The Teabaggers will present “The TNC Tea Party” at this year’s Lower East Side Festival of the Arts (photo by Alex Smith)
Theater for the New City
155 First Ave. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
Saturday, May 29, and Sunday, May 30
Admission: free www.theaterforthenewcity.net
The fifteenth annual Lower East Side Festival of the Arts continues on Saturday on Sunday with two days of free live performances both inside the Theater for the New City and outside, where a cultural fair will be held. On Saturday from 2:00 to 5:00, magicians, musicians, dancers, and more will entertain children in the Johnson Theater, anchored by Supercute playing at 4:30. Adult entertainment takes over after that, with the Alpha Omega Theatrical Dance Company, Bleecker Street Opera, David Amram, Joe Franklin, and others. Meanwhile, Yana Schnitzler’s Human Kinetics Movement Arts will perform a site-specific installation in the lobby beginning at 7:00. Films will run from noon to midnight in the Cabaret Theater, including Rome Neal’s BANANA PUDDIN JAZZ, Buck Heller’s THROUGH THEIR EYES, and Roger Corman’s BUCKET OF BLOOD. And the outdoor street festival will feature live music, poetry readings, performance art, dance, and comedy by Jessica Delfino, the Drama Bums, Domingo’s Dominion, the Vox Pop Players, Jessica Friedlander, and others. On Sunday night, KT Sullivan, Tammy Grimes, the Silvercloud Singers & Drummers, Phoebe Legere, Penny Arcade, and Tokyo Penguin are among those scheduled in the Johnson Theater, with theatrical performances taking place in the Cabaret Theater. In addition, the Community Space Theater will host a poetry program at 4:00 with special guest Joan Durant and nearly fifty participants. And all weekend long, the lobby will be home to visual art curated by Carolyn Ratcliffe. It’s a great festival that has something for everyone, and, yes, it’s all free.
Bill Shannon is in the midst of a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam
DOUZ AND MILLE @ DNA PRESENTS BILL SHANNON
Dance New Amsterdam
280 Broadway, second floor
Exhibition runs through June 18, free
Lecture/performance: May 25, $17, 8:00
Traffic: June 2-4, $20-$25, 4:30
212-625-8369 www.dnadance.org www.douzandmille.com www.whatiswhat.com
When Bill Shannon was five years old, he was diagnosed with Legg-Calvé Perthes disease, a degenerative, bilateral hip deformity that has required him to use crutches and braces for most of his life. The onetime Easter Seals poster child, who turns forty this year, used breakdancing and skateboarding as a way to project his burgeoning creativity, eventually developing the Shannon Technique, which combines his remarkable dexterity on crutches with the sociological phenomena of interacting with a public that has has preconceived notions and differing levels of comfort in the presence of so-called disabled people. On the stage and in the streets, Shannon, who is in the midst of a three-month residency at Dance New Amsterdam (DNA), has created a fascinating visual vocabulary that involves such moves as the sweeper, frontside airs, toeflips, splitmids, the elbow stall, and nohanders and nofooters, using what he refers to as “disability based utilitarianism” in his dance and choreography, incorporating playful tricks as well as emotionally wrought movement that uses natural sound and light in addition to hip-hop music.
His crutches become an extension of his body instead of a prop or a handicap as he elicits fascinating reactions from the public, experiences that he has documented in a series of videos that are collected on the second floor of DNA, twenty monitors that depict “The Evolution of William Foster Shannon.” The videos include Shannon going up and down the steps of an art museum receiving “help” from strangers, riding through the streets on crutches and a skateboard with multiple cameras attached to give amazing views of his travels, his stunning duet with a woman in a wheelchair, and side-by-side depictions of his attempts to pull off certain specific moves, one video featuring his failures, the other his successes. In another outdoor performance in a small downtown New York City park, he hides himself in a white outfit and becomes “invisible,” slowly making his way through the area as people mostly ignore him. On May 25, Shannon will be giving a lecture/performance at DNA that should be both entertaining and intriguing, as he is an engaging character with endless insights into such interactivity as the “face of distraction,” “questioning the stare,” and the “weight of empathy,” terms he uses in describing his unique art form.
