Dancing Perfectly Free

Larry Keigwin to Stage “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show” at Lincoln Center

Evan — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:37:21 +0000

Larry Keigwin

Choreographer Larry Keigwin will stage the largest public fashion show in New York City history on September 7^th at Lincoln Center. “Fashion’s Night Out: The Show,” produced by Vogue and SPEC Entertainment, will feature over 150 of the industry’s top models, and give over 1,500 guests a look at Vogue’s key trends for the fall. The show will be accessible to fashionistas around the world via live webcast on CBS.COM/FNO beginning at 7:30 pm, hosted by Vogue Editor at Large, André Leon Talley and model/blogger Hanneli Mustaparta. See Keigwin’s work on September 7th at 7:30 pm by clicking here.

Larry Keigwin is artistic director of KEIGWIN + COMPANY, founded in 2003 to create and share provocative, witty, and engaging dances. Keigwin was recently named the Vail International Dance Festival’s first artist in residence, and this past summer created and premiered a new work with four of ballet’s most prominent stars. The company will perform Keigwin’s Megalopolis on October 6 and 7 at New York City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival, and will present a world premiere full-evening work at The Joyce Theater, March 8th – 13th 2011.

The event will be held at Lincoln Center’s Josie Robertson Plaza, located on Columbus Avenue between 62^nd and 65^th Streets. For more information, visit the website for Fashion’s Night Out.

Artichoke Dance Company’s Human Mapping Project

Evan — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:26:04 +0000

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

Evan — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 05:33:08 +0000

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

Evan — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 11:00:46 +0000

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 10^th. Watch the nifty little trailer and get excited.

Casting Call for PS 122′s Fall Season

Evan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:54:36 +0000

Be a part of Performance Space 122’s 30^th 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 30^th through October 31^st. THEM, which premiered in 1986, will be remounted from October 21^stthrough October 30^that 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

***

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 11^th 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

Evan — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 02:52:56 +0000

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.

Paris Opera Ballet Performs Kaguyahime

Evan — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 04:38:55 +0000

While visiting Paris last month, I had the chance to see Paris Opera Ballet in Jiří Kylián’s 1988 Kaguyahime, performed at the cavernous Bastille Opera House. It was quite a treat. Dance Magazine published my review, so follow this link to read about the performance.

Four Women Choreographers Share a Week at The Joyce Theater

Evan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 03:52:35 +0000

clockwise from top left: Monica Bill Barnes, Andrea Miller, Camille A. Brown, and Kate Weare, photo by Tom Caravaglia

Beginning on Monday, August 9^th, The Joyce Theater will present two alternating programs featuring four exciting choreographers – all women! Camille A. Brown’s five short works include a tribute to the people of New Orleans, while Andrea Miller’s company, Gallim Dance, investigates the nature and dangers of pack mentality in Wonderland. Kate Weare’s Bright Land explores the cyclical nature of human experiences, and Monica Bill Barnes’s Another Parade celebrates the singular and exhilarating experience of being onstage. Check out the praise that Dance Magazine’s Wendy Perron showered on all four of them. Plus, watch the below Home4Dance video of Camille and Andrea talking about their preparations for the Joyce.

Camille A. Brown and Andrea Miller’s Gallim Dance will perform on Monday and Wednesday at 7:30 PM and on Friday at 8 PM. Monica Bill Barnes and Kate Weare will perform on Tuesday at 7:30 PM and Thursday and Saturday at 8 PM. All four choreographers will share a program on Saturday at 2 PM. The Joyce is located on 8^th Avenue at 19^th Street in NYC.

Rehearsal Footage from Vail International Dance Festival

Evan — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 16:01:36 +0000

The annual Vail International Dance Festival kicked off last week and continues until August 10^th. The festival has excelled at utilizing social networks and sharing photos and videos with the many people who cannot make it to Colorado for the performances, and updating them in a timely manner. I particularly enjoyed watching this lovely collage of rehearsal footage featuring New York City Ballet principals Joaquin De Luz and Tiler Peck, with the festival’s artistic director and former NYCB principal Damian Woetzel. The duo was rehearsing works by Jerome Robbins set to music by Chopin, which they’ll be performing next week.

We Give Ourselves Away At Every Moment

Evan — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:00:27 +0000

Choreographer Bill T. Jones makes a special appearance at the River To River Festival's “We Give Ourselves Away at Every Moment: An Event For Merce” at Rockefeller Park in New York City, photo by Abbey Braden

This past Monday, July 26^th, marked the one-year anniversary of choreographer Merce Cunningham’s death. One week after he died, his company gave a marvelous performance at Rockefeller Park. This year, on a day that was just as hot and sunny as last year’s event, River to River Festival presented “We Give Ourselves Away at Every Moment: An Event for Merce”. The performance included choreography by Jon Kinzel, Susan Marshall, Lucinda Childs, Faye Driscoll, and Bill T. Jones, all of whom were inspired by Cunningham’s dances and approach to dance-making. In the spirit of Cunningham’s use of chance operations, they presented pre-existing work that was repurposed for the occasion, with live music by David Eggar, Geoff Gersh, and Kotchy. Here are some photos from the performance, which was surely just as memorable as last year’s “Event”. And check out Eva Yaa Asantewaa’s wonderful photos on her blog, Infinite Body.

Performers Caitlin Scranton and Anne Lewis perform in “Dance II” by Lucinda Childs Dance, photo by Abbey Braden

Vicky Shick and Jon Kinzel perform "Drastic Cut and Responsible Ballet", photo by Abbey Braden