London trio Happyness will be at Baby’s All Right on October 24 as part of the Panache CMJ Showcase, taking the stage at 8:40; also on the bill are Homeshake, Dune Rats, Meatbodies, Calvin Love, Hunters, OBN IIIS, and Purling Hiss. The thirty-fourth annual CMJ Music Marathon continues through October 25; below are more recommendations for Friday night.
Keynote with David Lowery, NYU Kimmel Center, Rosenthal Pavilion, tenth floor, 12:20
September Girls, Rough Trade, 1:15, and the Delancey, 7:00
Bridget Barkan, Bowery Electric, 2:00
Room Full of Strangers, Rock Shop, 6:50
The Liza Colby Sound, Grand Victory, 9:30
Lily & the Parlour Tricks, the Living Room, 9:50
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die, Cameo Gallery, 10:50
Kate Boy, Knitting Factory, 1:00
From 1973 until her death in 2009, legendary dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch ran Tanztheater Wuppertal, the German company that changed the face of dance theater forever with such seminal productions as Rite of Spring, Café Müller, Danzón, Masurca Fogo, and so many others, many of which had their U.S. premieres at BAM. In 1978 she staged Kontakthof, collaborating with Rolf Borzik, Marion Cito, and Hans Pop, set to music by Juan Llossas, Charlie Chaplin, Anton Karas, Sibelius, and other composers. In 2000, she revisited the piece with a cast of senior citizens, and eight years later she turned the roles over to a group of Wuppertal high schoolers, most of whom had never heard of her and had never danced before. Director Anne Linsel and cinematographer Rainer Hoffmann follow the development of this very different production in Dancing Dreams, speaking with the eager, nervous participants, who talk openly and honestly about their hopes and desires, as well as with rehearsal directors Jo-Ann Endicott and Bénédicte Billet, who do not treat the teens with kid gloves but instead are trying to get them to reach deep inside of themselves and hold nothing back. When Bausch shows up to choose the final cast, telling the teenagers that she doesn’t bite, the tension mounts. Dancing Dreams is an intimate look at the creative process, about dedication and determination and what it takes to be an artist. It suffers at times from feeling too much like a reality television show, mixing American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance with the fictional Glee, but it also offers a last glimpse at Bausch, whose final interview is captured in the film. “You might think I’ve had enough of Kontakhtof,” she says at one point. “But every time it’s a new thing.” Dancing Dreams is screening October 27 at 7:30 in conjunction with the current production of 
