Douglas Dunn’s Garden Party is back for a return engagement (photo by Jacob Burckhardt)
GARDEN PARTY
Douglas Dunn Studio
541 Broadway between Spring & Prince Sts., third floor
September 6-10, $20 floor cushions, $25 chairs www.douglasdunndance.com
This past April, Douglas Dunn + Dancers presented the world premiere of Garden Party at the company’s third-floor Soho loft studio. The sixty-minute piece is now returning for an encore run September 6-10; tickets are $20 for floor cushions or $25 for a chair.
Longtime Dunn collaborator Mimi Gross designed the colorful costumes and scenery, bathing the space in lushly painted trompe l’oeil walls and ceiling and a long horizontal mirror covered with pink, yellow, and green flowers, plants, trees, clouds, raindrops, and other natural elements. The work is performed by Dunn, Alexandra Berger, Janet Charleston, Grazia Della-Terza, Vanessa Knouse, Emily Pope, Paul Singh, Jin Ju Song-Begin, Timothy Ward, and Christopher Williams, with lighting and projections by Lauren Parrish, sound by Jacob Burckhardt, and preshow live music by guitarist and composer Tosh Sheridan.
The soundtrack consists of pop and classical tunes (Robert de Visée, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Bach, Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris, more), birdsong, and poetry (by John Keats, Anne Waldman, Molière, Rainer Maria Rilke, John Milton, Stephanie Jacco, and others, read by Dunn, Waldman, Jacco, and Della-Terza). In an April twi-ny talk, Dunn noted, “The feel of this evening was clear to me the day the title hit me (about three years ago, the pandemic postponing the project). The lavish beauty of Mimi’s set completely fulfills my initial intuition . . . as if she’d read my dancing mind.”
Tickets are limited; the show sold out its April premiere, so don’t hesitate if you want to be part of this intimate experience.
Battery Dance will perform The Wind in the Olive Grove at annual outdoor summer festival
BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL
Rockefeller Park, Battery Park City
75 River Terr., North Esplanade
August 12-18, free with advance RSVP, 7:00 batterydance.org
The forty-second annual Battery Dance Festival goes hybrid this summer, with live presentations of works from more than forty companies from around the country and the globe, including numerous New York City and world premieres and US debuts. Free performances take place August 12-18 at 7:00 at Rockefeller Park in Battery Park City — a move from its previous home in Robert Wagner Jr. Park — and will be livestreamed as well.
“When Super Storm Sandy flooded lower Manhattan, Battery Park City Authority reached out a helping hand, providing a beautiful site for the Battery Dance Festival which we’ve all enjoyed every summer since 2013,” Battery Dance founding artistic director Jonathan Hollander said in a statement. “With the prospect of rising seas in the future, BPCA is enacting a proactive resiliency plan, lifting Wagner Park up to twelve feet, making it inaccessible this summer. But fear not! BPCA has invited us to move to Rockefeller Park this summer, where we’ll benefit from the large lawn and riverfront views as we bask in the glow of performances by local and international companies.”
As always, the Battery Dance Festival offers dance fans the chance to see multiple disciplines all in a single evening, for free, with a wide range of pieces from international troupes that explore original movement and celebrate unique culture while often taking on contemporary issues and sharing personal stories. Among this year’s special programs are “Young Voices in Dance” on August 12, “India Independence Day” on August 15, and “Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers” on August 17, honoring Isadora Duncan and Jennifer Muller, who passed away in March at the age of seventy-eight.
In addition, $1 community workshops are being held every morning at 10:30 at Battery Dance Studios (380 Broadway #5), led by festival choreographers, artistic directors, and company members; advance registration is required. Below is the full dance schedule.
Saturday, August 12: Young Voices in Dance
The Bowery Mission, Dancing to Connect
Marley Poku-Kankam, All Four
Aliyah Banerjee & Shashank Iswara, Taraana
Dareon Blowe, How Do Five Parts Construct a Whole?
