this week in dance

GIBNEY DANCE: DoublePlus

Jennifer Meckley and Fiona Lundie perform in Abby Zbikowski’s “Destabilizer,” part of Gibney Dance’s DoublePlus series celebrating the opening of its new downtown space (photo by Nick Fancher)

Gibney Dance Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway between Chambers & Reade Sts.
Wednesday through Saturday, November 5 – December 20, $15, 7:30
www.gibneydance.org

Gibney Dance is celebrating its expansion to 280 Broadway with the six-week series DoublePlus, in which six established choreographers will curate programs by two up-and-coming dance creators. Founded in 1991 at 890 Broadway by Gina Gibney “to bring the possibility of movement to where it otherwise would not exist,” the company has now taken over 280 Broadway, the former home of Dance New Amsterdam by City Hall. Wednesday night shows will be preceded by a Meet the Curator talk, while Friday night performances will be followed by a discussion with the curator and dance artists. The series was developed by founding artistic director Gibney and new director of programs and presentation Craig T. Peterson as part of the company’s mission of “Making Space for Dance.” Gibney explained, “What we’re interested in building is a fully supported artistic ‘ecosystem’ that puts to use the unique set of resources at our disposal to benefit all of the communities we’ve been serving for the past twenty-two years: artists, audiences, and the vulnerable populations we reach through our Community Action Program.” The Community Action Program brings together dancers with domestic violence survivors for special programs and workshops. For the DoublePlus program, Annie-B Parson mentors Audrey Hailes (Death Made Love to My Feet) and Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble (The Art of Luv) November 5-8, RoseAnne Spradlin leads Daria Faïn (is as if alone) and Gillian Walsh (Continued™ Procedures) November 12-15, Miguel Gutierrez oversees Rakiya A. Orange (Aziza) and Alex Rodabaugh (g1br33l) November 19-22, Donna Uchizono counsels Alex Escalante (Venado) and Molly Poerstel (Stolen Grounds) December 3-6, Jon Kinzel advises Anna Azrieli (Averaging) and Stuart Shugg (Dear Washing Machine, Long Night) December 10-13, and Bebe Miller coaches Maree ReMalia (merrygogo) and Abby Zbikowski (Destabilizer) December 17-20.

TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH: KONTAKTHOF

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s KONTAKTHOF is finally making its BAM debut after thirty-six years (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
October 23 – November 2, $25-$110
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de/en

Shortly before a recent performance of Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s much-loved Kontakthof began, I bumped into longtime dancer and current rehearsal director Dominique Mercy, who was surveying the situation from the back of BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House. I let him know that the primary reason I got into writing about dance is because of Pina Bausch; the first piece of contemporary dance theater I ever saw (at the behest of my wife) was the company’s Danzón at BAM back in 1999, changing everything I ever thought about dance, and that I had seen every Bausch work brought to Brooklyn since then. He put his hand on my shoulder, smiled, and said, “I’m so sorry. I take the blame.” Of course, there is nothing for Mercy or the immensely talented German troupe to apologize for; they’ve been delighting audiences around the world for more than forty years with their unique brand of performance, rife with movement, music, humor, and a special relationship with the audience. At the beginning of 1978’s seminal Kontakthof, which is finishing up its BAM debut November 2, the members of the company move to the front of the stage, show off their clothing (men in dark suits, women in beautiful gowns, designed by Rolf Borzik), run their hands over their hair, and open their mouth and grit their teeth. For the next two and a half hours, they engage in a series of gender-based antics and situations, all taking place in a dance hall / rehearsal studio with chairs along three sides. They occasionally speak into microphones, glide across the floor in unison, collapse in a fury, scream, and taunt and tease one another as a wide range of prerecorded music plays, from Anton Karas’s Third Man theme and Jimmy Dorsey’s “J. D.’s Boogie” to Lesso-Valerio’s “Liebeszweifel” and Ralph Benatzky’s “Einmal ist keinmal,” performed primarily by Juan Lossas und sein Tango-Orchester, who contribute several original songs as well.

