this week in dance

COMING TOGETHER / ATTICA

Rebecca Lazier adapts Frederic Rzewski’s Attica-related compositions into an immersive, site-specific work at Invisible Dog

The Invisible Dog
51 Bergen St. between Smith & Court Sts.
June 13-15, $20
www.theinvisibledog.org
www.rebeccalazier.com

In 1971, pianist Frederic Rzewski composed a pair of minimalist works inspired by the Attica prison riots in upstate New York, which left more than three dozen people dead and forever changed the public’s view of the treatment of prisoners. Nova Scotia native Rebecca Lazier has used the two pieces — “Coming Together,” which features the slowly repeated sentence “Attica is in front of me,” spoken by a survivor of the riots who had been asked “How does it feel to have Attica behind you?,” and “Attica,” with words taken from a letter written by inmate Sam Melville, who died during the uprising — to create the site-specific Coming Together / Attica, running at the Invisible Dog in Brooklyn June 13-15. The U.S. premiere will be performed by Rashaun Mitchell, Silas Riener, Asli Bulbul, Jennifer Lafferty, Pierre Guilbault, and Christopher Ralph, with Mellissa Hughes as vocal soloist and live music by Newspeak, conducted by David T. Little for eight instruments. The fifty-minute show takes place on the third floor of the art space, set across four thousand square feet, with lighting design by Davison Scandrett and prison-related costumes by Mary-Jo Mecca. Lazier’s piece is divided into three sections: “Coming Together,” “The Quiet,” and “Attica,” combining music, movement, and text to explore isolation, oppression, memory, and adversity in an immersive presentation that, at one point, switches the relationship between audience and performer, playing with the idea of who is being held captive by whom.

EGG ROLLS & EGG CREAMS FESTIVAL 2013

Annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams fest flies into the Lower East Side on June 9 (photo by Kate Milford)

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge St. between Canal & Division Sts.
Sunday, June 9, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
Admission: free
212-219-0302
www.eldridgestreet.org

The thirteenth annual Egg Rolls & Egg Creams block party once again will bring together the Jewish and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side on June 9 for what is always a fun day of food and drink, live music and dance, history, culture, and lots more. Among the highlights of the festival are the kosher egg creams and egg rolls, yarmulke and challah workshops, tea ceremonies, a genealogy clinic, Yiddish and Chinese lessons, Hebrew and Chinese calligraphy classes, mah jongg, cantorial songs, Jewish paper cutting and Chinese paper folding, face painting, and free tours (in English and Chinese) of the wonderfully renovated Eldridge St. Synagogue, which boasts the East Window designed by Kiki Smith and Deborah Gans. In past years, the festival has included performances by the Chinatown Senior Center Folk Orchestra, Qi Shu Fang’s Peking Opera, the Shashmaqam Bukharan Jewish Cultural Group, Ray Muziker Klezmer Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman, some of whom will be back again for this year’s multicultural celebration.

AILEY AT LINCOLN CENTER

Ronald K. Brown leads rehearsal for FOUR CORNERS, which makes its world premiere next week as AADT returns to Lincoln Center (photo by Claudia Schrier)

Ronald K. Brown leads rehearsal for FOUR CORNERS, which makes its world premiere next week as Alvin Ailey returns to Lincoln Center for the first time since 2000 (photo by Claudia Schreier)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
June 12-16, $25 – $135
212-496-0600
www.alvinailey.org
www.davidhkochtheater.com

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater always puts a jolt into the holiday season, taking up residence at City Center every December. This month, as an added bonus, they’ll be performing at Lincoln Center for the first time in thirteen years. Led by artistic director Robert Battle, AADT will be at the David H. Koch Theater from June 6 to 12, presenting seven pieces over the course of seven performances. The highlight is the world premiere of Ronald K. Brown’s Four Corners, which was inspired by Carl Hancock Rux’s “Lamentations” and is set to music by Hancock Rux and others. The seven programs also feature Brown’s beautiful Grace as well as Garth Fagan’s From Before, Jiří Kylián’s inventive Petite Mort, Battle’s whirlwind solo work Takademe (performed by either Kirven James Boyd or Jamar Roberts), Ohad Naharin’s dazzling Minus 16, and the company’s signature Revelations. (For reviews of many of these works from the past two years, go here and here.) Battle has just added Ailey II’s Jeroboam Bozeman and Fana Tesfagiorgis and Battleworks veteran Elisa Clark to the troupe, while rehearsal director and guest artist Matthew Rushing will take the stage in both Brown pieces. Revelations, which closes six of the performances, will include either Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims or Alicia Graf Mack and Roberts teaming up for the “Fix Me” pas de deux, and the June 15 matinee will be followed by a Q&A with the dancers.

DANCE CONVERSATIONS 2013

Motley Dance’s DRILL PIECE examines the social and cultural aspects of gender and the military (photo by Victoria Masters)

The Flea Theater
41 White St. between Broadway & Church St.
June 4-14, Tuesday – Friday, free with advance RSVP, 7:00
212-352-3101
www.theflea.org

