this week in dance

FREE SUMMER DANCE 2010

ZviDance performed last year at the LMCC program Siteliines and will be at Celebrate Brooklyn! this summer

Some of New York’s most exciting dance companies will be presenting free performances this summer at such annual festivals as Celebrate Brooklyn!, SummerStage, CityParks Dance, River to River, and other special events. Among the companies scheduled to participate are Laura Peterson Choreography, Abakuá Afro-Latin Dance Company, Alice Farley Dance Theater, Armitage Gone! Dance, Deganit Shemy and Company, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Paul Taylor II, Paul Taylor Dance Company, Lucinda Childs, and many more to be announced.

Saturday, June 5    Red Hook Fest – Back to Front: La Excelencia, Joseph Webb & Beautiful Fire, decadancetheatre, Cora Dance, M.U.G.A.B.E.E., and more, Louis J. Valentino Jr. Park and pier, 11:00 am – 7:00 pm

Saturday, June 5    Pathmark MultiCultural Festival: Casym Steel Drums, Sunrise Chinese Dancers, Niall O’Leary Irish Step Dancers, Samba Novo, and Zon del Barrio, South Street Seaport Pier 17, 12 noon – 4:00

Saturday, June 12
and
Sunday, June 13    Square One: i actually love this, rooftop dance, Hand & Foot at Available Space, 260 Butler St. between Nevins & Bond Sts., 7:30 & 9:30

Tuesday, June 22
through
Friday, June 25   River to River — LMCC Sitelines: Laura Peterson Choreography: Everyone, the Elevated Acre, 12:30

Saturday, June 26   CityParks Dance: Abakuá Afro-Latin Dance Company and Areytos Performance Works, St. Mary’s Park, 7:00

Thursday, July 1   Celebrate Brooklyn!: Zoom: ZviDance, Son Lux with Lottdance, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00

Wednesday, July 7
and
Thursday, July 8   River to River — LMCC Sitelines: Yoshiko Chuma: A-C-E ONE, LentSpace, Canal and Varick Streets, 5:30 and 7:30

Thursday, July 8   River to River: Alice Farley Dance Theater, HellGate Love Letter, World Financial Center Plaza, 12:30

Thursday, July 8   Celebrate Brooklyn!: Itutu: Armitage Gone! Dance featuring Burkina Electric, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00

Friday, July 9   River to River: Alice Farley Dance Theater, HellGate Love Letter, One NY Plaza, 12:30

Friday, July 9 Passport Fridays: South Africa (World Cup Edition), with dance by S.A.G.A., live music by Tuelo Minah, and screening of STREETBALL (Demetrius Wren, 2010), Queens Museum, 6:30

Saturday, July 10   River to River: Rochester City Ballet, Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts, 2:00

Sunday, July 11 MoonDance: David Berger Jazz Festival, Hudson River Park Pier 54, dance lessons 6:30, concert 7:00

Monday, July 12
through
Thursday, July 15    River to River — LMCC Sitelines: Deganit Shemy and Company: 2 kilos of sea, John St. United Methodist Church, 44 John St., 12:30

Friday, July 16   CityParks Dance: Seewe African Dance Company and BalAfroHop, Queensbridge Park, 8:00

Friday, July 16
through
Saturday, August 14   River to River: Paul–André Fortier: Solo 30×30, One New York Plaza, 12 noon

Friday, July 16 Passport Fridays: Colombia & Ecuador, with dance by Estampas Negras, live music by GeoPro and ACES and Diego Obregon & Grupo Chonta, and screenings of WE PAINT HOUSES, WITH PAINT! (Celectivo El Deposito & Juan Zabala, 2008), THE HOUSE OF THE STIFF CAT (Nancy Burneo Salazar, 2009), and FREKUENCIA KOLOMBIA (Vanessa Goksch, 2009), Queens Museum, 6:30

Saturday, July 17   CityParks Dance: THE DANCE OF LIGHT, choreographed by Vernard J. Gilmore and Abdur-Rahim Jackson, Queensbridge Park, 7:00

Sunday, July 18   MoonDance: Los Hermanos Colon, Hudson River Park Pier 54, dance lessons 6:30, concert 7:00

