this week in dance

YANIRA CASTRO: EXORCISM = LIBERATION

EXORCISM = LIBERATION
Multiple locations
September 6-28, free
www.acanarytorsi.org

Yanira Castro is a fearless creator always ready to challenge herself and fully engage the audience. Born in Puerto Rico and based in Brooklyn, Castro and her company, a canary torsi (an anagram of her name), have presented such involving, complex, and entertaining multidisciplinary works as Dark Horse/Black Forest, a dance installation for public restrooms; the Jean-Luc Godard–inspired Paradis, a site-specific performance outdoors at twilight at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden; Performance | Portrait, an interactive video installation at the Invisible Dog Art Center; now.here.this, a meditative march of resistance in Prague; and Last Audience, a live communal laboratory at New York Live Arts, a performance manual, and a three-part space-opera podcast.

“Yanira Castro is a structural obsessive. She is an art scientist. She sees the rules and patterns lurking just beneath the surface of things,” Chocolate Factory Theater cofounding artistic director Brian Rogers has written. “The stuff that’s easier not to see . . . chaos staring at itself in the mirror, finding order.”

The Chocolate Factory is one of several venues hosting Castro’s latest project, Exorcism = Liberation, which explores climate change, immigration, land rights, colonialism, and self-determination in activations modeled around political campaigns. Kicking off September 6 and continuing each Saturday this month, the programs, seen through a Puerto Rican lens, include listening sessions, live music, food, and posters, stickers, banners, lawn signs, and pins. (There will also be activations in Chicago, and Western Massachusetts.)

Exorcism = Liberation asks participants to examine three slogans: “I came here to weep,” “Exorcism = Liberation,” and “What is your first memory of dirt?” Conceived, written, and directed by Castro, the project features audio design by Erica Ricketts, graphics by Alejandro Torres Viera and Luis Vázquez O’Neill, voice performances by Melissa DuPrey, josé alejandro rivera, and Steph Reyes, a bomba danced by Michael Rodríguez, and live musical performances by devynn emory and Martita Abril.

In a 2014 twi-ny talk about Court/Garden at Danspace Project, Castro explained, “It is not that I want to challenge the audience. I want to create a scenario for them and to be in conversation with them and I want them to form the picture, craft their experience. Their presence dynamically changes what is occurring. That is what ‘live’ means for me. It is dynamic because of the people in the room.”

In addition to the below events, installations at Abrons Arts Center, the Center for Performance Research (with a November activation date TBD), and the Chocolate Factory will continue into November.

Yanira Castro will present activations of Exorcism = Liberation in multiple locations this month

Friday, September 6, 6:00
I came here to weep: immersive group audio experience with movement score performed by Martita Abril, light refreshments prepared by Castro, stickers and pins available, Abrons Arts Center, 466 Grand St. at Pitt St., Manhattan

Saturday, September 7, 6:00
What is your first memory of dirt?: activation and collective listening session, followed by movement score “Clearing Practice” performed by devynn emory, light refreshments prepared by Castro, stickers and pins available, the Invisible Dog garden, 51 Bergen St., Brooklyn

Saturday, September 14, 7:00
CATCH 76: collective action, followed by a movement score performed by Martita Abril, with ice pops and limbers de coco y limon, the Chocolate Factory Theater (outside), 38-33 24th St., Long Island City

Saturday, September 21, 2:00
I came here to weep: activation and long table discussion with Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste, Sami Hopkins, and Theodore (ted) Kerr, ISSUE Project Room, 22 Boerum Pl., Brooklyn

Saturday, September 28, 2:00-4:00
Exorcism = Liberation: activation with ice pops, limbers de coco y limon, the Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St., Manhattan

Friday, October 25, 1:00 – 9:00
OPEN LAB: What is your first memory of dirt? Aural Archiving with Yanira Castro / a canary torsi, advance RSVP required, the Center for Performance Research, 361 Manhattan Ave., Brooklyn

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

R.O.S.E.

R.O.S.E. premiered last year at the Manchester International Festival (photo by Johan Persson)

R.O.S.E.
Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. at Sixty-Seventh St.
September 5-12, $65
www.armoryonpark.org

Park Ave. Armory’s massive Wade Thompson Drill Hall has been turned into a flashy nightclub for the North American premiere of the immersive R.O.S.E., running September 5-12.

