this week in dance

TICKET ALERT: MAGIC IN PLAIN SIGHT — A SERIES OF FREE SOCIALLY DISTANCED PERFORMANCES IN SUNSET PARK

Target Margin Theater is bringing people together at storefronts and inside for “Magic in Plain Sight” and “Electric Feeling Maybe”

Target Margin Theater
The Doxsee and nearby locations
232 52nd St. in Sunset Park
October 10, 17, 24, and 30, free with advance RSVP, 7:00 & 8:00
www.targetmargin.org/magic

Target Margin Theater is among the first troupes returning to in-person programming. “Magic in Plain Sight,” a series of pop-up presentations that deal with loss and loneliness, is taking place October 10, 17, 24, and 30 at 7:00 and 8:00 in its Doxsee space in Sunset Park as well as in nearby storefronts, parking lots, and other locations. Admission is free, but you must RSVP in advance; only ten people at a time can watch from the sidewalk. “‘Magic in Plain Sight’ is one of the ways we at Target Margin Theater often talk about how a theatrical event should feel,” founding artistic director David Herskovits said in a statement. “As we all crave for ways to connect and safely gather, we wanted to create a public event that celebrates what we have lost and the wonder that remains. This is the magic in plain sight for all of us to experience.” Each night concludes with “Electric Feeling Maybe,” a thirty-minute gathering with music, movement, and language that explores the concept of touch and people being together. The piece is created by Ali Andre Ali, Will Badgett, Purva Bedi, Leonie Bell, Ebony Burton, Rawya El-Chab, Jesse Freedman, Mary Neufeld, Grace Orr, Stephanie Weeks, and Herskovits, who also directs. Tickets are going fast, so get yours now if you’re ready to start making limited forms of contact and connection and are in dire need of live (socially distanced) performance.

CELEBRATING CHARLIE PARKER AT 100

Who: Hope Boykin, LaMar Baylor, Patrick Coker, Daniel Harder, Jessica Pinkett, Sam Turvey, Jerome Jennings, Erika Elliott, Sheila Jordan, Christian McBride, Ayodele Casel, Joe Lovano, Charles McPherson, Grace Kelly, Antonio Hart, Barry Harris, Gary Giddins, Melissa Staiger
What: Special programs celebrating the centennial of the birth of Charlie Parker
Where: 92Y and Summerstage
When: Saturday, August 29, free – $25
Why: It’s a tradition at the end of August in New York City to celebrate the life and legacy of Charlie “Bird” Parker, the legendary Kansas City-born saxophonist who moved to New York City in 1939 as a teenager and became one of the greatest jazzmen of all time. Parker was born on August 29, 1920, so the city is paying tribute to the centennial of his birth with several special programs on Saturday. At 7:00, longtime Alvin Ailey dancer Hope Boykin will present the world premiere of …a movement. Journey., a dance film that is part of the 92nd St. Y program “Charlie Parker: Now’s the Time – Celebrating Bird at 100.” The film features LaMar Baylor, Patrick Coker, Daniel Harder, and Jessica Pinkett and will be followed by a live discussion and Q&A. “Living through a time such as this, when our eyes are open to the world’s need for healing, artists continue to refocus their thoughts toward the creatives of the past, those who have paved the way and created lanes, inspiring us to build on their legacies and dreams,” Boykin said in a statement. “Audiences will see short vignettes choreographed and created for dancers who have been isolated during the world’s intermission, struggling to find a way out, and searching for their stage. Standing alone or woven together, the works created will show the struggle and celebrate the survival of life. Charlie Parker left us a soundtrack of the world in which he lived, and I will use the story the music tells, through his body of work, to create and celebrate all he left us.”

The 92Y program, held in conjunction with WGBO, also includes “Celebrating Bird — A Conversation with Music” with Joe Lovano, Charles McPherson, Grace Kelly, Antonio Hart, and Barry Harris, hosted by Gary Giddins; a free “Charlie Parker Online Listening Party!” curated and hosted by Brian Delp; and the online class “Charlie Parker’s Music as Visual Art Catalyst” with Melissa Staiger.

In addition, City Parks Foundation’s twenty-eighth annual Charlie Parker Jazz Festival goes virtual this year, taking place on Instagram from 10:30 am to 5:00 pm, with recaps of the 2018-19 festivals; culture talks with Sam Turvey, Jerome Jennings, and Erika Elliott and Sheila Jordan and Christian McBride; a digital tap class with Ayodele Casel; archival clips; and the world premiere of “Charlie Parker at 100: A Celebration of Parker’s Birthday and the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival.”

