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.
Brooklyn Botanic Garden
900 Washington Ave. at Eastern Parkway
Saturday, May 1, and Sunday, May 2, $10-$15
718-623-7200 www.bbg.org/sakura2010
There is nothing quite like hanami in Brooklyn, the annual cherry blossom viewing at the botanic garden. More than two hundred flowering Japanese cherry trees are expected to be in bloom this weekend for the Sakura Matsuri, a two-day festival of dance, music, art, workshops, food, workshops, and nature that always attracts large crowds excited to experience the pure beauty of it all. Among this year’s participants are Soh Daiko, Nihon Buyo Classical & Ryukyu Buyo Okinawan Dance, the Spring Street Haiku Group, happyfunsmile, Samurai Sword Soul, poet Enta Kusakabe, Dean Street FOO Dance, Kagero Japanese Gypsy rock, Pokémon voice artist Veronica Taylor, DJ Saiko Mikan, stand-up comic Uncle Yo, woodblock artist April Vollmer, children’s Taiko drummers Genki Daiko Team, Masayo Ishigure and the Miyabi Koto Shamisen Ensemble, and the Japanese Folk Dance Institute of NY. Special events and activities include a Mataro Ningyo dollmaking demonstration, a Sohenry-style tea ceremony, the Manga & Anime Artist Alley, a cosplay fashion show, origami paper folding, ikebana flower arranging, a children’s tattoo parlor, a high tea with the Parasol Society, Japanese hot-pot cooking, bonsai advice for home gardeners, and so much more. It’s really one of the best weekends of the year, a must-see for every New Yorker that will become an annual ritual once you experience its charm.
bobrauschenbergamerica returns to New York City for an extended run at DTW (photo by Richard Termine)
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
April 23 – May 16, $25
212-924-0077 www.dtw.org www.siti.org
In October 2003, New York City-based SITI Company presented bobrauschenbergamerica at BAM’s Harvey Theater. The production is now back for an extended run at Dance Theater Workshop as part of the Guest Artist Series, with cast and crew Talk Backs following the April 27, May 4, and May 11 performances. Here’s our original review; please note that we have not seen the current show, so some aspects, of course, might have changed: Playwright Charles L. Mee and director Anne Bogart’s Americana romp is set on a perpendicular American flag with openings a la LAUGH-IN, wherein characters will suddenly appear, sometimes in the midst of showering. The multitalented cast features a biker, a homeless man, a bikini babe, a prom queen, a roller-skating cheerleader, a gay man, a white professional man, a black man in love, and artist Bob Rauschenberg’s mother. Making art out of everyday objects, the show is an avant-garde collage of American apple pie, featuring such songs as “Love Will Keep Us Together,” a picnic with fried chicken, a human martini, Ping-Pong balls, a swinging tire, and text from Rauschenberg, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Walt Whitman and Merce Cunningham. “Art was not a part of our lives,” Bob’s mother says to the audience several times. But it is surely a part of her son’s vision of America, making for a wacky, wild, and fun night.
Actress Leslie Zemeckis delves into the fascinating history of American burlesque in the playfully dirty little documentary BEHIND THE BURLY Q. Zemeckis, the wife of Oscar-winning filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (who served as an executive producer on the project), wrote, directed, and edited this oral and visual history of the burlesque movement, speaking with many of its stars and uncovering wonderful old photographs and film clips. She speaks with such burlesque beauties as Joan Arline, Lorraine Lee, Taffy O’Neill, Sunny Dare, White Fury, Dixie Evans, Tempest Starr, Kitty West, and Blaze Starr, cutting between them today and archival footage of them in their prime, taking it almost all off. Zemeckis also speaks with journalists, musicians, comedians, and relatives of deceased legends (Sally Rand, Lily St, Cyr, Lou Costello), including Alan Alda, who talks extensively about being raised on the burlesque circuit since his father, actor Robert Alda, was a popular straight man. The dancers discuss run-ins with the law, battles with local government, famous fans (Pretty Boy Floyd, Bonnie & Clyde, Elvis Presley, JFK, Walt Disney), drug and alcohol problems, and fighting and jealousy among some of their own, including stories both very funny and rather tragic. Zemeckis keeps it all proceeding smoothly as she documents a generation that is quickly disappearing, as evidenced by the long list of burlesque performers who have since passed away after being interviewed for the film. Zemeckis will be at the Quad to participate in Q&As following the 7:05 screenings on Friday and Saturday night.
