Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE returns to the Joyce for the company’s fortieth anniversary
Ronald K. Brown/EVIDENCE, a Dance Company
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
January 14–19 (curtain chat January 15), $52-$72 www.joyce.org www.evidencedance.com
One of the highlights of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s recently completed winter season at New York City Center was a new, even more exhilarating twenty-fifth anniversary production of Ronald K. Brown’s 1999 Grace The piece will now be performed by Brown’s Brooklyn-based Evidence, a Dance Company, as part of its winter season at the Joyce — and the troupe’s fortieth anniversary. Running January 14-19, it consists of two programs, both beginning with the company premiere of 2001’s Serving Nia, a sequel to Grace, set to music by drummer Roy Brooks and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and performed by eight dancers. That will be followed by 2005’s Order My Steps, a work for nine dancers, with music by Terry Riley, Bob Marley, and David Ivey and text by the late actor Chadwick Boseman, delivered live by his brother Kevin.
Program A concludes with the spectacular Grace, which features twelve dancers moving to a melding of modern dance and West African idioms as only Brown and co-choreographer Arcell Cabuag can do, with music by Duke Ellington, Roy Davis Jr., and Fela Aníkúlápó Kuti and live vocals by Gordon Chambers; the beats will stay with you long after the show is over. Program B ends with 2001’s High Life, a work for eight dancers, set to music by Oscar Brown Jr., Nikki Giovanni, Nikengas, Kuti, and Wumni.
Evidence’s spectacular costumes, by Omotayo Wunmi Olaiya, are always a treat all their own, as is the lighting, by Tsubasa Kamei, helping make every evening with Ronald K. Brown a special event, as it has been across its forty-year history.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Japan Society Under the Radar presentation of Duke Bluebeard’s Castle is one of dozens of experimental works in January performance festivals (photo by Yoji Ishizawa)
Every January, many of us begin the new year with resolutions to make positive changes in our lives; I find the best way to start that is by checking out the latest in cutting-edge and experimental theater, music, dance, opera, film, and other forms of entertainment. Performance festivals abound this month, at tiny venues you’ve never heard of, places you’ve always wanted to go to but haven’t yet, and well-known spaces you haven’t been to in years.
You now have the chance to fill those voids at such festival as Under the Radar, Prototype, Exponential, Out-Front!, Live Artery, Winter Jazzfest, and more, none of them costing nearly as much as a Broadway show. Below are only some of the highlights of this exhilarating time to try something that might be outside your comfort zone — or right up your alley.
New Ear Festival runs January 3-5 at Fridman Gallery on Lower East Side
NEW EAR FESTIVAL
Fridman Gallery
169 Bowery
January 3-5, $20-$30, Festival Pass $50-$70 new-ear.org
“Focused on fostering experimentation in time-based media and interdisciplinary collaboration in New York City and beyond,” Fridman Gallery’s New Ear Festival, which began in 2013, is back with a stellar lineup of musicians and installations, including Henry Threadgill, Ash Fure, and Kyp Malone.
Friday, January 3
Main Room: Henry Threadgill, Justin Cabrillos, relatively special theories of spAcial relativities, medium (Yaz Lancaster & GG200BPM); 8-Channel Audio: New Ear Spatial: Echoes; 4-Channel Video: “Landscape of the Medium” by Marleigh Belsley, 7:30
Saturday, January 4
Main Room: Members of Irreversible Entanglements, Shara Lunon, Kamari Carter & Gladstone Deluxe; 8-Channel Audio: New Ear Spatial: Echoes; 4-Channel Video: \[ the hurricanes in your mouth \] by Johann Diedrick, 7:30
Sunday, January 5
Main Room: Ash Fure, Brian Chase, Kyp Malone, Brian House & Sue Huang (feat. Robert Black); 8-Channel Audio: New Ear Spatial: Echoes; 4-Channel Video: Ash Fure, Studies for the Coming Heat, 7:30
The Brooklyn Exponential Festival is a treat for curious theatergoers
Brooklyn’s month-long Exponential Festival consists of nineteen shows in such venues as the Loading Dock, the Brick, and JACK, highlighting pieces by “participants [who] are committed to ecstatic creativity in the face of commercialism. Exponential is driven by inclusiveness and a diversity of artists, forms, and ideas coupled with utopian resource-sharing, mentoring, and the championing of risky, rigorous work in eclectic fields.”
