this week in dance

DOPPELGANGER

Park Ave. Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall is transformed into a WWI military hospital in Doppelganger (photo by Monika Rittershaus / courtesy of Park Avenue Armory)

DOPPELGANGER
Park Avenue Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. at 67th St.
September 22-28, $54-$259
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

Park Avenue Armory once again confirms that its Wade Thompson Drill Hall is the most sensational performance space in New York City with the world premiere of Claus Guth’s bold and breathtaking Doppelganger.

In 1828, ailing Austrian composer Franz Schubert wrote “13 Lieder nach Gedichten von Rellstab und Heine,” a baker’s dozen of songs set to text by German poet, pianist, and music critic Ludwig Rellstab (originally written for Beethoven) and German poet and literary critic Heinrich Heine. Schubert died of syphilis in November of that year at the age of thirty-one; the works were published in 1829 as a fourteen-song cycle, Schwanengesang (“Swan Song”), with the addition of a song with lyrics by Austrian archaeologist and poet Johann Gabriel Seidl.

Innovative German director Guth has adapted Schwanengesang into a riveting tale of love, war, and death, set inside a military field hospital; the armory itself was built for the Seventh Regiment during the Civil War, adding a layer of reality. Michael Levine’s stunning set consists of nine rows of seven white-sheeted beds, in austere alignment, with Helmut Deutsch’s piano at the center (where one of the beds would have been, but the pianist is in no need of any kind of assistance). At the front and back are six chairs and mobile IV units for nurses. The audience sits in rising rafters on either side of the beds.

When the doors open about fifteen minutes prior to the official start time, nearly two dozen of the beds are already occupied by barefoot men in WWI-era brown pants and jacket, white shirt, and suspenders (the costumes are by Constance Hoffman); they shift in restless sleep as the nurses proceed in unison through the rows of beds and Deutsch waits patiently at his grand piano.

A seriously injured soldier faces heartbreak in Doppelganger (photo by Monika Rittershaus / courtesy of Park Avenue Armory)

Schubert did not intend for the fourteen songs to form a continuous, complete narrative, but Guth transforms it into a seamless, deeply compelling, and powerful story. The doors close and the show begins, soon focusing on an unnamed solitary individual (German-Austrian tenor Jonas Kaufmann). “In deep repose my comrades in arms / lie in a circle around me; / my heart is so anxious and heavy, / so ardent with longing,” he sings in Rellstab’s “Warrior’s foreboding,” continuing, “How often I have dreamt sweetly / upon her warm breast! / How cheerful the fireside glow seemed / when she lay in my arms.”

Rellstab’s words are beautiful and romantic as the man makes numerous references to nature while contemplating his bleak future. “Murmuring brook, so silver and bright, / do you hasten, so lively and swift, to my beloved?” he asks in “Love’s message.” In “Far away,” he speaks of “Whispering breezes, / gently ruffled waves, darting sunbeams, lingering nowhere.” Other stanzas refer to “snowy blossoms,” “slender treetops,” a “roaring forest,” “gardens so green.”

Heine’s lyrics cast the man as a lonely soul desperate for connection. “I, unhappy Atlas, must bear a world, / the whole world of sorrows. / I bear the unbearable, and my heart / would break within my body,” he proclaims. Tears figure prominently, appearing in four songs. “My tears, too, flowed / down my cheeks. / And oh – I cannot believe / that I have lost you!” he declares in “Her portrait.”

Kaufmann is in terrific voice; he wanders around the set seeking solace, looking for a reason to fight for a life that is draining from his body. He stops at a bedpost, lays out on the floor, and stands under falling rose petals. He makes sure to visit each part of the audience, sometimes coming within only a few feet. The other soldiers and the nurses weave in and out of the columns, sitting on beds or gathering together. (The movement is expertly choreographed by Sommer Ulrickson.)

