this week in dance

CELEBRATE MEXICO NOW

Botellita de Jerez will rock out at SOB’s as part of annual celebration of Mexican art and culture

Multiple venues
September 21 – October 1
www.mexiconowfestival.org

The eighth annual Celebrate México Now festival celebrating Mexican culture begins tonight with the free panel discussion “México se escribe con J: A Celebration of Gay Culture in Mexico” at NYU’s King Juan Carlos 1 of Spain Center, with Nayar Rivera, Michael Schuessler, Alejandro Varderi, and Earl Dax talking about “The Famous 41” and other issues of sexual orientation in Mexico, and continues through October 1 with dance, music, theater, art, films, food, and parties. Anthology Film Archives will screen “Gen Mex: Recent Films from México,” the Queens Museum of Art will host the Trajinera Xochitl Project and the multimedia theatrical presentation “Hecho en Mexico: Estreno Nacional,” Mexican electronica band Sweet Electra will play the Church of All Nations, chef Daniel Ovadía will prepare special dishes for the panel demonstration “History and Traditions of Mexican Gastronomy” (yes, the audience will get to sample his food), Botellita de Jerez will rock out at SOB’s, the collective Rey Trueno will perform the multimedia Radio Soap Opera at the Bowery Poetry Club, and the folkloric Pasatono Orchestra will play a free show at the David Rubenstein Atrium at Lincoln Center and a ticketed show at Casa Mezcal.

BRYANT PARK FALL FESTIVAL

Elisa Monte Dance will perform in Bryant Park on Thursday night as part of annual fall festival (photo copyright Roy Volkmann)

Bryant Park
West 40th to 42nd Sts. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Through September 23, free
www.bryantpark.org

The annual Bryant Park Fall Festival concludes with several excellent programs, beginning today at 12:30 with the Rubin Museum of Art presenting “A Conversation with Peter Sellars,” in which the theater impresario will discuss his dramatization of The Vimalakirti Sutra, rehearsals of which can be seen Friday and Saturday night at the Rubin. On Thursday night at 6:00, the extremely talented Elisa Monte Dance will perform, followed on Friday night at 6:00 by Pascal Rioult’s RIOULT company, which will present Celestial Tides, set to Bach, and two works set to Ravel, Wien (La Valse) and Bolero. Each dance performance will be preceded at 5:00 by a workshop for kids. (For our recent twi-ny talk with Rioult, please click here.)

REID FARRINGTON: THE PASSION PROJECT

Laura K. Nicoll takes an unusual look at Joan of Arc in Reid Farrington’s THE PASSION PROJECT, now playing at the 3LD Art + Technology Center (photo by Paula Court)

3LD Art + Technology Center
80 Greenwich St.
September 16-25, $20
www.3ldnyc.org
www.reidfarrington.com

Initially presented in November 2007 at the PS/K2 Festival in Copenhagen and staged several times at the downtown 3LD Art + Technology Center over the last few years, Reid Farrington’s The Passion Project is back for a special limited engagement at the Greenwich St. institution through September 25. The thirty-minute piece puts a solitary dancer inside a ten-foot-by-ten-foot square, surrounded by more than a dozen small wooden-framed screens on which are projected scenes from Carl Th. Dreyer’s epic 1928 silent classic, The Passion of Joan of Arc. The performer, Laura K. Nicoll, picks up various screens and moves them around, trapped much like the captured Joan of Arc (Maria Falconetti) is in the film, creating a living, breathing three-dimensional effect filled with powerful emotion. “I’ve been with the project for two years now and it’s so incredibly satisfying to perform,” Nicoll told twi-ny. Monday night’s show will benefit Foxy Films’ newest production, Farrington’s multimedia A Christmas Carol or Dickens: The Unparalleled Necromancer, which will run December 1-20 at the Abrons Arts Center. (For a look at Farrington’s Gin & “It,” which played PS 122 in April 2010, click here.)

Update: The Passion Project is a breathtaking tour de force for both creator and director Reid Farrington and performer Laura K. Nicoll. For thirty mesmerizing minutes, Nicoll, barefoot and dressed in sackcloth and ashes, a sullen yet determined look on her face, places and re-places small wooden-framed white screens on hooks dangling from rope knots (that evoke nooses), moving the screens to capture images being projected into the air that have been taken from three different versions (1928, 1935, and 1980) of Carl Th. Dreyer’s silent classic The Passion of Joan of Arc. With whirlwind fury, Nicoll shoots out a screen to show one of the characters discussing Joan of Arc’s fate, or holds another screen in front of her as she walks across the floor, moving with the characters, or suddenly falls to the ground with a screen outstretched to grab yet another part of the story. At other times she sits down next to a small close-up of Joan’s aching face or wanders out of the ten-foot-by-ten-foot area and approaches an audience member, looking into their eyes before continuing on. Translations are shown on three sides so the viewers, who are strongly encouraged to make their way around the set, experiencing the piece from multiple angles, can follow the plot, although every detail is not critical. What is critical is not to miss a moment of Nicoll’s awe-inspiring performance, including the dazzling finale.

