this week in dance

WARM UP

Prepare for some massive crowds at weekly PS1 Warm Up (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

MoMAPS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Saturdays from 2:00 to 9:00, July 3 – September 4
Tickets: $15 (free for Long Island City residents)
718-784-2084
www.ps1.org/warmup

One of the hottest, sweatiest weekly dance parties of every summer will get people moving and grooving beginning on July 3 when Warm Up returns to PS1 in Queens. The series features live bands and DJs from all over the world, including Spain, Sierra Leone, France, Sweden, Canada, and Brooklyn, playing in the shadow of Solid Obectives — Idenburg Liu’s “Pole Dance,” winner of the annual Young Architects Program and displayed in the courtyard. The opening-day lineup is a mere taste of things to come, with live sets from Delorean, Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang, and Glasser, with John Talabot and Korallreven manning the turntables. On the horizon are Kalup Linzy and JD Samson on July 24, Animal Collective DJ’ing on July 31, a DFA showcase with James Murphy and Pat Mahoney on August 7, DJ ?uestlove and These Are Powers on August 14, and Holy Ghost!, House of House, and DJ Mehdi on closing night, September 4. And don’t forget to check out the expansive “Greater New York” exhibition. PS1 is one of the treasures of New York City, with something to see and do in every little nook and cranny, so be prepared for anything and everything.

NYC PRIDE

Even dogs can get in on the action at the inaugural PetPride festivities, part of the PrideFest street fair on Sunday at 12:30 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)


Multiple venues
Saturday, June 26, and Sunday, June 27
Free – $100
www.nycpride.org

The annual Gay Pride celebration shifts into high gear this weekend with several of its signature events. On Saturday night, the seventh annual “Rapture on the River: A Women’s Dance” takes place at Pier 54, featuring music by Susan Morabito ($25 in advance, $35 day of show). The 2010 NYC LGBT Pride March gets under way Sunday at noon, beginning at 36th St. & Fifth Ave. This year’s grand marshals are Dan Choi, Judy Shepard, and Constance McMillen, with Frank DeCaro, Bruce Vilanch, and Romaine Patterson among the reviewing stand judges. The PrideFest street fair, on Hudson St. between Abingdon Sq. & West Fourteenth on Sunday, includes emcees Hedda Lettuce, Vanessa Valtre, and Kiiara Monteiro, with a special performance by Antigone Rising in addition to Nikki Exotika, Justin Utley, London Bridgez, Sprio, Melinda Hansen, and many others. And things come to a rousing conclusion Sunday night with “Dance on Pier: Dance 24,” a hot party on Pier 54 with DJs Steven Oliveri and Freemasons ($100).

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL: ROB LIST PERFORMANCES

Tjebbe Roelefs and Olivia Reschovsky perform Rob List’s “Injerto/Greffe” at Parker’s Box (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Parker’s Box
193 Grand St., Brooklyn
June 24-27, 1:00 – 12 midnight
Admission: free
718-388-2882
www.parkersbox.com
www.ozu.nl

American-born European-based performance artist Rob List has been creating unique pieces built around silence, natural light, everyday clothing, and minimal movement primarily in nontheatrical spaces for a quarter century. For example, in “Injerto/Greffe,” two male dancers stand face-to-face for an extended period of time, their hands grasped together, only their fingers moving, weaving in and around each other. This month List has been presenting several of his works in the all-white front room of Parker’s Box in Williamsburg, a melding of art, sculpture, and dance that places performer and viewer on equal footing. Joined by Melissa Cisneros, Diego Gil, Constance Neuenschwander, Olivia Reschovsky, Tjebbe Roelefs, and David Weber-Krebs, List will be staging “On the Balcony” (1:00 – 4:00), “Natura Morta” (4:00 & 6:00), and “Engrave” (11:00) in his final weekend in New York, as well as five-minute personal-request dances.