Friday, January 3
through
Sunday January 5 haircut play :€, by Eulàlia Comas, Loading Dock, 170 Tillary St., $28.52
Thursday, January 9
through
Sunday, January 12 Neck Down, f.k.a. Rainbow’s End, by Nic Adams, We Are Here Brooklyn Studios, 563 Johnson Ave., $12.51-$49.87
Friday, January 10
through
Friday, January 17 MEOW!, by Matthew Antoci & Meaghan Robichaud, Loading Dock, 170 Tillary St., $28.52
Wednesday, January 15
through
Saturday, January 18 Sapphire, by Ella Lee Davidson, the Brick, 579 Metropolitan Ave., $25-$55
Friday, January 17, 7:30
and
Saturday, January 18, 3:00 & 7:30 Braiding Water, by Xiaoyue Zhang, JACK, 20 Putnam Ave., $25-$50
Thursday, January 23
through
Saturday, January 25 Happy Birthday, Curiosity Rover!, by Laura Galindo, Brick Aux, 628 Metropolitan Ave.,
Friday, January 24, 7:30
and
Saturday, January 25, 3:00 & 7:30 Tongues by Yibin Wang and Yejia Sun JACK, 20 Putnam Ave., $25-$50
UNDER THE RADAR
Multiple venues
January 4-19, free – $120 utrfest.org
Under the Radar is the glittering gem of performance festivals, two weeks of unique, unpredictable, and fascinating works, many hard to define but need to be seen. Founding director Mark Russell brought it to New York City in 2005, teamed up with the Public Theater’s Oskar Eustis in 2006, and has been presenting intriguing and exciting pieces from around the world ever since. The 2025 UTR, celebrating its twentieth anniversary, takes adventurous theatergoers on a thrilling ride, introducing audiences to high-tech generative AI (the four-part interactive and immersive TECHNE at BAM), a time loop in a small white closet (The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy at New York Theatre Workshop’s Fourth Street Theatre), a political prisoner in Tehran being visited by her husband (Blind Runner at St. Ann’s Warehouse), actual Russian refugee children who live in US shelters and their American peers (SpaceBridge at La Mama), a pair of skeletons digging for bones in the underworld (Dead as a Dodo at the Baruch Performing Arts Center), a reimagining of a popular musical (Show/Boat: A River at NYU Skirball), a Harajuku makeover of a classic French fairy tale (Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at Japan Society), a pair of rice cookers delving into the last twenty years of Korean history (Cuckoo at PAC NYC), and a marathon funeral for a company’s longtime home (Soho Rep Is Not a Building. Soho Rep Had a Building… at walkerspace). Below are only some of the highlights.
Saturday, January 4
through
Tuesday, January 7 TECHNE: The Vivid Unknown, by John Fitzgerald and Godfrey Reggio, BAM Fisher, Fishman Space, $10
Saturday, January 4
through
Thursday, January 24 Blind Runner, by Amir Reza Koohestani and Mehr Theatre Group, St. Ann’s Warehouse, 45 Water St., $44-$54
Saturday, January 4
through
Sunday, January 26 The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [Redux], by Sinking Ship and Theater in Quarantine, New York Theatre Workshop’s Fourth Street Theatre, 83 East Fourth St., $30-$50
Tuesday, January 7
through
Friday, January 11 TECHNE: The Golden Key, by Marc Da Costa and Matthew Niederhauser, BAM Fisher, Fishman Space, $10
Tuesday, January 7
through
Saturday, January 11 SpaceBridge, by Irina Kruzhilina, La MaMa, Ellen Stewart Theatre, 66 East Fourth St., $10-$30
Wednesday, January 8
through
Sunday, February 9 Dead as a Dodo, by Wakka Wakka, Baruch Performing Arts Center, 55 Lexington Ave., $40-$55
A space traveler is trapped in a time loop in The 7th Voyage of Egon Tichy [Redux] (photo by Josh Luxenberg / Sinking Ship / Theater in Quarantine)
Wednesday, January 9
through
Sunday, January 26 Show/Boat: A River, by Target Margin Theater, NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, 566 LaGuardia Pl., $60-$120
Sunday, January 12
through
Wednesday, January 15 TECHNE: Voices, by Margarita Athanasiou, BAM Fisher, Fishman Space, $10
Wednesday, January 15
through
Saturday, January 18 Duke Bluebeard’s Castle, by Shuji Terayama, Japan Society, 333 East Forty-Seventh St., $36-$48, 7:30
Thursday, January 16
through
Saturday, January 18 Cuckoo, by Jaha Koo, Perelman Performing Arts Center, 251 Fulton St., $58-$68
Thursday, January 16
through
Sunday, January 19 TECHNE: Secret Garden,by Stephanie Dinkins, BAM Fisher, Fishman Space, $10
Angie Pittman will present Black Life Chord Changes at Out-FRONT! Festival (photo by Brian Rogers)
OUT-FRONT! FESTIVAL
Judson Church, 55 Washington Square South
BAM Fisher Hillman Studio, 321 Ashland Pl.
