Tag Archives: maria hassabi

SUNDAY SESSIONS

Mårten Spångberg will be at MoMA PS1 for a special performance and book signing (photo by Gaetano Cammarota)

MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Sunday, March 4, 1:00 – 6:00
Series continues through May 13
Suggested admission: $10 (free for MoMA ticket holders within thirty days of ticket)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org

MoMA PS1’s weekly Sunday Sessions continues on March 4 with another afternoon of diverse, cutting-edge programming. Darren Bader, whose sculptures are on view in “Images” (and where salad is served on Saturdays and Mondays), will present “E-Party” under the Performance Dome, an exploration of the letter E[e] with Enya and Ed Hardy at 1:00, Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse at 2:30, and an experimental dance party at 4:30 with DJs Justin Strauss, Darshan Jesrani, and Domie Nation. At 3:00 in the Mini-Kunsthalle, dancer-choreographer Maria Hassabi has invited Swedish multidisciplinary artist Mårten Spångberg to give an hour-long comedic lecture in conjunction with the publication of his latest book, Spangbergianism, followed by a discussion moderated by André Lepecki. “It’s an exorcism, an attempt to engage in the lowest and dirtiest truths, delusions, opportunisms and what we don’t talk about. It shows no mercy,” Spångberg writes in the preface. Also at 3:00, ARTBOOK @ MOMA PS1 will present Lars Müller in conversation with Steven Holl in the museum lobby, followed by a book signing of Steven Holl: Color Light Time and Steven Holl: Scale. In addition, be sure to check out the current exhibitions, which include “Darren Bader: Images,” “Clifford Owens: Anthology,” “Frances Stark: My Best Thing,” and shows by Henry Taylor, Surasi Kusolwong, Rania Stephan, and the art collective Chim↑Pom.

LAURA PETERSON CHOREOGRAPHY: WOODEN

Laura Peterson finds splendor in the grass in WOODEN (photo by Steven Schreiber)

HERE
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
Through November 12, $20
212-647-0202
www.here.org
www.lpchoreography.com

This month several dancer/choreographers have been putting on unique performances in transformed spaces. In SHOW, Maria Hassabi and Hristoula Harakas wound their way across the floor of the Kitchen, right in the middle of the audience. In The Thank-you Bar at New York Live Arts, Emily Johnson/Catalyst invites people through a long corridor into a dark room where they can sit on small cushions and later gather around a kiddie pool filled with leaves. And in Wooden at HERE, Laura Peterson has cut the usual stage in half, with one side covered by live grass that has been turning brown since the run began November 4. Instead of the usual rafters, the audience sits on long wooden benches on a hard white surface amid thick tree branches hanging from the ceiling. Peterson, Kate Martel, Edward Rice, and Janna Diamond move slowly on the grass, gently falling and rolling, Amanda K. Ringger’s lighting casting multiple shadows on the walls. The natural beauty of the piece is enhanced by the intoxicating smell of the outdoors and interstitial, animalistic solos by rotating guest artists Shannon Gillen, Meredith Fages, Luke Gutgsell, and Asimina Chremos in a makeshift hallway. Following an intermission in which the audience must leave the theater, the space is reversed, the benches now on the soft grass, the dancers performing on the harder floor. Whereas the first half, “Ground,” featured beautifully mellifluous organic movement, the second half, “Trees,” is much harsher, the choreography more robotic, the dancers wearing kneepads to protect them as they fall hard to the floor. Soichiro Migita’s sound design changes as well, now more techno-based, blips and beeps replacing the smoother sounds of the first section. Although the general comparison might be obvious, setting the warm, organic environment against a cold, computerized soulless society, and it occasionally does get repetitive, Wooden is a compelling work whose elements are, appropriately, biodegradable. To read our twi-ny talk with Peterson, click here.

MARIA HASSABI: SHOW

The Kitchen
512 West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
November 3-5, $15, 8:00
212-255-5793
www.thekitchen.org
www.mariahassabi.com

One might think that Maria Hassabi’s latest piece, SHOW, is the final part of a trilogy that began at the fall 2000 Crossing the Line Festival with SOLO, in which she performed with a rolled-up carpet, and continued that November at Performa 09 with SoloShow, in which she performed on a black rectangular platform. But in fact, the first two were part of a dance diptych that have nothing to do with her newest work, SHOW, an installation-based collaboration performed by Hassabi and Hristoula Harakas, with lighting by Joe Levasseur, sound design by cellist Alex Waterman (of Either/Or and the Plus-Minus Ensemble), set design by Hassabi and Canadian visual artist Scott Lyall, and dramaturgy by Lyall and experimental Waco-born Brooklyn artist Marcos Rosales. The Cyprus-born Hassabi also serves as director and choreographer, with Meghan Finn the production manager. Both Hassabi and Harakas display remarkable dexterity, which is likely to be on view throughout the sixty-minute SHOW, which runs November 3-5 at the Kitchen. As Hassabi told us in our recent twi-ny talk, “I was born flexible! Then I slept all the way until I went onstage! You know, muscle atrophy helps!”

Update: Maria Hassabi’s SHOW, which opened at the Kitchen on November 3 for a too-brief three-day run, has the welcome feel of those experimental performance-art happenings staged at such venues as the Kitchen some forty or so years ago. Incorporating elements from her three most recent works, Solo, SoloShow, and Robert and Maria,, Hassabi has again teamed with Hristoula Harakas to create a deeply intimate and extremely entertaining evening of dance theater. SHOW’s audience enters an empty black-box space where the Kitchen’s multileveled seating usually is; instead, the floor is sparse, save for about sixty Klieg lights gathered to one side, with another forty or so on the ceiling, casting brightness into the space. People can sit or stand anywhere they want.

For more than an hour, Hassabi and Harakas slowly maneuver through the crowd, their gaze locked on one another, sometimes appearing to be mirror images of each other, moving with excruciating precision and slowness. The two perform a dramatic duet that fills the space with magnetic energy. SHOW develops as an in inquiry between audience and performer, performance space and emotional space. The audience members, who have become unwitting participants in the event, can barely take their eyes off the dancers — except when looking at each other. SHOW is a brilliant, often erotically charged evening-length piece performed by two dynamic, brave dancers unafraid to take risks, involving the audience in unique and, at times, demanding ways.

Although we were told to turn off our electronic devices, many audience members took pictures or video; on opening night, one woman took video on her iPhone of the entire performance, moving about the room, occasionally blocking people’s site lines and getting them in the shots. We later learned that Hassabi herself had asked some friends (including the woman on the iPhone) to take pictures, hoping it would spur others to do so as well. Although we can understand why Hassabi would want to document the show in that way, the many cell phones proved extremely distracting. In addition, Alex Waterman’s sound design of the chatter, which is continually rerecorded over itself to make it muddier and more abstract, is too short; every time it starts again from the beginning, there is a hiccup that is slightly jarring. Nonetheless, SHOW is a captivating experience that is best seen with complete focus; check your coat and bag (it gets very hot inside with all of the lights, and bags can get in the dancers’ way), and don’t pull out your cell phone to snap a photo or two. Instead, just immerse yourself in this very beautiful happening.

TWI-NY TALK: MARIA HASSABI

Maria Hassabi premiered SOLO at FIAF’s 2009 Crossing the Line Festival

Saturday, September 17, Crossing the Line Festival: Fiction & Non-Fiction, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Ave., free, 212-355-6100, 2:30 – 6:00
SHOW: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St., November 3-5, $15, 212-255-5793, 8:00
www.fiaf.org/crossingtheline
www.thekitchen.org
www.mariahassabi.com

In such recent productions as Solo and SoloShow, dancer and choreographer Maria Hassabi has displayed a remarkable dexterity, her lithe body interacting with a rolled-up carpet or dangling off the edge of a black platform. When we saw her listed on the French Institute Alliance Française’s website as one of the participants of the free “Fiction & Non-Fiction” kickoff to the 2011 Crossing the Line Festival on September 17, we immediately scheduled an interview with her. Alas, in checking the website later, her scheduled site-specific performance around the Cultural Services of the French Embassy building on Fifth Ave. had disappeared. Does that mean the Cyprus-born Hassabi won’t be participating? Even without her, the lineup is extremely impressive, with works by Trajal Harrell & Perle Palombe, Kimberly Bartosik, Raimund Hoghe & Takashi Ueno, Roderick Murray, and others. (Be sure to get a drink at Prune Nourry’s “Spermbar.”) We’re still holding out hope that Hassabi, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and a New Yorker since 1994, has something special planned for the afternoon, which runs from 2:30 to 6:00.

This year’s Crossing the Line Festival, which continues through October 17, also features Nick van Woert’s “Terra Amata” exhibition at the FIAF Gallery, Xavier le Roy’s “More Mouvements für Lachenmann” at Florence Gould Hall, Bartosik’s “i like penises: a little something in 24 acts” at Danspace Project, Sophie Calle’s free site-specific “Room” installation at the Lowell Hotel, and Rachid Ouramdane’s “Ordinary Witnesses” and “World Fair” at New York Live Arts. Hassabi is definitely scheduled to present the world premiere of her latest piece, SHOW, November 3-5 at the Kitchen. Whether or not she’ll be part of tomorrow’s fête, we’re still delighted that she answered some questions for us, even if she did skip over the one about what she was planning for “Fiction & Non-Fiction.”

twi-ny: What is it that draws you to the Crossing the Line Festival?

Maria Hassabi: What draws me to this festival primarily is the two curators (Lili Chopra and Simon Dove). I admire and respect both of them. I love working and being in conversation with them, feel lucky to be part of what they do, and excited to see what they’ve curated.

twi-ny: Are there any particular performances you’re looking forward to seeing at the festival?

MH: The usual suspects, which in this case, performance-wise, means pretty much all. Sadly, I will be missing many of them as I will be out of town.

twi-ny: You premiered SOLO and SOLOSHOW at PS122, and in November you’ll be premiering SHOW at the Kitchen with frequent collaborator Hristoula Harakas and Will Rawls. What is it about Hristoula that makes her so compatible with your choreography?

MH: There are many of my frequent collaborators in SHOW, including Hristoula, Marcos Rosales, Scott Lyall, Joe Levasseur. I like working with the same people. With Hristoula, we have worked together since 2002. I treasure such a long-term collaboration, and Hristoula’s ethics of work are irreplaceable. Of course, she’s undoubtedly a gorgeous performer.

twi-ny: You are a remarkably flexible dancer. Do you have a special exercise regimen or a secret you’re willing to share?

MH: I was born flexible! Then I slept all the way until I went onstage! You know, muscle atrophy helps!

COIL

Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
January 6-17, $20 per performance, $55 passport for any five shows
www.ps122.org

The COIL festival is back at P.S. 122, featuring fourteen companies performing over twelve days, some in conjunction with the Under the Radar festival running concurrently at the Public Theater. Among this year’s presentations are Richard Maxwell’s ADS, which looks at the theater itself; Gisèle Vienne’s hard-hitting JERK, based on text by Dennis Cooper; Morgan Thorson’s HEAVEN, with live music by LOW; and the return of Temporary Distortion’s AMERICANA KAMIKAZE, which ran at P.S. 122 last fall. We can’t recommend Megan V. Sprenger / mvworks’ “…within us.” highly enough; when we caught the show last May at P.S. 122, we called it “a brilliant evening-length piece of confrontational dance theater that gets right in the audience’s face — literally. . . . a thoroughly involving hour that leaves the talented dancers and the brave audience feeling energized and alive.” Several off-site COIL productions include LeeSaar the Company’s PRIMA at the JCC, WaxFactory’s BLIND.NESS at the Abrons Arts Center, and Maria Hassabi’s SoloShow at a private studio in Chelsea; when we saw SoloShow at P.S. 122 in November, we referred to is as “a highlight of the Performa 09 biennial,” a beautifully constructed piece that displays Hassabi’s awe-inspiring athleticism and strong body.

MARIA HASSABI: SoloShow

Maria Hassabi completes diptych at P.S. 122 as part of Performa 09

Maria Hassabi completes diptych at P.S. 122 as part of Performa 09

Performa 09
Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
November 12-15, $15-$22
www.ps122.org
www.mariahassabi.org

Maria Hassabi premiered SOLO, the first part of her “dance diptych,” September 29 – October 3 at P.S. 122 as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line festival. Hassabi is now back at P.S. 122 with the second work, SOLOSHOW, a highlight of the Performa 09 biennial. In SOLO, the Cyprus-born, New York-based dancer and choreographer interacted with a Persian carpet to the sounds of ambient city noises. For the companion piece, Hassabi is already balanced on a hard black rectangular platform as the audience enters. Slowly she begins moving her limbs, twisting her body, and stretching her neck into almost impossible positions. As a small speaker emits tinny sounds as if someone is turning an AM radio dial, snippets of recognizable words and music creating a kind of background white noise, Hassabi makes her way around the platform with awe-inspiring skill and dexterity, her muscles and veins bulging as her body shakes, often held slightly above the platform by hands that leave disappearing sweat prints on the dark surface. Her elbows and knees form ninety-degree angles, contrasting with her spiraling torso and exaggerated back arching. Her arms become architectural struts supporting her upper body as her legs pivot out on the fulcrum of her pelvis and hips. As she twists, turns, and rolls across the platform, she occasionally dangles parts of her body over the edges, but she does so not to titillate the audience into fearing she might fall off but instead to demonstrate that there are no boundaries; in fact, when she does completely get off the platform, only to get back on it, the audience is forced to reevaluate the “rules” they had formed in their head. Whereas there seemed to be a limitless amount of things Hassabi could do with the comforting, malleable carpet in SOLO, she refuses to let the dour, unchanging platform limit her imagination in SOLOSHOW. Hassabi will be performing the forty-five-minute piece on November 13, 14, and 15 at 8:00, with Hristoula Harakas taking over on November 14 at 10:00 and November 15 at 6:00.

PERFORMA 09

Fischerspooner will kick off Performa 09 at MoMA on Nov. 1

Fischerspooner will kick off Performa 09 at MoMA on Nov. 1

Multiple venues
November 1-22
Admission: free – $30
www.performa-arts.org
The third biennial Performa festival gets under way on November 1, kicking off three weeks of eclectic performance and installation art sponsored by Performa, a nonprofit interdisciplinary arts organization founded by RoseLee Goldberg that celebrates cutting-edge visual art and education. Although we’re suckers for multimedia performance art and site-specific sound and video installations, it can also be hit or miss, with concept often winning out over execution. But we’re here to narrow down the myriad choices for you; below are ten of our recommendations, in chronological order, to help you sift through the more than 150 artists participating in some 110 events at 80-plus institutions.

Lilibeth Cuence Rasmussen will look at the present and future at the Performance Project

Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen will look at the present and future at the Performance Project

Other highlights include Arto Lindsay’s “Somewhere I Read” at Duffy Square on November 1, Tracey Emin reading from “Those Who Suffer Love” and “Strangeland” at the Performance Project at University Settlement on November 7, Kalup Linzy at Taxter & Spengemann on November 8, Omer Fast’s reinvention of the game Broken Telephone at Abrons Art Center November 11-13, Mai Ueda’s “Family Dinner in a Parallel Universe” neo-fluxus event at the Emily Harvey Foundation on November 14, Yeondoo Jung’s “Cinemagician” theater piece at the Asia Society November 19-21, Marina Rosenfeld’s “P.A.” audio installation at the Park Avenue Armory on November 22, and Guy Ben-Ner’s live untitled film being screened nightly at 7:00 at Performa Hub at 41 Cooper Square throughout the festival.

Many of the events are free, with other ticket prices ranging from $10 to $30. There’s a whole bunch of awesome events, so do your best to try to check out at least one of these ultracool happenings.

Sunday, November 1    Fischerspooner, “Inbetween Worlds,” the Museum of Modern Art, $20, 6:00

Tacita Dean collaborates with Merce Cunningham shortly before the great choreographer's death

Tacita Dean collaborates with Merce Cunningham shortly before the great choreographer's death

Thursday, November 5
through
Saturday, November 7    Tacita Dean, Craneway Event, feature-length film documenting Merce Cunningham dance rehearsals in an abandoned automobile factory, Danspace Project at St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, $10

Friday, November 6    Jonas Mekas and Now We Are Here, live musical performance with lead singer Jonas Mekas and special guests, Emily Harvey Foundation, free, 9:00

Friday, November 6
and
Saturday, November 7    Auf den Tisch! (At the Table!), curated by Meg Stuart, featuring a revolving cast of artists and thinkers improvising at a large conference room table, including Trajal Harrell, Keith Hennessy, Yvonne Meier, Vania Rovisco, Meg Stuart, and others, Baryshnikov Arts Center, $20, 7:30

Saturday, November 7    First Saturdays: Rock Out, with “Twirl” by Jen DeNike, 6:00, and “Saaqiou” by Terence Koh, 9:30, Brooklyn Museum, free

Brilliant South African multimedia artist William Kentridge will discuss his latest work-in-progress at festival

Brilliant South African multimedia artist William Kentridge will discuss his latest work-in-progress at festival

Monday, November 9
and
Tuesday, November 10    William Kentridge, “I Am Not Me, the Horse Is Not Mine,” multimedia presentation about Kentridge’s work-in-progress, inspired by Shostakovich’s THE NOSE, Cedar Lake, $30, 8:00

Maria Hassabi follows up last month's "Solo" show with "SoloShow"

Maria Hassabi follows up last month's "Solo" show with "SoloShow"

Thursday, November 12
and
Friday, November 13    Maria Hassabi, “SoloShow,” P.S. 122, $20

Friday, November 13    Guido Van Der Werve, “Nummer Elf: The King’s Gambit Accepted, the Number of Stars in the Sky & Waiting for an Earthquake,” Marshall Chess Club, $10, 7:00 & 9:00

Friday, November 13
through
Sunday, November 15    Wangechi Mutu, “Stone Ihiga,” multimedia performance and site-specific installation with music by Imani Uzuri, Saatchi & Saatchi, $15, 9:00

Deborah Hay and Yvonne Rainer collaborate for Performa 09

Deborah Hay and Yvonne Rainer collaborate for Performa 09

Tuesday, November 17
through
Thursday, November 19    Deborah Hay and Yvonne Rainer, “If I Sing to You / Spiraling Down,” Baryshnikov Arts Center, $25, 7:30