this week in dance

AMERICAN REALNESS — MARIA HASSABI: SHOW

Maria Hassabi and Hristoula Harakas will take SHOW back indoors for “American Realness” festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Abrons Arts Center Playhouse
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
Thursday, January 10, 7:00; Friday, January 11, 7:00; Saturday, January 12, 4:30; Sunday, January 13, 7:00
Tickets: $20
212-598-0400
www.abronsartscenter.org
www.mariahassabi.com

In November 2011, Maria Hassabi presented SHOW at the Kitchen, where she and longtime collaborator Hristoula Harakas slowly weaved, wiggled, and wound their way across the floor amid the audience, which was allowed to go wherever they wanted, whether standing in the back or sitting right next to the performers. This past June, Hassabi and Harakas took the fab gathering outdoors on Broad St. as part of the free River to River Festival, where they interacted not only with an audience specifically there to see them but with passersby who had no idea what was going on. Intricately connected with its surroundings, SHOW can next be seen January 10-13 at Abrons Arts Center as part of the “American Realness” festival. Featuring sound design by Alex Waterman that incorporates freshly recorded noise and voices, including those of the audience itself, SHOW is an intimate experience in which Hassabi and Harakas do amazing things with their bodies, displaying remarkable elegance and strength as they move incredibly slowly, staring deep into each other’s eyes, crawling over their bodies, and holding their legs in the air in breathtaking positions. But SHOW breaks down the wall between audience and performer only so much as the crowd separates like a human Red Sea to let Hassabi and Harakas dance through. “American Realness” runs January 10-20 and also features works by Trajal Harrell, Faye Driscoll, Jack Ferver, Jeanine Durning, Tere O’Connor, Juliana May, and others.

AMERICAN REALNESS 2013: MON MA MES

Jack Ferver examines his life and his work in self-analytical MON MA MES at Abrons Arts Center and FIAF (photo by Yaniv Schulman)

Thursday, January 10, Le Skyroom, French Institute Alliance Française, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves., free with RSVP, 212-355-6160, 7:30
Friday, January 11, Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand St., $20, 5:30
Saturday, January 12, Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand St., $20, 3:00

In such engaging works as Rumble Ghost, Swann!, and Two Alike, dancer, writer, and choreographer Jack Ferver digs deep within himself while telling stories inspired by familiar pop-culture tales. He goes a few steps further with Mon Ma Mes, in which he explores the nature of fiction and reality in an extremely intimate and revealing performance about his life and work. Mon Ma Mes premiered at the French Institute Alliance Française’s 2012 Crossing the Line festival, and it is now being presented again at FIAF as well as the Abrons Arts Center January 10-12. In the sixty-minute piece, Ferver takes “questions” from not-necessarily-random people in the audience, pulls individuals out of the crowd to join him, and breaks out into painstaking movements as he relates deeply personal tales from his younger days. As with most of his works, Ferver infuses Mon Ma Mes with intentionally uncomfortable moments in which the audience is not quite sure whether to laugh or cry. An exquisitely talented dancer, Ferver, at times accompanied by Reid Bartelme, moves to Schubert and Chopin as well as a commissioned piece by electronic music artist Roarke Menzies, twirling, jumping, and doing push-ups in tight shorts while John Fireman films everything as part of a documentary he is making about him. Mon Ma Mes is another compelling, self-analytical evening-length work by one of New York’s most inventive performers.

(The performances are part of the annual American Realness series, held in conjunction with the APAP conference.
”American Realness” runs January 10-20 with such other events as Maria Hassabi’s Show, Trajal Harrell’s Antigone Sr. / Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church [L], Jeanine Durning’s inging, and Faye Driscoll’s You’re Me.)

FOCUS DANCE

John Jasperse’s FORT BLOSSOM REVISITED is a highlight of the second annual Focus Dance at the Joyce

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
January 8-13, $10-$39
212-242-0800
www.focusdance.us
www.joyce.org

The second annual Focus Dance at the Joyce, presented by the Gotham Arts Exchange, features an exciting, wide-ranging collection of old and new works celebrating American-based companies. Held in conjunction with the annual APAP conference, this year’s lineup includes four programs by eight choreographers, featuring numerous outstanding pieces that dance fans might have recently missed. Program A, taking place January 8 at 7:30 and January 13 at 2:00, includes Jodi Melnick’s 2012 Solo, Deluxe Version and excerpts from Stephen Petronio’s in-progress Like Lazarus Did (LLD), 2012’s The Architecture of Loss, and 2011’s Underland. Program B, on January 9 at 7:30 and January 13 at 7:30, brings together Camille A. Brown’s Mr. TOL E. RAncE, City of Rain, and Been There, Done That and Brian Brooks Moving Company’s I’m Going to Explode, Descent, and Fall Falls. On January 10 and 12 at 8:00, Program C will consist of Rosie Herrera Dance Theater’s Various Stages of Drowning: A Cabaret and Doug Varone and Dancers’ Able to Leap Tall Buildings and Lux. And Program D, on January 11 at 8:00 and January 12 at 2:00, combines Eiko & Koma’s 1976 classic White Dance and the world premiere of their Flower Dance and John Jasperse’s Fort Blossom revisited.