Bill Shannon’s “Spatiotemporality” video exhibit continues at DNA through June 18 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
“Many people from all walks of life experience stereotypes projected upon them in a public context,” Shannon explains on his website. “The difference in my opinion between reactions to my ambiguous and wide ranging representation of disability and the stereotypes other people endure related to their ability, age, race, class, culture, gender, and sexual orientation is the ease at which people will communicate with me directly and indirectly about the details of my life and identity and the cumulative volume of communication about these details over my lifetime.” Audiences will get the extreme pleasure of watching Shannon in action in his live street piece “Traffic”: From June 2 to 4, Shannon will present a Transient Specific Street Performance, starting at DNA and gliding down the streets of Lower Manhattan on his crutches and skateboard, turning the urban landscape into his stage while the audience follows him in a bus. Don’t miss any of these rare chances to see Shannon in action.
There should be plenty of dancing fools at annual Dance Parade (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Saturday, May 22, 21st St. & Broadway, 1:00
Admission: free (but text DANCE to 20222 to donate $5) www.danceparade.org
More than six thousand dancers representing some sixty-five styles will be dancing through the streets of the city at the fourth annual Dance Parade, beginning at Broadway and 21st St. at 1:00 and continuing down to Tompkins Square Park, where DanceFest will run from 3:00 to 7:00. This year’s grand marshals are Ellenore Scott, Elizabeth Zimmer, DJ Jellybean Benitez, and Amy Marshall. The nonprofit that runs the parade declares, “This is our future. Open your heart! Free your mind! Face your fears! Live your soul! Dance!” Among those participating in the parade are the Congolese Association for the Development of Authentic African Music, Song Hee Lee Dance Company, One Love – the Dancing Path, BellyRhythm, Toury Chivas of Colombia, KineticArchitecture, the New York Swing Dance Society, Hip Hop Fusion, Fitnotic, the House of Yes, Renegadevirus, and dozens of others. The after-party in Tompkins Square Park will feature a social dance as well as two stages of performances and lessons from such companies as Contemporary Ballet Theatre, Inner Spirit Dance, 60×60, NYC Bhangra, Martha Graham II, Yosakoi Dance Project, the Amazing Amy: Yoga Contortion Dancing, Manhattan Tribal, and Strictly Traditional Tango. Everybody, dance now!
LAW & ORDER: SVU’s BD Wong will star in new musical as part of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Asia Society (unless otherwise noted)
725 Park Ave. at 70th St.
May 21-29, $15-$30
212-517-asia www.asiasociety.org
The Asia Society’s celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month continues on May 21 as the Balinese music and dance ensemble Gamelan Dharma Swara will present a preview of their fall tour, preceded by a lecture about the engaging art form ($20, 7:00). From May 24 to 26, BD Wong will star as a fortune hunter in the new musical HEADING EAST, with music by Leon Ko and lyrics by Robert Lee ($30, 8:00). On May 26, Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh, author of the new book DELIVERING HAPPINESS: A PATH TO PROFITS, PASSION, AND PURPOSE, will discuss his life and career ($15, 6:30). The inventive dance team of Eiko and Koma will perform “Retrospective Project I: Regeneration” May 27-29 at Danspace Project, with each evening followed by a Q&A with guest speakers ($18, 8:00). And today is the last day to check out the AsiaStore Asian American Designer Series, with special appearances by Rita Chung and Rose Ajmera.
Last year, MOMIX performed BOTANICA at the Joyce, what we called “an eco-friendly multimedia exploration of the four seasons, with the company’s talented cast of ten taking on the roles of flora and fauna, ocean waves, trees, rocks, birds, hornets, a storm, and just about everything else under the sun — well, actually, including the sun.” The inventive group, headed by artistic director and founder Moses Pendleton, is back at the Joyce to celebrate the dance troupe’s thirtieth anniversary, first presenting ReMIX May 11-23, a fortnight of their greatest hits and highlights, including pieces from ORBIT, LUNAR SEA, OPUS CACTUS, and BASEBALL, followed by two weeks of BOTANICA. MOMIX’s pieces range from the awe-inspiring to the gimmicky, constantly surprising audiences with inventive uses of light, sound, costumes, props, and the human body. A Dance Chat with Pendleton will follow the May 19 performance.
Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
May 5-22, $20 per performance, $55 passport for any five shows
Festival Pass: $100
After-parties: $10
212-352-3101 www.ps122.org
www.terranovacollective.org
The seventh annual soloNOVA Arts Festival begins this week, featuring eight one-person shows and three late-night after-parties. This year’s lineup ranges from bilingual theatrical cabaret (Karina Casiano’s ROOTLESS: LA NO-NOSTALGIA) and musical comedy (Erin Markey’s PUPPY LOVE: A STRIPPER’S TAIL) to storytelling and song (Shontina Vernon’s WANTED) and dance theater (Jesse Zaritt’s BINDING). Daniel Berkley gets personal delving into his schizophrenia and addictions in REMISSION, Avery Pearson takes on sixteen characters in the thriller MONSTER, Brian McManamon is an odd collector in the Frigid NY favorite IT OR HER, and comedian W. Kamau Bell attacks racism in THE W. KAMAU BELL CURVE: ENDING RACISM IN ABOUT AN HOUR. In addition, there will be three Ones at Eleven after-parties at P.S. 122, highlighting music on May 8, comedy on May 15, and storytelling and spoken word on May 22. And on May 21, terraNOVA Collective will honor Nilaja Sun as soloNOVA Artist of the Year at a benefit with clips, food, drink, and more ($30, 8:00).
Contemporary dance’s reinvigoration and ever-widening appeal at the end of the twentieth century is due in no small part to a bounty of amazing, daring, and boundary-pushing choreographers; among the more prominent is Stephen Petronio, known for integrating visual arts, new music, and cutting-edge fashion into his works. Last year the New Jersey native began celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of his company with a whirlwind international tour, culminating at the Joyce this week in a wonderful chronological program that looks back at Petronio’s history while forging ahead into the future. Petronio opens the evening himself with his signature solo, “#3” (1986); in a partially undone tux after what appears to have been a long night, Petronio announces his unique visual language, fluidly twisting and turning his neck and upper body, speaking out with his arms while standing, rooted, at the front of the stage, at times beckoning to the audience. Petronio then lets his powerfully muscled company show its astonishing stuff in the steamy, bravura “MiddleSexGorge” (1990). The dancers torque, thrust, and flex their torsos, pivoting arms and legs with swift, sharp, angular motions to an extended techno-industrial remix of British punk band Wire’s “Ambitious.” Petronio’s explosive take on the AIDS crisis features the men in white corsets and the women in slinky, structured tight black outfits, their serious facial expressions and speedy yet deliberate movement complemented by Wire repeatedly calling out, “Are you hot?”
After intermission, Julian DeLeon performs 1993’s “Love Me Tender,” a cute and charming evocation of the Elvis Presley classic, followed by the trio of Amanda Wells, Reed Luplau, and Shila Tirabassi dancing 1997’s “Foreign Import,” set to an acoustic version of Radiohead’s “Creep,” Wells and Tirabassi angelic in white, incorporating ballet techniques while Luplau, in circus-like garb, moves around and between them demonically, evoking, as the song says, a “weirdo.” The entire company then returns for the world premiere of the dazzling “Ghosttown,” a complicated, unpredictable dance set to the Wordless Music Orchestra’s performance of Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood’s “Popcorn Superhet Receiver.” In front of a screen continually changing colors, the performers, draped in diaphanous, shredded shroudlike costumes, cross the stage with mysterious precision, executing breathtakingly close yet emotionally distant moves. The piece marks a sophisticated new high point in Petronio’s work and a promise of even more exciting things to come.
Petronio will participate in a Dance Chat following the April 28 show. In addition, he will be teaching a master class on May 21 at the Joyce’s Dance Art New York Studios.