KONTAKTHOF explores the battle of the sexes in unique ways (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Kontakthof, which can be translated as “Contact Zone,” “Meeting Place,” or “Contact of Courtyard,” has been performed by senior citizens and teenagers in addition to the regular company, each age group bringing a different nuance to the piece. At BAM, the regular company, which itself consists of performers of different ages, sizes, shapes, and nationalities, brought the piece to invigorating life, melding pain with pleasure as men and women fight it out onstage, always with a wink at the audience. Several dancers even approach the front row and ask for change so they can erotically ride a mechanical pony meant for children. Even as it occasionally gets repetitive, Kontakthof is a joy to behold, another masterpiece from Bausch, who passed away in 2009 at the age of fifty-eight but whose legacy lives on in the rich talent of her company, which is now in the clearly capable hands of longtime TR dancer Lutz Förster, who was named artistic director in April 2013. Seeing Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch every few years is like seeing old friends, catching up, finding out what they’re up to (the wonderful Nazareth Panadero, for example, won the 2014 Spanish National Dance Award for Interpretación), and then marveling at what’s been gained — and lost — over the passage of time. And for all of that, I don’t mind blaming Dominique Mercy one bit.

FIRST SATURDAYS: CROSSING BROOKLYN

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, November 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

For its November edition of its free First Saturdays program, the Brooklyn Museum is looking at its home borough. Crossing Brooklyn will feature live performances by the PitchBlak Brass Band, Meridian Lights, John Robinson & PVD, and Norte Maar; a screening of the UnionDocs collaborative web documentary the Living Los Sures about the south side of Williamsburg; a book reading and talk by Bridgett M. Davis, author of Into the Go-Slow; a collage workshop; and a talk by assistant curator of contemporary art Rujeko Hockley on the exhibition “Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond.” In addition, you can check out such other exhibitions as “Judith Scott — Bound and Unbound,” “Revolution! Works from the Black Arts Movement,” “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe,” and “Judy Chicago’s Feminist Pedagogy and Alternative Spaces.”

DANCING DREAMS: TEENAGERS DANCE PINA BAUSCH’S “CONTACT ZONE”

DANCING DREAMS offers teens the chance to work with dance-theater legend Pina Bausch

TANZTRÄUME: JUGENDLICHE TANZEN “KONTAKTHOF” VON PINA BAUSCH (DANCING DREAMS: TEENAGERS DANCE PINA BAUSCH’S “CONTACT ZONE”) (Anne Linsel & Rainer Hoffmann, 2010)
BAMcinématek, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Monday, October 27, $14, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de/en

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 Kontakhtof running at BAM October 23 – November 2 and will be followed by a Q&A with longtime Tanztheater Wuppertal members Billiet and Dominique Mercy, moderated by Marina Harss. In addition, on October 25 at 12 noon, BAM and Dance Umbrella will present a free live stream of “Politics of Participation,” a cross-Atlantic panel discussion at King’s College with Penny Woolcock, Matt Fenton, Kenrick “H2O” Sandy, and Michael “Mikey J” Asante and at BAM with Julie Anne Stanzak and Simon Dove, moderated by Dr. Daniel Glaser.

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL: KONTAKTHOF

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s KONTAKTHOF returns to BAM after nearly thirty years (photo by Oliver Look)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
October 23 – November 2, $25-$110
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de/en

