this week in dance

NEW YORK DANCE PARADE 2011

There will be a lot of boogalooing down Broadway on the way to Tompkins Square Park at the annual Dance Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Parade: Broadway & 21st St. to Tompkins Square Park, 1:00
DanceFest: Tompkins Square Park, 3:00 – 7:00
Saturday, May 21, free
www.danceparade.org

It looks like it might actually be a beautiful day for the fifth annual Dance Parade, which gets under way this afternoon at 1:00 at Broadway and 21st St. More than 150 organizations performing approximately 75 different types of dance will shake and bake, move and groove toward Tompkins Square Park, led by Grand Marshals Charles L. Reinhart, Joseph Harrington, and Kat Wildish. The parade started as a response to New York’s antiquated Cabaret Law, which in 1926 held that dance was not a form of artistic expression and was not protected by the Second Amendment. The event’s mission is “to promote dance as an expressive and unifying art form by showcasing all forms of dance, educating the general public about the opportunities to experience dance, and celebrating diversity of dance in New York City.” Some nine thousand participants and sixty thousand viewers are expected this year, with such groups as Yosakoi Dance Project, MEC Imani Dance & Drum Ensemble, Kotchegna Dance Company, Olaya’s Woman’s Circle of Belly Dance, the New York Raqs Sharqi All Stars, NYC Bhangra, Mopsaicos del Peru, Carnaval de Tlaxcala Mexico, Mortal Beasts & Deities, Joffrey Ballet School, Dance New Amsterdam, NY Hustle Flash Mob, Mambo Bravo, Kansas City Marching Falcons Drillteam, Giant Dancing Divas, Electric Bubble Bus, and GrooveHoops. Be on the lookout for such international dance styles as African, Belly Dance, Polynesian, Tahitian, Korean, Drum and Dance Improv, Turkish, Bollywood, Nepal Sherpa, Bolivian Tinkus, Ecuadorian, Caporales, Flamenco, Bomba y Plena, Bulgarian, Shaman, Liturgical, Stilt Dance, Country and Western, Zydeco, Jazz, Ballet, Ballroom, Tango, Roller Disco, Salsa, Yoga Contortion, Jamaican Dancehall, Urban Fancy Trick, and many more. At 3:00, the free DanceFest begins in Tompkins Square Park, with live performances, workshops, demonstrations, information booths, special presentations, and other activities, followed by a ticketed Groove Area Circus Saturday after-party at Webster Hall.

TAKE DANCE: SALARYMAN

The world premiere of TAKE Dance’s SALARYMAN runs May 18-21 at Dance Theater Workshop

Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
May 18–21, $25, 7:30
212-924-0077
www.dancetheaterworkshop.org
www.takedance.org

A Juilliard graduate who cut his teeth performing in the Paul Taylor Dance Company, Tokyo-born dancer-choreographer Takehiro Ueyama will lead his TAKE Dance troupe in its seventh New York City season this week, presenting the world premiere of Salaryman, its first full evening-length production. Born and raised in Tokyo, artistic director Ueyama is familiar with the plight of Japan’s salaried businessmen who toil through a repetitive daily cycle that rarely changes; in fact, he researched the work by interviewing many Japanese executives. The piece is choreographed for eleven dancers (Kristen Arnold, Jill Echo, John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Gina Ianni, Clinton Edward Martin, Nana Tsuda Misko, Lynda Senisi, Kei Tsuruharatani, Marie Zvosec, and Ueyama), with film projections by Yuko Takebe, set design by Yukinobu Okazaki, costumes by Taylor Forrest, lighting by Jason Jeunnette, and music by Laurie Anderson, Joy Askew, Aun, Eve Beglarian, Michael Gordon, Boban Markovic! Orkestar, RC Succession, and violinist Ana Milosavljevic, who will play live. “My initial intention for Salaryman was to showcase Japan’s business landscape,” Ueyama explained in a statement. “Now, as the Japanese struggle to survive one of history’s largest catastrophes, I recognize that their innate loyalty and stringent norms are indicative of not just the corporate culture but of the Japanese community as a whole and will ultimately help the country thrive once again.”

NINTH AVE. INTERNATIONAL FOOD FESTIVAL

The Ninth Ave. International Food Festival is on this weekend, rain or shine

Ninth Ave. between 42nd & 57th Sts.
Saturday, May 14, and Sunday, May 15, free, 12 noon – 5:00
212-581-7217
www.ninthavenuefoodfestival.com

One of the best street fairs of the season, the thirty-eighth annual Ninth Ave. International Food Festival takes place today and tomorrow, featuring booths selling local ethnic food, jewelry, clothing, arts and crafts, and more, along with children’s activities and live performances. Among the three dozen participating restaurants and bars are Talent Thai II, Southern Hospitality, Rudy’s, Poseidon Bakery, the Delta Grill, Kyotofu, Hallo Berlin Express, Chimichurri Grill, Rachel’s, City Sandwich, Breeze, Bali Nusa Indah, Uncle Nick’s, McCoy’s, Empanada Mama, Vintage, Stecchino, and others, offering delights from England, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Greece, Argentina, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. Live music and entertainment will include belly dancers, high steppers, Celtic dancers, the music of Scotland, and local bands.