Helmut Deutsch calmly plays at a center piano while action swirls around him (photo by Monika Rittershaus / courtesy of Park Avenue Armory)

Urs Schönebaum’s brilliant lighting is like a character unto itself; each bed has its own white spotlight, and occasionally a stand of lights bursts from one end, casting long shadows amid the nearly blinding brightness. The projections by rocafilm include bare trees and an abstract static on the floor, as if we’re inside the man’s disintegrating mind. Mathis Nitschke’s compositions feature sudden blasts of the noises of war, providing theatrical accompaniment to Deutsch’s gorgeous playing, all balanced by Mark Grey’s tantalizing sound design, which links songs that were not meant to mellifluously follow one after another to do exactly that, flowing like the brooks so often referenced in the lyrics.

Guth, who played Schubert’s Winterreise as a student and previously collaborated with Kaufmann on the composer’s Fierrabras, takes advantage of nearly everything the armory has to offer; it’s hard to imagine the ninety-minute Doppelganger being quite as successful anywhere else. Surtitles are projected in English and German above the seating. The cavernous fifty-five-thousand-square-foot hall has rarely felt so intimate despite its impressive length and vast, high ceiling. And the finale holds a powerful surprise that also explains the title of the work, and not just because the name of the song is “Der Doppelgänger.”

Incorporating dance, theater, music recital, art installation, and poetry, Doppelganger is a triumphant, site-specific marvel that is not just for classical music fans. It’s a timeless emotional treatise on the evils of war and the heartbreak of lost love as a man reflects on his life while staring death straight in the face.

It’s a harrowing and thoroughly astounding journey. Although it grew out of the European wars of the nineteenth century, it remains painfully relevant even as a twenty-first-century war rages on the borders of Eastern Europe today.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

MOLLY GOCHMAN: GATHERING

Molly Gochman’s participatory Gathering will have special activations Sundays through October 1 on Governors Island (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

GATHERING
Nolan Park, Governors Island
Sunday, September 10, 17, 24, and October 1, free, 1:00 – 3:00
Installation open Friday-Sunday through October 1, 11:00 am – 5:00 pm
mollygochman.com
online slide show

As part of House Fest 2023 on Labor Day weekend on Governors Island, San Antonio–born, New York City–based artist Molly Gochman began installing the site-specific Gathering, a twisting, snakelike series of two hundred white and gray rolled-up waxed canvas tarps. “Stitched” together with rope, they create a thirteen-thousand-square-foot outline of the original shape of the island. Winding around trees on the grass at the center of Nolan Park, the work invites visitors to sit on it; to grab a tarp, spread it out, and have a picnic; to contemplate how the island has changed over the last hundred years through excavation and dredging; or to relax on a tarp and take it home, with Gochman’s blessing, her work spreading like gentle tentacles from the peaceful nature of Nolan Park to the endless hustle and bustle of New York City. Gochman, a friendly and enthusiastic woman, loves to engage with passersby, talking about the piece and helping them choose a tarp to use and perhaps keep. Eventually, Gathering will erode like the land itself, leaving no trace of what once was but living on through those who have engaged with it.

“I believe we live in a world where thoughtful participation — with our environment, with our objects, with our community, with ourselves, and with our fellow human beings — is the greatest good we can do. This involvement, on every level, creates a world where empathy and freedom are our primary values,” Gochman explains in her artist statement. “I hope that the person who experiences my work feels welcomed to go from the work into his or her own contemplation of what the work inspires in them or just offers them an opportunity to pause and be in that moment. In a sense, the works are only half-done when I complete my work on them. They are invitations to experience, and it’s up to each person who comes into contact with them to decide how — or if — to accept that invitation.”

Every Sunday at 1:00 through October 1, Gathering will be activated, and visitors are invited to bring a picnic and be part of the experience; all events are free. On September 10, community leaders and organizers from Black Women’s Blueprint and Black Joy Farm will come together to make unique use of the space; on September 17, Ani Weinstein will lead a guided meditation; on September 24, artist, dancer, and amulet maker Annmaria Mazzini will host a moving meditation around the work, joined by vocalist and musician Paula Jeanine Bennett and others; and on October 1, dancer and actress Christine Elmo will perform a new work created in response to Gathering to wish it a fond farewell.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