January 7-13, free with advance RSVP (suggested donation $25) pioneersgoeast.org
The third edition of Pioneers Go East Collective’s Out-FRONT! Festival features presentations from such choreographers and dance companies as jill sigman/thinkdance, Angie Pittman, and Kyle Marshall Choreography at Judson Church and the BAM Fisher Hillman Studio in addition to an evening of films. “As a grassroots artist-driven collective, we create a high-visibility platform for dance and interdisciplinary artists whose rigorous, playful, and fabulously outrageous creative practices speak to our community in unexpected and beautiful ways,” artistic director Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte said in a statement. “We engage known and lesser-known artists to shape a joyful space to celebrate queer art and stories of vulnerability and inclusion.”
Tuesday, January 7
and
Friday, January 10
Miranda Brown + Noa Rui-Piin Weiss: !!simon says~~!:));)$$, and Nattie Trogdon + Hollis Bartlett: Vessels, Judson Church, 7:00
Wednesday, January 8
and
Thursday, January 9
jill sigman/thinkdance: Re-Seeding (Encounter #4), Judson Church, 7:00
Friday, January 10, 8:30
and
Monday, January 13, 7:00
Blaze Ferrer: Dick Biter and Stuart B Meyers: thegarden, Judson Church
Saturday, January 11
Out-FRONT! Film Series: dance and experimental short films by Dominique Castelano, Jueun Kang, Kathleen Kelly, Haley Morgan Miller, Pioneers Go East Collective, and Maamoun Tobbo, Judson Church, 3:00
Angie Pittman: Black Life Chord Changes and Kyle Marshall Choreography: Joan, BAM Fisher Hillman Studio, 7:00
zoe | juniper will present latest work as part of new York Live Arts festival (photo by Anton Karaa)
LIVE ARTERY
New York Live Arts (unless otherwise noted)
219 West 19th St.
January 8-18, $28-$40 newyorklivearts.org
New York Live Arts’ annual Live Artery showcases works by emerging and established choreographers; this year’s impressive lineup includes Ogemdi Ude, zoe | juniper, Joseph Keckler, Leslie Cuyjet, Miguel Gutierrez, and, if you are lucky enough to get an invite, Shamel Pitts, A.I.M by Kyle Abraham, and Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company.
Wednesday, January 8
through
Saturday, January 11 My Body, My Archive, by Faustin Linyekula
Friday, January 10
through
Monday, January 13 The Marthaodyssey, by Jesse Factor
Saturday, January 11 Major, by Ogemdi Ude, 3:00
time/life/beauty, by Michael Sakamoto and Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky, $15, 6:00
Saturday, January 11
and
Sunday, January 12 For All Your Life, by Leslie Cuyjet, CPR — Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Ave., $25
Sunday, January 12
Artist Salon, with Janani Balasubramanian, Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha, Kayla Farrish, Heather Kravas, and Tere O’Connor, free with advance RSVP, 11:00 am
The Missing Fruit (Part I), by Roderick George — kNonAme Artist, $15, 1:00
UNTITLED, by zoe | juniper, with Xiu Xiu, $15, 6:00
Sunday, January 12
through
Saturday, January 18 Super Nothing, by Miguel Gutierrez
Monday, January 13 Turn. Turning.TURNT, by Cynthia Oliver/COCo Dance Theatre, 6:00
A Good Night in the Trauma Garden, by Joseph Keckler, 8:00
SFX FESTIVAL
the wild project
95 East Third St.
January 9-11, $23.33 thewildproject.org
The seventh iteration of the Special Effects Festival (SFX), founded by Caden Manson and Jemma Nelson, takes place January 9-11 at the wild project with three evenings of new works “to rekindle the spirit of the avant-garde and create a shared space to gather for contemporary performance.”
Thursday, January 9
Illuminated Skies: A Night of Puppetry, with Cumulo by Emily Batsford, an excerpt from Shiny One by Jon Riddleberger, Cast from Heaven by Jacob Graham, and Where Did You Go, Connie? by Amanda Card, curated by Amanda Card, 7:00
Friday, January 10
Works by Wonderful Cringe (Nicholas Sanchez), Harlequin (Adonis Huff & Jelani Best), and Lele Dai, curated by Kyla Gordon, 7:00
Saturday, January 11
Gray Spaces, with Idiot Void (working title) by David Commander, double column by Marissa Joyce Stamps, and 5G Maitreya by Glenn Potter-Takata, curated by Lisa Clair, 7:00
Founded in 2005, “Winter Jazzfest celebrates the music as a living entity, wherein history collides with the future in every note. Creative improvisation in the digital age continues to stimulate thought and emotion of its listeners, embracing innovation, defying instrumental boundaries and the old cliches of ‘What is Jazz?’” Among this year’s highlights are poet, writer, lyricist, and activist aja monet, pianist and composer Vijay Iyer, Sun Ra Arkestra, and two days of marathons at such venues as Le Poisson Rouge, Nublu, Mercury Lounge, Baby’s All Right, and the Bitter End.
