this week in dance

FIRST SATURDAYS: ¡VIVA BROOKLYN!

Caecilia Tripp’s “Music for (prepared) Bicycles” rides into Brooklyn Museum in multiple forms for First Saturdays program

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, October 4, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

After taking September off for the annual Labor Day weekend West Indian American Day Carnival celebration, the Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday program in October will have a decidedly Latin feel. ¡Viva Brooklyn! will feature live music by Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra and youth orchestra Fat Afro Latin Jazz Cats, La Mecánica Popular, and Los Rakas; the dance performance Bailes de Ida y Vuelta by Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana; rumba and salsa lessons with Global Rhythms; an art workshop inspired by Mayan textile design; pop-up gallery talks in English and Spanish highlighting works by Latino artists; a screening of William Caballero’s How You Doin’ Boy? Voicemails from Gran’pa, followed by a talk about Puerto Rican American cultural influences; a screening of Caecilia Tripp’s Music for (prepared) Bicycles (after John Cage & Marcel Duchamp) Score Two, along with the participatory project Music for (prepared) Bicycles, in which Tripp and visitors will create a drawing of a musical score from a sonic bicycle; an interactive mural by Don Rmix in collaboration with Brooklyn Street Art; and “Pimp My Piragua,” in which Crossing Brooklyn artist Miguel Luciano will serve shaved ice from his custom-made tricycle. In addition, you can check out such exhibitions as “Revolution! Works from the Black Arts Movement,” “Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe,” and “Chicago in L.A.: Judy Chicago’s Early Works, 1963–74.”

ATLANTIC ANTIC 2014

Atlantic Ave. between Hicks St. & Fourth Ave.
Sunday, September 28, free, 12 noon – 6:00 pm
www.atlanticave.org

Brooklyn’s most popular street fair, Atlantic Antic, turns forty this year, and it’s doing it in style with an extensive lineup of special guests and live performances, along with games, family-friendly activities, art exhibitions, book readings, dozens of vendors, and plenty of politicos. There will be live music from the Windsor Terrors, Junior Rivera and Charanga Soleil, the Black Coffee Blues Band with Popa Chubby, the Dysfunctional Family Jazz Band, Dead Leaf Echo, Le Sans Culottes, and headliner Brown Rice Family World Roots Band, a welcome-ceremony dance by the Brooklyn Ballet, and the presentation of the Ambassador Award to Assembly Member Joan L. Millman. And for the twenty-first year, the New York Transit Museum is hosting the Bus Festival on Boerum Pl. between State St. & Atlantic Ave., featuring vintage buses (Betsy, Bus 2969, Bus 3100, Tunnel Wrecker), workshops, free tours, and other fun things, with admission to the museum only one dollar.

WORKS & PROCESS AT 30

WORKS & PROCESS AT 30: ARTISTS AT WORK, ARTISTS IN PROCESS
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
Monday – Saturday through October 25, free
Thursday, September 25, “Three Choreographers Celebrate,” free with advance RSVP, 6:00
917-275-6975
www.nypl.org

WORKS & PROCESS
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Peter B. Lewis Theater
1071 Fifth Ave. at 89th St.
October 5 – December 15, $30-$35
212-423-3500
www.guggenheim.org

For three decades, the Guggenheim has been presenting illuminating performances and discussions in its groundbreaking program Works & Process, in which emerging and established dancers, musicians, composers, and choreographers share their creative inspiration with glimpses at upcoming productions. The New York Public Library is honoring the series with “Works & Process at 30: Artists at Work, Artists in Process,” a collection of photographs, costumes, and printed ephemera from past events featuring some of the greatest directors, choreographers, and performers of the last thirty years. On September 25, the library will host “Three Choreographers Celebrate” in the Bruno Walter Auditorium (free with advance RSVP), bringing together a trio of W&P veterans, Karole Armitage, Larry Keigwin, and Pam Tanowitz, to talk about the importance of the program with Dance Theatre of Harlem artistic director Virginia Johnson; the event will also include footage from the library’s archives of nearly five hundred W&P performances. Meanwhile, tickets are now on sale and going fast for the fall 2014 W&P season, which continues October 5 with “The Kennedy Center: Little Dancer with Susan Stroman” (with Stroman, Boyd Gaines, Rebecca Luker, Tiler Peck, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty) and also includes Brian Brooks Moving Company on October 19-20, “Harlem Stage: Makandal” on October 27 (with Carl Hancock Rux, Yosvany Terry, Edouard Duval-Carrié, and Lars Jan), “In Process with Pam Tanowitz and David Lang” on November 2, and “Jerome Robbins: Fancy Free to On the Town” on November 9-10 (with Robert LaFosse, John Rando, Joshua Bergasse, Phyllis Newman, and Jamie Bernstein, moderated by Amanda Vaill).