Sunday, July 25   MoonDance: Nu D’Lux, Hudson River Park Pier 54, dance lessons 6:30, concert 7:00

Thursday, July 29   Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Ansanm (In Love We Stand), Emeline Michel, Beethova Obas, BélO, Zili Misik, and Peniel Guerrier in collaboration with the Mikerline Dance Company Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30

Friday, July 23 Passport Fridays: South Korea, with dance byVongKu’s Traditional Korean Drum & dance Troupe, live music by the Blue & White, and screening of CASTAWAY ON THE MOON (Lee Hae-jun, 2009), Queens Museum, 6:30

Friday, July 23
and
Saturday, July 24     SummerStage: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Rumsey Playfield, 8:00

Friday, July 30    CityParks Dance: Creative Outlet Dance Theater, Kyle Abraham and Abraham.in.Motion, Jackie Robinson Park, 7:00

Friday, July 30 Passport Fridays: Taiwan, with dance by Sun Son Theater, live music by the Formosa Chamber Music Society, and screening of ORZBOYZ! (Ya-che Yang, 2008), Queens Museum, 6:30

Friday, July 30     Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Nona Hendryx, Nicholas Leichter Dance with Monstah Black: THE WHIZ: Over the Rainbow, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:30

Saturday, July 31     CityParks Dance: Earl Mosely’s Institute of Dance, Motion Theater Lab, Jackie Robinson Park, 7:00

Saturday, July 31
and
Sunday, August 1    River to River — LMCC Sitelines: Phil Soltanoff: SIT, STAND, WALK, LIE DOWN…, Governors Island, 3:30

Sunday, August 1    MoonDance: Hector Del Curto’s Eternal Tango Orchestra, Hudson River Park Pier 54, dance lessons 6:30, concert 7:00

Monday, August 2
through
Thursday, August 5    River to River — LMCC Sitelines: Christopher Williams: The Voyage of Garbhglas (excerpt), Irish Hunger Memorial, Battery Park, 12:30

Thursday, August 5    Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Paul Taylor Dance Company: 80th Birthday Celebration, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 8:00

Friday, August 6 Target Passport Fridays: Middle East, with dance by Sramzi El-Edlibi Dabke Dance Group, live music by Salaam Middle Eastern Music Ensemble, and screening of AMREEKA (Cherien Debis), Queens Museum, 6:30

Sunday, August 8    MoonDance: George Gee Swing Orchestra, Hudson River Park Pier 54, dance lessons 6:30, concert 7:00

Monday, August 9
through
Thursday, August 12   River to River — LMCC Sitelines: LoVid: Trichrome Navigation, location to be announced, 12:30

Tuesday, August 11   SummerStage: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Dancin’ Downtown Contest Winners, Rumsey Playfield, 8:00

Thursday, August 12   Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Chinese American Arts Council: Lion Dance, Josie Robertson Plaza, 7:00

Friday, August 13 Passport Fridays: Brazil, with dance by Carioca Capoeira, live music by Quenia Ribeiro, and screening of THE MAN WHO BOTTLED THE CROWDS (Liro Ferreira, 2000), Queens Museum, 6:30

Friday, August 13   CityParks Dance: Paul Taylor II and Naganuma Dance, East River Park, 7:00

Saturday, August 14   CityParks Dance: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Wideman, Davis Dance, East River Park, 7:00

Saturday, August 14    Complexions Contemporary Ballet + Wideman/Davis Dance, East River Park, 7:00

Sunday, August 15    Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Lucinda Childs: Dance, Brian Brooks Moving Company: Motor, Damrosch Park Bandshell, 7:00

FIRST SATURDAYS: BROOKLYN CHIC

Ronald K. Brown and his Evidence company are part of First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum on June 5

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway
Saturday, June 5, free, 5:00 – 11:00 (some events require free tickets distributed at the Visitor Center)
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

