this week in dance

ANIKAYA DANCE THEATER: LILITH

Triskelion Arts, Aldous Theater
118 North Eleventh St., third floor
Friday, November 1, 8:00, and Saturday, November 2, 5:30 & 8:00, $15
800-838-3006
www.triskelionarts.org
www.wendyjehlen.wix.com

Massachusetts-based dancer and choreographer Wendy Jehlen, the artistic director of ANIKAI Dance Theater, has created two versions of her 2013 work, Lilith, one for a group performing outside, the other a solo for indoors. On November 1-2, Jehlen will perform the solo Lilith at Triskelion Arts in Brooklyn before she heads overseas to present the piece in India. Inspired by Kiki Smith’s 1994 “Lilith” sculpture and incorporating poetry by Keith Tornheim and from the Gilgamesh epic, Jehlen tells the story of Adam’s first wife, beginning with the creation of the world and following her development as she becomes a strong, independent woman who continues to be a symbol in the modern era, as evidenced by the Lilith Fair of the late 1990s.

WAVE RISING SERIES

John Ryan Theatre
25 Jay St.
Wednesday – Sunday, October 23 – November 10
Wednesday night preview tickets $25-$30, Thursday – Sunday $20-$25
www.whitewavedance.com

The eighth annual Wave Rising Series begins October 23 at the John Ryan Theatre in DUMBO, kicking off three weeks of performances from established and emerging dance companies. Program A for week one consists of Carson Efird Westerlund’s Wedding/Funeral and I am come for you, Dance Theater Chang’s Headache, and Antonio Brown’s The Line, while Program B includes Anne Bluethenthal’s Forgiveness Project: Part One, Becca Alaly + Dancers’ You’re a Citizen of Me, Sandra Kramerova and Artists’ QUATRO, and Khaleah London / LAYERS’ The Ultimatum. Week two’s Program C features Amy Marshall Dance Company’s DJIVA and an excerpt from Two Duets and a Quartet, Azul Dance Theatre / Yuki Hasegawa’s Elements (see video above), 277DanceProject’s Flight, and excerpts from series host WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company’s Eternal NOW, with Program D comprising Boomerang’s Gut Check, Billy Bell / Lunge Dance Collective’s Unit of Riot, Maria Gillespie / Oni Dance’s Vanished Earth and Forge Forage, and Jacobs Campbell Dance’s Incubator. Week three’s Program E brings David Norsworthy’s before the and Springtime for Tolerance, Jasmyn Fyffe’s Pulse, and Sally Silvers & Li Chiao-Ping Dance’s L’Altra Notte and Riot of Spring, with Program F composed of the Ume Group’s Facet, Karen Harvey’s Connect, and Yoshito Sakuraba / Abarukas Contemporary Dance Company’s Lullaby to Mr. Adam.

QUEER NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

Sineglossa’s REMEMBER ME is part of second Queer New York International Arts Festival

Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
October 23 – November 3, free – $18 (many shows $10 suggested donation)
212-598-0400
www.queerny.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

In a 2012 Huffington Post blog about the first Queer New York International Arts Festival, artistic codirector André von Ah wrote, “Queerness, in perhaps its barest and most basic concept, is about breaking the rules, shaking things up, and challenging preconceived ideas.” The second QNYIA continues to shake things up with twelve days and nights of performances, panel discussions, film screenings, workshops, and other events at such venues as Abrons Arts Center, the Invisible Dog, La MaMa, Joe’s Pub, and New York Live Arts, but sadly, it will be proceeding without von Ah, who curated this year’s programming with artistic director Zvonimir Dobrović but sadly passed away suddenly last month, still only in his mid-twenties. This year’s festival, which is dedicated to von Ah, opens October 23 with the U.S. premiere of Ivo Dimchev’s P-Project at Abrons Arts Center, the Bulgarian artist’s interactive piece that uses words that begin with the letter P to investigate societal taboos. Italy’s Sineglossa uses mirrored screens in Remember Me, based on Henry Purcell’s opera about Dido and Aeneas. Audience favorite Raimund Hoghe pays special tribute to von Ah with An Evening with Judy, in which he channels Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and others. Poland’s SUKA OFF investigates skin shedding in its multimedia Red Dragon. Brazil’s Ângelo Madureira plays “the dreamer” in his contemporary dance piece Delírio. Croatia’s Room 100 presents the U.S. premiere of its dark, experimental C8H11NO2. Dan Fishback offers a concert reading of The Material World at Joe’s Pub, the sequel to You Will Experience Silence; Fishback will also participate in the October 26 panel discussion “Creating Queer / Curating Queer” at the New School with Carla Peterson, Tere O’Connor, TL Cowan, Susana Cook, and Dobrović. The Club at La MaMa will host the New Music Series, featuring M Lamar, Shane Shane, Enid Ellen, Nath Ann Carrera, and Max Steele. The festival also includes works by Bojana Radulović, Elisa Jocson, Guillermo Riveros, Daniel Duford, Bruno Isaković, Gabriela Mureb, Heather Litteer, CHOKRA, Antonia Baehr, and Antoni Karwowski, with most shows requiring advance RSVPs and requesting a $10 suggested donation.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET: CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS

Eight dancers explore the Salem Witch Trials in Angelin Preljocaj’s SPECTRAL EVIDENCE (photo by Paul Kolnik)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
Tuesday, October 8, 7:30, Thursday, October 10, 7:30, and Saturday, October 12, 2:00, $29-$159,
212-496-0600
www.nycballet.com

The fall edition of the New York City Ballet’s Contemporary Choreographers makes for a splendid evening at the David H. Koch Theater, featuring a trio of works from three immensely talented artists. The program begins with a slightly revised version of forty-year-old English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s 1998 American School of Ballet piece Soirée Musicale, set to Samuel Barber’s “Souvenirs Ballet Suite, Op. 28” from 1955. Wheeldon, a former NYCB principal who left his company, Morphoses, in 2010 and was named artistic associate of the Royal Ballet in 2012, has fun with ballet tropes and sexual innuendo in Soirée Musicale, the men in tuxedoes, the women in long tutus, proceeding through a waltz, a schottische, a tango, a two-step, and a lovely pas de deux (Lauren Lovette and Zachary Catazaro) before bringing all together for the grand finale. Next, fifty-six-year-old French filmmaker and choreographer Angelin Preljocaj presents the world premiere of the dazzling Spectral Evidence, set to half a dozen previously recorded John Cage works, some with vocals. Preljocaj, who formed Ballet Preljocaj in December 1984 and created La Stravaganza for NYCB in 1997, uses the Salem Witch Trials as inspiration for Spectral Evidence, with four male dancers (Robert Fairchild, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Amar Ramasar, and Taylor Stanley), in priestly black outfits with white collars, and four women dancers (Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Gretchen Smith), in long off-white dresses with sinful patches of red. The set makes fascinating use of white wedges that transform into various other objects, including angled slides and a coffin. Spectral Evidence is a mesmerizing piece that could have gone on all night.

Robert Fairchild searches for his true love in Alexei Ratmansky’s NAMOUNA, A GRAND DIVERTISSEMENT (photo by Paul Kolnik)

The program concludes with forty-five-year-old Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s 2010 Namouna, A Grand Divertissement, set to nineteenth-century composer Édouard Lalo’s “Namouna.” Ratmansky, the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet and the first artist in residence at American Ballet Theatre, takes on classical ballet clichés in the piece, which features seven primary dancers (Sterling Hyltin, Tyler Angle, Jenifer Ringer, Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, Daniel Ulbricht, and Abi Stafford) and another two dozen troupe members smoking cigarettes, acting out scenes reminiscent of silent film, and picking on one poor sailor who is trying to find his love. The costumes, by Marc Happel and Rustam Khamdamov, range from long-flowing yellow gowns and wigs that evoke both Cleopatra and Louise Brooks to bronze outfits and tight-fitting hats that recall Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to colorful body-hugging tops and short skirts accompanied by swim caps. The piece does get repetitive and goes on a bit too long, but it’s still vastly entertaining. This Contemporary Choreographers program, which repeats on October 8, 10, and 12, should appeal to both adventurous ballet regulars as well as those predisposed to more modern dance.

FIRST SATURDAYS: ¡VIVA BROOKLYN!

José Campeche, “Doña María de los Dolores Gutiérrez del Mazo y Pérez,” oil on canvas, circa 1796

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, March 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

After taking September off for the annual West Indian festivities over Labor Day Weekend, the Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturdays program returns October 5 with ¡Viva Brooklyn!, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. The evening will feature live performances by trombonist Chris Washburne and SYOTOS, Sofía Rei, and Cumbiagra; Richard Aste will give a curator talk on “Behind Closed Doors: Art in the Spanish American Home, 1492–1898”; there will be a screening of Icíar Bollaín’s 2010 film, También La Lluvia, which deals with Christopher Columbus and the local water supply; an art workshop will teach attendees how to make a home medallion using metal tooling; Marymount Manhattan College’s Blanca E. Vega will lead a talk and audience Q&A with writers about contemporary Latino literature; scenes from the moving play La Ruta, which deals with illegal immigration, will be read, followed by a discussion; the Calpulli Mexican Dance Company will host a participatory workshop; pop-up gallery talks will explore “American Identities: A New Look”; El Puente will present a social justice forum with community activists; and Las Comadres Para Las Americas founder and CEO Nora de Hoyos Comstock and a panel of writers will discuss Count on Me: Tales of Sisterhoods and Fierce Friendships. In addition, the galleries will be open late, giving visitors plenty of opportunity to check out “Valerie Hegarty: Alternative Histories,” “Käthe Kollwitz: Prints from the ‘War’ and ‘Death’ Portfolios,” “Divine Felines: Cats of Ancient Egypt,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Connecting Cultures: A World in Brooklyn,” and other exhibits.

