this week in dance

SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS: GEZEITEN

Sasha Waltz returns to BAM with U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (photo by Gert Weigelt)

Next Wave Festival
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
November 3, 5, 6, $20-$55, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.sashawaltz.de

Berlin-based choreographer Sasha Waltz returns to BAM’s Next Wave Festival with the U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (TIDES), following 2002’s KÖRPER, which we called “playful and powerful, enlightening and frightening,” and 2005’s IMPROMPTUS, which we described as “a beautifully expressive piece.” Set in a postapocalyptic world, GEZEITEN incorporates physical objects and smoke and fire as the dancers deal with disaster. The nearly two-hour piece features music by Jonathan Bepler and Johann Sebastian Bach, costumes by Beate Borrmann, lighting by Martin Hauk, and stage design by Waltz and Thomas Schenk. As shown by her previous appearances at BAM, Waltz is a creative choreographer who is not afraid to push the envelope, keeping audiences rapt, never knowing quite what is going to happen next. There are only three performances of GEZEITEN, so don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to see this daring company in Brooklyn.

VILLAGE HALLOWEEN PARADE: MEMENTO MORI

Parade theme of Memento Mori will include focus on Mexican calaveras and the Day of the Dead

Sunday, October 31, 7:00
Sixth Ave. South & Spring St. to 15th St.
Admission/participation: free, but donations accepted
www.halloween-nyc.com

The Village Halloween Parade is now in its thirty-eighth year of scaring more than two million New Yorkers and visitors from around the world watching some fifty thousand marchers as they make their way through the downtown evening streets in decidedly decadent and wildly creative costumes. This year’s theme is Memento Mori, which translates as “Remember you will die,” and will feature Haitian carnival figures designed by Didier Civil, who will also participate with the music group DjaRaRa in a dance tribute to Gede spirits. Civil will also be teaming up with master puppeteer Basil Twist and Superior Concept Monsters to provide a special focus on Day of the Dead skeletons, including a new Illuminated Ghost Train. Attending or marching in the parade is a rite of passage you must do at least once in your life, so why not tonight?

DÍA DE LOS MUERTOS

National Museum of the American Indian will celebrate the Day of the Dead with ofrendas and special activities

National Museum of the American Indian
George Gustav Heye Center
Alexander Hamilton U.S. Customs House
1 Bowling Green between State & White Sts.
Saturday, October 30, free, 12 noon – 5:00
212-514-3700
www.nmai.si.edu

The National Museum of the American Indian will be celebrating the Day of the Dead, honoring the souls of the departed, who come back to party with the living for this special occasion. The museum will be holding hands-on workshops, dance performances by Cetilitzli Nauhcampa, and storytelling with the Colorado Sisters and Michael Heralda. In addition, on view are the exhibitions “Hide: Skin as Material and Metaphor,” and “Infinity of Nations: Art and History in the Collections of the National Museum of the American Indian,” “A Song for the Horse Nation,” and “Beauty Surrounds Us.”

VILLAGE HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL

Theater for the New City hosts its annual celebration of thrills, chills, and much weirdness

Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. at Tenth St.
Sunday, October 31, $20, 3:30 – ?
www.theaterforthenewcity.net/halloween

Crystal Field’s annual Halloween Costume Ball at the Theater for the New City is another massive extravaganza of music, theater, dance, performance art, astrology, numerology, magic, and general mayhem, taking place on the bandstage outside and in the lobby as well as in the Ballroom, the Cauldron, the Cabaret, the Womb Room, and in the House of Horrors deep in the basement. Among the myriad performers are Jennifer Blowdryer, Penny Arcade, Alien Surfer Babes, Clowns with Gowns, Evan Laurence, Annie Wilson’s Haunted Pianoforte, the Hell Souls, the Hot Lavender Swing Band, the Love Show, Bambi Killers, Flahooley, Suspended Cirque, and Emperor Satan’s Rococoach, in addition to such productions as “The Land of Investment Banking,” “Clutter: I’m Saving My Life & It’s Killing Me,” and “The Red and Black Masque.” At midnight, the costume parade and contest gets under way, with such celebrity judges as Judith Malina, Matt Morillo, and Sabura Rashid. And believe it or not, admission to everything is a mere twenty bucks.

WHITE LIGHT FESTIVAL

Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s SUTRA will make its U.S. premiere at Lincoln Center’s music-centric White Light Festival

Lincoln Center
Alice Tully Hall, Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse, Church of St. Paul the Apostle, Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, Rose Theater, Avery Fisher Hall, David Rubenstein Atrium
October 28 – November 18, free – $90
www.lincolncenter.org