Mateo Vidals, There Is Always Something Happening
Luke Biddinger, La Vie en Rose
Cameron Kay, Interface
Samanvita Kasthuri, Krtaghna
Micah Sell, Outline
Queensborough Community College, Discovering
Willem Sadler, Soullessly Flying
Tulia Marshall, A fraction of a true self
Joanne Hwang, Static State of Perfection
Sunday, August 13
Battery Dance, A Certain Mood
Reuel Rogers, Power
Keturah Stephen, A Yearning Desire
Circumstances, ON POINT
Nu-World Contemporary Danse Theatre, The Called and the Chosen
Trainor Dance Inc., Courante
IMGE Dance, (no)man
Monday, August 14
SOLE Defined, SOLE Defined LIVE
Teatr Nowszy, Close (excerpt)
Erv Works Dance, Veiled from the Womb
Jiemin Yang, Here We Root (excerpt)
Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu, Special People
Circumstances, ON POINT
Fanike! African Dance Troupe, UPLIFTED!
Tuesday, August 15: India Independence Day
Rudrakshya Foundation, Kali Krishna
Durgesh Gangani, The Legacy
Amarnath Ghosh, Maragatha Manimaya
Wednesday, August 16
Julian Donahue Dance, Displacement
Citadel + Compagnie, Soudain l’hiver dernier
Tabanka Dance Ensemble, Progress
Teatr Nowszy, Close (excerpt)
Teodora Velescu and Lari Giorgescu, Special People
Jerron Herman, Lax
Carolyn Dorfman Dance, NOW
Dancers Unlimited, Edible Tales (excerpts), Soul Food & Kanaloa
Dances by Isadora will honor Isadora Duncan at Battery Dance Festival (photo by Melanie Futorian)
Thursday, August 17: Tribute to Turn of the 20th Century American Modern Dance Pioneers
Dances by Isadora, Isadora Duncan: Under a New Sky
Time Lapse Dance, American Elm and Piece for a Northern Sky
Denishawn, Denishawn (excerpts)
In memoriam: Jennifer Muller (1944-2023), Jennifer Muller/The Works, Miserere Nobis
Friday, August 18
Adriana Ogle & Toru Sakuragi, Softly as in a Morning Glow
Amanda Treiber, Wind-Up
Bruce Wood Dance, In My Your Head
Citadel + Compagnie, Soudain l’hiver dernier
Boca Tuya, Like Those Playground Kids at Midnight
Tabanka Dance Ensemble, Progress
Reuel Rogers, Power
Battery Dance, The Wind in the Olive Grove
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
Who: Uptown Dance Academy, the Gospel Caravan, IMPACT Repertory Theatre, Mama Foundation’s Sing Harlem! Choir, Bishop Hezekiah Walker & Choir, Ray Chew & the Harlem Music Festival All-Star Band featuring Nona Hendryx, more What: Annual Harlem Week celebration Where:U.S. Grant National Memorial Park, West 122nd St. at Riverside Dr. When: Sunday, August 13, free, noon – 7:00 pm (festival runs August 9-16) Why: One of the centerpieces of Harlem Week is “A Great Day in Harlem,” which takes place Sunday, August 13, as part of this annual summer festival. There will be an international village with booths selling food, clothing, jewelry, and more, as well as live music and dance divided into “Artz, Rootz & Rhythm,” “The Gospel Caravan,” “The Fashion Flava Fashion Show,” and “The Concert Under the Stars.” Among the performers are the Uptown Dance Academy, the Gospel Caravan, IMPACT Repertory Theatre, the Sing Harlem! Choir, and Bishop Hezekiah Walker & Choir. In addition, Ray Chew & the Harlem Music Festival All-Star Band, featuring Nona Hendryx, will perform a tribute to the one and only Tina Turner, who died in May at the age of eighty-three; Harry Belafonte, Tony Bennett, Miriam Makeba, and Tito Puente will also be honored.
The theme of the forty-ninth annual Harlem Week is “Be the Change: Hope. Joy. Love.”; it runs August 9-16 with such other free events as the panel discussion “Climate & Environmental Justice in Harlem: Storms, Heat & Wildfires,” A Harlem SummerStage concert, Senior Citizens Day, the Uptown Night Market,the Percy Sutton Harlem 5K Run & Walk & Children’s Run, “Choose Healthy Life Service of Renewal and Healing,” Great Jazz on the Great Hill in Central Park with Wycliffe Gordon and Bobby Sanabria, Imagenation Outdoor Film Festival screenings of Beat Street with DJ Spivey and Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes, a Youth Conference & Hackathon, Economic Development Day, an Arts & Culture Broadway Summit, Harlem on My Mind Conversations, a Jobs & Career Fair, and more. “We continue to build a stronger, more united Harlem, radiating hope, joy, and love throughout our beloved city,” Harlem Week chairman Lloyd Williams said in a statement.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer and editor; you can follow him on Substack here.]