To celebrate Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch’s thirtieth anniversary of its New York debut at BAM — the German company presented Rite of Spring, 1980, Cafe Muller, and Bluebeard back in June 1984 — the innovative, influential, and highly entertaining troupe is bringing back one of its most famous works October 23 – November 2 at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House as part of the 2014 Next Wave Festival. First performed at BAM in October 1985, Kontakthof (“Courtyard of Contact”) is a playful look at the world of dance itself, as well-dressed men and women battle it out in an intensely physical competition with plenty of fun humor. The work, which includes music by Charlie Chaplin, Anton Karas, Nino Rota, Jean Sibelius, and Juan Llossas and costume and set design by Rolf Borzik, has been performed by teenagers and senior citizens since its premiere in 1978; at BAM, the current company will take the stage, led by such familiar mainstays as Rainer Behr, Dominique Mercy, Eddie Martinez, Julie Anne Stanzak, Franko Schmidt, Cristiana Morganti, Andrey Berezin, and the inimitable Nazareth Panadero. The company is continuing on following Bausch’s death in 2009 at the age of fifty-eight, with longtime TW dancer Lutz Förster as artistic director. It’s always an event when they come to Brooklyn, having dazzled dance-theater lovers with such thrilling productions as Vollmond (Full Moon), “…como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si…” (Like moss on a stone), Danzón, Nefés, Masurca Fogo, and so many others over these last thirty years. If you’ve never seen this fabulous company in person, stop what you’re doing right now and pick up some tickets while they’re still left; you won’t be disappointed. You can also check out Wim Wenders’s Oscar-nominated Pina on Netflix to get a taste of what you’re in for. In conjunction with Kontakthof, on October 25 at 12 noon BAM and Dance Umbrella will present a free live stream of “Politics of Participation,” a cross-Atlantic panel discussion at King’s College with Penny Woolcock, Matt Fenton, Kenrick “H2O” Sandy, and Michael “Mikey J” Asante and at BAM with Stanzak and Simon Dove, moderated by Dr. Daniel Glaser. And on October 27 at 7:30, BAMcinématek will screen Dancing Dreams: Teenagers Dance Pina Bausch’s “Contact Zone,” followed by a Q&A with longtime Tanztheater Wuppertal members Bénédicte Billiet and Mercy, moderated by Marina Harss.

ROCOCO ROUGE

Company XIV invites audiences to their new NoHo space with ROCOCO ROUGE (photo by Phillip Van Nostrand)

XIV
428 Lafayette St. between Astor Pl. & East Fourth St.
Thursday – Sunday through November 1, Le Galerie $65, Le Court $105
www.companyxiv.com

Austin McCormick’s Company XIV is inaugurating its intimate new home along Colonnade Row on Lafayette St. with Rococo Rouge, a Late Baroque-inspired evening of dance, music, acrobatics, sexy humor, and classy cocktails. The two-hour extravaganza is hosted by bawdy and buxom chanteuse Shelly Watson, who never met a double entendre she didn’t like, or an audience member she wouldn’t want to caress and grab. Channeling Bette Midler and Mae West, Watson riles up the crowd, telling jokes and expertly working the interstitials between the extravagantly costumed and elegant yet unusual acts. Performers include Allison Ulrich teaming with Steven Trumon Gray on the aerial hoop known as a lyra while Watson sings Dvořák’s “Song to the Moon”; the mustachioed Courtney Giannone twisting around on the Cyr wheel while Watson sings Rossini’s “La Danza”; soprano Brett Umlauf performing Lorde’s “Royals” while Davon Rainey, Cailan Orn, and Gray get down and dirty; Ulrich swinging around a pole while Umlauf, who has a lovely, ethereal voice, sings Julie London’s “Go Slow” with six-string virtuoso Rob Mastrianni on guitar; and Laura Careless dancing a sharp, striking solo while Katrina Cunningham sings Britney Spears’s “Toxic.” (Careless was also a standout in Company XIV’s Lover. Muse. Mockingbird. Whore., a burlesque play about Charles Bukowski and two of the women in his life.) Yes, it’s not all exactly from the time of Louis XIV, although Zane Pihlstrom’s gorgeous costumes, mostly in red with some black and white, reference bustiers and bustles, but there’s just too much fun to be had to worry about historical anachronisms and narrative lapses.

Laura Careless dazzles with a striking solo turn in ROCOCO ROUGE (photo by Phillip Van Nostrand)

There are two intermissions, and the audience can either head into the front bar area, where Giannone might sit down at the piano and play some classical music (followed by her father, going the jump-and-jive route), or remain in the theater, where Mastrianni will do the entertaining. Among the specialty drinks ($14-$16 each) are the Opera Diva, the Maria Theresa, the Guillotine, and the Revolution, along with the Fountain of Versailles ($120), for “four to six drunkards.” Choreographed, conceived, and directed by McCormick, Rococo Rouge is a refreshing frolic through another time and place, an engaging spectacle that is like a French version of the Kit Kat Klub from Cabaret (without the dangerous edge) mixed with the variety of La Soirée. And everyone’s invited to stick around after the show, when bands such as Mastrianni’s Beatbox Guitar take the stage. Rococo Rouge runs Thursday to Sunday through November 1 and will be followed by Company XIV’s popular seasonal romp, Nutcracker Rouge.