WORKS & PROCESS: PHOTOGRAPHING NEW YORK CITY BALLET WITH PAUL KOLNIK AND WENDY WHELAN

Wendy Whelan and Gonzalo Garcia in Opus 19/The Dreamer, New York City Ballet, 5/7/10 (photo © 2010 Paul Kolnik)

Who: Paul Kolnik, Wendy Whelan, Linda Murray
What: Works & Process illustrated conversation
Where: Bruno Walter Auditorium, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza
When: Thursday, September 7, free with advance RSVP, 6:00
Why: Chicago native Paul Kolnik saw his first ballet in 1971, at the age of twenty-three, and soon moved to New York City, where he worked as an assistant to New York City Ballet staff photographer Martha Swope before taking his own pictures of the company, under the leadership of cofounding artistic director George Balanchine. In celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of NYCB, Kolnik will sit down for a special Works & Process discussion on September 7 at 6:00 in the Bruno Walter Auditorium with NYCB associate artistic director Wendy Whelan and moderator Linda Murray, NYPL curator of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division. Kolnik, who has also extensively photographed Broadway shows and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, has had his work published in such books as New York City Ballet Workout, Dancing to America, The Producers, and Beacon and Call: A Cisterian Monastic Pilgrimage. Admission is free with advance RSVP.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

DOUGLAS DUNN + DANCERS: GARDEN PARTY

Douglas Dunn’s Garden Party is back for a return engagement (photo by Jacob Burckhardt)

GARDEN PARTY
Douglas Dunn Studio
541 Broadway between Spring & Prince Sts., third floor
September 6-10, $20 floor cushions, $25 chairs
www.douglasdunndance.com

This past April, Douglas Dunn + Dancers presented the world premiere of Garden Party at the company’s third-floor Soho loft studio. The sixty-minute piece is now returning for an encore run September 6-10; tickets are $20 for floor cushions or $25 for a chair.

Longtime Dunn collaborator Mimi Gross designed the colorful costumes and scenery, bathing the space in lushly painted trompe l’oeil walls and ceiling and a long horizontal mirror covered with pink, yellow, and green flowers, plants, trees, clouds, raindrops, and other natural elements. The work is performed by Dunn, Alexandra Berger, Janet Charleston, Grazia Della-Terza, Vanessa Knouse, Emily Pope, Paul Singh, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Timothy Ward, and Christopher Williams, with lighting and projections by Lauren Parrish, sound by Jacob Burckhardt, and preshow live music by guitarist and composer Tosh Sheridan.

The soundtrack consists of pop and classical tunes (Robert de Visée, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Bach, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, more), birdsong, and poetry (by John Keats, Anne Waldman, Molière, Rainer Maria Rilke, John Milton, Stephanie Jacco, and others, read by Dunn, Waldman, Jacco, and Della-Terza). In an April twi-ny talk, Dunn noted, “The feel of this evening was clear to me the day the title hit me (about three years ago, the pandemic postponing the project). The lavish beauty of Mimi’s set completely fulfills my initial intuition . . . as if she’d read my dancing mind.”

Tickets are limited; the show sold out its April premiere, so don’t hesitate if you want to be part of this intimate experience.

BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL 2023

Battery Dance will perform The Wind in the Olive Grove at annual outdoor summer festival

BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL
Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City
75 River Terr., North Esplanade
August 12-18, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
batterydance.org

The forty-second annual Battery Dance Festival goes hybrid this summer, with live presentations of works from more than forty companies from around the country and the globe, including numerous New York City and world premieres and US debuts. Free performances take place August 12-18 at 7:00 at Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City — a move from its previous home in Robert Wagner Jr. Park — and will be livestreamed as well.

“When Super Storm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, Battery Park City Authority reached out a helping hand, providing a beautiful site for the Battery Dance Festival which we’ve all enjoyed every summer since 2013,” Battery Dance founding artistic director Jonathan Hollander said in a statement. “With the prospect of rising seas in the future, BPCA is enacting a proactive resiliency plan, lifting Wagner Park up to twelve feet, making it inaccessible this summer. But fear not! BPCA has invited us to move to Rockefeller Park this summer, where we’ll benefit from the large lawn and riverfront views as we bask in the glow of performances by local and international companies.”