On June 5, the Brooklyn Museum’s monthly First Saturdays program celebrates, well, Brooklyn. And why not? The J. C. Hopkins Biggish Band will be playing at 5:00, Ronald K. Brown’s awesome Evidence a Dance Company will be performing at 5:30 (followed by a Q&A with Brown), chief curator Kevin Stayton will discuss “American High Style: Fashioning a National Collection” at 7:00, Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire will put their dancing shoes on for a screening of Stanley Donen’s FUNNY FACE also at 7:00, Keanan Duffy will give a book club talk on his latest, REBEL, REBEL: ANTI-STYLE, at 9:00, the House of Ninja’s Archie Burnett hosts a vogue dance contest at 9:00, and Friends We Love’s DJ Moni will get everyone’s mojo working at the always hot and sweaty dance party (9:00 – 11:00). All of the exhibitions will be open, including “Kiki Smith: Sojourn,’ “Healing the Wounds of War: The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair of 1864,” and “Body Parts: Ancience Egyptian Fragments and Amulets.” Everything’s free, although some of the events require advance ticketing available an hour ahead of time, and the lines do get long, so be prepared.

BUSHWICK OPEN STUDIOS 2010

Matt Jones, “Outer Space,” oil and galkyd on canvas, 2010 (505 Johnson Ave. #19)

ARTS IN BUSHWICK
Through June 6
Admission: free
www.bos2010.artsinbushwick.org

The all-volunteer Arts in Buschwick organization is hosting the fourth annual Bushwick Open Studios this weekend, with more than three hundred shows, art sales, and live performances June 4-6. As you travel through the happening Bushwick hood, you might encounter free glitter, synchronized cycling, light installations, comedy, printmaking, free beer, a fashion show, interactive participatory events, and much more.

TRAFFIC: A TRANSIENT SPECIFIC PERFORMANCE

Bill Shannon moves through city steets on crutches and a skateboard in “Traffic” (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

DOUZ AND MILLE @ DNA PRESENTS BILL SHANNON
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway
June 2-4, $20-$25, 4:30
212-625-8369
www.dnadance.org
www.douzandmille.com
traffic slideshow

Multimedia artist, dancer, and choreographer Bill Shannon took his crutches and skateboards through the streets of Lower Manhattan on June 2, weaving around vehicles, interacting with strangers, dancing on public sculpture, and even hooking up with an old friend while being followed by the audience in a bus in the exhilarating “Traffic: A Transient Specific Performance.” The Pittsburgh-based Shannon, who contracted the degenerative bilateral hip deformity Legg-Calvé Perthes disease when he was a child, is in the midst of a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam, where he has given classes and lectures on the Shannon Technique and installed the video project “spatiotemporality: The Evolution of William Foster Shannon.” For “Traffic,” Shannon, who needs crutches, commissioned an original hip-hop score mixed by DJ Brian Coxx that blasts through the air-conditioned Academy bus while VJ Glytch handles the video feed on small monitors so the people on board could always follow Shannon’s movements.

Shannon uses urban landscape of Lower Manhattan as his stage in unique freestyle performance (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Although Shannon, who considers himself a sociological anthropologist, has the route laid out in advance, skating and dancing through the Financial District, in Battery Park, and under the Brooklyn Bridge, among other locations, what he does on the way is completely freestyle, incorporating signature moves as he becomes part of the urban architecture. While people on the bus were running from side to side to watch him out the windows, he completely coincidentally picked up skateboard legend Mike Wright, whom he used to ride with back in 1993 and is now hawking skateboard DVDs on the street; got a jug of iced tea from a construction crew; stopped for a smoke with a man in a suit; had a brief talk with a female MTA bus driver; put on a show for a crowd of tourists who were utterly confused; and got shooed away from one area by a city cop. At one point, he skated around Mark di Suvero’s large, red “Joi de Vivre” sculpture in Zuccotti Park near Ground Zero; coincidentally, di Suvero also needs crutches, the result of a serious elevator accident that left him partially paralyzed. As exciting as it is to watch Shannon perform his remarkable feats with no fear, it’s also fascinating to gauge the public’s reaction, as they shake their head in wonder, shrug their shoulders in disbelief, laugh, reach for their cameras, or, perhaps most often, look away, as if Shannon were invisible – or just another strange thing in New York City. Shannon holds a brief Q&A session back at Dance New Amsterdam following the amazing, insane seventy-five-minute performance, discussing some of the unique aspects of what he just experienced and asking the audience to share their thoughts. “Traffic” will also take place June 3 and 4, with seating limited to thirty-seven; don’t miss this one-of-a-kind thrill that takes advantage of the many joys of life.