FIRST SATURDAYS: OUTSIDE THE FRAME

Mickalene Thomas will be at the Brooklyn Museum on Saturday night to discuss beauty, race, and gender with fellow artist Carrie Mae Weems and curator Eugene Tsai (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

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

The Brooklyn Museum’s free First Saturday program for January is highlighted by what should be a fascinating discussion, with artist Mickalene Thomas and one of her major influences, award-winning photographer and videographer Carrie Mae Weems, in conversation with curator Eugene Tsai; Thomas’s “Origin of the Universe” continues at the museum through January 20, while her smaller gallery shows in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side, “How to Organize a Room Around a Striking Piece of Art,” are on view through January 5. Also on the schedule that night are live music by Ljova and the Kontraband, Lez Zeppelin, Das Racist’s Himanshu “Heems” Suri, Prince Rama’s Taraka and Nimai Larson, who have formed the Now Age, and Company Stefanie Batten Bland, which will perform A Place of Sun, a dance piece inspired by the BP oil spill. In addition, Writers for the 99% will discuss their book, Occupying Wall Street: The Inside Story of an Action that Changed America, Catherine Morris will give a curator talk on the exhibition “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” an art workshop will teach participants to get creative with frames, and Art House Co-op, Trade School, and the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory will lead interactive educational activities. Also on view at the museum now are “GO: a community-curated open studio project,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” Yoko Ono’s “Wish Tree,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” as well as long-term installations and the permanent collection.

COIL 2013

Multiple venues
January 3-19, $20-$30 per performance, $75 passport for five shows, $122 for ten
www.ps122.org

Every January, Performance Space 122 uncoils its COIL festival, several weeks of cutting-edge experimental dance, theater, art, and music. The 2013 winter celebration runs January 3-19 at multiple venues in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens but not at PS122 itself, which is undergoing a major renovation. COIL actually got an early start last month with Kristen Kosmas’s There There at the Chocolate Factory (through January 12), in which a woman has to suddenly replace Christopher Walken in a one-person show with the help of her Russian translator. Radiohole presents the world premiere of Inflatable Frankenstein at the Kitchen January 5-19, offering an unusual look at Mary Shelley’s book and James Whale’s film. In fall 2011, Emily Johnson brought her dazzlingly original The Thank-You Bar to New York Live Arts; now she and her Catalyst company is bringing Niicugni to the Baryshnikov Arts Center, a work that explores time and place. Annie Dorsen and Anne Juren examine femininity through a magic show with nudity in Magical, making its U.S. premiere January 15-19 at New York Live Arts. The BodyCartography Project follows up its 2011 COIL presentation, Symptom, with Super Nature, an ecological dance at Abrons Arts Center with live music by Zeena Parkins and scenic installation by Emmett Ramstad that is also part of the fourth annual American Realness festival. Other performances include the return of Pavel Zuštiak / Palissimo’s Amidst and Brian Rogers’s Hot Box. From January 15 to 18, COIL will host SPAN, a free noon dialogue with some of the artists, and the annual Red + White Party takes place January 13 at SPiN NYC with Ping-Pong, the Vintage DJ, and the National Theater of the United States of America. COIL offers a great opportunity to experience exciting new directions in the multidisciplinary arts, and with most tickets no more than twenty dollars and running times less than seventy minutes, you can’t give much of an excuse not to check a few things out.

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER: ALL NEW 2012

Yannick Lebrun and Jacqueline Green perform in Alvin Ailey premiere of Jirí Kylián’s PETITE MORT (photo by Paul Kolnik)

