this week in dance

AMERICAN REALNESS: ÉTROITS SONT LES VAISSEAUX by KIMBERLY BARTOSIK/daela

Joanna Kotze and Lance Gries will perform Kimberly Bartosik / daela’s ÉTROITS SONT LES VAISSEAUX at Gibney Dance January 6-7 (photo by Ryutaro Mishima)

Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
280 Broadway between Chambers & Reade Sts.
January 6-7, $15, 5:00 & 7:00
American Realness runs January 6-12
gibneydance.org
americanrealness.com

In April 2016, Brooklyn-based company Kimberly Bartosik / daela premiered the duet Étroits sont les Vaisseaux at Gibney Dance’s Agnes Varis Performance Lab. On January 6 and 7, as part of the multidisciplinary American Realness festival and in conjunction with APAP | NYC, Bartosik (The Materiality of Impermanence, Ecsteriority) will be presenting four encore performances at the Gibney lab, both days at 5:00 and 7:00. The very intimate show, which will be performed for a small audience, was inspired by Anselm Keifer’s eighty-two-foot-long “Étroits sont les Vaisseaux,” an undulating installation that is on long-term view at MassMoca. The duet will again be performed by Joanna Kotze (Find Yourself Here, Between You and Me) and Lance Gries (Etudes for an Astronaut, The FIFTY Project), with lighting and set design by Roderick Murray, costumes by Bartosik, Kotze, and Gries, sound by Bartosik and Murray, and choreography by Bartosik in close collaboration with the dancers. The piece deals with time and tides, running twenty-four minutes and fifty seconds, based on the lunar day, which lasts twenty-four hours and fifty minutes.

CONTEMPORARY DANCE SHOWCASE 2017: JAPAN + EAST ASIA

(photo © Naoshi Hattori.; courtesy of Aichi Arts Center)

Five duos will perform at Japan Society’s seventeenth Contemporary Dance Showcase: Japan + Asia (photo © Naoshi Hattori.; courtesy of Aichi Arts Center)

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, January 6, and Saturday, January 7, $30, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

Traditionally, we like to end our year by seeing the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in its December season at City Center, then start every other year off right with the Contemporary Dance Showcase: Japan + East Asia every January at Japan Society. The seventeenth edition of the biennial event takes place January 6 and 7, as five acts will perform special duets. The 2017 lineup features the North American premiere of Korean company JJbro’s playful and energetic Jimmy & Jack; the North American premiere of Japanese troupe Co. Un Yamada’s unique interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s 1923 Les Noces (The Wedding), which the maestro called “Choreographed Scenes with Music and Voices”; the North American premiere of Taiwan company B DANCE’s Hugin/Munin, involving the title characters, ravens whose names mean “thought” and “memory,” respectively, sitting on Norse god Odin’s shoulders (choreographed by Po-Cheng Tsai); the North American premiere of Taiwain troupe In Theatre’s Tschüss!! Bunny, choreographed by Yen-Cheng Liu, examining life and death and rebirth, inspired by the concept “Now is the moment, and creation is the assembling of the fragments of lives”; and the world premiere of TranSenses, a collaboration between Japanese dancer and choreographer Akiko Kitamura and Canadian media alchemist and audiovisual sculptor Navid Navab. There are still tickets left to catch this biennial treat; the January 6 performance will be followed by a Meet-the-Artists Reception.

YANIRA CASTRO | A CANARY TORSI: PERFORMANCE | PORTRAIT

a canary torsi’s responsive multimedia installation “Performance Portrait” offers visitors a chance to respond to dancers (photo by Julie Wyman)

PERFORMANCE | PORTRAIT @ APAP
The Glass House, the Invisible Dog Art Center
51 Bergen St.
January 5-15, free, 4:30 – 8:30
theinvisibledog.org
acanarytorsi.org

After being exhibited as part of the “Wonderland” group show at the Invisible Dog Art Center, a canary torsi’s latest collaborative project, Performance | Portrait, moves just down the street to the IDAC’s Glass House in conjunction with APAP | NYC, the annual Association of Performing Arts Presenters conference, which features special performances throughout New York City every January. Puerto Rico–born Yanira Castro founded a canary torsi (an anagram of her name) in 2009, specializing in site-adaptive interactive works that blur the boundaries between audience and performer. In Paradis, the audience followed the dancers around the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, occasionally interacting with one another. In Court/Garden, Castro created a space inspired by the court of Louis XIV, exploring image, assembly, presentation, and consumption.

