twi-ny recommended events

PROFESSIONAL BULL RIDERS MADISON SQUARE GARDEN INVITATIONAL

Colby Yates and Luke Snyder prepare for Garden event by going to the top of the Empire State Building last month (photo by Brad Barket)

Madison Square Garden
31st to 33rd Sts. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
January 6-8, $15-$205
800-732-1727
www.thegarden.com
www.pbrnow.com

The World’s Most Famous Arena is promoting this year’s Professional Bull Riders Madison Square Garden Invitational as “three snot-spewing, bone-crushing, adrenaline-soaked performances,” and that pretty much gets right to the point of this heated competition that starts the new year in a wild and woolly way. While the feared Bushwacker recovers from successful arthroscopic surgery, such other bulls as Shaky Waters, Buckshot, Mean Machine, La Grange, Frost Bite, Yellow Dog, Complete Debacle, and John Doe will try to throw such riders as Cord McCoy, Kody Lostroh, Ryan Dirteater, Cody Nance, Douglas Duncan, Paulo Lima, Stormy Wing, and 2011 MSG Invitational champion Valdiron de Oliveira off their backs in less than eight seconds. The sixth annual event also includes meet and greets with Lima, de Oliveira, and Duncan at the Garden’s mall entrance, an autograph session at the Penn Station K-Mart, and a fan club breakfast at Niles.

FIRST LOOK

Chantal Akerman’s ALMAYER’S FOLLY will kick off Museum of the Moving Image’s “First Look” series on Friday night

Museum of the Moving Image
35th Ave. at 36th St., Astoria
January 6-15, opening night $15, all other films free with museum admission, series pass $40
718-777-6800
www.movingimage.us

Curators Dennis Lim, Rachael Rakes, and David Schwartz have put together an impressive lineup of films for the Museum of the Moving Image’s inaugural “First Look” series, amassing a wide range of international works from established and emerging directors. The thirteen-film festival gets under way January 6 at 7:00 with Chantal Akerman on hand to screen and talk about her latest, Almayer’s Folly (La folie Almayer), based on Joseph Conrad’s first novel, followed by a reception. Other screenings that will be presented by filmmakers include Mark Jackson’s psychological thriller, Without (January 7, 5:00), with star Joslyn Jensen and photojournalist Jessica Dimmock joining him; Gonçalo Tocha’s It’s the Earth Not the Moon (January 8, 2:30), shot on the remote island of Corvo; Philippe Grandrieux’s It May Be That Beauty Has Strengthened Our Resolve: Masao Adachi and Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt’s Palaces of Pity (Palácios de Pena) (January 8, 7:00, Schmidt in person); Valérie Massadian’s Nana and Lisandro Alonso’s Untitled (Letter to Serra) (January 14, 5:00, Massadian in person); Gastón Solnicki’s Argentine family portrait Papirosen (January 15, 2:30); and Raya Martin’s Buenas Noches, España, Ars Colonia, and Boxing in the Philippine Islands (January 15, 7:30). All screenings include access to the museum’s exhibits, which currently feature “Surviving Life: Collages by Jan Svankmajer,” “Ming Wong: Persona Performa Panorama,” “Jim Henson’s Fantastic World,” and the permanent shows “Behind the Screen” and “Tut’s Fever, 1986-88.”

AMERICAN REALNESS

After delighting audiences at BAM, John Jasperse’s CANYON will celebrate the thrill of the dance at Abrons Arts Center (photo by Tony Orrico)

Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
January 5-15, Show & Tell free, other performances $15
212-352-3101
www.abronsartscenter.org

