this week in dance

CROSSING THE LINE: CHAMBRE

Jack Ferver reimagines Jean Genet’s THE MAIDS in performance installation at the New Museum (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

New Museum Theater
235 Bowery at Prince St.
Installation: September 23 – October 4
Performances: September 24-25, October 1-2, 7:00, and September 26-27, October 3-4, 3:00, $15
www.fiaf.org
www.jackferver.org

No one tells a story quite like Jack Ferver. In such deeply personal psychodramas as Rumble Ghost, Night Light Bright Light, and Two Alike, the Wisconsin-born, New York-based performer shares intimate, cathartic memories brought to life through a loving pop-culture lens. Melding dance, spoken word, electronic sound scores, and visual art, Ferver explores suicide, abused queer youth, rape, and other serious topics while incorporating references to Tennessee Williams, Poltergeist, Fred Herko, Cleopatra, Madonna, and the 1985 cult film Return to Oz. In Chambre, which runs September 24 to October 4 at the New Museum as part of FIAF’s Crossing the Line festival, Ferver turns to Jean Genet’s The Maids, the 1947 play inspired by a pair of real-life sisters, Christine and Léa Papin, who committed a horrific crime in France in 1933. For the project, which includes eight live performances, Ferver is working with several of his longtime collaborators; the music is composed by Roarke Menzies, the costumes are designed by Reid Bartelme, the art installation (which is on view during museum hours throughout the show’s run) is by Marc Swanson, and Ferver will be joined onstage by Michelle Mola and Jacob Slominski.

Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson will present CHAMBRE as part of FIAFs annual Crossing the Line festival (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Jack Ferver and longtime collaborators will present CHAMBRE as part of FIAF’s annual Crossing the Line festival (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

“While I’ve been mulling over the material for Chambre for years, we started our first residency at Baryshnikov [Arts Center] two years ago this month. It’s been exciting, to say the least, for me to see how much it has changed,” Ferver told twi-ny about the evolution of the show. “This iteration of Chambre at the New Museum is very different from our premiere at Bard [last year]. The context of the museum obviously has factored into it. Marc and I also originally envisioned it for the white cube. The space is more intimate than where we have performed it so far. Marc’s installation becomes a room in a room, and it is changing the performance, creating a more nuanced, vulnerable, and frightening experience for me. Michelle, Jacob, and I have already started rehearsing in the space. The script and choreography are changing as the psyche of the piece changes in the space of the New Museum.” Menzies added, “The evolution of the score for this work was interesting. I wrote maybe three separate scores before arriving at the final version. A lot of the first music cues I created really capitalized on the notion that this is a murder story. Originally, the main theme had this very suspenseful beat and dark, brooding piano melodies — very campy, and very much in the language of Friday the 13th or Halloween, which has one of the great horror scores in cinema. But I think I ended up scrapping all of those references in lieu of much more raw, uncomfortable, barely recognizable sounds that I created by manipulating and contorting recordings of my voice. As we got to the core of the work, it became clear that the real source of the horror in this piece isn’t the murder but the horror of being embodied, the horror of having to live in this cruel, terrible world. All we really have to escape that horror are the endless games we play.” Sounds like classic Jack Ferver to us, so we can’t wait to catch this highly anticipated New York City premiere.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: TAPE

Kenneth Kvarnström incorporates dance, Baroque music, spoken word, and duct tape in U.S. premiere at BAM (photo by Mats Baecker)

BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
September 23-26, $25, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

There’s almost nothing you can’t accomplish with a good roll of duct tape. Finnish-born, Swedish-based choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström makes unique use of the product, originally created as “duck tape” for the U.S. military during WWII, in the sixty-minute production TAPE, making its U.S. premiere at the BAM Fisher as part of the Next Wave Festival. Originally choreographed as part of a double bill featuring his own K. Kvarnström & Co/Kulturhuset City Theatre Stockholm and Skånes Dansteater in Sweden, TAPE involves dancers and duct tape as Jonas Nordberg traverses the stage, playing Baroque music by J. S. Bach, François Couperin, Francis Poulenc, and others on lute, theorbo, and guitar. The performers, who also take turns at a microphone, addressing such topics as music, dance, and baking, wear black and white costumes by Swedish fashion designer Astrid Olsson; the set and lighting design is by Jens Sethzman. In addition to the evening performances on September 23-26, there will be a working dress rehearsal on Wednesday at 2:00, open to Level 3 BAM members.