In 1984, Dance Theater Workshop executive director David R. White founded the Bessie Awards, named after dance teacher Bessie Schönberg and given to outstanding work in the field of independent dance. Among the winners in the inaugural year were Trisha Brown, Pina Bausch, Yoshiko Chuma and the School of Hard Knocks, Mark Morris, Anne Bogart, and Eiko & Koma, a lofty group of creators. This year’s ceremony will take place August 4 at 7:30 at Lincoln Center’s Damrosch Park as part of the Summer for the City program, with free admission to all; it’s a fantastic opportunity to join in the celebration of movement while seeing some of the best contemporary performers and choreographers.
Pina Bausch’s Água (1995/2023) is up for Outstanding Revival at the 2023 Bessies (photo by Julieta Cervantes)
The thirty-ninth annual event will be hosted by the Illustrious Blacks (Manchildblack x Monstah Black) and feature performances by Dance Theatre of Harlem (in honor of Lifetime Achievement in Dance recipient Virginia Johnson), Princess Lockerooo’s Fabulous Waack Dancers, Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, Ladies of Hip-Hop Collective (in honor of Service to the Field of Dance honoree Michele Byrd-McPhee), and students from AbunDance Academy of the Arts. Presenters include Mireicy Aquino, George Faison, Jhailyn Farcon, Dionne Figgins, Erin Fogerty, Tiffany Geigel, Dyane Harvey Salaam, Karisma Jay, Gian Marco Riccardo Lo Forte, Fredrick Earl Mosley, Abdel Salaam, Paz Tanjuaquio, and Ms Vee; this year’s jury panel consists of Ayodele Casel, Kyle Marshall, and luciana achugar.
Awards will be given out in the following categories: Outstanding Choreographer / Creator, Outstanding “Breakout” Choreographer, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Sound Design / Music Composition, and Outstanding Visual Design, for works presented at such venues as the Joyce, Gibney, the Shed, BAM, Danspace Project, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Performance Space New York, City Center, Arts on Site, and New York Live Arts (formerly Dance Theater Workshop). Nominees include Pina Bausch & Tanztheater Wuppertal, Camille A. Brown & Dancers, marion spencer, Vanessa Anspaugh, Sidra Bell, Rennie Harris, Deborah Hay, Shamel Pitts, and Niall Jones.
Following the ceremony, there will be a special Bessies Silent Disco After-Party with DJ Sabine Blazin on Josie Robertson Plaza, where a giant disco ball dangles over the Revson Fountain.
Who: Ballet Hispánico (BH), Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT), American Ballet Theatre (ABT), New York City Ballet (NYCB), Dance Theatre of Harlem (DTH) What:Free dance festival Where: Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts When: July 25-29, free, workshops 5:00, performances 7:30 [ed note: The July 28 workshop and performance have been canceled due to extreme heat] Why: The third annual BAAND Together Dance Festival once again brings together Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem for five nights of free contemporary dance performances on the Damrosch Park stage as part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City programming.
Dancers rehearse Pas de O’Farill for BAAND Festival at Lincoln Center this week (photo by Lawrence Sumulong)
From July 25 to 29 at 7:30, the troupes will present one work apiece: BH’s Línea Recta by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa (a unique take on flamenco, set to music by guitarist Eric Vaarzon Morel), ABT’s Other Dances by Jerome Robbins (choreographed for Natalia Makarova and Mikhail Baryshnikov, set to works by Frédéric Chopin), DTH’s Nyman String Quartet No. 2 by Robert Garland (a mix of styles and cultures), the world premiere of the BH/NYCB collaborative duet Pas de O’Farill by Pedro Ruiz (a tribute to Arturo O’Farill), an excerpt from AAADT’s Dancing Spirit by Ronald K. Brown (a tribute to Judith Jamison, with music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, and War), and NYCB’s The Times Are Racing by Justin Peck (a sneaker ballet set to songs from Dan Deacon’s 2012 album, America). In addition, each show will be preceded by a workshop at 5:00 led by members of one of the five companies.
“The BAAND Together Dance Festival is a testament to the vibrancy and diversity of the New York City dance community,” the five artistic directors said in a group statement. “We are thrilled to be returning with a spectacular program that features the city’s most internationally revered repertory companies. This year’s program highlights the innovative visions that have made New York City our nation’s dance capital.”
