this week in dance

ELIZABETH STREB: ASCENSION

Elizabeth Streb’s ASCENSION is part of special downtown Whitney series (photo by Tom Caravaglia)

Gansevoort Plaza
Gansevoort St., Little West 12th St. & Ninth Ave.
Updated: July 7, 3:00 & 5:00; July 8, 3:00 (5:00 canceled because of rain); July 9, 3:00, 4:00, 5:00
www.whitney.org
www.streb.org

Since 1985, New York-based choreographer Elizabeth Streb has displayed a penchant for extremely physical, adventurous, and challenging physical movement in her work. “Elizabeth Streb’s stubborn investigation of Action,” her website explains, “[ranges] from every day movements to the Extreme Action of sports, the circus and thrill rides; the impulse to action that is in our souls.” As part of the Whitney on Site: New Commissions Downtown program that is introducing the city to the future home of the museum, the MacArthur Genius has created ASCENSION, a free outdoor public performance piece constructed around a twenty-one-foot moving ladder. “There is a sense of beauty about a ladder, a device that has existed for centuries to assist us when the need to go higher arises,” Streb explains about the piece for nine dancers. “The climb, the ever revolving Sisyphean ascent to the unreachable top of the ladder, disallows arrival and the accomplishment of the quotidian function, to get somewhere.” ASCENSION, which is part of Streb’s work-in-progress KISS THE AIR!, comprising Essential Acts that incorporate equipment (and will be presented in December at the Park Ave. Armory), will be performed by the Streb Extreme Action Company, with music by master percussionist David Van Tieghem, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 3:00 and 5:00 in Gansevoort Plaza.

Elizabeth Streb and DJ/VJ Zaire Baptiste unhappily cancel the 5:00 performance of ASCENSION on July 8 but has added an extra show of the specially commissioned outdoor piece on Saturday (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: Unfortunately, the rain forced Elizabeth Streb to cancel the 5:00 performance of ASCENSION on July 8, but she’s added another show on Saturday, July 9, so now the eleven-minute production will go on at 3:00, 4:00, and 5:00. Streb Extreme Action Company will also be outside at World Financial Center Plaza on July 14 (6:00), 15 (12 noon & 6:00), and 16 (2:00, 4:00, and 6:00) presenting Human Fountain as part of the River to River series Extraordinary Moves, which also includes Strange Fruit’s The Three Belles and Third Rail Projects’ Looking Glass.

NEW YORK THEATRICAL BELLYDANCE CONFERENCE

Anasma is one of the codirectors and featured performers at second annual New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference

Multiple downtown locations
July 6-10
800-838-3006
www.theatricalbellydance.com

The second annual New York Theatrical Bellydance Conference begins shaking in Lower Manhattan today, kicking off five days of special events featuring performers from around the globe. Workshops take place at Ripley-Grier Studios at 520 Eighth Ave., curated theater shows at Dance New Amsterdam at 280 Broadway, the opening and closing parties at Je’ bon Noodle House at 15 St. Marks Pl., and open-stage performances at Lafayette Grill at 54 Franklin St. Ripley-Grier will also host a vending room, with bellydance-related goods and services from Alanah Bellydance, the Eyes Have It, Beledi Boutique, and Silkdancer. Codirected by Ranya Renée and Anasma, the conference will feature such forms as Egyptian, hip-hop bellydance fusion, and gothic, with such teachers and performers as Karolina, Fayzah, Ayshe, Yael Becker, Autumn Ward, Zoe Anwar, DaVid, Dalia Carella, Wendy Buonaventura, and Elena Lentini