The Flea’s free annual Dance Conversations series returns June 4-13, giving dancers and choreographers the opportunity to present new pieces, excerpts, and works-in-progress, then discuss their creative process with the audience and special moderators. This year’s festival, curated by Nina Winthrop, gets under way on June 4 with Susan Thomasson & Elissaveta Iordanova (Who’s Going to Blink?), David Appel (more than a murmur), Amy Cova Dance (Spinal Streets and a Straw), and Motley Dance (Drill Piece), followed by a talk moderated by Molissa Fenley. On June 5, the lineup includes Daniela Hoff Dance Company (Mirror), Claire Porter/PORTABLES (Falling for Prepositions), and Naomi Goldberg Haas (The Dress), with moderator Rebecca Lazier. On June 6, there will be performances by Inclined Dance Project (Stuck Together Pieces), Barbara Mahler’s Dances (When She Stumbles), Ian Wen & Irina Kom (Houseguest de novo), and KATES (KATES: which is unusual), with moderator Joanna Kotze, while June 7 features GREYZONE (Waves), Tomomi Imai (Deep Blue), and Khaleah London/LAYERS (The Ultimatum), with moderator Kimberly Bartosik. The second week includes such companies and choreographers as binbinFactory/Satoshi Haga & Rie Fukuzawa, Krista Jansen, Jesse Phillips-Fein, Megan Sipe/Dancing Fish Productions, and Rosario, with moderators Gus Solomons jr, Jody Oberfelder, Pooh Kaye, and Winthrop. Dance Conversations is a great forum for dance enthusiasts to get sneak peeks at works from emerging and midcareer choreographers and go behind the scenes of their creations in intimate discussions.

CELEBRATE ISRAEL PARADE — PICTURE ISRAEL: THE ART AND THE CRAFT

Bad weather couldn’t dampen the spirit of the 2012 Celebrate Israel Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

57th to 74th St. up Fifth Ave.
Sunday, June 2, free, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
celebrateisraelny.org

On May 14, 1948, “The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel” proclaimed, “The State of Israel will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice, and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race, or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education, and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” It’s been more than a little bumpy along the way, but Israel will be celebrating its maturation into senior citizenship on Sunday, June 2, with festivities in honor of its sixty-fifth birthday. The day kicks off with an 8:00 morning run through Central Park, followed by the Celebrate Israel Parade; the theme this year is “Picture Israel: The Art & the Craft,” focusing on “Illustrate, Create, Paint, Frame It.” The grand marshals are Long Island philanthropists Marty and Melodie Scharf and Israel Consul General Ido Aharoni, while special guests include Dr. Ruth Westheimer, journalists Harry Martin, Robert Moses, and Becky Griffith, and the Israel National Soccer Team, who will be taking on Honduras at Citi Field at 4:00. Among the many performers at the parade will be SOULFARM, the Brooklyn Jumbies, the Areyvut Mitzvah Clowns, Gilad Segev, the Barynya Entertainment Dancers, Amir Gwirtzman, the Rafi Malkiel Ensemble, Mama Doni, the BaRock Orchestra, Eyal Rob, and the Hebrew Wizards Band.

HOWL! FESTIVAL 2013

Tompkins Square Park
Ave. A to Ave. B between Seventh & Tenth Sts.
May 31 – June 2, free
www.howlfestival.com

“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” begins Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, which serves as the centerpiece for the somewhat annual Howl! Festival in and around Tompkins Square Park this weekend. The madness kicks off Friday at 4:30 with the Great Howl!, with Tyler Burba performing songs by Ginsberg, Bob Holman orchestrating a lineup of poets, and a group reading of Ginsberg’s masterpiece; among the participants are Hettie Jones, David Henderson, Jennifer Blowdryer, Lydia Lunch, Bob Rosenthal, Eliot Katz, Edwin Torres, and Nancy Mercado. On Saturday afternoon, there will be live performances on the Great Howl! Stage by Miami Rice, Anna Copacabana, Tall Pines, Ward White, Faith . . . , Richard Lloyd, and Vangeline Theater’s Mosaic. Meanwhile, the Beatification Stage will be holding a marathon poetry reading celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Poetry Project at St. Mark’s Church-in-the-Bowery, hosted by Todd Colby and including Jenny Zhang, Maggie Estep, Jennifer L. Knox, Mike Doughty, Carl Hancock Rux, CA Conrad, Bo DePena, Jason Nazary, and others. There will also be a children’s carnival, live painting on canvases surrounding the park, Riki Colon’s Men in Skirts presenting And I Still Rise, and the Allen Ginsberg Magnetic Field, consisting of installations, demonstrations, interactive projects, community nonprofit organizations, and more. On Sunday, Great Howl! Stage performers include Karen Marie, Bear 54, Diane Gentile, Andy Shernoff, Jack Skuller, and the Liza Colby Sound; dance will take over the Beatification Stage (along with Marguerite Van Cook’s Rockland series); and the Great Ladies of the Lower East Side will be honored in Low Life 7: Bowery Bombshells, paying tribute to Emma Goldman, Cookie Mueller, Mae West, Slugger Ann, Ellen Stewart, Patti Smith, and others.

THE RED HOOK FEST — REBUILD, RESTORE, REBIRTH: RESILIENCE AFTER SANDY

Brooklyn’s Gangstagrass is one of the featured performers at the twentieth annual Red Hook Fest

PS 15 (71 Sullivan St.) and Louis J. Valentino Park and Pier
May 30 – June 1, free
www.dancetheatreetcetera.org

Red Hook continues its recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy with the twentieth annual Red Hook Fest, whose theme this year is “Rebuild, Restore, Rebirth: Resilience after Sandy.” The festival gets under way Thursday night at 6:00 with the Youth Kick-Off at PS 15 at 71 Sullivan St., featuring live performances from young Brooklyn artists. On Friday night at 6:00, PS 15 will host a BBQ/Dance Party. On Saturday morning, the Red Hook Rebirth Parade begins at Coffey Park at 10:00, with local businesses, individuals, school groups, art organizations, and others making their way to Valentino Park and Pier, where mainstage performances run from 12 noon to 7:00, including Brown Rice Family, Gangstagrass, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, Avenida B, Nicholas Leichter Dance, and the Hungry March Band, in addition to Danced Invocations for Red Hook Recovery with Rita Silva, Vongku Pak, and Kaina Quenga. There will also be free kayak rides in New York Harbor, sponsored by Red Hook Boaters.