WAYNE McGREGOR, OLAFUR ELIASSON, AND JAMIE xx: TREE OF CODES

Wayne McGregor’s movement, Jamie xx’s music, and Olafur Eliasson’s visual concept come together to reimagine Jonathan Safran Foer’s TREE OF CODES, which reimagines Bruno Schulz’s STREET OF CROCODILES (photo by Stephanie Berger)

Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
Through September 21, $30-$90
212-933-5812
armoryonpark.org

Choreographer Wayne McGregor, composer Jamie xx, and artist Olafur Eliasson have created quite an audiovisual spectacle with Tree of Codes, their sparkling adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2010 book of the same name, which used die cuts to repurpose Bruno Schulz’s Street of Crocodiles. As ticket holders enter the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, they encounter large screens to the north and south on which their elongated silhouettes are projected in different colors, reminiscent of Nam June Paik’s “Three Camera Participation / Participation TV,” welcoming them to the show while letting them know they are part of it. The performance itself takes place in the center of the vast Wade Thompson Drill Hall, the audience sitting in rising rows on the east side. Over the course of seventy-five dazzling minutes, various mirrored, translucent, and transparent walls descend from above, altering the perception of the highly athletic dancers, who move about virtually nonstop in an impressive array of solos, duets, and trios, set to a multilayered score that ranges from choral singing to soul, from pulsating dance beats to indie pop, sometimes all at the same time. Just as Safran Foer cut into Schulz’s story, Eliasson’s props cut into themselves, altering space and time, with refracted sections, orbiting circles, and spotlights that wander over the audience, and Jamie xx’s diverse score does the same to itself, coming up with new sounds as the music forms a kind of aural palimpsest. The dancers, meanwhile — consisting of Jérémie Bélingard, Julien Meyzindi, Sébastien Bertaud, Lydie Vareilhes, Lucie Fenwick, and the extraordinary Marie-Agnès Gillot from the Paris Opera Ballet and Louis McMiller, Daniela Neugebauer, Anna Nowak, James Pett, Fukiko Takase, and Jessica Wright from Company Wayne McGregor — are reflected multiple times in the mirrors, or fade away in ghostly images. At times, dancers in front of a see-through partition interact with dancers on the other side as if they are physically together; at other times, they appear to be dancing with multiple versions of themselves. The experience changes depending on where you sit, as the reflections and colors shift based on your angle of vision — and you might even get to see yourself in the background mirror as the spotlight hits you. It never gets very deep, but you can’t stop immersing yourself in its splendor. The performance actually begins with some cool but gimmicky Pilobolus-like moments, but don’t let that worry you. It quickly evolves into a beautifully rendered treat.

OKINAWAN VIBES: TRADITIONAL DANCE FROM OKINAW, WITH LIVE MUSIC

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19, $40, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

As part of its 2015-16 performing arts season, Japan Society is celebrating the history of culture of Okinawa, located in the Ryukyu island chain south of mainland Japan, with the three-month series “Okinawan Vibes.” The festival begins September 18-19 with “Traditional Dance from Okinawa, with Live Music,” copresented with Yokohama Noh Theater. The event features dancers Satoru Arakaki, Sayuri Chibana, Izumi Higa, Kota Kawamitsu, Sonoyo Noha, Yoshikazu Sanabe, and Ayano Yamashiro and musicians Shingo Nakamine, Kazuki Tamashiro, Hiroya Yokome, Hokuto Ikema, Hideo Miyagi, Natsuko Morita, and Satoshi Higa from Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts performing a quartet of court and folk dances from during and immediately after the Ryukyu Kingdom (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries), including the women’s dance onna odori, the masked classical dance shundo, and folk dances known as zo odori; the dancers will be wearing such extravagantly colored costumes as the bingata, the hanagasa, and kasuri kimonos, while the musicians will be playing the taiko, the koto, the sanshin, the kokyu, and the fue. Each evening will be preceded by a lecture led by Dr. James Rhys Edwards and will be followed by a meet-the-artists reception. In addition, Japan Society is hosting an Okinawan dance and music workshop on September 19 ($45, 4:00), in which participants will learn about the karaya dance and sanshin and see an onnagata demonstration. “Okinawan Vibes” continues with Go Takamine’s rarely shown Paradise View on October 2, “Obake Family Day: Experience Japan’s Ghosts & Goblins” on November 1, “Explore Okinawa: Art, Culture, and Cuisine from the Ryukyu Islands” on November 3, the lecture “Okinawa, the Birthplace of Karate” on November 7, and the workshop “Creating Bingata, Okinawa’s Vibrant Textile” on November 8.

AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL AND MORE

A CELEBRATION OF ASIAN CULTURE
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island
Saturday, September 19, $8-$10, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
718-425-3504
snug-harbor.org

On September 19, Staten Island’s beautiful Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden will be hosting its sixteenth annual Autumn Moon Festival, an afternoon of special programs celebrating the Asian harvest. Taking place in the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, the festival will include an arts and crafts family workshop, a performance of Rabbit Days and Dumplings by Elena Moon Park and Friends, traditional music and dance, Asian-inspired food, martial arts and Tai Chi demonstrations, calligraphy lessons, and more. In addition, on Saturday and Sunday, Snug Harbor is holding a party for the grand opening of the Staten Island Museum, with games, live music, crafts, science, food, and more; admission for that is free. And finally, on Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 and Sunday at 2:00, the Harbor Lights Theater Company will be presenting Rent in the Music Hall ($35-$45); the production continues through October 4.

FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL 2015

New York City Center
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 13, 11:00 am
Festival runs September 30 – October 11, $15
212-581-1212
www.nycitycenter.org

One of the hottest tickets of the season is always the annual Fall for Dance Festival at City Center, ten days of performances by twenty companies from around the world, each show a mere fifteen bucks. Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 13, at 11:00 am, so don’t waste any time if you want to see any of the below programs, because these events sell out ridiculously fast.

Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, 8:00
Miami City Ballet, Allegro Brillante, George Balanchine
Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., Hapless Bizarre, Doug Elkins
L.A. Dance Project, Murder Ballades, Justin Peck
Che Malambo, Che Malambo, Gilles Brinas and dancers

Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, 8:00
La Compagnie Hervé Koubi, U.S. premiere of What the Day Owes to the Night, Hervé Koubi
Steven McRae, U.S. premiere of Czardas, Steven McRae
Project FFD: Pam Tanowitz, One Last Good Chance, Pam Tanowitz
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Four Corners, Ronald K. Brown

Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7, 8:00
Companhia Urbana De Dança, Eu Danço — 8 solos no geral, Sonia Destri Lie and dancers
Fang-Yi Sheu and Herman Cornejo, Pheromones, Fang-Yi Sheu
Houston Ballet, Maninyas, Stanton Welch
Paul Taylor Dance Company, Brandenburgs, Paul Taylor

Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9, 8:00
Nrityagram, Invoking Shiva, Surupa Sen
San Francisco Ballet, Solo, Hans van Manen
Stephen Petronio Company, Locomotor, Stephen Petronio
Dorrance Dance, world premiere of a Fall for Dance commission, Michelle Dorrance

Saturday, October 10, 8:00, and Sunday, October 11, 7:00
Boston Ballet, Pas de Quatre, Leonid Yakobson
Bill Irwin and Tiler Peck, Time It Was/116, Bill Irwin, Tiler Peck, and Damian Woetzel
Jesús Carmona & Cia, U.S. premiere of Ímpetu, Jesús Carmona
L-E-V, Killer Pig, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar

TREE OF CODES

Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
September 14-21, $30-$90
212-933-5812
armoryonpark.org

Codes are one-to-one correspondences, messages that have been transformed from one communication into another. Tree of Codes, originally presented earlier this summer at the Manchester International Festival, is a seventy-five-minute contemporary ballet that uses light, sound, color, mirrors, and movement in unique ways, transforming Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2010 book, Tree of Codes, into something entirely other. Foer’s book is a work of art that is both a literary narrative and sculptural object; every page of the paperback boasts a different die-cut as surprising word combinations continually reveal themselves. Foer’s three-dimensional story begins with Bruno Schulz’s Street of Crocodiles — which has previously been adapted by the Quay Brothers into a classically creepy stop-motion animation film — and Foer then cut out words to create a whole new tale. British choreographer Wayne McGregor (Infra, Chroma), London-born DJ and music producer Jamie xx (We’re New Here, In Colour), and Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (“The Collectivity Project” on the High Line, “NYC Waterfalls”) have turned Tree of Codes into a site-specific multidisciplinary performance piece, featuring members of the Paris Opera Ballet and McGregor’s company, that will take place in New York City’s most creative space, the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory, from September 14 to 21. “At the armory, we are always encouraging artists to push the limits of their specific disciplines. Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson, and Jaime xx are each pioneers in their respective fields, and their collective vision for Tree of Codes asks us to bend our preconceived notions of traditional ballet and also the world around us,” armory president and executive producer Rebecca Robertson said in a statement. The armory has previously hosted work by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, STREB Extreme Action, Massive Attack, Christian Boltanski, Ann Hamilton, Tom Sachs, Paul McCarthy, Ryoji Ikeda, and many others, who have taken great advantage of the fifty-five-thousand square-foot space. Tree of Codes is likely to do the same.