Thursday, January 9
aja monet, Faye Victor, Sophye Soliveau, LPR, 158 Bleecker St., $45.42, 6:30
Friday, January 10
Manhattan Marathon, multiple venues, including Endea Owens at LPR, Jenny Scheinman’s All Species Parade at City Winery, Vijay Iyer & Wadada Leo Smith at Performance Space NY, the Christian McBride Band at Mercury Lounge, and Sophye Soliveau at the Bitter End, $85
Saturday, January 11
Brooklyn Marathon, multiple venues, including Sun Ra Arkestra at Brooklyn Bowl, Vijay Iyer Trio +1 Featuring Adam O’Farrill at National Sawdust, Peter Apfelbaum’s New York Hieroglyphics at Loove Labs Annex, Matthew Shipp Trio at Loove Labs, Lion Babe at Baby’s All Right, and Ken Butler’s Curious Cave of Anxious Objects at Hybrid Visions, $85
Sunday, January 12
Impressions: Improvisatory interpretations on A Love Supreme, featuring the Ravi Coltrane Quartet with David Virelles, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and Dezron Douglas, with guests Allison Miller, Angelica Sanchez, Ben Williams, James Brandon Lewis, Joel Ross, Kalia Vandever, Kassa Overall, Kenny Warren, Linda May Han Oh, Mali Obomsawin, Melissa Aldana, Nasheet Waits, Orrin Evans, Rafiq Bhatia, Sam Newsome, Theon Cross, Tomoki Sanders, and more, Roulette, 509 Atlantic Ave., $63, panel 6:30, show 8:00
Monday, January 13
Strata-East Rising, A Landmark Concert with Charles Tolliver, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Billy Harper, Christian McBride, aja monet, Endea Owens, Steve Jordan, Keyon Harrold, Camille Thurman, and more, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., $57.47-$105.06, 7:00 & 9:30
Cofounding directors Kristin Marting and Beth Morrison have put together another outstanding group of shows for Prototype, which “is committed to surprising our audiences and confounding their expectations through content, form, and relevance.” This year they will be accomplishing that with eight presentations, including an art bath, concerts, a streaming hip-hopera, and five works at HERE, La MaMa, and the Village East. Watch out for Eat the Document, based on the novel by Dana Spiotta, exploring activists from the 1970s underground to 1990s suburbia, and Black Lodge, inspired by the lives and careers of William S. Burroughs, David Lynch, and Antonin Artaud.
Thursday, January 9
through
Friday, January 17 Eat the Document, alternative opera by composer John Glover and librettist Kelley Rourke, directed by Kristin Marting, HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Ave., $35-$150
Thursday, January 9
through
Sunday, January 19 TELEKINETIK, a Catapult Opera production by Khary Laurent, directed by George Cederquist, available on demand, free
Saturday, January 11
through
Tuesday, January 14 Positive Vibration Nation, rock guaguanco opera by Sol Ruiz, with Rey Rogriguez, Alejandro Sierra, Fernando Sanchez Abad, Margarita Arranz, Adonnas Jones, and Shira Abergel, HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Ave., $35-$150
Saturday, January 11
through
Wednesday, January 15 Black Lodge, goth industrial rock opera by composer David T. Little, librettist Anne Waldman, starring Timur and the Dime Museum and Isaura String Quartet, film by Michael Joseph McQuilken, BRIC Arts Media, 647 Fulton St., Brooklyn, $40.25-$155.25
Thursday, January 16
through
Sunday, January 19 In a Grove, chamber opera by composer Christopher Cerrone and librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, directed by Mary Birnbaum, and starring Metropolis Ensemble, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, Ellen Stewart Theater, 66 East Fourth St., $35-$75
PhysFestNYC
Stella Adler Center for the Arts
65 Broadway
January 9-19, $20 www.physfestnyc.org
PhysFestNYC was started last year as “a community-focused festival that celebrates, enriches, and envisions our field of physical theater . . . [which] tends to be experimental, innovative, and genre-breaking.” The second annual event, taking place January 9–19 at the Stella Adler Center for the Arts, consists of workshops, panel discussions, masterclasses, and live performances. Below are some of the highlights.