Lauren Halsey’s Met Roof Garden Commission will be activated by live performances and more this weekend (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Met Fifth Avenue
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
July 21-23, free with museum admission
Exhibit continues through October 22 (weather permitting)
Admission: $30 adults, children under twelve free (New York State residents pay-what-you-wish)
212-535-7710 www.metmuseum.org the eastside of south central slideshow
“I get to build the worlds I wish I lived in,” artist Lauren Halsey says in a promotional video about her Met Roof Garden Commission, the eastside of south central los angeles hieroglyph prototype architecture (I). “I collapse all of these worlds: street, pyramid, gorgeous nature, domestic worlds, into one composition to create new opportunities that are about uplift, that are about togetherness.” Wanting to build an Egyptian-style modern-day temple, Halsey studied works at the Met, including the Temple of Dendur, listened to PFunk, and constructed the eastside, which will be part of her community center Summereverything in South Central after the roof show is over.
This weekend Metlivearts will activate the sculpture, which features likenesses of Halsey’s loved ones and influences and carvings of local images and text she’s collected over the last fifteen years, with a series of special events, all free with museum admission and first come, first served. On Friday at 6:30 and 7:30 on the roof, California-born disabled choreographer, dancer, and sound artist Jerron Herman will perform the solo piece LAX, with an ornate costume by unsighted textile artist Sugandha Gupta, as part of Disability Pride Month. On July 22 at 6:00 and 7:15 on the roof, Moten/López/Cleaver will present a new work inspired by the eastside, with Fred Moten on vocals, Brandon López on double bass, and Gerald Cleaver on drums. And on Sunday from 11:00 to 2:00, “A Celebration — The Roof Garden Commission: Lauren Halsey” consists of interactive drop-in stations, a creative writing workshop in the Charles Engelhard Court, a Scent Lab and Architectural Art Making at the Temple of Dendur, and gallery chats on the roof and at the famed temple.
Lauren Halsey Met roof installation features carved text and imagery (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
“This work is aspirational,” Halsey continues in the video. “They’re images around community, transcendence, self-determination, and autonomy. . . . I hope when folks come to the Met and experience my piece, they walk away with a more holistic view about South Central that aren’t about the violence, they aren’t about dread, they’re very much about survival, vibrancy, love. And they also are just into me reinvisioning the hieroglyph as a form to tell stories.”
SUMMER FOR THE CITY AT LINCOLN CENTER: ONE DANCE
David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
July 20-22, $24-$190 (use code KCCNYOD for 20% discount)
Korean Arts Week runs July 19-22, free www.davidhkochtheater.com www.lincolncenter.org
“All on the same line, in the same shape, with the same heart, it’s a heartfelt piece that brings us together,” Seoul Metropolitan Dance Theatre artistic director and choreographer Hyejin Jung says in a promotional video for One Dance (Il-mu), making its North American premiere at the David H. Koch Theater during Korean Arts Week, part of Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City program. The four-act, seventy-minute work, which melds traditional and contemporary Korean dance in stunning re-creations, debuted in May 2022 at the Sejong Grand Theater in Seoul.
One Dance is choreographed by Jung, Sung Hoon Kim, and Jae Duk Kim, with music by Jae Duk Kim and mise-en-scène by Ku-ho Jung, incorporating dazzling costumes and such props as bamboo sticks, swords, poles, and ritual objects. “I don’t think the beauty of Korea is an intricate technique but rather a symbolism of emptiness and abundance,” Ku-ho Jung explains in the video. “It’s really important to show the symbolism of the nuances. In fact, the process of staging One Dance was to show the Korean nuances by emptying out a lot of the material and focusing on the moves.”
One Dance is divided into four sections — “Munmu”/“Mumu,” “Chunaengmu,” “Jungmu,” and “New Ilmu” — with fifty-four dancers paying homage to courtly processions, ancient martial arts traditions, and contemporary styles through movement, music, and song. Ticket prices begin at $24; you can use code KCCNYOD for a 20% discount.
Korean Arts Week runs July 19-22 and also includes a bevy of free events: the digital artwork WAVE by d’strict, a K-Lit symposium, a family-friendly showcase by KTMDC Dance Company, Musical Theatre Storytime with KPOP composer Helen Park, silent discos with BIAS NYC and DJ Peach, a guided meditation set to Korean traditional music, a screening of Bong Joon Ho’s horror favorite The Host, and concerts by Crying Nut, Say Sue Me, Yerin Baek, Dongyang Gozupa, and Gray by Silver.