There are no seats for the three-hour production, so the audience will be on their feet and on the move, shaking and grooving to the show, which features cutting-edge choreography by Sharon Eyal, direction by Gai Behar and Caius Pawson of the record label Young, musical curation by Mattis With of Young, stage and creative design by Daphnée Lanternier, lighting by Alon Cohen, costumes by Maria Grazia Chiuri, and music by DJ Ben UFO. (Audience members can take a break on lounge seating in adjoining reception rooms.)

An armory commission that previously played at New Century Hall in Manchester, R.O.S.E. explodes with freedom, energy, and intimacy as audience and performers meld together as one.

There are several special programs being held in conjunction with R.O.S.E. On September 7 at 7:00, there will be a SLINK rave ($35) with DJs Currency Audio, Laenz, Simisea, rrao, and Enayet, while on September 8 at 6:00 the STUNT QUEEN!!! rave will be led by DJs Kilopatrah Jones, MORENXXX, madison moore, and TYGAPAW, hosted by Xander C. Gaines Aviance and with a poetry reading by Abdu Mongo Ali. And on September 8 at 3:00, “Day for Night: A Salon on Art and Nightlife” ($35) features “Music and Deejaying” with madison moore, Kevin Aviance, and Xander C. Gaines Aviance; “Dance and Club Culture” with Ariel Osterweis and MX Oops; and “The Art of Queer Worldmaking” with Gage Spex, Raúl de Nieves, Dosha, and Jacolby Satterwhite.

Some shows are already sold out, so act fast if you want to catch what should be one of the hottest shows of the year.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

HARLEM WEEK 50: CELEBRATE THE JOURNEY

HARLEM WEEK
Multiple locations in Harlem
August 7-18, free
harlemweek.com

Fifty years ago, actor and activist Ossie Davis cut a ribbon at 138th St. and the newly renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (formerly Seventh Ave.), opening what was supposed to be a one-day, one-time-only event known as Harlem Day; Davis called it “the beginning of the second Harlem Renaissance.” Among the cofounders were Davis, his wife, Ruby Dee, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Ornette Coleman, Lloyd E. Dickens, David Dinkins, Basil Paterson, Tito Puente, Charles Rangel, Max Roach, Vivian Robinson, “Sugar Ray” Robinson, Hope R. Stevens, Bill Tatum, Barbara Ann Teer, and Rev. Wyatt T. Walker.

The festival has blossomed over the last half century into the annual favorite Harlem Week, a summer gathering packed full of live performances, film screenings, local vendors, panel discussions, a job fair, fashion shows, health screenings, exhibits, and more. This year’s theme is “Celebrate the Journey”; among the highlights are the Uptown Night Market, the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K Run & Health Walk, Great Jazz on the Great Hill, Harlem on My Mind Conversations, a Jobs & Career Fair, the Children’s Festival, the Concert Under the Stars, and the centerpiece, “A Great Day in Harlem.” Below is the full schedule; everything is free.

Wednesday, August 7
Climate Change Conference, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, West 125th St., 6:00

Thursday, August 8
Uptown Night Market, 133rd St. & 12th Ave., 4:00 – 10:00

Harlem Summerstage, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, 5:30

HW 50 Indoor/Outdoor Film Festival, 7:00

Friday, August 9
Senior Citizens Day, with health demonstrations and testing, live performances, exhibits, panel discussions, the Senior Hat Fashion Show, and more, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Saturday, August 10
NYC Summer Streets Celebrating Harlem Week’s 50th Anniversary, 7:00 am – 3:00 pm

The Percy Sutton Harlem 5K Run & Health Walk, West 135th St., 8:00 am

Choose Healthy Life Service of Renewal and Healing, noon

Great Jazz on the Great Hill, Central Park Great Hill, 4:00

Harlem Week/Imagenation Outdoor Film Festival: Black Nativity (Kasi Lemmons, 2013), 7:00