Tuesday, January 14 The Fluxus Brothers Present: Good Art Bad Art, performance art lecture demonstration with Ben Rosenthal, Morgan Rosenthal, and Morgan Fitzpatrick Andrews, $20, 7:00 & 8:30
Thursday, January 16 Pat Frisk/Duck, with Joanne Edelmann, and Stop, Replay, with Abhirami Rao, $20, 1:00
Friday, January 17
and
Saturday, January 18 Broken Box Mime Theater, $20, 7:00 & 8:30
The Triple Empathy Problem, with Noah Ortega and Asa Page, Here Is Siya, with Joey Antonio, and Do You Still Believe?, with Noel Olson, $20, 7:00 & 8:30
Saturday, January 18 It Goes Without Saying, created and performed by Bill Bowers, 20, 4:00
Saturday, January 18
and
Sunday, January 19 Please Ship This Wet Gift, with Marta Mozelle MacRostie, followed by a panel discussion, $20, 1:00
THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL
FRIGID New York at the wild project
195 East Third St.
January 23 – February 2, $25 www.firethistimefestival.com
Founded in 2009 by Kelley Nicole Girod, the Fire This Time Festival, now in its sixteenth year, “provides a platform for early career playwrights of African and African American descent.” The 2024 iteration comprises six ten-minute shows at the wild project, presented by FRIGID New York, that take on such topics as Billie Holiday, queer identity, the search for a missing sibling, and an unusual night for Hagar and Abraham.
Thursday, January 23
Friday, January 24, 31
Saturday, January 25
Saturday, February 1
Sunday, February 2 Pound Cake, by Brittany Fisher; OUT, by FELISPEAKS; Just One Good Day, by Jeanette W. Hill; But Not Forgotten, by D. L. Patrick; Security Watch, by TyLie Shider; and Immanentize the Eschaton, by Garrett Turner
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Kyle Abraham leads a large ensemble in Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful (photo by Alex Sargent / courtesy Park Ave. Armory)
DEAR LORD, MAKE ME BEAUTIFUL
Park Ave. Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. at Sixty-Seventh St.
December 3-14, $75-$170 www.armoryonpark.org www.aimbykyleabraham.com
As audience members enter Park Ave. Armory’s massive Wade Thompson Drill Hall to experience Kyle Abraham’s Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful, they are greeted by Cao Yuxi’s (aka JAMES) stunning set, a large backdrop that spills out over the floor, approaching the seating; projected on it is a pixelated image of Abraham’s head and shoulders, immersed in a naturalistic environment that evokes leaves, flowers, grass, and trees. It’s like a living version of a Kehinde Wiley portrait, except instead of celebrating the subject, in this case he eventually disappears. It’s a poignant evolution that is made even starker when Abraham, who has not danced with an ensemble in nine years, emerges onto the stage, running around in a circle again and again, at first fast but then slowing down until he has to stop and catch his breath.
In the program for the awe-inspiring armory commission, the forty-seven-year-old Pittsburgh-born dancer and choreographer explains, “I’m saddened by delayed positive progressive change in this world and frightened by the chaos of pandemic debris. I’ve never felt so deeply inclined to make something so attached to how I feel in the present. . . . I move through this world full of fear and a newfound fragility. . . . I dance in remembrance of the innocence of my younger self. And I dance in the present day, with sadness and fear of an unknown future, and a fading hope and prayer for imaginable change.”
Abraham is soon joined by a talented troupe of dancers that he has worked with in the past and present — Jamaal Bowman, Amari Frazier, Mykiah Goree, Tamisha Guy, Alysia Johnson, Catherine Kirk, Faith Mondesire, Riley O’Flynn, William Okajima, Morgan Olschewsche, Jai Perez, Donovan Reed, Keturah Stephen, Stephanie Terasaki, Gianna Theodore, and Olivia Wang — who break out into solos, duets, trios, and quartets, lifting, jumping, and interacting to a powerful live commissioned score by yMusic, a chamber ensemble featuring Alex Sopp on flutes and voice, Mark Dover on clarinets, CJ Camerieri on trumpet and French horn, Rob Moose on violin and guitar, Nadia Sirota on viola, and Gabriel Cabezas on cello. Sound, image, and movement come together in exquisite ways as the abstract shapes and colors continue almost microscopically morphing on the screen, providing an alternative to the muted earth palette of Karen Young’s costumes. The immersive sound is by Sam Crawford, with lighting by Dan Scully.