MEET THE AFRICA CENTER

Emeka Ogboh’s “Lagos State of Mind II” is part of Africa Center celebration on Saturday (photo by Steven John Irby aka stevesweatpants, © Emeka Ogboh)

The Africa Center: Africa’s Embassy to the World
Saturday, September 20, free, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
1280 Fifth Ave. between 109th & 110th Sts.
www.theafricacenter.org

The former Museum of African Art has gone through a dramatic transformation that will be revealed to the public on September 20 at a free festival celebrating the renamed Africa Center, also known as Africa’s Embassy to the World. As part of “its mission to become the world’s leading civic African institution . . . [the center] aims to transform the international understanding of Africa and promote direct engagement between African artists, business leaders, and civil society and their counterparts from the United States and beyond.” The museum will open permanently in late 2015, but on Saturday visitors can get a taste of what’s to come with the immersive sound-art installation “Lagos State of Mind II” by Emeka Ogboh involving a Danfo bus; the unveiling of Meschac Gaba’s hanging sculpture, “Citoyen du Monde,” in the atrium; live performances by the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, Chop and Quench, Mamadou Dahoue & the Ancestral Messengers Dance Company, Nkumu Isaac Katalay, and DJs Rich Medina, Underdog, and Birane; screenings of The Power of Protest Music; arts and crafts workshops; traditional storytelling; grill tastings from chef Alexander Smalls of the Harlem brasserie the Cecil; and other cultural activities. The revelry will conclude with a private-event Festival-in-Exile concert that focuses on the musical connections between America and Africa, particularly Mali, with performances by Amanar, Amkoullel, Rocky Dawuni, Salif Keïta, and Samba Touré and Vieux Farka Touré.

TICKET ALERT: FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL 2014

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theaters MINUS 16 is a highlight of annual Fall for Dance Festival at City Center (photo by Paul Kolnik)

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s performance of Ohad Naharin’s MINUS 16 is a highlight of annual Fall for Dance Festival at City Center (photo by Paul Kolnik)

City Center
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 14, 11:00 am
Festival runs October 8-19
212-581-1212
www.nycitycenter.org

And, they’re off! Tomorrow morning (September 14) at 11:00, tickets go on sale for the always hotly anticipated Fall for Dance Festival at City Center. The eleventh annual event consists of five programs performed twice each over the course of twelve days, featuring an international collection of established and emerging companies and choreographers; among the highlights are world premieres from Mark Morris, Tim Harbour, and Pontus Lidberg, U.S. premieres by Russell Maliphant, William Forsythe, Fei Bo, and Aakash Odedra, and Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s always welcome Minus 16 by Ohad Naharin. (We’re rather partial to it because we were one of the lucky members of the audience who were pulled onstage a few years ago at City Center to participate in the dance.) With tickets a mere fifteen bucks, the festival sells out extremely quickly, so don’t waste any time and set those alarm clocks. Good luck!

Wednesday, October 8, and Thursday, October 9, 8:00
Black Grace: Minoi and Pati Pati, choreographed by Neil Ieremia
San Francisco Ballet: Variations for Two Couples, choreographed by Hans van Manen
Russell Maliphant/Sadler’s Wells London: Two x Two, choreographed by Russell Maliphant
Mark Morris Dance Group and Music Ensemble: Words, choreographed by Mark Morris

Friday, October 10, and Saturday, October 11, 8:00
Lucinda Childs Dance Company: Concerto, choreographed by Lucinda Childs
Semperoper Ballett Dresden: Neue Suite, choreographed by William Forsythe
Company Sébastien Ramirez & Honji Wang: AP15, choreographed by Sébastien Ramirez and Honji Wang
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater: Minus 16, choreographed by Ohad Naharin