Many of those elements are at the center of Performance | Portrait, which runs at the Glass House from January 5 to 15. The responsive multimedia work, made in conjunction with installation artist Kathy Couch, interaction designer Stephan Moore, and filmmaker Julie Wyman, consists of a projector that is activated once a person steps on a small box in between a screen and a curtain. The projector beams an image of four dancers, one at a time (Anna Azrieli, Leslie Cuyjet, Peter Schmitz, David Thomson), who were previously filmed by Wyman at a different location but in front of the same curtain where the viewer now stands. Each dancer gazes directly into the camera, essentially right into the viewer’s eyes; just as the viewer is waiting for the dancer to do something entertaining, it appears that the often uncomfortable dancers (each was filmed for four hours) are waiting for the viewer to do something entertaining as well. Castro is calling into question the gaze, audience expectation, the interplay before performer and crowd, and performer expectation, the dancers turning the tables on the viewer, who is likely to get antsy rather quickly unless he or she can just settle in and go head-to-head with the dancer for a while. It feels like a different take on the staring contests Marina Abramović held with MoMA visitors in “The Artist Is Present.” As the viewer stands there, the performers change over the course of time, but once the viewer steps off the box, the dancer fades into nothingness, for without an audience, can there be a performance?

NEVER BEFORE, NEVER AGAIN

never-before-never-again

Triskelion Arts
Muriel Schulman Theater
106 Calyer St. (enter on Banker St.)
January 5-8, $16-$20
www.triskelionarts.org

Most of the winter performance festivals, such as Under the Radar, COIL, Prototype, and American Realness, consist of experimental works that have either already been performed elsewhere or will afterward. However, the nonprofit Triskelion Arts, which was founded in Brooklyn in 2000 to “foster the development and presentation of the performing arts,” has something very different in mind with its “Never Before, Never Again” festival, which consists of dance, music, comedy, theater, poetry, and other disciplines in improvisational performances that have never been presented before and never will again quite like they will be during the third annual event, running January 5-8. The improv celebration begins January 5 with the Lovelies; Alyssa Gersony; Judah Levenson, Hank Mason, and Shane Gertner; kamrDANCE; NOW ACCEPTING ALL OFFERS MADE; and Katelyn Halpern & Dancers. On January 6, the lineup features Schmidt / Keenoy Movement / Sound Lab; slowdanger; Jog Films; Debbie Z & Friends; and the Lovelies. Saturday’s roster boasts Mauri Connors and Mindy Toro; TanzKlub; the Shelburne Trio (bassist Kevin Farrell, dancer Rachel Mckinstry, and poet Josh Adler); stb x at; Sarah Foster / MoveWorks; and Boom Bat Gesture Performance Group. The festival concludes January 8 with Ali Perkins; Kirsten Schnittker; Jason Mears / Quentin Tolimieri; There’s No Law (Rachel Cohen, Michael Henry, Irene Siegel); and Lokasparsa Dance Projects / clyde forth. Tickets are $16 in advance, $20 at the door to check out these now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t performances.

WINTER 2017 PERFORMANCE FESTIVALS

Bobbi Jene Smith and Keir GoGwilt team up for A STUDY ON EFFORT at Invisible Dog Center as part of COIL festival

The always exciting winter performance festival season gets under way right after New Year’s, with a slew of popular programs occurring all over town and in multiple boroughs. PS122’s COIL 2017 festival, the last under artistic director Vallejo Gantner, consists of fourteen events, with a dozen performances, a sewing bee, and the Red + White Party. The Public Theater’s fourteenth annual Under the Radar fest includes twenty-one programs, centering on experimental music, theater, and dance, along with postshow discussions and the Incoming festival within a festival. The NYC Winter Jazzfest will celebrate the centennial of Thelonius Monk’s birth while also concentrating on social justice. Focusing on “socially and aesthetically marginal and subversive artists tearing at the boundaries of form and wrestling with the realities of identity,” American Realness was founded in 2010 by Thomas Benjamin Snapp Pryor and Abrons Arts Center in 2010, directly modeled after the Public Theater’s Under the Radar festival; the eighth annual event comprises more than two dozen performances, readings, workshops, discussions, installations, and a party. The fifth annual Prototype festival, which presents cutting-edge opera-theater and music-theater, hosts seven productions, an anniversary party, panel discussions and talkbacks, and the Out of Bounds series of free performances in public spaces. Below are a handful of recommendations for each of the above January festivals.