No, it’s not yet another reality show. “American Realness” is an eleven-day live performance festival that offers fans of contemporary dance, music, and theater an opportunity to catch productions they might have missed as well as the chance to see works in progress scheduled to debut later this year. Held at Abrons Arts Center in conjunction with the Association of Performing Arts Presenter’s Conference, “American Realness” features second looks at such 2011 works as John Jasperse’s Canyon, which celebrates the thrill of the dance while ostensibly being about nothing; Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey’s Tool Is Loot, the result of a yearlong investigation into collaboration; Jack Ferver and Michelle Mola’s Me, Michelle, about ego and power in the form of Cleopatra; and Eleanor Bauer’s (Big Girls Do Big Things), a solo in which Bauer goes through a series of metamorphoses. The festival also includes the New York premiere of Laura Arrington’s Hot Wings, which examines feminine identity; the U.S. premiere of Daniel Linehan’s Montage for Three, in which two dancers re-create images from found photographs; Trajal Harrell’s Antigone Jr., the next stage of his “Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church”; and the pairing of Ishmael Houston-Jones’s mean Cait: a fairytale in progress and Yvonne Meier’s Mad Heidi. The free “Show & Tell” section (advance RSVP required) includes such conversations as “Why a dramaturge?” with Reggie Wilson and Susan Manning and “Surfacing & Song-Based Performance” with Holcombe Waller, Cynthia Hopkins, and Miguel Gutierrez in addition to sneak peeks at such works in progress as Big Dance Theater’s Ich, KürbisGeist, Luciana Achugar’s FEELingpleasuresatisfactioncelebrationholyFORM, and Keith Hennessy’s Turbulence (a dance about the economy).

NEW YORK BOAT SHOW

Thousands of nautical enthusiasts will flock to the Javits Center for annual boat show

Jacob Javits Convention Center
35th St. & 11th Ave.
January 4-8, adults $14, children fifteen and younger free with paid adult admission212-984-7000
www.javitscenter.com
www.nyboatshow.com

The 107th edition of the world’s first boat show has sailed into town, anchoring at the Javits Center for five days of nauticality, including hundreds of exhibitors of boats and boat-related products, seminars and workshops, contests and giveaways, and family-friendly events. Among the highlights are appearances by the Swamp Brothers, Fred’s Shed Interactive Education Center, Paddlepalooza sports classes, the Power Boat Docking Challenge, and the environmentally conscious Water Center. Seminars include “Dressed for Success: How to protect your boat from the elements,” “Don’t Be Fuelish: Propping your boat for performance and fuel economy,” and “Keeping your boat ‘shipshape.’” Of course, there will also be boats galore, from luxury yachts, catamarans, bass boats, inboard cruisers, pontoons, trawlers, and houseboats to daysailers, racing sailboats, dinghies, Personal Water Crafts, inflatables, kayaks, and much more.

TAKES

TAKES takes audiences on a unique journey of sound, vision, and movement

3LD Art and Technology Center
80 Greenwich St. at Rector St.
January 5-8, $10
866-811-4111
www.nicholecanusodance.org
www.3ldnyc.org

Choreographer Nichole Canuso of Nichole Canuso Dance Company, Early Morning Opera founding artistic director Lars Jan, and Pig Iron Theatre Company cofounder and co-artistic director Dito van Reigersberg have joined forces for the real-time multimedia movement installation TAKES. Set in a black box surrounded on all four sides by a lightweight transparent scrim on which are projected live and recorded performances, TAKES uses the idea of cinematic takes as it explores a relationship that usually, in real life, does not necessarily get do-overs until things are perfect. The piece will be performed by Canuso and van Reigersberg, with an original score by Michael Kiley from the Mural and the Mint, video by Pablo N. Molina, and costumes and sets by Maiko Matsushima. There will be two performances a day January 5-8 at 3LD Art and Technology Center, with audiences encouraged to walk around the projection box and experience TAKES from different angles and perspectives. In addition, visitors are invited to enter the installation and make their own dance for free on January 7 from 2:30 to 6:30.

PINA

PINA is a 3-D celebration of seminal choreographer Pina Bausch and Tanztheater Wuppertal

PINA: DANCE, DANCE, OTHERWISE WE ARE LOST (Wim Wenders, 2011)
BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St., through January 5, 718-636-4100, $15
IFC Center, 323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St., extended run, 212-924-7771, $17.50
www.sundanceselects.com