Tuesday, October 14, and Wednesday, October 15, 8:00
Vuyani Dance Theatre: Umnikelo, choreographed by Luyanda Sidiya
Sara Mearns & Company: Stairway to Paradise, choreographed by Joshua Bergasse
Trisha Brown Dance Company: Son of Gone Fishin’, choreographed by Trisha Brown
National Ballet of China: The Peony Pavilion, choreographed by Fei Bo

Thursday, October 16, and Friday, October 17, 8:00
Brian Brooks Moving Company with Juilliard Dance: Torrent, choreographed by Brian Brooks
The Australian Ballet: Ostinato, choreographed by Tim Harbour
BJM — Les Ballets Jazz de Montréal: Closer, choreographed by Benjamin Millepied
Rennie Harris Puremovement: Students of the Asphalt Jungle, choreographed by Dr. Rennie Harris

Saturday, October 18, 8:00, and Sunday, October 19, 2:00
Wayne McGregor | Random Dance: Far, choreographed by Wayne McGregor in collaboration with the dancers
Pontus Lidberg Dance: New Lidberg, choreographed by Pontus Lidberg
Aakash Odedra Company: Nritta, choreographed by Aakash Odedra
The Sarasota Ballet: Les Patineurs, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton

BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB VS. GRAVITY

Documentary reveals how Elizabeth Streb and her Extreme Action Company (including Jackie Carlson, seen here) take dance to a whole new level

BORN TO FLY: ELIZABETH STREB vs. GRAVITY (Catherine Gund, 2014)
Film Forum
209 West Houston St.
September 10-23 (extended)
212-727-8110
www.filmforum.org
www.borntoflymovie.com

Over the last several years, New Yorkers have gotten the chance to see Elizabeth Streb’s Extreme Action Company perform such dazzling works as Ascension at Gansevoort Plaza, Kiss the Air! at the Park Avenue Armory, and Human Fountain at World Financial Center Plaza as her team of gymnast-dancer-acrobats risk their physical well-being in daring feats of strength, stamina, durability, and grace. In addition, Streb herself walked down the outside wall of the Whitney as part of a tribute to one of her mentors, Trisha Brown. Now Catherine Gund takes viewers behind the scenes in the exhilarating documentary Born to Fly: Elizabeth Streb vs. Gravity, going deep into the mind of the endlessly inventive and adventurous extreme action architect and the courage and fearlessness of her company. Gund follows Streb as she discusses her childhood, her dance studies, the formation of STREB in 1985, and her carefully thought out views on space, line, and movement as her work stretches the limits of what the human body can do. “I think my original belief and desire is to see a human being fly,” Streb says near the beginning of the film, which includes archival footage of early performances, family photos, and a warm scene in which the Rochester-born Streb and her partner, Laura Flanders, host a dinner party in their apartment, cooking for Bill T. Jones, Bjorn Amelan, Anne Bogart, Catharine Stimpson, and A. M. Homes.

Elizabeth Streb and her partner, Laura Flanders, prepare for a dinner party in new documentary

Gund also speaks with current and past members of the talented, ever-enthusiastic company — associate artistic director Fabio Tavares, Sarah Callan, Jackie Carlson, Leonardo Giron, Felix Hess, Samantha Jakus, Cassandre Joseph, John Kasten, and Daniel Rysak — who talk about their dedication to Streb’s vision while using such words as “challenge,” “velocity,” “endurance,” “magic,” “invincibility,” and “risk” to describe what they do and how they feel about it. Gund focuses on the latter, as virtually every one of Streb’s pieces is fraught with the possibility of serious injury, as evidenced by their titles alone: Fly, Impact, Rebound, Breakthru, and Ricochet, not to mention the use of such materials as spinning I-beams, plastic barricades, dangling harnesses, and a rotating metal ladder. “I have to be able to ask someone to do that and be okay about it. Those aren’t easy requests,” Streb explains. “Knowing where you are is how you survive the work,” adds former STREB dancer Hope Clark. Gund goes with Streb to her doctor, where the choreographer describes what happened to her gnarled feet, and also meets with former dancer DeeAnn Nelson Burton, who had to retire after breaking her back. The film concludes with an inside look at STREB’s spectacular “One Extraordinary Day,” a series of hair-raising site-specific events staged for the 2012 London Olympics at such locations as the Millennium Bridge, the London Eye, and the sphere-shaped city hall, photographed by documentary legend Albert Maysles. In her Kickstarter campaign, Gund (Motherland Afghanistan, A Touch of Greatness) said, “Action architect Elizabeth Streb has reinvented the language of movement. [Born to Fly] will rewrite the language of documentary.” That’s a bold declaration, but the film does have a lot of the same spirit that Streb displays in her awe-inspiring work. Born to Fly opens September 10 at Film Forum, with Gund, Streb, and company members participating in Q&As following select shows September 12-16.