COIL
Multiple venues
January 3-22
www.ps122.org/coil-2017

January 3, 4-7, 10-15
CVRTAIN, by Yehuda Duenyas, immersive virtual reality experience, 151 Gallery, 132 West 18th St., $10

January 5-8
Custodians of Beauty, by Pavel Zuštiak/Palissimo, dance-theater piece exploring beauty, La MaMa, the Downstairs, 66 East Fourth St., $20

January 7-10
Basketball, by Molly Lieber and Eleanor Smith, dance exploring past shames, Howard Gilman Performance Space, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 West 37th St., $20

January 8
Umyuangvigkaq: PS122 Long Table and Durational Sewing Bee, by Emily Johnson/Catalyst, featuring breakfast, “This Is Lenapehoking: Countering Perceived Invisibility,” “Indigenizing the Future: The Continuance of Aesthetic, Invention, Ceremony,” “My Dad Gives Blueberries to Caribou He Hunts: Indigenous Process and Research as Ceremony,” and “Radical Love: Indigenous Artists and Our Allies,” Ace Hotel New York, 20 West 29th St., free with advance RSVP, 11:30 am – 6:00 pm

January 12-14
A Study on Effort, by dancer and choreographer Bobbi Jene Smith in collaboration with violinist Keir GoGwilt, Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen St., $20

Tania El Khoury’s GARDENS SPEAK give voice back to dead Syrian activists and protesters (photo by Jesse Hunniford)

UNDER THE RADAR
Public Theater and other venues
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
January 4-15
publictheater.org

January 4, 6, 10
Erin Markey: Boner Killer, words and music by Erin Markey, directed by Ellie Heyman, starring Markey and Emily Bate, Joe’s Pub at the Public Theater, $25

January 6-9
Gardens Speak, interactive sound installation about ten deceased Syrian activists, by Tania El Khoury, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Abe Burrows Theatre, 721 Broadway, $25

January 9
Incoming! They, Themselves and Schmerm, written and performed by Becca Blackwell, directed and developed by Ellie Heyman, the Robert Moss Theater at Playwrights Downtown, 440 Lafayette St., $25, 5:00 & 8:30

January 11, 12, 14, 15
Latin Standards, written and performed by Marga Gomez, directed by David Schwizer, Martinson Hall, the Public Theater, $25

January 12-15
Time of Women by Belarus Free Theatre, about a trio of women (Maryia Sazonava as Iryna Khalip, Maryna Yurevich as Natalya Radina, Yana Rusakevich as Nasta Palazhanka) fighting for a free and democratic Belarus, written by Nicolai Khalezin and Natiala Kaliada and directed by Khalezin, NYU Tisch School of the Arts Shop Theatre, 721 Broadway, $25

NYC Winter Jazzfest will celebrate one hundredth birthday of Thelonius Monk (photo by William P. Gottlieb)

NYC WINTER JAZZFEST
Multiple venues
January 5-10
www.winterjazzfest.com

January 6, 7
NYC Winter Jazzfest Marathon, multiple venues, $45-$55 per day, $80-$90 for both

Sunday, January 8
Thelonious Monk Makes a Hundred, panel discussion, the New School, Fifth Floor Theater, 55 West Thirteenth St., 3:00

Thelonius Monk 100th Birthday Improv Show, with Kris Davis, David Virelles, Shabaka Hutchings, Sam Newsome, Marc Ribot, Charlie Burnham, Erik Friedlander, Linda Oh, Trevor Dunn, Hamid Drake, Andrew Cyrille, and Deva Mahal playing Solo Monk, Littlefield, 622 Degraw St., $20-$25, 8:00

Tuesday, January 10
Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra: A Concert for Social Justice, with special guest Geri Allen and arrangements by Carla Bley, Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St., $30-$40, Social and Environmental Justice panel at 6:00, show at 8:00

Meg Stuart will present an evening of solo works at Abrons Arts Center as part of American Realness festival (photo by Giannina Urmeneta Ottiker)

Meg Stuart will present an evening of solo works as part of American Realness festival (photo by Giannina Urmeneta Ottiker)

AMERICAN REALNESS
Abrons Arts Center and other venues
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
January 5-12
americanrealness.com

January 5-7
An Evening of Solo Works by Meg Stuart, including XXX for Arlene and Colleagues and Signs of Affection, Abrons Arts Center, Playhouse, $20

January 6, 7
Étroits sont les Vaisseaux, by Kimberly Bartosik / daela, duet for Joanna Kotze and Lance Gries, inspired by Anselm Kiefer’s large-scale sculpture, Gibney Dance, Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, 280 Broadway, $15

January 6, 7, 10
Twenty Looks or Paris Is Burning at the Judson Church (s), solo by Trajan Harrell, first work in series, Abrons Arts Center, Playhouse, $20

January 7, 8, 9, 10
Adult Documentary by Juliana F. May, piece for five dancers about trauma and form, Abrons Arts Center, Experimental Theater, $20