NORTHSIDE FESTIVAL

We Are Country Mice are among the growing lineup of excellent bands hitting Williamsburg this week for the Northside Festival (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Multiple locations throughout Williamsburg & Greenpoint
June 24-27
Admission: free – $19, badges $50
www.thelmagazine.com/blogs/NorthsideFestivalNews

The second annual Northside Festival is like a mini-CMJ, featuring a great lineup of mostly local bands — including the Fiery Furnaces, Takka Takka, Au Revoir Simone, Savoir Adore, Pillow Theory, Grooms, We Are Country Mice, Wavves, White Hills, High Places, Titus Andronicus, Ribbons, the Black Hollies, Les Savy Fav, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Harper Blynn, and Islands, among dozens of others — packing them in at Coco 66, Europa, Glasslands Gallery, the Knitting Factory, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Pete’s Candy Store, Public Assembly, Red Star Barn, Shea Stadium, Spike Hill, the Trash Bar, Union Pool, and Warsaw. In addition, Northside Film at IndieScreen will show such works as Zeina Durra’s THE IMPERIALISTS ARE STILL ALIVE, Ry Russo-Young’s YOU WON’T MISS ME, Todd Solondz’s LIFE DURING WARTIME, James Franco’s THE FEAST OF STEPHEN, and Neil Marshall’s CENTURION as well as host an animation block party, shorts programs, and more. And Arts at Northside includes exhibitions and special events, including Conrad Ventur’s “Screen Tests Revisited” at Momenta Art, Rob List’s collaborative dance at Parker’s Box, and live music by Party of Virgins and Live Footage at the opening of Liubo Borissov’s “Crowdsource” at Eye Level BQE. Expect massive crowds, an unusually high hipster quotient even for Williamsburg, and lots of awesome music. Keep watching twi-ny for specific recommendations and must-sees over the next few days.

EVIDENCE, A DANCE COMPANY

Evidence will be looking back at a quarter-century of dance at Harlem Stage

Harlem Stage Gatehouse
150 Convent Ave. at 135th St.
June 17-20, $35
212-281-9240 x19 or 20
www.harlemstage.org
www.evidencedance.com

Celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary, Ronald K. Brown and his immensely talented troupe, Evidence, a Dance Company, will look back at its history in two special programs during its four-day run at the Harlem Stage Gatehouse June 17-20. Friday and Saturday will feature “For You,” “Better Days,” “Incidents,” and “To Harm the Dangerous,” while Thursday and Sunday will consist of 2007’s “One Shot: Rhapsody in Black and White” and 2008’s “Two-Year Old Gentlemen.” Over the decades, Brown has traveled the world seeking new and traditional forms of dance, so his pieces incorporate music and movements from West Africa, Cuba, and throughout the African diaspora, leading to thrilling works that are both emotionally and spiritually energizing and uplifting.

THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND

The Wizard of Oz heads to Obamaland at Abrons Arts Center

NICHOLAS LEICHTER DANCE + MONSTAH BLACK
Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
June 16-19, $20, 8:00
212-598-0400
www.henrystreet.org
www.nldnyc.org

Since 1996, nicholas leichter dance has specialized in what it calls “cultural narratives where movement tells the story,” creating such works as KILLA, FREE THE ANGELS, CARMINA BURANA, and SWEETWASH. The company’s latest piece of musical dance theater, made in collaboration with Monstah Black (who also participated in KILLA), reinterprets THE WIZ and THE WIZARD OF OZ through the lens of the Obama generation. Leichter, who previously danced with Ralph Lemon, Jennifer Muller, Ronald K. Brown, and Gus Solomons jr., will ease audiences down the yellow brick road and into Obamaland at the Abrons Arts Center June 16-19, examining America’s hopes, fears, dreams, and recession-busting fantasies.