TWI-NY TALK: MARIA HASSABI

Maria Hassabi premiered SOLO at FIAF’s 2009 Crossing the Line Festival

Saturday, September 17, Crossing the Line Festival: Fiction & Non-Fiction, the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, 972 Fifth Ave., free, 212-355-6100, 2:30 – 6:00
SHOW: The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St., November 3-5, $15, 212-255-5793, 8:00
www.fiaf.org/crossingtheline
www.thekitchen.org
www.mariahassabi.com

In such recent productions as Solo and SoloShow, dancer and choreographer Maria Hassabi has displayed a remarkable dexterity, her lithe body interacting with a rolled-up carpet or dangling off the edge of a black platform. When we saw her listed on the French Institute Alliance Française’s website as one of the participants of the free “Fiction & Non-Fiction” kickoff to the 2011 Crossing the Line Festival on September 17, we immediately scheduled an interview with her. Alas, in checking the website later, her scheduled site-specific performance around the Cultural Services of the French Embassy building on Fifth Ave. had disappeared. Does that mean the Cyprus-born Hassabi won’t be participating? Even without her, the lineup is extremely impressive, with works by Trajal Harrell & Perle Palombe, Kimberly Bartosik, Raimund Hoghe & Takashi Ueno, Roderick Murray, and others. (Be sure to get a drink at Prune Nourry’s “Spermbar.”) We’re still holding out hope that Hassabi, a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and a New Yorker since 1994, has something special planned for the afternoon, which runs from 2:30 to 6:00.

This year’s Crossing the Line Festival, which continues through October 17, also features Nick van Woert’s “Terra Amata” exhibition at the FIAF Gallery, Xavier le Roy’s “More Mouvements für Lachenmann” at Florence Gould Hall, Bartosik’s “i like penises: a little something in 24 acts” at Danspace Project, Sophie Calle’s free site-specific “Room” installation at the Lowell Hotel, and Rachid Ouramdane’s “Ordinary Witnesses” and “World Fair” at New York Live Arts. Hassabi is definitely scheduled to present the world premiere of her latest piece, SHOW, November 3-5 at the Kitchen. Whether or not she’ll be part of tomorrow’s fête, we’re still delighted that she answered some questions for us, even if she did skip over the one about what she was planning for “Fiction & Non-Fiction.”

twi-ny: What is it that draws you to the Crossing the Line Festival?

Maria Hassabi: What draws me to this festival primarily is the two curators (Lili Chopra and Simon Dove). I admire and respect both of them. I love working and being in conversation with them, feel lucky to be part of what they do, and excited to see what they’ve curated.

twi-ny: Are there any particular performances you’re looking forward to seeing at the festival?

MH: The usual suspects, which in this case, performance-wise, means pretty much all. Sadly, I will be missing many of them as I will be out of town.

twi-ny: You premiered SOLO and SOLOSHOW at PS122, and in November you’ll be premiering SHOW at the Kitchen with frequent collaborator Hristoula Harakas and Will Rawls. What is it about Hristoula that makes her so compatible with your choreography?

MH: There are many of my frequent collaborators in SHOW, including Hristoula, Marcos Rosales, Scott Lyall, Joe Levasseur. I like working with the same people. With Hristoula, we have worked together since 2002. I treasure such a long-term collaboration, and Hristoula’s ethics of work are irreplaceable. Of course, she’s undoubtedly a gorgeous performer.

twi-ny: You are a remarkably flexible dancer. Do you have a special exercise regimen or a secret you’re willing to share?

MH: I was born flexible! Then I slept all the way until I went onstage! You know, muscle atrophy helps!

DEGANIT SHEMY & COMPANY: 2 kilos of sea

Deganit Shemy’s “2 kilos of sea” has moved from an outdoor church courtyard to indoors at BAC (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space
450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
September 15-17, 7:30, $20
www.bacnyc.org
www.dganit-shemy.com

Last summer, Deganit Shemy presented the site-specific 2 kilos of sea in the John Street United Methodist Church courtyard as part of the LMCC’s annual Sitelines program. The New York-based Israeli choreographer, who grew up on a kibbutz, has now repurposed the forty-minute piece for the Howard Gilman Performance Space at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, where it is being performed through Saturday. On a colorful stage that echoes a construction site, complete with plastic orange fence barricades, fake green grass, a yellow collapsible play tunnel / accordion air duct, and a tiny toy car, Denisa Musilova, Savina Theodorou, Michael Ingle, Rebecca Warner, and Elyssa Dole move about in a nonlinear, fragmented exploration of love, childhood, and morphing relationships. Warner is front and center, wearing a bright-red knee-length dress and a perpetual smile, obsessed with the play tunnel, approaching it with fear and trepidation, continually kicking it as if it were alive. As Jim Dawson’s thrilling sound design goes from carnivalesque to electronic music to ambient street noise, members of the company thump on the ground, leap up from behind a large photo backdrop of the church courtyard, balance atop a long concrete block, engage in snippets of folk dances, and shift the barricades, creating ever-changing physical and psychological boundaries. As in such previous works as Arena and Iodine, Shemy’s 2 kilos of sea is not so much about story as visceral movement and brute emotion, an evening of avant-garde experimental dance theater that plays with expectations even through the very end of the piece.

