists featured in “Iran Inside Out” set the tone for this compelling piece, which echoed the exhibit’s themes of war, sexuality, politics, and the quest for freedom of expression.
The Dia: Beacon: I didn’t see a performance when I visited the museum in October (although there have been many performances there in the past, including a series by Cunningham), but I still highly recommend a trip to the Dia. Richard Serra’s earthy sculptures are extraordinary.
Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipse II, photo by Evan Namerow
Culture’s (Mis)Use of Technology
October 7, 2009
Below is an excerpt from an excellent post by Seth Godin on the way Culture uses technology, and the challenge of getting “the good guys”, as opposed to the spammers, excited and eager to use new technology.
Our Culture (high and popular) is usually created by people who are happy with the systems the world has given them. Magazine editors don’t spend a lot of time wishing for better technology. Opera singers focus more on their singing than on microphone technologies. Novelists proudly use typewriters.
Sure, there are exceptions like Les Paul (who developed the electric guitar) and Mitch Miller (who invented reverb) but these exceptions prove the rule: often, culture is invented by people who are too busy to seek out new technology.
…The best new media (like blogs and possibly Twitter) open doors to people who didn’t used to have a voice. The worst ones (like blogs and possibly Twitter) merely create new venues for scams and senseless yelling.
When I think about where dance critics fall on Godin’s grid, there would probably be a handful in the top left corner and another, increasingly growing number in the top right corner. In addition, a small number falls into both categories: mainstream critics who are fortunately still employed or getting freelance work from print publications, but also have hopped on the blogging bandwagon in an effort to reach a broader audience and create visibility for themselves. Wendy Perron, Editor-in-Chief of the monthly publication Dance Magazine, posts thoughts on her blog every few days, and The New York Times dance critic Claudia La Rocco started an online and offline Performance Club to engage arts audiences. They’re also doing Culture a favor by embracing new technology and interacting with readers. But the small pool of people in both categories is an exception, and the ongoing discussion about the future of dance criticism often pits mainstream critics against dance bloggers. Ideally, the top left corner of the grid will recognize the value in seeking out new technology and will shift to the right, but this will be most successful if print publications as a whole, not just their technologically-curious journalists and critics, also make the shift.
The Fall Performance A-List
September 22, 2009
The New York Times dance critic and WNYC Performance Club founder Claudia La Rocco recently invited me and several other performers, critics, and arts enthusiasts to write about what we’re looking forward to seeing this fall in New York City. Check out the post to see what made the list. Then add as many as possible to your ever-growing list of shows to see this season. The fall offerings are diverse, and I was honored to share some thoughts along with several wonderful individuals involved in performance, including Wendy Whelan, Ada Calhoun, Damian Woetzel, and Ishmael Houston-Jones. But there are still plenty of other exciting shows to see this season. Stay tuned to Dancing Perfectly Free for many more previews and reviews in the coming weeks.
Lucinda Childs’ DANCE (1979), coming to The Joyce Theater in October, photo by Nathaniel Tileston
The Atlantic Avenue Tunnel Tour
June 9, 2009
photo by Konrad Fiedler
On Sunday afternoon, several brave Performance Clubbers and I climbed into a manhole in the middle of Atlantic Avenue, along with a few hundred other people, to enter the dark, mysterious Atlantic Avenue subway tunnel. I learned about the tunnel this past April, and luckily the P. Club enthusiastically embraced the idea of making it an outing. Bob Diamond, who rediscovered the old tunnel in 1980 and founded the Brooklyn Historic Railway Association, led a historically-rich (although not necessarily entirely factual) tour that included some over-the-top reenactments from a theater group and plenty of details about his fascination with and discovery of the tunnel. Setting aside the theater component, Diamond’s lengthy commentary was a performance in and of itself – one that he shares with audiences at least once a month.
Performance Club founder Claudia La Rocco wrote a great post about the tunnel adventure on the WNYC Art.Cult blog, so I encourage you to head over there and check it out. I shared some thoughts in the comments section, and everyone should feel free to jump into the conversation as well. I’m sure there will be a lively discussion in no time. Hopefully this is only the first of many P. Club adventures underground.
A documentary about the tunnel is currently in the works. Watch the trailer and learn more at What’s Behind the Wall.
photos by Evan Namerow
New Economy Smack Down
May 10, 2009
The Field and Galapagos Art Space have teamed up to present a very exciting, timely event:
New Economy Smack Down
Wednesday, May 13, 7 PM
FREE with RSVP, plus cash bar!
Co-Hosted by Robert Elmes, Galapagos Art Space, and Jennifer Wright Cook, The Field
Don’t be brought down by the economy, instead usher it in with an evening of lively debate, truth-telling, and prophesizing. Join us to wrestle with the urgent issues and uncertainty that confront the performing arts community. A two-part panel of arts and business leaders (several of whom are members of the Performance Club) will help set the stage for this impromptu evening of possibility.
PANELISTS:
Cultural Stakeholders and Gatekeepers:
Moira Brennan, Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund
Heather Hitchens, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
Aaron Landsman, Thinaar / Elevator Repair Service (ERS)
Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, The Lost Notebook
Brian Rogers, The Chocolate Factory Theater
Cultural Entrepreneurs:
Rachel Chavkin, Theatre of the Emerging American Moment (TEAM)
Miguel Gutierrez, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People
Jeff Hnilicka, Funding Emerging Arts with Sustainable Tactics (FEAST)
RoseAnne Spradlin, RoseAnne Spradlin Dance
Jon Stancato, Stolen Chair
This event is co-presented by The Field and Galapagos Art Space as part of The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund. Learn more about ERPA at the ERPA blog.
Location: Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street
Corner of Water Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn
F to York, C/E to High Street, 2/3 to Clark Street