WORLD SCIENCE FESTIVAL

Art and physics combine in unique and unusual ways at World Science Festival

Multiple venues
Admission: free – $30
June 2-6
www.worldsciencefestival.com

The World Science Festival is back, seeking to show people the many wonders of science through lectures, dance, art, music, literature, and other disciplines. High school chemistry and biology might not have been fun, but there are plenty of great things to check out at this annual event. The celebration gets under way June 2 with a gala at Alice Tully Hall featuring Alan Alda, John Lithgow, Rebecca Luker, Yo Yo Ma, and many others honoring genius Stephen W. Hawking and witnessing the world premiere of ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME by Brian Greene, David Henry Hwang, and Philip Glass ($250-$10,000). Through Sunday, a full-scale model of the James Webb Space Telescope will be on view in Battery Park, along with interactive exhibits and a party scheduled for June 4 (free). The Broad Street Ballroom will be home to “Astronomy’s New Messengers: The Exhibit Listening to the Universe with Gravitational Waves,” where visitors can check out a model LIGO, or Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory; it’s also free, as is the panel discussion on June 3 at 6:30. At the Museum of Arts and Design, New York City students will be creating designs using pigmented E. coli (free, 3:00), Margaret S. Livingstone, Patrick Cavanagh, and Jules Feiffer will discuss “Eye Candy: Science, Sight, Art” at NYU’s Kimmel Center ($30, 7:00), the Moth gathers writers, scientists, and artists to tell stories in “Grey Matter” ($25, 7:30), and Alda, Kip Thorne, and Robbert Dijkgraaf talk about “Black Holes and Holographic Worlds” at the Skirball Center ($30, 8:00). Thursday through Sunday at Cedar Lake, the innovative Armitage Done! Dance troupe will stage the New York premiere of THREE THEORIES, a series of high-speed duets that uses the principles of physics in their movements; several performances will be followed by a special talk-back with a physicist ($30).

On Friday, “Food 2.0: Feeding a Hungry World” is at the Baruch Performing Arts Center ($30, 7:00), “The Science of Star Trek” is evaluated at Galapagos ($30, 7:00), and Oliver Sacks and Chuck Close team up for “Strangers in the Mirror” at the Kaye Playhouse ($30, 8:00). On Saturday, mathemagician Arthur Benjamin will dazzle the mind at the New School ($15, 11:00 am), John Hockenberry leads a panel discussion at the New School that goes inside the Large Hadron Collider ($30, 3:00), and Hockenberry will then head for the Skirball Center for “Hidden Dimensions: Exploring Hyperspace” ($30, 8:00). On Sunday, the World Science Festival Street Fair takes place in Washington Square Park, several astronauts land at the Kimmel Center for “Astronaut Diary: Life in Space” (free, 11:30 am), and ICARUS AT THE EDGE OF TIME will be staged at the Skirball, with live narration by Liev Schreiber and live music by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. ($30, 7:00). And believe it or not, those are only some of the forty events going on during the festival, which bills itself as “an unprecedented annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity, and inventiveness [that] takes science out of the laboratory and into the streets, theaters, museums, and public halls of New York City, making the esoteric understandable and the familiar fascinating.”

