this week in dance

“BACK TO THE STREETS” DANCE PARADE

Who: Eduardo Vilaro, Heidi Latsky, Rich Medina, more
What: Sixteenth annual Dance Parade and DanceFest
Where: Parade starts at Twentieth St. & Broadway, DanceFest in Tompkins Square Park
When: Saturday, May 21, free, noon – 7:00
Why: After two years off because of Covid, Dance Parade has returned. On May 21 from noon to seven, more than ten thousand dancers and musicians will participate in the sixteenth event, aptly dubbed “Back to the Streets.” The 2022 grand marshals are Eduardo Vilaro of Ballet Hispánico, Heidi Latsky of Heidi Latsky Dance, and DJ Rich Medina. “I’m proud to headline New York City’s largest dance event focused on cultural representation and diversity,” Vilaro said in a statement. “Movement and community is so vital to our well being which the pandemic stole from us. We look forward to being a part of Dance Parade’s citywide celebration.”

The parade kicks off at Twentieth St. & Broadway, with the viewing stand located at Fourth Ave. & Eighth St. DanceFest takes place from three to seven in Tompkins Square Park, with dozens of performers on three stages from across the dance spectrum and the globe (Ukranian folk dance, Afro-Brazilian percussion, Argentine tango, Chinese classical, hip-hop, street jazz, breakdancing, flamenco, belly dance, Afro-Caribbean, majorette, Indonesian, Bolivian, Mexican, ballet, Bollywood, more) along with dance demonstrations, education outreach, dance battles, a Soul Train line, and other activities, all free and open to everyone.

DANCE WITH BACH

After two years, Dance with Bach is back (photo courtesy the Sebastians / Christopher Caines Dance)

Who: The Sebastians, Christopher Caines Dance
What: Music and dance celebrating Johann Sebastian Bach
Where: Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church, 152 West Sixty-Sixth St. between Amsterdam & Columbus Aves.
When: Friday, May 20, and Saturday, May 21, $20 virtual, $30-$50 in-person and virtual
Why: In 2014, the Sebastians, a chamber ensemble named after Johann Sebastian Bach, joined forces with Christopher Caines Dance to present Henry Purcell’s 1692 opera, The Fairy Queen, an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, merging baroque music with modern dance. Following a two-year delay because of the pandemic, the two companies are back together for Dance with Bach, a trio of Bach suites choreographed by Christopher Caines, taking place May 20-21 at the Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church by Lincoln Center as well as streaming online, photographed by multiple cameras. The program begins with Jean-Marie Leclair’s Ouverture from Deuxième récréation de musique d’une execution facile, Op. 8, followed by Bach’s Cello Suite No. 6 in D major, BWV 1012, performed on viola da spalla; English Suite No. 5 in E minor, BWV 810 for harpsichord; and Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, BWV 1067 for flute, strings, and continuo.

“We are thrilled to finally bring Dance with Bach to fruition,” Sebastians artistic director Jeffrey Grossman said in a statement. “Christopher and the dancers had put in countless hours of rehearsal when we were forced to cancel our May 2020 performances. We discussed ways of producing the project virtually, with recorded music and dancers wearing masks, but decided there would be too many compromises. After such a long journey, the experience of being back in the same room with the dancers, to feel their energy and respond musically to their physicality, is incredible.” Caines added, “I am one lucky choreographer to have had this band really throw down the gauntlet by asking me to choreograph three iconic masterpieces by their namesake master composer. What a challenge! And my dancers could not be more thrilled at the prospect of taking the stage backed up by one of the finest baroque ensembles anywhere.”

The works will be danced by CCD members Michael Bishop, Elisa Toro Franky, Genaro Freire, Jeremy Kyle, Michelle Vargo, and Leigh Schanfein in addition to student dancers from New York Theatre Ballet School (Charlotte Anub, Audrey Cen, Josephine Ernst, Madeline Goodwin, Clara Rodrigues-Cheung, Emely Leon Rivas, Eva Sgorbati). The ensemble consists of David Ross on flute, Nicholas DiEugenio on violin, Daniel Lee on viola da spalla and violin, Jessica Troy on viola, Ezra Seltzer on cello, Nathaniel Chase on violone, and Grossman on harpsichord.

STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY AT THE JOYCE

Stephen Petronio Company rehearses at Snug Harbor for Joyce season (photo by Lance Reha)

STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY
Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
May 17-22, $10-$71
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
petron.io

“What does it mean to be out in front of you tonight, to show up for you after so long?” Stephen Petronio asks in a program note for his company’s upcoming season at the Joyce, running May 17-22. “SPC has been coming to the Joyce each spring for almost forty years — a rite, a contract as celebration. To have that interrupted by Covid is like having our oxygen taken away. We are back and breathing now! We come before you tonight to show you that we have survived, that we are still here, in some ways stronger than ever, and that dance is a kind of social glue that keeps us all connected.”

