DAY FOR NIGHT
The Amph at Little Island
Pier 55, Hudson River Park at West Thirteenth St.
July 17-21, $15 standing room, $25 seats sold out, 8:30
littleisland.org
www.pamtanowitzdance.org
Bronx-born choreographer Pam Tanowitz turns to a French Nouvelle Vague auteur for her latest evening-length piece, Day for Night, playing only five performances July 17-21 at the Amph on Little Island.
François Truffaut’s 1973 film, Day for Night — the French title is La Nuit américaine, or “The American Night” — goes behind the scenes of a movie being shot on location in Nice. Cast and crew members intertwine in all sorts of ways as a British actress (Jacqueline Bisset) who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown, aging French star Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Aumont), Italian diva Séverine (Valentina Cortese), and young French actor Alphonse (Jean-Pierre Léaud) spend a lot of time doing everything except making a film, upsetting the director, played by Truffaut himself. The title comes from the technique in which nighttime shots are made during the day.
The Little Island commission will be danced by Morgan Amirah, Marc Crousillat, Lindsey Jones, Brian Lawson, Sarah Elizabeth Miele, Maile Okamura, and Melissa Toogood, with costumes by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, lighting by Davison Scandrett, and sound and music by Justin Ellington. Tanowitz has previously choreographed such works as I Was Waiting for the Echo of a Better Day, Law of Mosaics, and Four Quartets, for such companies as New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Ballet Austin, and her own Pam Tanowitz Dance.
“I make my dances in response to everything contained in the frame, like a film still, turning things over and over to discover what I haven’t yet found,” Guggenheim fellow and Bessie winner Tanowitz said in a statement. “Little Island is the exact right place for me to examine the way something can be seen and re-seen. When we look at something long enough it reveals what’s been forgotten, or taken for granted, or not yet noticed, and rewards us with new discoveries.”
As a bonus reward, Toogood will perform a short epilogue several times each night beginning at 9:30 in the cozy Glade; admission is free, first-come, first-served.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]