RIOULT DANCE NY

CELESTIAL TIDES will be part of RIOULT Dance NY programs at the Queens Theatre and the Manhattan School of Music (photo by Sofia Negron)

Saturday, October 5, 2:00 & 8:00, Sunday, October 6, 3:00, Queens Theatre, 14 United Nations Ave. South in Flushing Meadows Corona Park, 718-760-0064, $25-$46
Wednesday, October 9, Manhattan School of Music, 120 Claremont Ave., 917-493-4428, $12, 7:30
www.rioult.org

“I have always loved Bach’s music, instinctively and without understanding where the magic came from,” New York-based French choreographer explained to us in a June 2011 twi-ny talk about the Joyce debut of his Bach Dances program. “I also want with my dances to show that Bach’s music, contrary to common belief, is unbelievably rich emotionally.” As part of its twentieth anniversary season, RIOULT Dance NY will be at the Queens Theatre in Flushing Meadows Corona Park on October 5-6, performing 2010’s City, set to Bach’s “Sonata for Violin and Piano #6 in G major,” 2011’s Celestial Tides (Bach’s “Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B-flat major”), 1995’s Wien (Maurice Ravel’s “La Valse”), and 2011’s On Distant Shores (with music by Aaron Jay Kernis). Artistic director and choreographer Rioult, along with his wife, associate artistic director Joyce Herring, will then take the company over to the Manhattan School of Music’s John C. Borden Auditorium on October 9 for the New York City premiere of the Bach Dances program with live music, as the twelve-person troupe will be accompanied by an MSM student orchestra; the evening includes Views of a Fleeting World, set to Bach’s “The Art of Fugue,” along with City and Celestial Tides. Tickets for the Queens Theatre shows range from $25 to $46, while it costs a mere $12 to see the one-night-only MSM performance.

NYFF51 — AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ

The tragic career of dancer Tanaquil Le Clercq is examined in new documentary

AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ (Nancy Buirski, 2013)
Film Society of Lincoln Center
Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Monday, September 30, 6:00 pm
Howard Gilman Theater, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Friday, October 11, 1:00
Francesca Beale Theater, 144 West 65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Sunday, October 13, 6:00
Festival runs September 27 – October 13
212-875-5601
www.filmlinc.com

“Tanny’s body created inspiration for choreographers,” one of the interviewees says in Nancy Buirski’s documentary Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq. “They could do things that they hadn’t seen before.” The American Masters presentation examines the life and career of prima ballerina Tanaquil Le Clercq, affectionately known as Tanny, who took the dance world by storm in the 1940s and ’50s before tragically being struck down by polio in 1956 at the age of twenty-seven. Le Clercq served as muse to both Jerome Robbins, who made Afternoon of a Faun for her, and George Balanchine, who created such seminal works as Western Symphony, La Valse, and Symphony in C for Le Clercq — and married Tanny in 1952. In the documentary, Buirski (The Loving Story) speaks with Arthur Mitchell and Jacques D’Amboise, who both danced with Le Clercq, her childhood friend Pat McBride Lousada, and Barbara Horgan, Balanchine’s longtime assistant, while also including an old interview with Robbins, who deeply loved Le Clercq as well. The film features spectacular, rarely seen archival footage of Le Clercq performing many of the New York City Ballet’s classic works, both onstage and even on The Red Skelton Show. The name Tanaquil relates to the word “omen” — in history, Tanaquil, the wife of the fifth king of Rome, was somewhat of a prophetess who believed in omens — and the film details several shocking omens surrounding her contracting polio. The film would benefit from sharing more information about Le Clercq’s life post-1957 — she died on New Year’s Eve in 2000 at the age of seventy-one — but Afternoon of a Faun is still a lovely, compassionate, and heartbreaking look at a one-of-a-kind performer. Afternoon of a Faun is screening at the New York Film Festival on September 30 at the Walter Reade Theater (followed by a Q&A with the director), on October 11 at the Howard Gilman Theater, and on October 13 at the Francesca Beale Theater.