In the sixty-five-minute piece, Abraham, who choreographs for his own company, A.I.M. (Abraham in Motion), as well as New York City Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, the Royal Ballet, and the National Ballet of Cuba, wears his emotions on his sleeve as he explores aging, fear and anxiety, and loneliness. He was inspired in part by Richard Powers’s 2018 novel, The Overstory, which deals with Americans’ connection to the natural world, especially trees; the book’s narrative is divided into four chapters: “Roots,” “Trunk,” “Crown,” and “Seeds.” The circles Abraham runs could be like the rings of a tree, but in his case he thinks he is running out of time. In addition, he was affected by his father’s early onset dementia at an age only a few years older than Abraham is now.
Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful is exhilarating and propulsive as well as meditative, with only touches of foreboding. It’s also the kind of work that could only happen at the armory.
In the program note, Abraham asks, “Where will the world be in 5 years?”
It’s a loaded question that is impossible to answer, given the number of wars going on, the growing dangers of climate change, and the rash of international political extremism, but with more works like Dear Lord, Make Me Beautiful, it will be a better place regardless.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri bring Many Happy Returns to Playwrights Horizons next month (photo by Paula Lobo)
Who:Monica Bill Barnes & Company What: Hybrid scripted and improvised work Where:Playwrights Horizons, Peter Jay Sharp Theater, 416 West Forty-Second St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves. When: January 9-18, free with advance registration Why: On its website, Monica Bill Barnes & Company announces, “Bringing dance where it doesn’t belong.” In the summer of 2021, the troupe, founded in New York City in 1997, staged Many Happy Returns, a dance-theater work that was devised as a one-time-only event commissioned by WP Theater to celebrate the return of in-person shows, reuniting performer and audience in the same space. From January 9 to 18, they will be happily presenting an expanded version of the show at Playwrights Horizons, a venue not usually associated with dance. Admission to all ten performances is free with advance registration.
In the show, which deals with memory and solace, co-artistic directors Monica Bill Barnes and Robbie Saenz de Viteri portray Barnes as a middle-age woman, with Barnes as the body and Saenz de Viteri the voice. Many Happy Returns combines scripted material with improvisation, as Saenz de Viteri types out new moments on the spot, inspired by the audience.
“So much is changing about what it means to be making live work now. That ever-shifting ground is pretty unsettling for a lot of us, in a lot of ways,” Barnes said in a statement. “Robbie and I felt like, ‘You know what? We want to make our own ever-shifting landscape to live in.’ It’s this joyful thing that’s also terrifying as a classically trained dancer; it’s an actor’s nightmare that I keep saying, enthusiastically, yes to.”
Saenz de Viteri noted, “Monica and I have no similarity in terms of training, but we laugh at the same things, and we get upset about a lot of the same things. In a crowded place, we find ourselves noticing a lot of the same things. Those overlaps became the grounds, many years ago, for starting to make things together. In Many Happy Returns, we’re taking all the pieces that make up a ‘character’ onstage — a story, a background, a specific way of moving, a specific way of talking — and breaking them all apart from each other. This fragmentary character of ‘Monica’ has allowed us both to channel some really vulnerable aspects of ourselves and share them in a different way than we ever have in our work — to ask how we make ourselves, out in the world, on a day to day basis.”
The piece is choreographed by Barnes, written by Saenz de Viteri, and performed by them along with Flannery Gregg, Mykel Marai Nairne, and Indah Mariana or Hsiao-Jou Tang; the directing consultant is three-time Obie winner Anne Kauffman (The Thugs,Mary Jane), with lighting and set design by Barbara Samuels and costumes by Kaye Voyce.
“Live performance feels like it needs a revolution right now, and not a revolution that involved burning everything down — but rather picking up the pieces and making new forms,” Kauffman said. “As a director, I love it — Monica and Robbie are stretching their brains and trying to conceive something that feels like it doesn’t exist yet. Playwrights Horizons and [artistic director] Adam Greenfield are always thinking in that way; in the rubble of theater postpandemic, he’s been putting words to actions in his programming. As a theater artist of over thirty-five years, watching Monica and Robbie and knowing Playwrights is the next presenter of Many Happy Returns, I feel so excited, like something new is bubbling up.”
Greenfield added, “Historically, Playwrights Horizons’ programming has excluded playwrights who create new work via interdisciplinary, non-literary methods (e.g., ensemble-devised work, improvisation, physical theater), and — in continuation of this theater’s longtime dedication to advancing playwrights — I want to think expansively about what that word means. From the moment I was first introduced to Many Happy Returns last year, I became eager to include these artists in our programming, not only because it affirms experimentation in the field of new plays, but because — in its very conception — this play embodies powerfully the inclusive, galvanizing potential of theater, as an art form and as a civic act.”