FIRST SATURDAYS: VISHNU

“Vishnu Saving the Elephant (Gajendra Moksha),” opaque watercolor and gold on paper, India, mid-eighteenth century (collection of Kenneth and Joyce Robbins)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, July 2, 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 July celebrates the opening of “Vishnu: Hinduism’s Blue-Skinned Savior” with a series of special programs and events on July 2. The evening honoring the gentle god begins at 5:00 with a live musical performance by Falu and continues at 6:00 with traditional dance and storytelling courtesy of the Kathak Ensemble. Also at 6:00, Clean Penny Service will clean visitors’ dirty pennies, in conjunction with Skylar Fein’s installation “Black Lincoln for Dooky Chase.” The monthly Hands-on Art workshop (6:30-8:30) will teach attendees to sculpt a Vishnu avatar. At 7:00, curator of Asian Art Joan Cummins will give a talk on the Vishnu exhibit. But things really get going with an Independence Day dance party at 8:00 with the Freedom Party NYC and DJs Cosi, Herbert Holler, and Marc Smooth. But if that gets too hot and heavy for you, there’s also a concert of traditional Indian music about Vishnu at 8:30, courtesy of the RagaChitra Foundation. The galleries stay open until 11:00, so be sure to check out “reOrder: An Architectural Environment by Situ Studio,” “Lorna Simpson: Gathered,” Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Ghosts,” “Body Parts: Ancient Egyptian Fragments and Amulets,” and “Four Bathers by Degas and Bonnard” in addition to the above-mentioned exhibitions and the permanent collection. (Note: Some programs require free advance tickets.)

NYC PRIDE 2011

Gay pride weekend is always filled with lots of colorful events (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations
June 25-26, free – $125
www.nycpride.org

With the battle over same-sex marriage once again coming to a head in New York, expect this year’s gay pride weekend to be as political as ever, with plenty of people dressed in traditional — and nontraditional — wedding garb. Saturday night’s Rapture on the River: A Women’s Dance ($25-$75) at Pier 54 in Hudson River Park features comedians, a wet T-shirt concert, and music from DJs Susan Levine and Mary Mac. The VIP Rooftop Party at the newly renovated Hudson Terrace on West 48th St. is sold out, but there might be a few $50 tickets available at the door so you can party with Jessica & Hunter, DJs Dan DeLeon and Tracy Young, and hot dudes in sexy briefs. This year’s March takes place Sunday beginning at 36th St. & Fifth Ave. and continuing to Christopher & Greenwich, led by Grand Marshals Dan Savage & Terry Miller and Rev. Pat Bumgardner. Since 1970, the March has been an annual celebration of gay culture as well as an integral civil rights demonstration; this year’s theme is “Proud and Powerful.” Also on Sunday, the PrideFest street fair on Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West Fourteenth consists of vendors, live entertainment, and special activities; among those performing at StageFest 2011 will be Grace Garland, Kylie Edmond, Luthea Salom, Nhojj, Reina Williams, Sean 360X, Robin Cloud, Dawn Tallman, JFortino, and Melissa Li & the Barely Theirs, hosted by emcee Tyler Alyxander. As always, things conclude Sunday night with Dance on the Pier ($75-$125), which turns twenty-five this year with DJs Ana Paula, Lina, and Vito Fun and an early performance by Wynter Gordon in addition to fireworks; the official after-party (free admission) will be held at the Griffin on Gansevoort St., with DJ Corey Craig and guest hosts Ted Shields, Justin Russo, Quinton Payton, Kuntu Dequian, Sasha Seven, and Wilson Cruz.

GUEST ARTIST SERIES: BEN MUNISTERI DANCE PROJECTS

Todd Allen, Kelly Garone, Katie Weir perform in Ben Munisteri’s BINARY 2.0, which will be part of three-piece program at DTW this week (photo by Christopher Duggan)

Dance Theater Workshop, Bessie Schönberg Theater
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
June 16–19, $20
212-924-0077
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
www.munisteri.com

Many choreographers get caught up in theme and concept, making statements with their carefully designed visual vocabulary. Not so much Ben Munisteri. “I am more interested in the way a dance looks to its viewers than in how it feels to the dancers performing it,” the New York City-based Munisteri explains on his company’s website. “I am not a movement innovator, a dramatist, a philosopher, or a semiotician. Instead, I see myself as an excellent editor, tailor, and craftsman who manages to make something artful, meaningful, and beautiful with these skills (and with smart, generous, talented dancers).” Since 1994, Munisteri has been creating works for Ben Munisteri Dance Projects that he is continually fiddling with, constantly coming up with what he calls “remixes” or “recompositions,” regularly reinventing his oeuvre. BMDP will be at Dance Theater Workshop this week presenting three pieces: 2009’s Catalog, set to music by Radiohead; an expanded version of last year’s Binary 2.0, with music by Debussy; and the New York premiere of Robot vs Mermaid , with a score by Kirk O’Riordan. The company features dancers Katie Weir, Todd Allen, Shane Rutkowski, Anica Scott-Garrell, Cameron Burke, and Kelly Garone and associates Christine McMillan, Eric Sean Fogel, and Beau Hancock, with lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann.