TWI-NY TALK: BILL T. JONES

Kennedy Center honoree and two-time Tony winner Bill T. Jones begins his company’s inaugural New York Live Arts season this week

BODY AGAINST BODY
New York Live Arts
Bessie Schönberg Theater
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
September 16-24, $32-$40 ($15 on 9/20)
212-691-6500
www.newyorklivearts.org

Last December was a big month for two-time Tony-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones (Spring Awakening, Fela!). The Florida-born dance legend, who formed the highly influential Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company in 1982, was awarded the prestigious Kennedy Center Honor, which he called “one of the highest moments in my life,” and he also teamed up with Dance Theater Workshop to create the artist-led New York Live Arts, which is dedicated to producing, presenting, and educating in its mission “to become a place for dance that is vital to the fabric of social and cultural life in New York, America, and beyond.”

This week Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance kicks off the inaugural New York Live Arts season with the exciting Body Against Body program: “Monkey Run Road” (1979), “Continuous Replay” (1977/1991), and “Valley Cottage: A Study” (1980) will be performed September 16, 18, 21, 23, and 25, with “Duet x 2” (1982), “Continuous Replay,” and “Blauvelt Mountain” (1980) scheduled for September 17, 20, 22, and 24. “Valley Cottage” and “Monkey Run Road” are being performed in New York for the first time since their premieres. “Continuous Replay” will also feature live music played by John Oswald or DJ Spooky as well as a rotating cast of guest performers, including Matthew Rushing from Alvin Ailey, Janet Eilber and Blakeley White-McGuire from Martha Graham, Arthur Aviles from Typical Theater, Elena Demyanenko from Trisha Brown, Jennifer Goggans from Merce Cunningham, Megan Sprenger from mvworks, and Richard Move from MoveOpolis! Jones will take part in a preshow talk with Marcia B. Siegel on September 21 and a postshow discussion with Janet Wong, DTW/NYLA artistic director Carla Peterson, and the nine-member Bill T. Jones company on September 23. The premiere gala takes place September 15. Amid this flurry of activity, Jones was able to squeeze in some time to answer a few questions from twi-ny.

twi-ny: Last December, when the merger between Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company and Dance Theater Workshop was announced, you said, “We are doing something that supposedly can’t be done.” Now you are about to present your first season together. How did you, in fact, get it done?

Bill T. Jones: At the core of this merger was collaboration, and that’s exactly how this inaugural season came together. Carla Peterson spearheaded the curation process, and our talented staff and board of directors have worked tirelessly to bring ideas and resources to the table to make this institution a leader in the performing arts community and a home for movement-based artists. I am very excited about the artists on our season and am proud of the new programs we’re building.

New York Live Arts season kicks off with Bill T. Jones’s “Body Against Body” program

twi-ny: For your first series of performances at NYLA, you are revisiting some of your most iconic works, including the third iteration of “Continuous Replay.” Why did you choose these particular works for this inaugural season?

BTJ: Body Against Body is a program that the company premiered earlier this year (at the ICA/Boston) and we’re now touring it extensively in the upcoming season. It only seemed fitting that we would open the inaugural season of New York Live Arts with this program: It consists of some of the earliest pieces that Arnie Zane and I created together — two of which [“Valley Cottage” and “Blauvelt Mountain”] we premiered at Dance Theater Workshop in the early ’80s.

The newest reconstruction on the program, which will premiere at New York Live Arts, is “Valley Cottage: A Study.” This work has not been seen since Arnie and I first performed it in 1981. I think collectively these seminal works give audience members a glimpse of my roots as a choreographer while also acknowledging New Yorks Live Arts’ foundation, rooted in both my company’s and Dance Theater Workshop’s history and legacy. I like to think of it as a looking back to look forward.

SUMMER STREETS 2011

Fifth annual Summer Streets program opens up thoroughfares from Park & 72nd to the Brooklyn Bridge (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge
Saturday, August 20, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov

The final of three Summer Streets days takes place today from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, as walkers, runners, bike riders, joggers, skateboarders, and other people not using motorized vehicles (we’re not sure about Segways) can travel from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge without having to navigate through buses, taxis, cars, trucks, and other gas-guzzling traffic menaces. Beginning at Park Ave. & 72nd St. and making its way down Park Ave. to Lafayette St. before turning toward the bridge, Summer Streets will feature five rest stops with special activities, including tai chi classes, salsa and bachata lessons, and a live performance by Still Saffire at Park & 51st; safety demonstrations, a picnic area, and bike helmet giveaways at Park & 25th; a health and fitness zone at Astor Pl. & Lafayette; an adventure zone with a rock climbing wall, yoga, and flat fixing workshops at Spring St. & Lafayette; and sand sculpting, music and dance performances (Les Racquet, Still Saffire, NJ Nets Dancers, National Double Dutch League), and FringeNYC sneak peeks at Foley Square (Duane & Centre Sts.), among other events at each location. Even if you’re not interested in any of the special activities, just getting outside and looking down a Park Ave. filled with people enjoying the six hours of freedom is energizing and contagious.