New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Through December 30, $25-$135
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s all-new program on December 16 was one of the most exciting nights of dance of the year. The evening began with the company premiere of Czech choreographer Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort, commissioned for the 1991 Salzburg Festival honoring the two hundredth anniversary of the death of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Set to Mozart’s Piano Concerto in A Major – Adagio and Piano Concerto in C Major – Andante, the eighteen-minute piece starts off with six male dancers standing over fencing foils, which they soon pick up and slice through the air. Meanwhile, a half dozen women linger in the background, hovering behind black Baroque dresses that they soon push across the floor. It’s a wildly imaginative work that balances humor with seriousness as it conjures up thoughts of war and mutilation. (Petite Mort will also be performed December 23, 26, and 30 as part of Ailey’s annual month-long season at City Center.) After a pause, Renaldo Gardner and Michael Francis McBride took the stage for the company premiere of Ailey artistic director Robert Battle’s Strange Humors, a short, energetic duet, originally choreographed for Parsons Dance Company in 1998, in which the bare-chested dancers, in bright orange Missoni pants redesigned by Jon Taylor, deliriously shake, move, and groove to a score by John Mackey that mixes African percussion with Middle Eastern melodies. The title comes from a quote by Maya Angelou: “When I think of death, and of late the idea has come with alarming frequency, I seem at peace with the idea that a day will dawn when I will no longer be among those living in this valley of strange humors.” (Strange Humors is also scheduled for December 19, 22, 26, 27, 28, and 30.)

Ronald K. Brown’s rapturous GRACE is more dazzling than ever in new Ailey production (photo by Paul Kolnik)

After the first of two intermissions, AAADT presented the world premiere of hot choreographer Kyle Abraham’s Another Night, a sort-of sequel to the Ailey classic “Night Creature.” Set to Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers’ version of Dizzy Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” the sixteen-minute piece is led by Rachael McLaren, shimmering in a blue dress and gliding across the stage, joined by nine other dancers in bright clothing who are enjoying a night on the town, checking out one another’s moves, pairing off into duets (possible pick-ups?), and just generally having a great time. (The fun will be repeated December 19, 22, 27, and 30.) The evening concluded with a stunning new production of Ronald K. Brown’s Grace, which was commissioned for AAADT in 1999. The remarkable Linda Celeste Sims emerges from behind a scrim in the back, under white light, in a white dress, elegantly dancing to Jimmy McPhail singing Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday.” As the music shifts to Roy Davis Jr., Paul Johnson, and Fela Kuti, Sims is joined by four other women and six men (including guest artist and former Ailey star Matthew Rushing) in red or white costumes by Omatayo Wunmi Olaiya. Incorporating Brown’s trademark West African–influenced movement, the dancers reach for the sky, seeking enlightenment as sinners (in red) become angels (in white) and look toward heaven. Grace is an exhilarating, rapturous work, filled with an innate, infectious spirituality that resonates throughout the audience. (Grace continues December 19, 23, 26, and 30.)

DEVOURING DEVOURING

Netta Yerushalmy explores communication through movement and sound in debut evening-length piece (photo by Ayala Gazit)

NETTA YERUSHALMY: DEVOURING DEVOURING
La MaMa
Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East Fourth St., second floor, between Bowery & Second Ave.
Through December 16, 7:30, $20
212-475-7710
www.lamama.org
www.nettay.com

Netta Yerushalmy’s Devouring Devouring was developed over the course of two years, as the choreographer and four dancers interacted primarily via video conferencing between New York and Tel Aviv before coming together for the physical performance. That communication is at the heart of the involving sixty-minute work, Yerushalmy’s first evening-length piece. For the first half of the performance, Joanna Kotze, Toni Melaas, Ofir Yudilevitch, and Stuart Singer acknowledge one another but don’t ever touch. They run, jump, and angle across the black stage, emerging and departing from behind a tall, narrow orange curtain in one corner. Twelve icicle bulbs dangle over the back, while six chandelier-type fixtures hang horizontally over the center. Wearing loose-fitting light gray tops and tight dark gray pants — except for when Singer appears twice in a lovely white Baroque gown designed by costumer Magdalena Jarkowiec — the dancers gesture with their hands, make direct eye contact with the audience, and perform repetitive movements. But slowly they begin engaging in physical contact, first just brushing by one another, then lightly touching hands, before breaking off into trios that have fun with conventions, including a memorable moment in which one dancer’s foot shoots out unexpectedly from between two other dancers’ bodies. Mark degli Antoni’s soundtrack also goes through significant changes, starting off with electronic noise, followed by a classic Woody Allen joke and a Baroque melody, along with patches of complete silence, the experiments in sound melding with the experiments in movement. Although all four dancers give strong performances, Kotze is extraordinary, whether standing on her tiptoes at the front of the stage for an extended period of time, gazing seriously at people in the crowd, or dramatically lifting one leg high up in the air while lying on the floor. Yerushalmy’s (Rooms Without a View; Hello, My Name Is Catherine) piece explores communication not only among the dancers but with the audience as well; if there is a narrative, it might actually be the audience’s need to discover one, which it will have trouble doing in this case. And despite many funny segments (in addition to Allen’s joke), the dancers never crack even the hint of a smile — at least, not until the performance is over and they get to enjoy a well-deserved round of applause.