Sunday, August 11
A Great Day in Harlem, with Artz, Rootz & Rhythm, the Gospel Caravan, AFRIBEMBE, and Concert Under the Stars featuring the Harlem Music Festival All-Star Band, music director to the stars Ray Chew, and special guests, General Grant National Memorial, Riverside Dr., noon – 7:00

Monday, August 12
Youth Conference & Hackathon, 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Children’s Corner — Books on the Move: “Mommy Moment,” 10:00 am

Tuesday, August 13
Economic Development Day, noon – 3:00

Arts & Culture/Broadway Summit, 3:00

Harlem on My Mind Conversations, 7:30

Wednesday, August 14
NYC Jobs & Career Fair, CCNY, 160 Convent Ave., 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Harlem on My Mind Conversations, 7:00

Thursday, August 15
Black Health Matters/HARLEM WEEK Summer Health Summit & Expo, with free health screenings, prizes, breakfast, and lunch, the Alhambra Ballroom, 2116 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Harlem Summerstage, Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building Plaza, 5:00

Banking & Finance for Small Business & Entrepreneurs, Chase Community Banking Center, 55 West 125th St., 6:00 – 9:45

Harlem on My Mind Conversations, 8:45

Saturday, August 17
NYC Summer Streets Celebrating HARLEM WEEK’s 50th Anniversary, 109th St. & Park Ave. – 125th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., 7:00 am – 3:00 pm

NYC Children’s Festival, with storytelling, live performances, dance, hip hop, theater, poetry, arts & crafts, double dutch competitions, face painting, technology information, health services, and more, Howard Bennett Playground, West 135th St., noon – 5:00

Summer in the City, with live performances, fashion shows, and more, West 135th St., 1:00 – 6:00

Alex Trebek Harlem Children’s Spelling Bee, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd., 2:00

Harlem Week/Imagenation Outdoor Film Festival, Great Lawn at St. Nicholas Park, West 135th St. 6:00

Sunday, August 18
NYC Health Fair, West 135th St., noon – 5:00

NYC Children’s Festival, with storytelling, live performances, dance, hip hop, theater, poetry, arts & crafts, double dutch competitions, face painting, technology information, health services, and more, Howard Bennett Playground, West 135th St., noon – 5:00

Harlem Day, with live performances, food vendors, arts & crafts, jewelry, hats, sculptors, corporate exhibitors, games, a tribute to Harry Belafonte, and more, West 135th St., 1:00 – 7:00

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

PHILIPPE PETIT: TOWERING!!

Philippe Petit will look back at his historic walk between the Twin Towers at special events at St. John the Divine (photo courtesy Man on Wire)

Who: Philippe Petit, Sting, Anat Cohen, Molly Lewis, Sophie Auster, Tim Guinee, Lorenzo Pisoni, Evelyne Crochet, Shawn Conley, James Marsh, Michael Miles, and students of Ballet Tech
What: Live performances celebrating fiftieth anniversary of Twin Towers high-wire walk
Where: The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St.
When: Wednesday, August 7, and Thursday, August 8, $50-$500 (VIP $1800), 8:30
Why: It was an unforgettable moment in my childhood. On August 7, 1974, French tightrope artist Philippe Petit, six days shy of his twenty-fifth birthday, pulled off what he called “le coup”: After six years of secret planning, he snuck up to the top of the South Tower of the recently built World Trade Center and walked on a 131-foot-long wire he had strung to the other, 1,350 feet aboveground, traversing it eight times over forty-five minutes using a balancing pole. The crossing was completely unauthorized; spectators and security officers alike were stunned. It was a spectacular achievement that went viral well before there was anything like social media. It was all over the news, on television and in the papers, and it was all anyone was talking about.

“This is probably the end of my life to step on that wire,” Petit says in James Marsh’s 2008 documentary, Man on Wire. “Death is very close.”

The Twin Towers opened on April 4, 1973, and were destroyed on September 11, 2001.

Petit has also walked the high wire at the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Louisiana Superdome, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Paris Opera, the Museum of the City of New York, the Eiffel Tower, and locations in Jerusalem, Tokyo, Vienna, Frankfurt, Belgium, Switzerland, and numerous US cities. In 1982, 1992, and 1996, he performed the feat at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where he has been an artist in residence for more than four decades.