SPC’s Joyce program begins with the world premiere of New New Prayer for Now, created as a virtual piece for the company during the lockdown to celebrate online collaboration, set to original music by Monstah Black and renditions of “Balm in Gilead” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water” recorded with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City (YPC), directed by Francisco J. Nuñez; the costumes are by Marine Penvern, with lighting by Ken Tabachnick. Following a pause, SPC continues its “Bloodlines” series honoring important choreographers who influenced Petronio with his mentor Trisha Brown’s 1973 Group Primary Accumulation, restaged by Shelley Senter. The online version with four dancers in white on a wooden bridge was breathtaking, so it will be fascinating to see it now live indoors.

After an intermission, the company presents a restaging of Petronio’s Bloom, which premiered at the Joyce in 2006 and features music by Rufus Wainwright based on the poetry of Walt Whitman (“Unseen Buds,” “One’s-Self I Sing”) and Emily Dickinson (“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers”) and the Latin Mass, sung live by YPC, with choral arrangements by Nuñez; the costumes are by Rachel Roy, with lighting by Tabachnick. The May 19 performance will be followed by a Curtain Chat with members of the company, which consists of Jaqlin Medlock, Kris Lee, Larissa Asebedo, Liviya England, Mac Twining, Nicholas Sciscione, Ryan Pliss, Tess Montoya, and Tiffany Ogburn. “It’s an emotional time,” Petronio says in the above preview of the Joyce season. If you haven’t yet seen this extraordinary company, you have only yourself to blame.

DONNA UCHIZONO COMPANY: WINGS OF IRON

Donna Uchizono’s Wings of Iron will have its world premiere this week at BAC (photo courtesy Donna Uchizono Company)

Who: Donna Uchizono Company
What: World premiere of Wings of Iron
Where: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Howard Gilman Performance Space, 450 West 37th St. between Ninth & Tenth Aves.
When: May 18-21, $25, 7:30
Why: For more than thirty years, Donna Uchizono has been creating innovative dance works that dig deep into the mind and human emotions while exploring the limits of our physical body. In such pieces as State of Heads, Thin Air, longing two, and Out of Frame, Uchizono, who was born on a US Army base in Tokyo and is proudly “the first and only American-born choreographer of Asian ancestry in the history of modern dance,” has developed a unique movement language that is as unpredictable as it is thrilling.

Her latest evening-length piece, Wings of Iron, has been in the works since 2017 and was originally scheduled to premiere at Baryshnikov Arts Center in May 2020 but was delayed because of the pandemic. A copresentation with the Chocolate Factory, Wings of Iron will now have its world premiere May 18-21 at BAC’s Howard Gilman Performance Space. “Listening is a key to my creative practice,” Uchizono said in a statement. “My creative research takes two to four years to develop a new work with its own physical vocabulary and structure. Dedicated to charting new territory with each dance, my process involves ‘hearing’ the work. I shape conceptual ideas into a physical language specific to each piece, carefully ‘listening’ as the dialogue with the dance itself is revealed. As that dialogue unfolds, a new dance vocabulary emerges that has the imprint of my own history while remaining highly specific to the work itself. My work demands a physical and mental rigor and I am drawn to a redefined sense of ‘virtuosity’ that extends the markers of skill and excellence to push against human standards of patience, duration, and minute, intensely detailed movement. My embrace of unseen undercurrents leads to the unexpected that traverses a spectrum of the discovery of the extraordinary in the vulnerable human experience.”

Wings of Iron will be performed by Bria Bacon, Natalie Green, Molly Lieber, and Pareena Lim, with an original score by okkyung lee and lighting by Joe Levasseur. The visual design features chairs and giant portraits of the dancers. “It is with worried excitement, hopeful relief, and a tinge of cautiousness that we announce the world premiere,” Uchizono wrote in an email blast. Wings of Iron “examines what it takes to remain humane in these charged times, providing a forum for both performer and audience to share in the weight of a vulnerability that is simultaneously public and private.”

JAPAN PARADE AND STREET FAIR

Who: George Takei, Sandra Endo, many others
What: Japan Day celebration of the friendship between the United States and Japan
Where: Central Park West between Sixty-Eighth & Eighty-First Sts.
When: Saturday, May 14, free, 12:30 – 4:30
Why: In May 2021, the annual Japan Day festival took place online; you can check out highlights here. This year the festival is anchored by the inaugural Japan Parade, featuring floats, live performances, and more, led by Grand Marshal George Takei and emceed by LA news correspondent Sandra Endo. The parade was supposed to take place in 2020 but was postponed because of the pandemic. This year’s event honors the 150th anniversary of the establishment of Japan’s mission to the United States and the US introduction of baseball to Japan. “To see the Japanese community in New York celebrated is a beautiful thing and it will be exciting to see Japan’s friendship with New York on full display,” Takei said in a statement.

