this week in dance

STREB: HOW TO BECOME AN EXTREME ACTION HERO

streb

Friday, April 16, SLAM Studios, 51 North First St., Brooklyn, performance $10-$20, after-party free, 7:00
Tuesday, April 20, KGB Bar, 85 East Fourth St., free, 7:00
Wednesday, April 21, CUNY Graduate School, Proshansky Auditorium, 365 Fifth Ave., free, 6:30
www.streb.org
www.feministpress.org

Celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of her Extreme Action Company, dancer and choreographer Elizabeth Streb has several special events planned surrounding the publication of her new book, STREB: HOW TO BECOME AN EXTREME ACTION HERO (Feminist Press, April 2010, $18.95). In 2003, Streb, who believes in what she calls PopAction and pure movement and stresses the physical, athletic abilities of the human body, established SLAM Studios in Williamsburg, the STREB Lab for Action Mechanics. “The doors of SLAM are never closed,” Streb writes on her website. “Performances at SLAM are not stiff, class-coded, regimented affairs; they are neighborhood happenings where the company’s longtime fans from the high-art crowd mingle with the at-risk kids from the local public schools and their parents. At the heart of this machine is the driving force of art and action, and the belief that art can provide a service to a community such that voters, taxpayers, and consumers will consider it indispensable.” Streb, the Evel Knievel of Dance, will be launching her book April 16 at SLAM Studios, where her company will perform RUN UP WALLS, followed by a reception. Next week she’ll be at KGB Bar on April 20 with Jack Hitt as part of the KGB Nonfiction Series, then participate in a reading and discussion at the CUNY Graduate Center for the CUNY Science & the Arts Series.

1.2.3. FESTIVAL

Ailey II’s Ghrai DeVore performs in Judith Jamison’s DIVINING, part of three-company season at the Joyce (photo by Eduardo Patino, NYC)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
April 13-25, $10-$49
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org

Ailey II, ABT II, and Taylor 2 come together at the Joyce for two weeks of performances in repertory, showing off the next generation of talent from these prestigious companies. On opening night, all three will take the stage for a one-time-only special event. After that, they’ll rotate evenings, with Ailey II presenting Christopher Huggins’s ESSENCE, Thang Doa’s ECHOES, and Carlos dos Santos’s PROXIMITY, ABT II performing Jerome Robbins’s INTERPLAY along with world premieres by Roger VanFleteren and Edwaard Liang, and Taylor II staging AUREOLE, 3 EPITAPHS, COMPANY B, and ESPLANADE. In addition, each company will participate in a postshow Dance Chat (Ailey II on April 14, Taylor 2 on April 15, ABT II on April 20), where the audience will get to learn a little more about these young dancers.

TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY

Trisha Brown gem “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503” is part of special season at BAC (photo by Babette Mangolte)

40th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION
Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th St.
April 7-11, $25
www.trishabrowncompany.org
www.bacnyc.org

For forty years, Trisha Brown has had one primary goal: “I’m trying to make the perfect dance, that’s what drives me,” she’s said. The award-winning choreographer, opera director, and accomplished artist (whose drawings are regularly displayed in galleries) is celebrating the fortieth anniversary of her company with a special five-night, ten-show season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center’s Howard Gilman Performance Space. In this forty-five-minute program, Brown will be looking back with the 1994 solo “If you couldn’t see me,” in which she collaborated with Robert Rauschenberg, and the 1980 rarity “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503,” in which she worked with cloud sculptor Fujiko Nakaya. Continuing the celebration, she will complete her five-part lecture series at Dance Theater Workshop on April 11 with a discussion about her visual art and on May 23 with an examination of her legacy. And on May 1, her yearlong residency at Dia:Beacon ends with the staging of “Opal Loop/Cloud Installation #72503,” 1963’s “La Chanteuse,” a solo that hasn’t been seen since its initial presentation, and “Rafts” on the Hudson River (weather permitting).

THE LAST LOFT SHOW

A CELEBRATION OF 15 YEARS IN SOHO
The Puffin Room
435 Broome St. between Broadway & Crosby St.
Saturday, April 3, $5, 6:00 – 9:00
212-343-2881
www.puffinroom.org

After fifteen years, the Puffin Room will be saying goodbye to SoHo, but not without one last send-off. On Saturday night, their final exhibition, “The Last Loft Show,” which will indeed be the last show in the loft space, kicks off with special events celebrating the history of the alternative performance venue. Using as its guiding theme the Walt Whitman quote “Resist much, obey little,” the show will include photos from the Spanish Civil War, “Shocked and Awed” children’s drawings from Iraq, political posters, Dorothea Lange’s dramatic “Photos of the Japanese American Internment,” and pictures from Allan Tannenbaum’s “John Lennon in NYC” series. There will also be pieces by such loft artists as Barbara Thomas, Gene Thompson, Christa Grauer, Louis Mendez, Marion Pinto, and Puffin Room director and curator Carl Rosenstein. The opening party, on April 3 from 6:00 to 9:00, will feature live performances by Cui Fei, Ilse Schreiber-Noll, Irving Epstein, Margaret Silverman, Miriam Rosenstein, Song Xin, and Yana Schnitzler’s Human Kinetics troupe, which specializes in site-specific dance installations. On April 10, Steve Ben Israel, Michael Schwartz, Ngoma, and others will participate in “The Last Word,” while things promise to get funky on April 17 with “The Last Dance” party the day before the exhibit closes. The three Saturday events are $5 each, with proceeds benefiting Greenpeace. (Above photo by Harry Schnitzler: Human Kinetics will be performing the site-specific movement “Poem #3” at the opening party for the Puffin Room’s closing exhibition)