TWI-NY TALK: PASCAL RIOULT

The always elegant Pascal Rioult will present two new works and repertory favorites at the Joyce this week

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 14-19, $10-$49
212-691-9740
www.joyce.org
www.rioult.org

New York City–based French choreographer Pascal Rioult, who established himself as a performer dancing with May O’Donnell, Paul Sanasardo, and, most famously, Martha Graham in the late 1980s and early 1990s, formed his own company in 1994 and has been challenging the precepts of contemporary dance ever since. Favoring sensual movement set to classical music, Rioult has put together such thematic evenings as “The Ravel Project,” “The Stravinsky Program,” and “Bare Bach” that combine new works with reimagined and reinterpreted classics. For his upcoming season at the Joyce, running June 14-19, he will be presenting two programs: one consisting of the all-Bach Views of the Fleeting World (“The Art of Fugue”), City (“Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord #6 in G major”), and the world premiere of Celestial Tides (the Brandenburg Concerti), the second, performed to live music, featuring Black Diamond (Stravinsky), Bolero (Ravel), and the new On Distant Shores, a beautiful dance about Helen of Troy (a sparkling Charis Haines) with a commissioned score by Pulitzer Prize–winning composer Aaron J Kernis. After watching a sweaty rehearsal of On Distant Shores and Celestial Tides on an impossibly hot day, twi-ny met with the former track and field athlete, who graciously agreed to participate in a twi-ny talk as he prepared for his latest New York season.

twi-ny: You’ve devoted previous evenings to Ravel, Stravinsky, and Mozart, and you will be presenting a night of Bach at the Joyce. What are some of the specific challenges, as well as joys, in interpreting Bach onstage?

Pascal Rioult: I have always loved Bach’s music, instinctively and without understanding where the magic came from. It is specifically because of my intense work with the music of two great composition masters, Ravel and Stravinsky, in the past eight years that I felt it was time to “go to the source” of contrapuntal music and try to understand the great mystery of “Harmony.” (“Mysterium Harmonicum” was at the time of Bach an art and philosophy theory believing that there was some sort of mysterious forces that kept the Universe in balance and created a “Music of the Spheres” — a Divine Harmony.)

I love this concept in Art as in Life (I called the closing piece of the Bach program Celestial Tides). Certainly Bach’s mastery of counterpoint must come very close to this Divine Harmony.

But I also want with my dances to show that Bach’s music, contrary to common belief, is unbelievably rich emotionally.

twi-ny: Which composer might you have your sights set on next?

PR: I am not sure yet about which composer will be next, although I love Russian music and have not used it yet.

twi-ny: You also have the new series “Dance to Contemporary Composers,” which includes a newly adapted composition by Aaron J Kernis that will be performed live at the Joyce. How did that collaboration come about?

PR: It is time for me to work with contemporary composers (living composers). On the other hand, I suffer from not being able to have live music for my performances, which makes such a difference. So I decided to try to get support for the project of commissioning new music and have it played live for the next three years.

I have known and admired Aaron J Kernis’s music for many years, and we had wanted to collaborate for a while but did not get the opportunity yet. His music fits my concerns about the classical form as well as being filled with emotional content. I discussed with him my idea about a piece based on the character of Helen of Troy that I described as a “redemption fantasy.” We had to portray in a few minutes the epic of the Trojan war for the male heroes, then slip into the dream world created by Helen’s imagination and finish with a way to redemption. I knew it would be very rewarding to work with Aaron, and it has been a great collaborative experience resulting in a brilliant piece of music.

Michael Spencer Phillips and Charis Haines get hot and heavy rehearsing ON DISTANT SHORES in preparation for world premiere at the Joyce (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

twi-ny: What is it about Helen that drew you to her?