A sort of extension of July’s annual Lincoln Center Festival, in which the vaunted institution stages more experimental works from around the world, the inaugural White Light Festival consists of three weeks of dance, theater, and concerts “focused on music’s transcendent capacity to illuminate our larger interior universe,” as explained by vice president for programming Jane Moss in the festival’s chic booklet. The series begins October 28 with Meredith Monk and Vocal Ensemble’s free performance of THE SOUL’S MESSENGER in the David Rubenstein Atrium at Broadway and 63rd St. at 8:30 and continues with such eagerly anticipated programs as the U.S. premiere of Belgian-Moroccan choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s SUTRA, Katarina Livljanić’s JUDITH (A Biblical Story from Renaissance Croatia), Tallis Scholars’ unique take on Arvo Pärt’s MAGNIFICAT, and Roysten Abel’s inventively executed THE MANGANIYAR SEDUCTION. Other highlights include Antony and the Johnsons teaming up with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Hilliard Ensemble and saxophonist Jan Garbarek playing OFFICIUM NOVUM at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and the Hilliard Ensemble, the Latvian National Choir, the Wordless Music Orchestra, and Alex Somers and Jonsi from Sigur Rós performing CREDO at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle. There will also be free panel discussions on “The Sound of Silence” with Karen Armstrong and John Luther Adams, Janet Cardiff’s free sound installation “The Forty-Part Motet” at the Agnes Varis and Karl Leichtman Rehearsal and Recording Studio at Broadway and 60th St., and several postshow White Light Lounges in which ticket holders can mingle with the artists.

JANE COMFORT AND COMPANY: FAITH HEALING

Jane Comfort’s restaging of FAITH HEALING flies into the Joyce SoHo this week (photo by Arthur Elgort)

Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer St.
October 27-31, $22
212-352-3101
www.joyce.org
www.janecomfortandcompany.org

Inspired by Tennessee Williams’s THE GLASS MENAGERIE, Jane Comfort’s FAITH HEALING was first performed in 1992, with Mark Dendy playing Amanda Wingfield, a single mother raising two kids in the South. Comfort is restaging the dance-theater piece this week as part of Joyce Soho’s American Masterpieces series, with Dendy reprising his role, which is not done in drag. FAITH HEALING examines fantasy versus reality, using Tom Wingfield’s love of movies to lead into vignettes in which the cast re-creates iconic film scenes through dance. Tom is played by Sean Donovan, with Heather Christian taking on Laura and Matthew Hardy as the Gentleman Caller. The October 29 performance will be followed by an After Hours @ Joyce SoHo Q&A.

CEDAR LAKE CONTEMPORARY BALLET AT THE JOYCE

Cedar Lake will present two programs of three works apiece during two-week season at the Joyce

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
October 26 – November 7, $10-$59 (October 27 performance reviewed)
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.cedarlakedance.com

The immensely talented and creative Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet will be heading slightly southeast for its two-week fall season at the Joyce. The company, which has its own home on West 26th St., will be presenting a pair of international programs, beginning with Norwegian Jo Strømgren’s SUNDAY, AGAIN, Italian dancer-choreographer Jacopo Godani’s UNIT IN REACTION, and Swedish choreographer Alexander Ekman’s HUBBUB, running October 26-31, followed by SUNDAY, AGAIN, the London-based, Israeli-born Hofesh Shechter’s THE FOOLS, and Dutch choreographer Didy Veldman’s breathtaking FRAME OF VIEW, which we caught during its New York premiere back in January 2009. (UNIT IN REACTION, HUBBUB, and THE FOOLS are city premieres.) Last year, Cedar Lake blew away dance fans with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s spectacular ORBO NOVO, so it’s a treat to have them back again.

In SUNDAY, AGAIN, Strømgren depicts man-woman dynamics among the wealthy leisure class on their day of rest. Carrying around badminton equipment, costumed in white, vaguely reminiscent of sporting clothes, with white ankle-high socks, the dancers play another game, treating each other roughly, then affectionately, then everywhere in between. Only Acacia Schachte, a central figure, wears a gray dress as she battles it out with Jason Kittelberger. Set to delightful harpsichord music by Bach, SUNDAY, AGAIN is a playful, if not particularly deep, work propped with a broken racket, a net, and a shuttlecock that emerges from unusual places. UNIT IN REACTION tests the limits of three male and three female dancers in body-tugging outfits as they move to Ülrich Müller and Siegfried Rössert’s electronic soundscapes in sharp geometric patterns, individually and together. Choreographer, costumer, and lighting designer Godani works with abrupt breaks and reconfigurations, punctuated by silences and darkness. In a series of solos and duets, the well-muscled dancers get to show off their chops, even if the narrative is too vague for some tastes. The evening concludes with HUBBUB, Ekman’s narrative-laden boot camp as each member of the company, dressed only in tight underwear, stands at their own table, listening closely as an unseen voice, reading along with a typewriter dangling in midair, takes them through a careful series of procedures, with music by Chopin and Xavier Cugat playing in the background. The dance-theater piece features a silly but engaging duet by Nickemil Concepcion and Harumi Terayama (or Oscar Ramos and Schachte, depending on the night), whose supposed internal commentary is read aloud as they move. It’s self-referential, self-indulgent, and self-deprecating all at the same time, but it’s also a fun crowd pleaser. The second program starts November 2 and repeats SUNDAY, AGAIN and adds THE FOOLS and FRAME OF VIEW; we saw the latter back in January 2009, using such words as “breathtaking” and “thrilling” in our review, available here.