THERE IS SO MUCH MAD IN ME

Dancers search for connections in extraordinary production (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Dancers search for connections in extraordinary new production from Brooklyn-based choreographer Faye Driscoll (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St.
March 31 – April 3, $15
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org
www.fayedriscoll.com

In her brilliant new evening-length piece, rising star Faye Driscoll sets the bar high, daring both cast and audience to reach it — and they do, with spectacular results. Brooklyn-based choreographer wunderkind Driscoll, who has gained raves for such productions as 837 VENICE BLVD. and WOW, MOM, WOW, premiered her Dance Theater Workshop commission There is so much mad in me this week, a challenging, exhilarating show that never lets up. Driscoll’s latest makes full use of the DTW space as characters march up and down the aisles, take seats in the house, climb side poles, and run between the light stanchions. Filled with uncomfortable humor, raw aggression, and an innate charm, There is so much mad in me examines Americans’ need to see and be seen in today’s overstimulated world, desperate to make emotional and physical connections amid heart-wrenching loneliness.

Supremely talented cast works out its issues in public in Faye Driscoll’s exhilarating DTW commission (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Driscoll demands much from her supremely talented cast, creating unusual, often spastic movements and long patches of dramatic dialogue that include scenes that place them on in-your-face talk shows and reality programs (think Oprah meets Jerry meets Tyra meets AMERICAN IDOL). An early duet between Nikki Zialcita and Michael Helland, two of the stars of 837 VENICE BLVD., announces that There is so much mad in me is going to be a very different kind of dance theater, and that continues with a gorgeous section in which Jesse Zaritt and Tony Orrico battle it out over Lindsay Clark, representing the private individual not sure how much she is willing to reveal in this ever-more-public society. When Adaku Utah grabs the microphone, she offers material gifts, and Jennie MaryTai Lau serves up lurid voyeurism, but Jacob Slominski deals out rage and fear. Making sophisticated sociocultural observations that comment on sexuality and violence, Driscoll never takes the easy way out, resulting in a fresh, original, touching, and powerfully direct experience.

THERE IS SO MUCH MAD IN ME

Faye Driscoll will show how much mad there is in her at DTW March 31 - April 3

Faye Driscoll will show how much mad there is in her at DTW in new evening-length piece

Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th St.
March 31 – April 3, $15
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org
www.fayedriscoll.com

Last December at the University Settlement and again in January at Dance Theater Workshop as part of the APAP conference, choreographer Faye Driscoll offered a sneak peek at her upcoming production, There is so much mad in me, featuring an exhilarating scene of beautiful chaos. The show makes its full-length debut at Dance Theater Workshop this week, running March 31 through April 3. Performed by Lindsay Clark, Lily Gold, Michael Helland, Tony Orrico, Jennie Mary, Tai Liu, Jacob Slominski, Adaku Utah, Jesse Zaritt, and Nikki Zialcita, There is so much mad in me examines the overstimulation prevalent in today’s society as people battle emotional extremes just to keep going.

Driscoll, who was included in the New Museum’s “Younger Than Jesus” exhibit highlighting the work of emerging artists under the age of thirty-three (her video from the show, “Loneliness,” can be seen above), incorporates a lot of dialogue into her pieces, not afraid to challenge conventions and rile up the audience. She has described her choreography as being “rebellious” and “dangerous,” and advance looks at There is so much mad in me hint that her latest should be no different. Opening night, March 31, will be preceded by a Coffee and Conversation with Driscoll, while the April 2 show will be followed by a discussion between Driscoll and Interdependence Project founder Ethan Nichtern, moderated by dance writer Deborah Jowitt.

ARMORY ARTS WEEK: SITE FEST ’10

sitefest2

Multiple locations in Bushwick
March 6-7, 1:00 – 9:00 (music continues past midnight)
Suggested donation for certain events $5, day pass $10, weekend pass $20
www.artsinbushwick.wordpress.com

For something a little different during Armory Arts Week, head out to Brooklyn for two days of open studios, gallery openings, live performances, and more at the second annual SITE Fest. Organized by Arts in Bushwick, the festival has three primary theater, dance, and performance art hubs — 3rd Ward on Morgan Ave., Chez Bushwick on Boerum St., and the Grace Exhibition Space on Broadway — while Goodbye Blue Monday will be home base for much of the live music, curated by ionSOUND. Among the performers scheduled to appear are Kung Fu Crimewave, Larkin Grimm, Meng-Hsuan Wu, Homunculus Mask Theater, Yoo & Dancers, Jenny Vogel, Synthesis Dance Project, HoverBound, the Movement Farm, Ling-Fen Chien, and the Omen Project. There will also be site-specific installations, interactive performances, artist talks, film screenings, sketch comedy, and panel discussions at such satellite sites as the Bushwick Starr, English Kills Gallery, the Petri Space, Bushwick Music Studios, House of Yes, Brooklyn Fireproof Gallery, and many others.