RACHEL FEINSTEIN’S “THE LAST DAYS OF FOLLY” PERFORMANCE FESTIVAL

“Rococo Hut” is one of three sculptural pieces that make up Rachel Feinstein’s “Folly” in Madison Square Park (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

FOLLY
Madison Square Park
23rd to 25th Sts. between Madison Ave. & Broadway
Wednesday, September 3, free, 5:30 – 8:30
Exhibition continues through September 7
www.madisonsquarepark.org
folly slideshow

At first look, Rachel Feinstein’s site-specific “Folly” installation in Madison Square Park appears to be a trio of fragile ornamental structures, seemingly crudely made out of paper (they began life as handmade paper models), that could serve as backdrops for a high school play. Echoing fairy-tale-like nonfunctional garden decoration from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe as well as Nymphenburg porcelain, the three pieces — “Cliff House,” inspired by Ballets Russes sets; “Rococo Hut,” influenced by Marie Antoinette’s château Le Petit Triannon; and “The Flying Ship,” based on a Commedia dell’arte skit about Punchinello — are actually constructed from powder-coated aluminum. The works, which also give nods to Federico Fellini, Marlene Dietrich’s portrayal of Catherine the Great in The Scarlet Empress, and Giovanni Battista Piranesi’s real and imagined landscapes, might look like they could collapse at any moment — “Rococo Hut” features crooked steps, “The Flying Ship” uses a tree for balance, and “Cliff House” looks supremely unsafe — but they are sturdy enough to be home to a wide-ranging collection of performances on September 3. “The Madison Park Conservancy has given me the opportunity to marry my early interest in theater and performance with my later obsession with the handmade in one of the most spectacular settings. I picture ‘Folly’ as an empty Fellini-esque set dropped into the middle of a lush green wonderland in the historical Flatiron district of New York City,” the New York City-based Feinstein (“The Snow Queen”), who was born in Defiance, Arizona, and raised in Miami, said in a statement. “I have always been driven by the stark contrast between good and evil in old fairy tales. Having this setting, a hidden natural jewel situated within the tall skyscrapers of yesterday and today, will be the perfect backdrop for my theater, where the real people who occupy the park every day will stand in as Commedia dell’arte performers.”

Rachel Feinstein’s “Folly” will be home to a wide-ranging performance festival on September 3 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

On Wednesday, “The Last Days of Folly” will consist of My Barbarian performing its “Broke Baroque Suite”; a procession through the park led by artists Allison Brainard and Cara Chan; musical segues by Jarvis Cocker based on Maurice Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé for the Ballets Russes; Sofia Coppola directing six Joffrey Ballet School ballerinas dancing to Isao Tomita’s version of one of Claude Debussy’s Arabesques; a sound-and-movement piece from multidisciplinary artist Tamar Ettun; Little Did Productions’ magic lantern interpretation of parts of the Ramayana with Luke Santy on sitar and Jessica Lorence on vocals; an improvised dance by Lil Buck set to music by Paul Cantelon and cellist Wolfram Koessel; Kalup Linzy’s “Romantic Loner” and “One Life to Heal,” with live music by Mike Jackson; Molly Lowe’s nude costume incorporating numerous performers; a music set by Angela McCluskey and Cantelon, joined by Lil Buck and others; a puppet show from Shana Moulton; a new video work by Tony Oursler collaborating with Constance DeJong; a sound installation by Carlos Vela-Prado; and “Folly”-inspired fashion from Giles Deacon, Duro Olowu, Zac Posen, Narciso Rodriguez, Cynthia Rowley, Proenza Schouler, and Madeline Weinrib. We have no idea how this is all going to be squeezed into a mere three hours, but we can’t wait to find out.