As always, the Battery Dance Festival offers dance fans the chance to see multiple disciplines all in a single evening, for free, with a wide range of pieces from international troupes that explore original movement and celebrate unique culture while often taking on contemporary issues and sharing personal stories. Among this year’s special programs are “Young Voices in Dance” on August 12, “India Independence Day” on August 15, and “Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers” on August 17, honoring Isadora Duncan and Jennifer Muller, who passed away in March at the age of seventy-eight.

In addition, $1 community workshops are being held every morning at 10:30 at Battery Dance Studios (380 Broadway #5), led by festival choreographers, artistic directors, and company members; advance registration is required. Below is the full dance schedule.

Saturday, August 12: Young Voices in Dance
The Bowery Mission, Dancing to Connect
Marley Poku-Kankam, All Four
Aliyah Banerjee & Shashank Iswara, Taraana
Dareon Blowe, How Do Five Parts Construct a Whole?
Mateo Vidals, There Is Always Something Happening
Luke Biddinger, La Vie en Rose
Cameron Kay, Interface
Samanvita Kasthuri, Krtaghna
Micah Sell, Outline
Queensborough Community College, Discovering
Willem Sadler, Soullessly Flying
Tulia Marshall, A fraction of a true self
Joanne Hwang, Static State of Perfection

Sunday, August 13
Battery Dance, A Certain Mood
Reuel Rogers, Power
Keturah Stephen, A Yearning Desire
Circumstances, ON POINT
Nu-World Contemporary Danse Theatre, The Called and the Chosen
Trainor Dance Inc., Courante
IMGE Dance, (no)man

Monday, August 14
SOLE Defined, SOLE Defined LIVE
Teatr Nowszy, Close (excerpt)
Erv Works Dance, Veiled from the Womb
Jiemin Yang, Here We Root (excerpt)
Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu, Special People
Circumstances, ON POINT
Fanike! African Dance Troupe, UPLIFTED!

Tuesday, August 15: India Independence Day
Rudrakshya Foundation, Kali Krishna
Durgesh Gangani, The Legacy
Amarnath Ghosh, Maragatha Manimaya

Wednesday, August 16
Julian Donahue Dance, Displacement
Citadel + Compagnie, Soudain l’hiver dernier
Tabanka Dance Ensemble, Progress
Teatr Nowszy, Close (excerpt)
Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu, Special People
Jerron Herman, Lax
Carolyn Dorfman Dance, NOW
Dancers Unlimited, Edible Tales (excerpts), Soul Food & Kanaloa

Dances by Isadora will honor Isadora Duncan at Battery Dance Festival (photo by Melanie Futorian)

Thursday, August 17: Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers
Dances by Isadora, Isadora Duncan: Under a New Sky
Time Lapse Dance, American Elm and Piece for a Northern Sky
Denishawn, Denishawn (excerpts)
In memoriam: Jennifer Muller (1944-2023), Jennifer Muller/The Works, Miserere Nobis

Friday, August 18
Adriana Ogle & Toru Sakuragi, Softly as in a Morning Glow
Amanda Treiber, Wind-Up
Bruce Wood Dance, In My Your Head
Citadel + Compagnie, Soudain l’hiver dernier
Boca Tuya, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight
Tabanka Dance Ensemble, Progress
Reuel Rogers, Power
Battery Dance, The Wind in the Olive Grove