On August 7 and 8, in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of his World Trade Center walk, called the “artistic crime of the century,” Petit has conceived and directed “Towering!!,” a special two-night multidisciplinary happening consisting of nineteen scenes at the cathedral, where he will be joined by clarinetist Anat Cohen, musical whistler Molly Lewis, singer-songwriter Sophie Auster, actors Tim Guinee and Lorenzo Pisoni, classical pianist Evelyne Crochet, bassist and composer Shawn Conley, musician, author, and educator Michael Miles, and students from Ballet Tech dance school.

Petit, who turns seventy-five on August 13, will walk the high wire and share stories about his WTC adventure. In addition, his good friend Sting will play three songs, including “Let the Great World Spin,” which was written specifically for this event, and Marsh will debut a short film about Petit.

Limited tickets are still available for several sections as well as VIP seating, which comes with Champagne and dessert with Petit after the performance. Part of the proceeds support programs at the cathedral and the preservation of Petit’s archives.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

OPEN CALL 2024: NEW ART FOR NEW YORK

Asia Stewart, work-in-progress showing of Fabric Softener, presented by Amanda + James, Coffey Street Studio, Red Hook, Brooklyn, June 11, 2022 (photo by Elyse Mertz / courtesy the artist)

OPEN CALL
The Shed
545 West 30th St. at Eleventh Ave.
Thursday – Saturday through August 17, free with advance RSVP
646-455-3494
theshed.org

The Shed’s free summer performance series, Open Call, kicked off in June with Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre’s Gathering: New York City and has included such other presentations as Cain Coleman’s New Information, Kyle Dacuyan’s Dad Rock, and Garrett Zuercher’s Inside/Look. It continues July 25–27 with Asia Stewart’s Fabric Softener, a ritualistic response to Toni Morrison’s 1977 novel, Song of Solomon, that introduces the audience to the Laundress (Stewart), the Celebrant (Dominica Greene), and the Witness (Candice Hoyes), joined by the Narrator (Shala Miller) and violinist and composer Yaz Lancaster.

The next weekend, NIC Kay’s must have character features a mascot and a drag performer (Kay and Gabriele Christian) wandering through the Shed and the surrounding area from noon to 8:00 on August 1 and 1:00 to 3:00 on August 2, followed by the public program “Building Characters Through Theater and Photography” on August 3 at 1:00. On August 9 and 10 at 7:30 in the Griffin Theater, Nile Harris investigates jazz cornetist Buddy Bolden, mental illness, containment, and black box theaters in a workshop production of minor b, starring Harris, Jim Fletcher, Tony Jenkins, Ley(sis), and Jonah Rollins. Open Call concludes August 15–17 with Kayla Hamilton’s immersive dance performance How to Bend Down/How to Pick It Up, which honors lineages of Black disabled imagination.

Although many of the performances are sold out, these are free events, so there are always no-shows; in-person waitlists will be available fifteen minutes before curtain.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

LEGENDS & LEGACIES: ELEVENTH ANNUAL STooPS BED-STUY ART CRAWL AND BLOCK PARTY

STooPS 2024 SUMMER FESTIVAL
Stuyvesant Ave. & Decatur St., Brooklyn
Saturday, July 27, free (advance registration recommended), 1:00 – 7:00
www.stoopsbedstuy.org
www.eventbrite.com

The eleventh annual STooPS Arts Crawl and Block Party takes place July 27 from 1:00 to 7:00, with live music and dance, spoken word, workshops, theater, and visual art on the stoops and shared spaces of Bedford–Stuyvesant. This year’s theme is “Legends & Legacies,” honoring the history of the community. Among the legacies participants are textile artist Aaliyah Maya, singer-songwriters Amma Whatt and YahZarah, poets Carmin Wong, Kai Diata Giovanni, and Keys Will, storyteller Christine Sloan Stoddard, musicians BSTFRND, DJ Toni B, and Zardon Za’, dancer-choreographer Kendra J. Bostock, healer Renee Kimberly Smith, and artists Ladie Ovila Lemon (Mūt’ Sun) and Shanna Sabio. Representing the legends are Black Girl Magic Row; Monique Greenwood of Akwaaba Mansion; Sincerely, Tommy founders Kai Avent-deLeon, Mama Jelani deLeon, and Ms. Doreen deLeon; Chief Baba Neil Clarke; Ms. Cathy Suarez of the Decatur St. Block Association; and organizer and educator Lumumba Akinwole-Bandele of the East.