TAKE ROOT: DANIELLA HOFF DANCE COMPANY / DAVID APPEL

David Appel will premiere new work at Green Space Studio in Long Island City on Saturday night (photo by Bobbie Aldridge)

Green Space Studio
37-24 24th St. 301 & 302
Saturday, May 14, $25, 8:30
718-956-3037
www.greenspacestudio.org

On May 14, Daniella Hoff and David Appel will present new works as part of the Take Root series at Green Space in Long Island City, both examining the interaction of human relationships. Hoff’s Angst (which has also had the working title Shadowlands) delves into the nature of fear, inspired by her visit to the Jüdisches Museum Berlin and its Holocaust Tower. The piece will be performed by Tomomi Imai, Lize-Lotte Pitlo, Sarah Pope, and Hoff, with music by Brooklyn-based electroacoustic duo Live Footage (Mike Thies and Topu Lyo). Appel, who most recently participated in Dance Conversations 2011 at the Flea, will be premiering relativity, she said (this is how), his first extended small group work in more than twenty years, a series of short dances with improvisation featuring Appel with Ava Heller, Jenni Hong, Elise Knudson, and Suzanne Thomas. (The monthly Take Root series continues on June 11 with Esther m Palmer & aemp:dance and amiti perry+company.)

ISLAND MOVING CO.: GREAT FRIENDS NEW YORK

Island Moving Co. will present the Great Friends Dance Festival New York at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on May 6-7

Manhattan Movement & Arts Center
248 West 60th St.
May 6-7, $20-$25, 8:00
212-787-1178
www.islandmovingco.org
www.manhattanmovement.com

For nearly thirty years, the classically trained ballet troupe Island Moving Co., under the leadership of artistic director Miki Ohlsen, has been presenting works by such choreographers as Noemie LaFrance, Carol Somers, Alejandro Gomez, Andrea Haenggi, and Ohlsen, set to music by the Gypsy Kings, Schubert, Edith Piaf, Tchaikovsky, Leo Kottke, Mahler, Leo Kottke, György Ligeti, Sarah MacLachlan, and others. Seeking “to develop dance as a valuable art form for our community through presenting original works of choreography which connect audiences to their own emotions and provides a shared experience that transcends cultural boundaries,” the Newport, Rhode Island, company will be at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center on May 6-7 for the Great Friends Dance Festival New York, staging the premieres of two new ballets by Ohlsen and Colin Connor. The program will also feature guest company Janusphere Dance Company, which will be performing Nebulous Sapience (parts 1 & 2), with choreography by Darion Smith and music by Jonathan Melville Pratt, in addition to Cherylyn Lavagnino Dancers and choreographer John-Mark Owen.

ALYCE FINWALL DANCE THEATER: EVENFALL

AFDT will present EVENFALL in near-total darkness at the Joyce SoHo (photo by Elazar Harel)

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer St. between Houston & Prince Sts.
May 5-7, $18, 8:00
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.afdancetheater.org

San Francisco–based Alyce Finwall Dance Theater will present the New York premiere of their evening-length piece Evenfall at the Joyce SoHo this week, a work for eight women performed in near darkness. The limited lighting often makes the exposed skin of the dancers’ faces, arms, and legs the only visible elements, except when they remove each other’s black costumes, furthering their examination of feminine identity, innocence, and intimacy. Consisting primarily of slow-paced solos, duets, and trios that emphasize stretched motion, Evenfall is a collaboration with sound and video environmental artist Andrea Williams and electronic-music composer Carson Whitley, who fill the space with birdsong and other peaceful outdoor nature sounds. AFDT, whose stated mission “is to blend an unabashed movement language with dramatic expression and wry humor to create a powerful vehicle for theatrical dance,” made Evenfall as part of San Francisco’s Garage Theater Resident Artist Workshop (RAW); the piece features Madelyn Biven, Julia Hollas, Emily Jones, Malinda LaVelle, Kaitlin Parks, Joy Prendergast, Maggie Stack, and Emmaly Wiederholt. The May 6 performance will be followed by a discussion with members of the creative team.

NICOLL+ORECK DANCE THEATER: THEY MIGHT BE NAPPING

The Performance Project@University Settlement
184 Eldridge St. at Rivington St.
May 5-7, $15
212-453-4532
www.nicollandoreck.com
www.universitysettlement.org

For three decades, Jessica Nicoll and Barry Oreck have been performing together, focusing the last sixteen years primarily on duets. This week they’ll be at the Performance Project@University Settlement, presenting an evening-length version of their award-winning 2008 piece, The Might Be Napping, as part of the Festival of Ideas for the New City. Examining pivotal moments both personal and political, the work examines how people can sleep, literally and figuratively, though these potentially world-changing events. Incorporating props (including dog leashes and strollers) and verbal language, They Might Be Napping is a collaboration with improvisational theater artists Laura Livingston and Mike Durkin and features music by Steve Reich, Edith Piaf, George Frideric Handel, the Hollies, Ken Nordine, and Suzanne Vega in addition to compositions by Amir Khosrowpour that the pianist will perform live.