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

HARLEM WEEK: A GREAT DAY IN HARLEM AND MORE

Who: Uptown Dance Academy, the Gospel Caravan, IMPACT Repertory Theatre, Mama Foundation’s Sing Harlem! Choir, Bishop Hezekiah Walker & Choir, Ray Chew & the Harlem Music Festival All-Star Band featuring Nona Hendryx, more
What: Annual Harlem Week celebration
Where: U.S. Grant National Memorial Park, West 122nd St. at Riverside Dr.
When: Sunday, August 13, free, noon – 7:00 pm (festival runs August 9-16)
Why: One of the centerpieces of Harlem Week is “A Great Day in Harlem,” which takes place Sunday, August 13, as part of this annual summer festival. There will be an international village with booths selling food, clothing, jewelry, and more, as well as live music and dance divided into “Artz, Rootz & Rhythm,” “The Gospel Caravan,” “The Fashion Flava Fashion Show,” and “The Concert Under the Stars.” Among the performers are the Uptown Dance Academy, the Gospel Caravan, IMPACT Repertory Theatre, the Sing Harlem! Choir, and Bishop Hezekiah Walker & Choir. In addition, Ray Chew & the Harlem Music Festival All-Star Band, featuring Nona Hendryx, will perform a tribute to the one and only Tina Turner, who died in May at the age of eighty-three; Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Miriam Makeba, and Tito Puente will also be honored.

The theme of the forty-ninth annual Harlem Week is “Be the Change: Hope. Joy. Love.”; it runs August 9-16 with such other free events as the panel discussion “Climate & Environmental Justice in Harlem: Storms, Heat & Wildfires,” A Harlem SummerStage concert, Senior Citizens Day, the Uptown Night Market, the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K Run & Walk & Children’s Run, “Choose Healthy Life Service of Renewal and Healing,” Great Jazz on the Great Hill in Central Park with Wycliffe Gordon and Bobby Sanabria, Imagenation Outdoor Film Festival screenings of Beat Street with DJ Spivey and Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, a Youth Conference & Hackathon, Economic Development Day, an Arts & Culture Broadway Summit, Harlem on My Mind Conversations, a Jobs & Career Fair, and more. “We continue to build a stronger, more united Harlem, radiating hope, joy, and love throughout our beloved city,” Harlem Week chairman Lloyd Williams said in a statement.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LINCOLN CENTER SUMMER FOR THE CITY: THE BESSIE AWARDS

The Illustrious Blacks wil host the 2023 Bessie Awards outside at Lincoln Center (photo by Gregory Kramer)

THE BESSIE AWARDS
Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Friday, August 4, free (Fast Track RSVP available), 7:30
www.lincolncenter.org
bessies.org

In 1984, Dance Theater Workshop executive director David R. White founded the Bessie Awards, named after dance teacher Bessie Schönberg and given to outstanding work in the field of independent dance. Among the winners in the inaugural year were Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch, Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks, Mark Morris, Anne Bogart, and Eiko & Koma, a lofty group of creators. This year’s ceremony will take place August 4 at 7:30 at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park as part of the Summer for the City program, with free admission to all; it’s a fantastic opportunity to join in the celebration of movement while seeing some of the best contemporary performers and choreographers.

Pina Bausch’s Água (1995/2023) is up for Outstanding Revival at the 2023 Bessies (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

The thirty-ninth annual event will be hosted by the Illustrious Blacks (Manchildblack x Monstah Black) and feature performances by Dance Theatre of Harlem (in honor of Lifetime Achievement in Dance recipient Virginia Johnson), Princess Lockerooo’s Fabulous Waack Dancers, Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, Ladies of Hip-Hop Collective (in honor of Service to the Field of Dance honoree Michele Byrd-McPhee), and students from AbunDance Academy of the Arts. Presenters include Mireicy Aquino, George Faison, Jhailyn Farcon, Dionne Figgins, Erin Fogerty, Tiffany Geigel, Dyane Harvey Salaam, Karisma Jay, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Abdel Salaam, Paz Tanjuaquio, and Ms Vee; this year’s jury panel consists of Ayodele Casel, Kyle Marshall, and luciana achugar.

Awards will be given out in the following categories: Outstanding Choreographer / Creator, Outstanding “Breakout” Choreographer, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, and Outstanding Visual Design, for works presented at such venues as the Joyce, Gibney, the Shed, BAM, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Performance Space New York, City Center, Arts on Site, and New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop). Nominees include Pina Bausch & Tanztheater Wuppertal, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, marion spencer, Vanessa Anspaugh, Sidra Bell, Rennie Harris, Deborah Hay, Shamel Pitts, and Niall Jones.

Following the ceremony, there will be a special Bessies Silent Disco After-Party with DJ Sabine Blazin on Josie Robertson Plaza, where a giant disco ball dangles over the Revson Fountain.