“STooPS is a living legacy — the bridge that connects the artists, movements, organizations, and neighbors who transformed Bed-Stuy into a Black Cultural Hub with the new artists, residents, and visitors in order to forge the future of this neighborhood and Black culture,” STooPS founding director Bostock said in a statement. “For our 2024 annual summer festival we honor the national and hyperlocal hero/sheros and imagine and inspire their posterity with our theme, Bed-Stuy: Legends and Legacies.“

The festivities begin at 1:00 with a block party lasting all afternoon, including a Kiddie Korner; there will be art crawls at 1:30 and 4:30, led by playwright and poet Wong. All events are free but advance registration is recommended.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]

PAM TANOWITZ DANCE: DAY FOR NIGHT

Three-part Day for Night goes from daylight to dusk to evening (photo by Liz Devine)

DAY FOR NIGHT
The Amph at Little Island
Pier 55, Hudson River Park at West Thirteenth St.
July 17-21, $15 standing room, $25 seats sold out, 8:30
littleisland.org
www.pamtanowitzdance.org

Little Island’s inaugural season of site-specific commissions continues with Bronx-born choreographer Pam Tanowitz’s Day for Night, which blends beautifully with the surroundings of the outdoor Amph theater. As the audience makes its way past the grassy green hills that leads to the venue, the dancers are scattered along the path, offering a prologue, clad in diaphanous green costumes. As the audience is being seated in the Amph’s wooden rows, the sun is setting over the Hudson, a golden glow that evokes the title of the show, the term used when a film is shooting a nighttime scene during the day.

The sixty-minute piece was inspired by François Truffaut’s 1973 film, Day for Night, which goes behind the scenes of the making of a movie, featuring a British actress (Jacqueline Bisset) who has recently suffered a nervous breakdown, an aging French star (Jean-Pierre Aumont), an Italian diva (Valentina Cortese), and a young French actor (Jean-Pierre Léaud); Truffaut portrays the harried director.

The dance begins with Lindsey Jones, Marc Crousillat, and Maile Okamura forming an extended pony-stepping trio in which various emotions boil to the surface, including jealousy, power, and revenge. They are later joined by Morgan Amirah and Brian Lawson, who peer out over the river, in addition to Sarah Elizabeth Miele and Victor Lozano. In all black, Melissa Toogood delivers an impressive solo, looking serious and concerned.

The dancers move up the aisles, climb to a pair of scaffold balconies, and rest on the first row of benches, which is covered in fake green grass. They jump, run around in a circle, and lie down on the empty stage. The soundtrack features gentle tones as well as harsher drones, accompanied by recordings of the natural environment of Little Island, from birds and wind to lapping waves, human murmurings, and traffic. When the BBC’s Shipping Forecast plays over the sound system, I initially thought it was coming from a boat passing in the distance. (The immersive sound and music are by Justin Ellington.)

Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung’s costumes come in multiple colors echoing the environs, with loose-fitting tops and tighter bottoms; old-fashioned striped swimming trunks provide contrast to the vertical picket fence bordering the water. Lighting designer Davison Scandrett blasts out red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and almost blinding white.

Tanowitz, who has previously choreographed such works as I Was Waiting for the Echo of a Better Day, Law of Mosaics, and Four Quartets, for such companies as New York City Ballet, the Royal Ballet, Martha Graham, Paul Taylor, Ballet Austin, and her own Pam Tanowitz Dance, teases the audience with a series of false endings and bows before everyone moves over to the Glade, where Toogood, in silver sequins, dances a forceful epilogue to Caroline Shaw and Sö Percussion’s slow, elegiac cover of ABBA’s “Lay All Your Love on Me,” in which Shaw nearly whispers, “Don’t go wasting your emotion / Lay all your love on me / Don’t go sharing your devotion / Lay all your love on me.”

“Cinema is king!” Truffaut’s character says in Day for Night. On Little Island right now, it’s dance that rules.

[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]