Monstah Black and nicholas leichter dance ease on down the disco road in a reimagined WIZ for the Obama generation (photo by Steven Schreiber)

Review: A fanciful collaboration between New York City-based choreographer Nicholas Leichter and self-proclaimed Messiah of the Funk Monstah Black, THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND is a campy low-budget send-up and joyful celebration of Sidney Lumet’s 1978 musical, THE WIZ. Black, serving as a sort of emcee à la Joel Grey in CABARET, has adapted songs from the original soundtrack, performing such numbers as “The Feeling That We Have,” “Ease on Down the Road,” and “Slide Some Oil” while wearing some of the most fab costumes this side of 1970s-era Studio 54 and the 1980s PARIS IS BURNING aesthetic. (Oh, those shoes…) Leichter and Black also throw in Missy Elliot’s raunchy “Lick Shots,” Faith Evans’s “Soon as I Get Home,” the Time’s “Jungle Love,” and Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” to keep up the funk and, in the latter case, add yet more silly humor to what was already a very funny, groovy show. The dancers, including Lauren Basco, Wendell Cooper, Stephanie Liapis, Aaron Draper, Dawn Robinson, Keon Thoulouis, Laurie Taylor, Yozmit, and Leichter, pay tribute to Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, and Rocky Balboa as they clearly have a ball performing Leichter’s exuberant choreography. Draper brings down the house several times, first holding fans on Robinson to make her dress and feather boa flap in the wind, then coming out as a boxer, his skinny white body soon dancing alongside three men with much, er, bigger, stronger, darker frames. Even at a mere seventy-five minutes it could use a little trimming here and there, but the show is still great fun, with one heckuva surprise near the end that will have you gasping for breath. THE WHIZ: OBAMALAND runs through June 19 at the Abrons Arts Center, but we’re hoping it comes back soon so it can be seen by the wider audience it deserves.

TRUTH, REVISED HISTORIES, WISHFUL THINKING, AND FLAT OUT LIES

john Jasperse’s latest, playing at the Joyce June 16-19, features a pair of bathing beauties and much more (photo by Sylvio Dittrich)


JOHN JASPERSE COMPANY
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 16-19, $10-$39
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.johnjasperse.org

For more than twenty years, Manhattan-based dancer-choreographer Johnn Jasperse has been creating unique works that explore both the human body and the psyche. Commissioning experimental music and often incorporating multimedia and multidisciplinary elements, Jasperse is always up to challenging himself as well as the audience. In 2007 he presented the environmentally conscious MISUSE LIABLE TO PROSECUTION at BAM, which was trashy fun, and last May he staged the very intimate BECKY JODI AND JOHN at Dance Theater Workshop. Back at the Joyce this week for the first time in ten years, Jasperse will be holding the New York premiere of TRUTH, REVISED HISTORIES, WISHFUL THINKING, AND FLAT OUT LIES, featuring a commissioned score by Hahn Rowe played live by the International Contemporary Ensemble.

Erin Cornell and John Jasperse go at it in the choreographer’s latest work (photo by Sylvio Dittrich)

Review: In his latest evening-length piece, John Jasperse explores the social, political, and personal aspects of the history of performance, with forays into adagio tango, the flappers fad, classical ballet, and experimental contemporary dance. He mixes fantasy with reality, truth with fiction, playing with illusion while testing the audience’s patience and its ability to acknowledge quality. At one point Neal Beasley, Erin Cornell, Eleanor Hullihan, and Kayvon Pourazar stumble about, unable to complete a move correctly, while at another they slide gracefully across the stage, in total control of their bodies. Jasperse makes occasional appearances as well, serving as comic relief, including one stint as a lousy magician. The glitz and glamour of the first part, which features sequined outfits, a colorful beach backdrop, and songs by Ginuwine and Barry White, is offset by the much more serious second act, with everything bathed in bright white, from the International Contemporary Ensemble, who play Hahn Rowe’s beautiful score live onstage, to the doily lampshades the four dancers and Jasperse don during a long, nearly motionless section following a scene of unexpected violence. While a handful of people left early on opening night (June 16), many more gave the company a rousing standing ovation at the end of a challenging, diverse, exciting, and intriguing night of unusual dance theater.