January 8
In the Works: Dance in Process Resident Artists & Guests, with performances by Melinda Ring, Anna Sperber, Michelle Boulé, Jaamil Olawale Kosoko, Larissa Velez-Jackson, Gibney Dance Company, Antonio Ramos, Katie Workum, Bjorn Safsten, Yanira Castro, iele paloumpis, Gibney Dance Choreographic Center, 890 Broadway, free, 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

FUNERAL DOOM SPIRITUAL will have its New York premiere at National Sawdust as part of Prototype festival (photo by M. Lamar)

PROTOTYPE
Multiple venues
January 5-15, $25 unless otherwise noted
www.prototypefestival.org

January 5
Out of Bounds: Amirtha Kidambi, inspired by Nina Simone’s performance at the Harlem Cultural Festival in 1969, 60 Wall St. Atrium, free, 1:00

January 5-14
Mata Hari, composed by Matt Marks, directed and with libretto by Paul Peers, conducted by David Bloom, and starring Tina Mitchell, HERE, 145 Sixth Ave., $30

January 6
Out of Bounds: Leah Coloff, inspired by Patti Smith’s Kimberly and a set at CBGB’s, 60 Wall St. Atrium, free, 1:30

January 6, 7, 9
Breaking the Waves, New York City premiere of opera based on Lars Von Trier film, composed by Missy Mazzoli, directed by James Darrah, conducted by Julian Wachner, with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and starring Bess McNeill and Jan Nyman, NYU Skirball Center, 566 LaGuardia Pl., $30-$75, 7:30

January 13, 14
Funeral Doom Spiritual, multimedia concert by composers M. Lamar and Hunter Hunt-Hendrix and librettists Lamar and Tucker Culbertson, with Lamar on piano and vocals, string arrangements by Hunt-Hendrix, and additional arrangements by James Ilgenfritz & the Anagram Strings, National Sawdust, 80 North Sixth St., $30, 7:00 & 10:00

HOLIDAY MUSIC, COMEDY, AND THEATER

Ronnie Spector will celebrate the best Christmas ever at City Winery

New York City has tons of special programs during the holiday season, some well known and annual traditions, others more cutting edge and unique. Below is only a handful of seasonal recommendations, several of which are likely not to be on most people’s radar. Keep checking this space as more Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations are added.

Wednesday, December 14
Ingrid Michaelson’s 10th Annual Holiday Hop, with Sugar and the Hi Lows, Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey St., $40, 9:00

Kevin Geeks Out About Holiday Specials, with Kevin Maher, Erin Farrell, Wendy Mays, Paul Murphy, and Steve Flack, Nitehawk Cinema, 136 Metropolitan Ave. between Berry St. & Wythe Ave.$16, 9:30

Thursday, December 15
The Menorah: From the Bible to Modern Israel, with Steven Fine, Met Fifth Ave., Bonnie J. Sacerdote Lecture Hall, Uris Center for Education, 1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St., free with museum admission, 3:00

The Oh Hellos Present: The Oh Hellos Christmas Extravaganza, with Tyler and Maggie Heath, Music Hall of Williamsburg, 66 North Sixth St., $20-$22, 9:00

Thursday, December 15
through
Saturday, December 17
The 37th Annual Winter Solstice Celebration, with the Paul Winter Consort (soprano saxophonist Paul Winter, cellist Eugene Friesen, double-reed player Paul McCandless, keyboardist Paul Sullivan, bassist Eliot Wadopian, drummer Jamey Haddad, organist Tim Brumfield, Procol Harum singer Gary Brooker, and Forces of Nature Dance Theatre, Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, 1047 Amsterdam Ave. at 112th St., $35-$95

Friday, December 16, 23
Holiday Music in Gilbert Court, A Renaissance Christmas with My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort, Morgan Library, 225 Madison Ave. at 36th St., free with museum admission, 6:30

Saturday, December 17
Brandenburgers Holiday Concert, with the Brooklyn Brandenburgers performing music by Bach, Corelli, Dvorak, Glickman, Ostyn, and Piazzolla, Old Stone House, 336 Third St. in Washington Park, $10, 2:00 & 7:00

Karen Luschar Sings “Mistletoe and Holly,” New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, free, 2:30

Saturday, December 17
Friday, December 23
Monday, December 26
A Darlene Love Christmas: Love for the Holidays, B. B. King Blues Club & Grill, 237 West 42nd St., $45-$82.50

Sunday, December 18
Latkepalooza!, with food, music, and family-friendly activities, Museum of Jewish Heritage, