Island Moving Co. will present the Great Friends Dance Festival New York at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on May 6-7
Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th St.
May 6-7, $20-$25, 8:00
212-787-1178
www.islandmovingco.org
www.manhattanmovement.com
For nearly thirty years, the classically trained ballet troupe Island Moving Co., under the leadership of artistic director Miki Ohlsen, has been presenting works by such choreographers as Noemie LaFrance, Carol Somers, Alejandro Gomez, Andrea Haenggi, and Ohlsen, set to music by the Gypsy Kings, Schubert, Edith Piaf, Tchaikovsky, Leo Kottke, Mahler, Leo Kottke, György Ligeti, Sarah MacLachlan, and others. Seeking “to develop dance as a valuable art form for our community through presenting original works of choreography which connect audiences to their own emotions and provides a shared experience that transcends cultural boundaries,” the Newport, Rhode Island, company will be at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on May 6-7 for the Great Friends Dance Festival New York, staging the premieres of two new ballets by Ohlsen and Colin Connor. The program will also feature guest company Janusphere Dance Company, which will be performing Nebulous Sapience (parts 1 & 2), with choreography by Darion Smith and music by Jonathan Melville Pratt, in addition to Cherylyn Lavagnino Dancers and choreographer John-Mark Owen.
Bud Cort (Harold) and Ruth Gordon (Maude) are magnificent in this glorious black comedy from director Hal Ashby (The Last Detail, Shampoo, Being There) and writer Colin Higgins. Harold is an eighteen-year-old rich kid obsessed with death, regularly flirting with suicide. Maude is a fun-loving, free-spirited senior citizen approaching her eightieth birthday. Ashby throws in just the right amount of post-1960s social commentary, including a very funny antiwar scene, without becoming overbearing, as this could have been a maudlin piece of sentimental claptrap, but instead it’s far from it. Even the Cat Stevens soundtrack (“If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” “Tea for the Tillerman,” “Where Do the Children Play?”) works. Harold and Maude is a tender, uproarious, bittersweet tale that is one of the best of its kind, completely unforgettable, enlightening, and, ultimately, life-affirming in its own odd way. Ashby, who died in 1988 at the age of fifty-nine, made only eleven narrative films and two concert documentaries in his too-brief life and career, which is being honored at BAMcinématek with the retrospective Movies by Hal Ashby, featuring most of his directorial efforts in additional to several films he edited: Tony Richardson’s The Loved One (1965) and Norman Jewison’s The Cincinnati Kid (1965) and In the Heat of the Night (1967). The 6:50 screening of the underrated The Landlord on May 12 will be followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Robert Downey Sr. and star Lee Grant.
Chantal Akerman’s groundbreaking film follows the drab life of the title character, a bored housewife who goes about her day nearly silently, moving agonizingly slowly, as she makes breakfast for her husband, sends him off to work, takes in a few johns, cleans the sink, etc. Just another ordinary day, not nearly as colorful as the one Séverine Serizy (Catherine Deneuve) experiences in Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967). Delphine Seyrig (Stolen Kisses, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Day of the Jackal) is mesmerizing as Jeanne Dielman — you won’t be able to take your eyes off her, and with good reason. This ultimate feminist film was made with an all-female crew, and if it’s anything, it’s absolutely memorable, love it or hate it. Oh, actually, it’s long too — nearly three and a half hours. Jeanne Dielman is screening on Friday and Saturday as part of the Museum of the Moving Image’s special Mother’s Day Weekend programming, which also includes the new HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, which details one of the worst mother-daughter relationships ever filmed.