Act fast to get your free tickets — and be ready for the lack of a price to be incorporated into the relationship between performer, audience, and their respective expectations in Playwrights Horizons’ Peter Jay Sharp Theater.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Lloyd Knight’s solo work, The Drama, will have a sneak peak December 13-14 before premiering January 13 (photo courtesy DANCECleveland)
Who:Lloyd Knight What:The Drama Where:Martha Graham Studio Theater, 55 Bethune St., eleventh floor; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Peter B. Lewis Theater, 1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St. When: Friday, December 13, $20-$30, 7:00, and Saturday, December 14, $20-$30, 6:00; Monday, January 13, $25-$65, 7:00 Why: “Dance is humbling in the way that it always brings you down to earth with what you can do, cannot do, and have the potential to do. Nothing for me is better than knowing that I can escape into a realm and take someone watching to somewhere else,” Lloyd Knight wrote in Dance magazine in March 2017. Knight will take dance fans to another realm with his latest work, The Drama, an hourlong solo created for his twentieth anniversary with the Martha Graham Dance Company and inspired by Graham — who he never met — and his mother, focusing on his life in dance. The multimedia piece is choreographed by Knight with the phenomenal Jack Ferver and features video design by Jeremy Jacob and text by Knight, who joined Graham in 2005 and has performed major roles in such productions as Appalachian Spring,Embattled Garden, and Night Journey.
A sneak preview of The Drama, which was commissioned by Works & Process and DANCECleveland, will be presented December 13 and 14 at the Martha Graham Studio Theater as part of the company’s Studio Series; its official premiere takes place January 13 at Works & Process at the Guggenheim in conjunction with the Underground Uptown Dance Festival, teamed with BalletCollective’s The Night Falls and followed by a Rotunda Dance Party with Princess Lockerooo, the Queen of Waacking.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS ART FESTIVAL
The Tank
312 West Thirty-Sixth St. between Eighth & Ninth Aves.
December 9-15, $25 humanrightsartmovement.org thetanknyc.org
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations released the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which announces, “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world . . . The General Assembly proclaims this Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.” The theme of Human Rights Day 2024 is “Our Rights, Our Future, Right Now.”
In 2017, in celebration of the UDHR, playwright, author, and visual artist Tom Block started the International Human Rights Art Festival; the inaugural event was scheduled to be held at St. Mary’s Church but was censored by Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan and had to quickly search for a new venue. “I feel fortunate in that I am not beholden to a spiritual structure that tells me who is worthy of a voice and protection and who is not. We believe that all people share this right,” Block said at the time. “We will not pick and choose among our acts or our issues, allowing some while rejecting others.”
That statement of purpose has remained a driving force as the festival has expanded over the years, having presented more than two thousand artists from more than one hundred countries. The sixth annual iteration takes place December 9-15 at the Tank with twelve thematic programs exploring climate change, LGBTQIA+ rights, immigration, and other basic human rights through dance, music, and theater, consisting of sixty new shows from nearly two dozen countries; all tickets are $25. Below is the full schedule.
Monday, December 9
Ten Minute Play Festival: Kelly Burr’s Passed Tents, Abhisek Bhattacharya’s Catastrophe, Robert Galinsky’s Requiem for the Wretched, Monte D. Monteleagre’s You Can Untie Them the Guards Can’t Stop You, Zareh Artinian Jr.’s Today’s América, Equity Library Theater of New York’s Across the Lake, and Rhys Collins’s Angelic Virtues, 7:00
Tuesday, December 10
Pride Residency and Performance by WADE Dance: Gesture Theater’s WAITING / POINTING, John Trunfio’s Pools, Donald Lee’s Fragility Cycle, and Noel Olson’s Do You Still Believe?, 7:00
Wednesday, December 11
Celebration of Immigration: excerpts from Natie’s “HOME”: Oceans — Ter La, Taiwo Aloba’s A Very Nigerian Dream, Kenneth Keng’s Through, Al Evangelista’s echoes, and Between Us Theatre Co’s Access Denied, 7:00
Wednesday, December 11
Celebration of LGBTQIA+: Jill Ohayon & Ryan O’Dea’s Turbulence, Maddie Moayedi’s Infractions, Farm Arts Collective’s Lucy Joseph, and Justin Anthony Long’s BIG ASS SECRET, 8:30
Thursday, December 12