HARLEM DAY 2020

Who: Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Doug E. Fresh, Harlem Music Festival All Star Band, Ray Chew, Alyson Williams, the Georgie Gee Orchestra
What: Harlem Week special event
Where: Harlem Week
When: Sunday, August 23, free with RSVP, 1:00
Why: The forty-sixth annual Harlem Week celebration has been a virtual potpourri of fun events that continue this weekend with an online 5K run, a vendor village, live music, a fashion show, dance parties, discussions, a story slam, film screenings, and foodie programs. The highlight could very well be Harlem Day on August 23, which features appearances by the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (performing “Chamber Music of the Harlem Renaissance” by Duke Ellington and Harold T. Burleigh, with clarinetist David Shifrin, pianists Gloria Chien and Wu Han, and violinist Chad Hoopes), Doug E. Fresh, the Harlem Music Festival All Star Band featuring Ray Chew with special guests, and Jazzmobile Great Jazz on the Great Hill with Alyson Williams and the Georgie Gee Orchestra. (Stevie Wonder had been on the bill for a talk with Fresh but that seems to no longer be happening.) Admission to Harlem Week is free with registration. Have a great day!

100 YEARS | 100 WOMEN

100 years

Who: Maya Wiley, Sayu Bhojwani, Tantoo Cardinal, Rita Dove, Catherine Gray, Susan Herman, Jari Jones, Shola Lynch
What: Virtual watch party marking a century of women’s suffrage
Where: Park Avenue Armory
When: Tuesday, August 18, free with RSVP, 2:00
Why: Park Avenue Armory and National Black Theatre’s second part of its “100 Years | 100 Women” program occurs August 18 at 2:00 with a free virtual watch party. Hosted by New School professor Maya Wiley, the event celebrates the one hundredth anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, with woman artists, activists, scholars, students, and community leaders responding to the centennial while also putting it in context with what is happening in America today. Wiley will be joined by Susan Herman, Jari Jones, Tantoo Cardinal, Rita Dove, Catherine Gray, the Kasibahagua Taíno Cultural Society, and Shola Lynch, who will premiere her short film A Portrait of 100 Years | 100 Women. The project features contributions from Zoë Buckman, Staceyann Chin, Karen Finley, Ebony Noelle Golden, Andrea Jenkins, Meshell Ndegeocello, Toshi Reagon, Martha Redbone, Mimi Lien, LaTasha N. Nevada Diggs, Peggy Shaw and Lois Weaver of Split Britches, Carrie Mae Weems, Christine Jones, Deborah Willis, and many more. Also participating in the program with Park Avenue Armory and National Black Theatre are the Apollo Theater, Juilliard, La MaMa, the Laundromat Project, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of the Moving Image, National Sawdust, NYU, and Urban Bush Women.

THE NEO-POLITICAL COWGIRLS: ANDROMEDA’S SISTERS

Who: Blythe Danner, Susie Essman, Tamara Tunie, Catherine Curtin, Joy Behar, Laura Gomez, Ellen Dolan, Florencia Lozano, Welker White, Portia, Kathryn Grody, Nehassaiu DeGannes, Dahlia Lithwick, Amy Spitalnick, Roberta Kaplan, Kerry Kennedy, more
What: An Arts and Advocacy Forum in Two Parts
Where: Zoom link sent with ticket purchase
When: Friday, August 14, 7:00, and Thursday, September 3, 5:00, $25-$120
Why: In June 2019, the nonprofit organization the Neo-Political Cowgirls presented “Andromeda’s Sisters,” what they called a “Two Day Gala of Powerful Arts and Advocacy” at Guild Hall. The event featured workshops and one-act readings by an all-star lineup of actresses performing monologues by female-identifying playwrights. The cast is now reuniting for a virtual restaging and expansion, beginning August 14 at 7:30, with Blythe Danner as accused Salem witch Goody Garlick in a work written for her by Lucy Boyle; Catherine Curtin as a wife who discovers her husband is cheating on her in a monologue written for her by Joy Behar; Florencia Lozano as the other woman in Dipti Bramhandkar’s The Funeral; Laura Gomez as a woman who visits a sex shop in Bramhandkar’s Brown Girl’s Guide to Self-Pleasure; Welker White as the title character in Lynn Grossman’s BITCH; Ellen Dolan as a mother and a grandmother in Sarah Bierstock’s MAD (Mothers and Daughters); Tanya Everett’s One Thousand Miles, about a relationship webinar; Portia reading the late poet June Jordan’s “A Poem About My Rights”; a movement piece by Mia Funk; and two extracts from choreographer Vanessa Walters’s ongoing “Ripening” project.