Alexandra E. Tataru won the Japan Parade grand prize for the above artwork (courtesy Alexandra E. Tataru and Japan Parade)

The opening ceremony will take place at 12:30 on Central Park West and Seventieth St., followed by the parade, which kicks off at 1:00 from CPW and Eighty-First. Among the many participants in the parade will be the cast of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon The Super Live, Hello Kitty, drummers Cobu and Soh Daiko, Japanese Folk Dance of NY, Kazanami Yosakoi Dance Project, Young People’s Chorus of New York City, sword fighters Tate Hatoryu, International Karate Organization Kyokushinkaikan, and Anime NYC. In addition, there will be a street fair from 1:00 to 4:30 on Sixty-Ninth St. between CPW and Columbus Ave., offering such food and drink as BBQ chashu bowl by Nakamura, hojicha panna cotta by Abe’s Kitchen and Mt. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse, fried chicken and onigiri by Tori-Bien, ramen by Ramen Kings, mochi donuts by Kai Sweets and Mt. Fuji Japanese Steakhouse, okonomiyaki by Otafuku, noodles by Soba-Ya, and tea from Ito En, along with a Hello Kitty photo booth, the portable Mikoshi shrine by Samukawa Jinja, origami by the Origami Therapy Association, a charity supporting the Ukrainian National Women’s League of America, Japan tourism info, and more.

CARRIE AHERN DANCE: CARNAL SPILL

Carrie Ahern Dance’s “Sex Status 2.0” series takes place in private homes (photo by Julie Lemberger)

Who: Carrie Ahern Dance
What: Latest work in “Sex Status” series
Where: Private homes in Manhattan and Brooklyn
When: May 12-14, 18-21, sliding scale $25-$100, 8:00
Why: For more than two years, we watched dance online from the comfort of our our homes or wherever we were sheltering in place during the pandemic lockdown. Now, with venues back open, you can watch Carrie Ahern Dance’s (CAD) latest presentation in its ongoing “Sex Status” series from the comfort of someone else’s home. Since 2018, CAD’s “Sex Status 2.0” has reinterpreted Simone de Beauvoir’s 1949 The Second Sex through performances that ask such questions as “What is authentic femininity?,” “Where does our power lie?,” and “What are our deepest desires?,” taking place in private homes.

“Sex Status” continues with Carnal Spill, an investigation into the language women use and receive during sex. The work features text by Ahern, who previously explored modern death (2011-16), and Vanessa DeWolf, with storytelling, word games, and original music by Anne Hege. Jay Ryan will design the sets and lighting specifically for each of the two homes, one on West Forty-Third St. in Manhattan (May 12-14), the other in Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn (May 18-21). Carnal Spill — which asks, “How does our relationship to words evoke erotic connection or disconnection; turn-on or shame?” and “What is it about our fantasy life that can expand our reality?” — will be performed by Jennifer Chin, Donna Costello, Carolyn Hall, Elke Rindfleisch, and Bennalldra Williams; tickets are available on a sliding scale from $25 to $100.

JODY SPERLING/TIME LAPSE DANCE PERFORMANCE SERIES

Wind Rose is part of special performance series by Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance (photo by Annie Drew)

Who: Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance
What: Climate-change-themed performance series
Where: The Theater at the 14th Street Y, 344 East Fourteenth St. between Second & Third Aves., and online
When: May 5-7, $10-$100
Why: New York–based choreographer, dancer, writer, and scholar Jody Sperling, the founding artistic director of Time Lapse Dance (TLD), continues her climate-change-themed collaboration with Alaskan-born composer, sound artist, and eco-acoustician Matthew Burtner with a series of live events May 5-7 at the Theater at the 14th Street Y. TLD will present four shows that investigate the relationship between the body and the environment, with dancers Frances Barker, Morgan Bontz, Carly Cerasuolo, Anika Hunter, Maki Kitahara, Sarah Tracy, Nicole Lemelin, and Sperling and live music by Burtner.

The bill, which marks the company’s return to live, indoor performance in front of an audience after having made numerous dance films during the pandemic, includes the stage premiere of Plastic Harvest, about plastic pollution, performed by dancers immersed in a world of plastic bags; 2019’s Wind Rose, a work about breath and atmosphere for five dancers in flowing white costumes and a soloist in black; 2015’s Ice Cycle, about the melting of the ice caps; and an excerpt from the processional American Elm. It all begins with a gala on May 5 at 7:00 featuring a full performance, an artist talk, and a benefit reception. On May 6 at 7:00, a full performance can be experienced in-person or livestreamed. There will be a family-friendly in-person program May 7 at 2:00, followed by an in-person-only finale at 7:00.