this week in dance

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.

NETTA YERUSHALMY: DEVOURING DEVOURING

Choreographer Netta Yerushalmy makes her evening-length debut with DEVOURING DEVOURING at La MaMa (photo by Yosi Yerushalmy)

La MaMa
Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East Fourth St., second floor, between Bowery & Second Ave.
December 13-16, 7:30, $20
212-475-7710
www.lamama.org
www.nettay.com

Born in South Carolina, dancer and choreographer Netta Yerushalmy has spent most of her life in Tel Aviv and New York City, where she now resides. Her works often feature performers from Israel and New York, incorporating movement from both locations that bring them together and reveal their differences. Yerushalmy, who is currently an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, will be presenting her first evening-length piece, Devouring Devouring, December 13-16 at La MaMa. Two years in the making, Devouring Devouring explores how viewers interpret and categorize the movement they see onstage. Much of the piece was created by the dancers communicating over the internet between Israel and New York, engaging in video conversations as the project took shape. The piece, which also includes Baroque iconography, will be performed by Joanna Kotze, Toni Melaas, Ofir Yudilevitch, and Stuart Singer — a group described by Yerushalmy as “extraordinary, wild, articulate, virtuosic, sensitive, subtle, and intelligent.” The international flavor continues with music and sound design by the bicoastal Mark degli Antoni, who was a cofounder of Soul Coughing and has scored films by William Wegman, Werner Herzog, and Wallace Shawn; set and lighting by the Brooklyn-based Lenore Doxsee, associate artistic director of Target Margin Theater; and costumes and special creations by Austin-based fabric artist Magdalena Jarkowiec, who made fluorescent hand-sewn penis dolls for anyone who donated thirty-five dollars or more to Yerushalmy’s Kickstarter campaign, which was needed to put the finishing touches on Devouring Devouring.

DOUG ELKINS CHOREOGRAPHY, ETC.: SCOTT, QUEEN OF MARYS / MO(OR)TOWN REDUX

SCOTT, QUEEN OF MARYS is one of two works being presented by Doug Elkins at Baryshnikov Arts Center this week

Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
December 5-8, $20, 7:30
212-811-4111
www.bacnyc.org
www.dougelkinschoreography.com

Former B-Boy and House of Ninja member Doug Elkins hip-hops his way into the Baryshnikov Arts Center with a pair of exciting works running December 5-8, performed by his New York–based company, Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc. Going back to 1994, Scott, Queen of Marys is a tribute to Willi Ninja, the dancer-choreographer who made vogueing popular in the 1990s and was one of the stars of Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning documentary. The piece features music by Mio Morales and will include Javier Ninja, Willi’s protégé. The two-time Bessie-winning Elkins will also present the New York premiere of Mo(or)Town Redux, an updated version of his 1990 Accumulation/Mo(or)town, which was inspired by José Limón’s 1949 The Moor’s Pavane. A mash-up of Shakespeare’s Othello and Berry Gordy’s Motown Records, the piece will be performed by Kyle Marshall, Donnell Oakley, Alexander Dones, and Cori Marquis taking on the roles of Othello, Desdemona, Iago, and Emelia, respectively, with Motown music and later R&B. And watch out for the handkerchief.

FIRST SATURDAYS: GO

GO: A COMMUNITY-CURATED OPEN STUDIO PROJECT
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, December 1, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed in advance at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

During its December free First Saturday program, the Brooklyn Museum will be collecting supplies for people and public schools affected by Hurricane Sandy, asking visitors to bring such items as baby diapers and wipes, hand sanitizer, construction paper, pencils, crayons, and notebooks. Among the special events scheduled for the evening are concerts by Underground System Afrobeat, Maya Azucena, and Avan Lava; screenings of Flex Is Kings, followed by a dance demonstration and a Q&A with directors Deidre Schoo and Michael Beach Nichols, and Jim Hubbard’s United in Anger: A History of ACT UP, in honor of a Day With(out)Art / World AIDS Day; a Book Club talk with Cristy C. Road about her new graphic novel, Spit and Passion; an excerpt from Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival; an interactive hunt led by Ben McKelahan; a talk with some of the artists included in the new exhibition “GO: a community-curated open studio project”; community-action art talks with Laura Braslow and Ian Marvy; a dance performance by L.O.U.D.; and more. Also on view at the museum now are “Mickalene Thomas: Origin of the Universe,” “Materializing ‘Six Years’: Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,” “Jean-Michel Othoniel: My Way,” “Raw/Cooked: Duron Jackson,” and “Aesthetic Ambitions: Edward Lycett and Brooklyn’s Faience Manufacturing Company” in addition to long-term installations and the permanent collection.

TICKET GIVEAWAY: ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER

Robert Battle is ready for his second City Center season as AAADT artistic director, along with dancers Antonio Douthit, Rachael McLaren, Jacqueline Green, Jamar Roberts, and Alicia Graf Mack (photo by Andrew Eccles)

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER
New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
November 28 – December 30, $25-$135
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org

Since 1958, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater has been a central part of the New York City performing arts scene, revolutionizing the perception of dance through its special programs, workshops, classes, and unique melding of music and movement. Originally inspired by Alvin Ailey’s “blood memories” of growing up in Texas with a single mother, the company has gone on to be named by Congress as “a vital American cultural ambassador to the world.” Now led by artistic director Robert Battle, AAADT begins its annual New York City Center season this week, presenting such works as Ohad Naharin’s Minus 16, Paul Taylor’s Arden Court, Rennie Harris’s Home, Ulysses Dove’s Vespers and Urban Folk Dance, Camille A. Brown’s The Evolution of a Secured Feminine, Battle’s The Hunt, In/Side, and Takademe, and Ailey’s Memoria and other classics. (To see which work nine of the dancers are most looking forward to, go here.)

TICKET GIVEAWAY: With so much to choose from, it’s hard to decide which programs to see, but twi-ny has teamed up with AAADT to make the decision easy. We are giving away two pairs of tickets to the Tuesday, December 12, show at 7:30, consisting of the company premiere of Battle’s duet Strange Humors, Dove’s Episodes, and Ailey’s Night Creature and Revelations. Just send your name, daytime phone number, and all-time-favorite Ailey dance to contest@twi-ny.com by Wednesday, November 28, at 3:00 to be eligible. All entrants must be twenty-one years of age or older; two winners will be selected at random.