PARIS SYNDROME

Japanese women go a little too crazy for Paris in new show at HERE Arts Center

HERE Arts Center
145 Sixth Ave. by Spring St.
June 3-19
Tickets: $12 before June 3 for shows through June 12, $18 thereafter
212-647-0202
www.here.org
www.expgirl.net

Many people are deeply affected by trips to Paris, falling in love with the art, the food, the shopping, and other cultural aspects of the City of Light. But every year a small number of Japanese women are overcome by Paris syndrome, a psychiatric disorder, similar to Stendhal syndrome, in which the women suffer hallucinations as well as physical distress, triggered by unexpected events, and need to be repatriated to their home country. “An encounter with a rude taxi driver, or a Parisian waiter who shouts at customers who cannot speak fluent French, might be laughed off by those from other Western cultures,” BBC News reported in December 2006. “But for the Japanese — used to a more polte and helpful society in which voices are rarely raised in anger — the experience of their dream city turning into a nightmare can simply be too much.” Brooklyn-based dance theater company Ex.Pgirl examines the relatively new phenomenon in its latest work, PARIS SYNDROME, playing at HERE Arts Center June 3-19. Through dance, theater, film, music, video interviews, and even a little vaudeville, the multimedia production, directed by Emma Griffin, follows six women who journey to Paris and are soon battling the syndrome. Ex.Pgirl was founded in 2002 by Bertie Ferdman and Suzi Takahashi with the express purpose of using experimental theater by women to address issues of culture and identity; the cast of PARIS SYNDROME includes Ferdman, Takahashi, Elsa Carette, Valerie Issembert, Kiyoko Kashiwagi, and Soomi Kim, with original music by LaBulo, lighting by Lucrecia Briceno, and sets by Peter Ksander.

DONNA UCHIZONO COMPANY: longing two

Donna Uchizono’s latest goes on the road in the city (photo by Melinda MX Lee)

Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th St., 7:00
The Kitchen, 512 West 19th St., 8:15
Tuesday, June 1, through Saturday, June 5 (June 3 performance reviewed below)
Tickets: $20
212-868-4444
www.donnauchizono.org
www.thekitchen.org
www.bacnyc.org

New York City-based dancer/choreographer Donna Uchizono is trying something rather different for her newest evening-length work: The first half will be staged at the Baryshnikov Arts Center on West 37th St., with the second half being held at the Kitchen in Chelsea. Examining “proximity, perception, destination, and arrival,” the two-part piece will feature Uchizono, Hristoula Harakas, Anna Carapetyan, and Savina Theodorou, with original music by James Lo, costumes by Wendy Winters, lighting by Joe Levasseur, and set design by Ronnie Gensler and Orlando Soria. It’s been nearly three years since Uchizono, who is currently celebrating the twentieth anniversary of her company, has presented a new piece in New York, the world premiere of THIN AIR at Dance Theater Workshop in October 2007, so we’re extremely excited about longing two. Oh, and don’t worry about getting from one place to another; a bus will take all ticket holders from BAC to the Kitchen.

Donna Uchizono and Hristoula Harakas move to the Kitchen for second part of unique evening-length piece

Update: The show begins at BAC, where the audience is seated in two rows of folding chairs on either side of a fashion-runway-like setup bordered by two three-foot-high horizontal paper sheets. The two younger dancers, Anna Carapetyan and Savina Theodorou, wearing tight-fitting white costumes, move quickly up and down the runway, stopping to make eye contact with audience members, whispering lines from Neil Young’s “When You Dance,” and making swimlike movements to sounds of waves crashing on the shore. Meanwhile, Donna Uchizono and longtime collaborator Hristoula Harakas, standing side by side but facing opposite directions in looser, move flowing outfits, creep forward, almost imperceptibly slowly, down the middle of the runway. Only the top parts of the dancers are visible, the lower halves cut off by the paper border. Following a beautiful short section in which Carapetyan and Theodorou navigate the runway on their hands, only their legs showing, the audience is taken on a bus – with a little bonus to heighten their thirst – to the Kitchen, where everything is more wide open, a paper sheet strewn across the back and sides of the stage, enveloping the dancers along with the crowd. While Uchizono moves on the floor, using her feet and toes like hands and fingers, Harakas does mind-boggling leg lifts, turns, and twists while standing on the other leg. Like the first part at BAC, the pairs only come together near the end, needing one another to go on. Uchizono’s longing two is a fascinating work, incorporating Butoh-like precision, experimental noise, bright fluorescent white lights, and even a little synchronized swimming to examine relationships and distance, both human and environmental. And it is a thrill to see Uchizono onstage again, convinced by Harakas to perform for the first time in ten years to help celebrate the company’s twentieth anniversary.