BEIJING DANCE THEATER: WILD GRASS

Beijing Dance Theater returns to BAM with poetry-inspired WILD GRASS (photo by Li Huimin)

NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St. between Ashland & Rockwell Pl.
October 15-18, $20-$40, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.beijingdancetheater.org

Three years ago, China’s Beijing Dance Theater made its U.S. debut with the three-part Haze, an emotional, abstract examination of environmental and economic crises that was part of BAM’s 2011 Next Wave Festival. Founded in 2008 by choreographer Wang Yuanyuan, visual artist Tan Shaoyuan, and lighting and set designer Han Jiang, BDT is back in Brooklyn for the 2014 Next Wave Festival this week with another three-part presentation, Wild Grass. In choreographing the work, which combines tradition with modernity, Wang found inspiration in Lu Xun’s seminal 1927 prose-poetry collection, Wild Grass, also known as Yecao and Weeds, which includes such poems as “The Shadow’s Leave-Taking,” “My Lost Love,” “Revenge,” “Hope,” “Snow,” “Tremors of Degradation,” and “The Awakening.” The three sections, “Dead Fire,” “Farewell, Shadows!” (aka “Farewell of the Shadow”), and “Dance of Extremity,” each of which will have a different kind of floor, delve into the nature of human spirit and perseverance. The first movement, in BDT’s own poetic description, “has burning form but no flickering. It stands frozen like corals, with black smoke curdled on its tips that makes you wonder whether it has just emerged from a house on fire — and that is why it looks burnt and dead.” That is followed by “Farewell, Shadows!,” in which “I linger between light and darkness; know not whether it is dusk or dawn. Let me raise my ashen grey hand and feign a toast; I shall journey far, far away, unbeknownst to all.” The evening concludes with “Dance of Extremity,” where “there remains only the vast wilderness; this dried couple, completely naked, sword in hand, stand in the middle. With dead men’s eyes they observe with gusto the withering passers-by in a great bloodless carnage. They are eternally plunged into life’s giddy, excruciating bliss.” Wild Grass runs October 15-18 at BAM’s Harvey Theater; on October 18, Wang will lead an afternoon class at the Mark Morris Dance Center for experienced and professional dancers ($25, 3:00).

Dancers glide across the stage in “Farewell, Shadows,” second section of WILD GRASS (photo by Jan Jiang)

Dancers glide across the smooth stage in “Farewell, Shadows,” second section of WILD GRASS (photo by Jan Jiang)

Update: As with Beijing Dance Theater’s 2011 U.S. debut at BAM, Haze, the company’s 2014 Next Wave Festival presentation, Wild Grass, is very much about surface. However, while the three sections take place on three different floor surfaces, artistic director, choreographer, and cofounder Wang Yuanyuan and the dancers never quite get below the surface in the work, which was inspired by the prose poetry of writer and activist Lu Xun. The fourteen dancers are individually technically proficient, but they never really catch fire as a unit, although Wu Shanshan stands out when she invigorates the second part with passion and humor otherwise missing from the evening. At several points, it’s possible to see how the dancers prepare their bodies for what is going to happen next, like a baseball hurler telegraphing his pitches. The first movement, “Dead Fire,” set to a minimalist piano score composed by Su Cong and played by He Peixun, takes place on a standard black dance floor that is continually littered with paper confetti that evokes snow, with the moon and white-capped mountains on the backdrop; “Farewell, Shadows” features electronic music by Biosphere and Kangding Ray and a slippery white floor across which the women glide, towed by male dancers; and “Dance of Extremity” has music composed by Wang Peng, with Yahg Rui on violin and Wang Zhilin on cello, as the dancers trudge through a straw-covered field that rises slightly in one corner, where a man stands next to a hanging rope. To paraphrase what we said in our review of Haze, there’s a lot to admire about Wild Grass, but Wang never quite achieves the narrative flow she aspires to.