Celebration of Women: Zizi Majid and Logan Reed’s Will, Groove with Me’s Her, Catherine Cabeen’s . . . yet again, Addison Vaughn’s Non-Advice to a Boat, and Miranda Stück’s I AM, 7:00
Thursday, December 12
Climate Change Action: Sarah Congress & Emma Denson’s Melting, Madeleine Yu-Phelps’s Ǝverything Okay, JCWK Dance Lab’s Eroded, and Lee Harrison Daniel’s sylvia, beginning to end and onward, 8:30
Friday, December 13
Human beings are members of a whole: Melis Yesiller’s Ünzile, Cecilia Whalen’s Two solos and a duet, Tina Bararian’s Built on Kindness, and Valentina Bache’s “It boils the water within,” dance event curated by Tina Bararian, 7:00
Friday, December 13
IHRAF TRANSforms — Celebration of Trans Artists: Ryan Hung and Charlie Meyers’s Now Boarding, Boundless Theatre Company’s Translucent, and Rush Johnston/Kaleid Dance Collective’s Until It Gets Dark, 8:30
Saturday, December 14
Celebration of Human Rights I: Rachael Sage’s Under My Canopy, Alex Manaa & Vaheed Talebian’s Another Cousin’s Wedding, the Invitation Arts Collective’s MOTHER EARTH, LET ME BLOOM, WaveLab’s Wave: A Hydrofeminist Performance, Joshua Piper’s Pas de Deux, and Inara Arts’s We Rise, 3:00
Celebration of Human Rights II: Carolyn Dorfman Dance’s CRIES OF THE CHILDREN, Steph Prizhitomsky’s Divine Hotline, BodyStories: Teresa Fellion Dance’s p u r p l e f l a m e, Steve Kronovet’s Waterslides in the Middle East, and Lindsey Wilson’s The Blackbird Trilogy, 7:00
Sunday, December 15
What to do? An evening of dance curated by Charly Santagado, featuring Lucienne Parker’s The Wetting of 12pm, Nathan Forster & Michelle Lukac’s Maybe We’re Trash, Lavy and Christian Warner’s pussys beat, I say to you, Amen O Lord, and excerpts from IMGE Dance’s (heart)beat, 3:00
Ten Minute Performance Festival: Pritha Mukherji’s Musings of an International Student, Tova Hopemark’s Heirloom, Little Shadow Productions’s You Have Arrived, Saidharshana Dhantu’s Behind Closed Doors, Jaymie Bellous’s Moonlight Becomes You, and sarAika movement collective’s Skin Deep, 7:00
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
GALLIM returns to the Joyce with New York premiere of evening-length Wonderland (photo by Dan Chen)
GALLIM: WONDERLAND
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at Nineteenth St.
November 13-17, $62-$82 www.joyce.org www.gallim.org
Brooklyn-based GALLIM explores the us vs. them mentality so prevalent in contemporary American society — and at the center of the recent presidential election — in the New York premiere of Wonderland, running November 13-17 at the Joyce. GALLIM presented a thirty-minute iteration of the work in its 2010 Joyce debut, but two years later founding artistic director Andrea Miller expanded it to an hourlong evening-length piece that takes place in an antitotalitarian dystopia.
The cast features Gothenburg Ballet’s Arika Yamada as Megalomatrix, Vivian Pakkanen as the Fool, Georgia Usborne as the Guilty, Donterreo Culp as the Beloved, guest artist Billy Barry as the Jester, Bryan Testa as the Dog, India Hobbs as the Seer, and Nouhoum Koita as the Everyone, with the Pack consisting of Jasmine Alisca, Victoria Chassé Dominguez, Briana Del Mundo, Waverly Fredericks, and Thomas Hogan. (Barry and Yamada originated their roles in 2010.)
“We are witnessing an extreme departure from one another’s physical and emotional individuality, from the foundations of human dignity, and from the very elements that make us free,” Miller said in a statement. “On social media, millions join virtual armies, charging against each other like packs of vicious wolves — same species, unseen enemies — driven by forces of real terror that we fail to fully comprehend. Wonderland navigates these dark pathways of daily alienation, inducement, and mutual aggression.”
Among Miller’s inspirations for the show is Cai Guo-Qiang’s Head On, an installation of ninety-nine life-size stuffed wolves charging toward a glass wall, part of his 2008 “I Want to Believe” exhibition at the Guggenheim. The score ranges from Chopin, Joanna Newsom, and the Chordettes to William Basinsky, Black Dice, and Jeannie Robertson, with atmospheric sound design by Miller and Jakub Kiupinski and Cristina Spinei of Blind Ear Music. The set is by Jon Bausor, lighting by Vincent Vigilante, and costumes by Jose Solís.
Wonderland pits the individual against dangerous groupthink with animalistic movement in a world threatening to go off the rails. Miller added, “Can we imagine — or perhaps remember — the destructive outcomes on the other side of totalitarian promises and societies? Maybe art, maybe dance, through their creative freedom, can remind us of the way back to empathy and shared humanity.” There will be a curtain chat at the November 14 show to provide further illumination.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