PR: I have always thought that Helen of Troy got a wrongful reputation. She would have been the cause of one of the most horrible wars that ever was, because she left her husband for another man. Was it not as usual the men’s unrelenting need of violence and conquest that drove them to Troy and made Helen a convenient pretext?

I found in the Euripides play Helen a similar version of the fact/myth. The mischievous gods had made a likeness of Helen from the clouds and that is the mirage that Paris took away to Troy, and it is for that “mirage” that so many lives were lost.

It was time for me to redeem Helen.

twi-ny: In addition to the obvious physical contact, your dancers make extraordinary, very emotional eye contact with one another while performing. Is that something you teach them? How important is that when you are choreographing a piece?

PR: As a matter of fact, I never give the dancers direction about expressions. On the contrary, I usually keep them from using facial expressions at all. Dancers do not need it because the expression comes forth through the body itself, from the inner core (you could say the inner self). Then the energy that creates the appropriate expression radiates towards the outside (including, at last, the face). You see, that is what we call “radiance,” “projection.” . . . You cannot help it if it comes from the right place. You don’t need to “put it on” and I don’t need to teach it.

I learned that from my mentor, Martha Graham.

TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY: ROOF PIECE

Trisha Brown Dance Company, “Roof Piece,” 1971 (photo by Babette Mangolte)

The High Line
Enter at 13th St. & Gansevoort
June 9-10, 7:00 pm
June 11, 5:00 & 7:00 pm
Admission: free
www.thehighline.org
www.trishabrowncompany.org
twi-ny slideshow

The Trisha Brown Dance Company has had quite a fortieth anniversary year, performing old and new works all over the world, including special shows at the Whitney and MoMA. They are concluding the celebration with a re-creation of their seminal 1971 dance “Roof Piece,” which will take place June 9-11 on rooftops surrounding the south end of the High Line. Unseen on outdoor rooftops since 1973, the piece, which is part of the High Line Art program, will feature the dancers — Neal Beasley, Elena Demyanenko, Dai Jian, Leah Morrison, Tamara Riewe, Nicholas Strafaccia, Laurel Tentindo, Samuel von Wentz, and Lee Serle — reacting to one another’s movement with improvisation. Admission is free and no RSVP is required, but be prepared for long lines to witness this wholly unique and exciting experience. The High Line is also likely to be crowded now that section two just opened, extending the former abandoned railway, which has been turned into a beautiful park, all the way to Thirtieth St. And keep a look-out for the various art projects along the High Line, including Kim Beck’s “Space Available,” which can also be found on surrounding rooftops; Julianne Swartz’s “Digital Empathy” sound pieces; Sarah Sze’s “Still Life with Landscape (Model for a Habitat)”; Stephen Vitiello’s “A Bell for Every Minute” installation; Spencer Finch’s “The River That Flows Both Ways,” about the Hudson; and official High Line photographer Joel Sternfeld’s “A Railroad Artifact, 30th St., May 2000.”

Trisha Brown Dance Company triumphantly re-creates seminal “Roof Piece” along the High Line to conclude fortieth anniversary (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Update: On a beautiful early Friday evening on the High Line, Trisha Brown re-created her thrilling “Roof Piece” as hundreds of visitors lined the southern end of the High Line. Nine dancers wearing bold red outfits were spaced around the elevated park, two on the High Line itself, seven others scattered on surrounding rooftops, one dancer nearly within arm’s reach, another far off in the distance, barely visible. Improvised within a set dance vocabulary, the work begins as one dancer improvises the first move, which is then repeated as it travels from dancer to dancer in a specific order that recalls a visual game of telephone (and is then reversed), only without any mangling of the words. Although they’re all performing the same slow movements, they each come off in different manners, one dancer seen against the blue sky, another against a white brick wall, a third against the Jersey skyline, a fourth in a rectangular doorway that resembles a framed work of art. In an odd way, they recall Antony Gormley’s life-size, rooftop statues (“Event Horizon”) that filled Madison Square Park and the Flatiron District last year. There is no single place to be able to see all the dancers at once, so make your way around the area to catch each one. The thirty-minute performance, which concludes TBDC’s fortieth anniversary year, will be repeated Saturday at 5:00 and 7:00, with Sunday as a rain date in case one of the shows is canceled because of bad weather.