Back in 2004, in reviewing Pina Bausch’s Fur Die Kinder von Gesern, Heute und Morgen (For the Children of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow) at BAM, we wrote, “You don’t have to be a dance fan to love the always engaging Pina Bausch.” The same holds true for Wim Wenders’s loving 3-D documentary, Pina. The longtime director of Tanztheater Wuppertal, German choreographer Bausch created uniquely entertaining pieces for more than thirty years, combining a playful visual language with a ribald sense of humor, cutting-edge staging, diverse music, and a stellar cast of men and women of varying ages and body sizes, resulting in a new kind of dance theater. A friend of hers for more than twenty years, Wenders (Wings of Desire, Paris, Texas) was collaborating with Bausch on a film when she suddenly died of cancer in 2009 at the age of sixty-eight, two days before rehearsal shooting was to begin. Wenders decided to proceed, making a film for Pina instead of with her. Using the latest 3-D technology, including a specially developed camera rig mounted on a crane, Wenders invites audiences onstage as he captures thrilling, intimate performances of several of Bausch’s seminal works, 1975’s Le Sacre du printemps, 1978’s Café Müller, 1978 and 2000’s Kontakthof (Contact Zone), 2002’s Fur Die Kinder, and 2006’s Vollmond (Full Moon), which were selected by Bausch and Wenders together. The dancers seem to be more motivated than ever, reveling in Bausch’s building, repetitive vocabulary of movement and discussing how she inspired them with just a few words. As a bonus, Wenders includes footage of Bausch dancing Café Müller. Some members of the company also dance personal memories on the streets, in a factory, and aboard a monorail in and around Wuppertal. Pina is not a biopic; Wenders does not delve into Bausch’s personal life or have random talking heads discuss her contribution to the world. Instead, he focuses on how she used movement to celebrate humanity and get the most out of the men, women, and children who worked with her. In the September 2009 memorial ceremony held for Bausch at the Wuppertal Opera House, Wenders said, “I would like to ask all of you, finally, to cherish this treasure of Pina’s gaze. . . . appreciating that you knew Pina, that we all knew her gaze and were fortunate enough to experience such a priceless gift.” With Pina, Wenders has given us a beautiful gift, a wonderful tribute to his great friend. Pina is screening through January 10 at the IFC Center [ed. note: It continues to be extended there and is still running as of mid-June] and January 12 at BAM, where Tanztheater Wuppertal regularly performed since 1984, including most of the pieces featured in the film. Wenders will be appearing at a handful of screenings at IFC on January 6-7 and BAM on January 8 for intros, a book signing, and Q&As.

COIL 2012

Performance Space 122 and other venues
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
January 5-29, $20-$30 per performance, $75 passport for five shows, $100 for ten
www.ps122.org

“Fully realized, but on the bleeding front edge” is how P.S. 122 artistic director Vallejo Gartner describes the seventh annual Coil festival of experimental theater and dance, taking place January 5-29 at such venues as the Public Theater, the Baryshnikov Arts Center, the Connelly Theater, the Invisible Dog Art Center, the Old School, and Performance Space 122. Lin Hixson and Matthew Goulish of Every House Has a Door combine Dusan Makavejev, Stanley Cavell, and Ingmar Bergman in Let us think of these things always. Let us speak of them never. Lebanese actor, writer, and director Rabih Mroué will present a pair of politically charged multimedia solo narratives, Looking for a Missing Employee and The Pixelated Revolution. Heather Kravas examines idealized feminine beauty in The Green Surround. Mariano Pensotti’s tragicomic El pasado es un animal grotesco (The past is a grotesque animal), which is also part of the Under the Radar festival, uses a revolving stage and a song by Of Montreal to look at the lives of four Argentinians. Audience members do not have to sit quietly in their seats as Michael Kliën with Steve Valk delves into “the absence of certainty” and other philosophies in Choreography for Blackboards. David Levine expresses his Anger at the Movies, complete with audience involvement, in a theatrical seminar based on YouTube clips sent to him. Temporary Distortion re-creates scenes from television and movie cop dramas and real-life situations in Newyorkland. Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company brings together people from theater, cabaret, dance, and burlesque for a provocative examination of identity in Untitled Feminist Show. And on January 8, Bobby Hernreich will host the annual Red & White Party, featuring Jack Ferver, DJ Spooky, Ping-Pong (Thing Thong), prizes, and more at SPiN New York.