Founded in 2007 by Kate Mueth, the Neo-Political Cowgirls “are committed to making work for women and about women — to creating a space where women and girls from all walks of life can share their experiences, joys, concerns, and spirits through professional dance.” The gala gets its name from the legend in which Princess Andromeda, captured by Poseidon, is saved by the daughters of the God of the Sea, leading to the idea that sisters should seek to help one another in these difficult times. As the NPC website asserts, “When we ‘swim’ to help our sisters, even if it may go against our own best interests in the moment, it’s astounding what can happen for all of those involved.” The second part takes place on September 3 and focuses on advocacy, with journalist Dahlia Lithwick interviewing Amy Spitalnick of Integrity First for America and litigator Roberta Kaplan about their upcoming court case against neo-Nazis; a cocktail hour; Kerry Kennedy giving the keynote address about fighting femicide; and Gomez, Curtin, and Lozano reading from Kennedy’s 2000 book, Speak Truth to Power: Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World. Tickets are $25 ($50 with donation) for the monologues and readings at both parts and $120 for those in addition to the cocktail hour and access to breakaway rooms with some of the invited guests.

JACOB’S PILLOW: BEREISHIT DANCE COMPANY AND MORE

Bereishit Dance Company’s BOW is part of Jacob’s Pillow Virtual Festival (photo © Christopher Duggan, courtesy of Jacob’s Pillow)

Who: Bereishit Dance Company, Maura Keefe, Soon-ho Park
What: Virtual festival stream of dance and discussion
Where: Jacob’s Pillow YouTube
When: Thursday, August 13, free, 7:00 (available through August 15 at midnight)
Why: While you can’t head out to the Berkshires to watch dance at historic Jacob’s Pillow, you can catch highlights from the last ten years at home during the institution’s Virtual Festival, which continues through August 29. On August 13 at 7:00, you can see two works from Bereishit Dance Company’s 2016 Pillow debut, streamed in conjunction with the Korean Cultural Center New York: the male duet BOW_CONTROL from BOW, which incorporates the Korean art of archery into its movement, reimagining the bow as a musical instrument instead of a weapon; and Balance & Imbalance, featuring five dancers, two drummers, and a pansori singer exploring action and reaction in nature. The performance will be preceded by a talk with Pillow scholar-in-residence Maura Keefe and followed by a discussion with Bereishit founder and choreographer Soon-ho Park. The free stream will be available through August 15 at midnight. The festival has previously featured such companies and choreographers as Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, Desmond Richardson, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Sascha Radetsky, Limón Dance Company, and Ballet Hispánico; coming up are Aszure Barton, Tero Saarinen Company & the Boston Camerata, Ami Shulman, and more.

HAM4CHANGE: A VIRTUAL FUNDRAISER EVENT

ham4change

Who: Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Christopher Jackson, Jonathan Groff, Brian d’Arcy James, Rory O’Malley, Andrew Rannells, Neil Haskell, Andrew Chappelle, Thayne Jasperson, Morgan Marcell, Javier Muñoz, Seth Stewart, Betsy Struxness, Sasha Hutchings
What: Livestreamed fundraisers with behind-the-scenes look at Hamilton, trivia, games, prizes, original content, and more
Where: Looped Live
When: Saturday, August 1, $10.75, 1:00; Sunday, August 9, 1:00; Saturday, August 15, 7:00
Why: Even with Broadway shut down, Hamilton continues to have an impact on theater and the world at large, particularly through criticism of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s treatment of slavery in the show, particularly in conjunction with the filmed version now streaming on Disney+. In the meantime, original cast members of the musical have organized Ham4Change, three online presentations to raise money for When We All Vote, LEAP (Law Enforcement Accountability Project), BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective), Until Freedom, Color of Change, Dance4Hope, Know Your Rights Camp, BAI (Black AIDS Institute), and the African American Policy Forum. The program, featuring trivia, games, prizes, original content, and more, begins August 1 with Hamilton originals Phillipa Soo, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Christopher Jackson, and Jonathan Groff and special guests Brian d’Arcy James, Rory O’Malley, Andrew Rannells, Neil Haskell, Andrew Chappelle, Thayne Jasperson, Morgan Marcell, Javier Muñoz, Seth Stewart, and Betsy Struxness, hosted by Sasha Hutchings. Tickets are $10.75; VIP packages include Virtual Meet & Greets with many of the stars ($75) and Digital Fan Experiences with Groff, Muñoz, and Struxness ($1,000 each). The series continues August 9 at 1:00 and August 15 at 7:00; participants have yet to be announced.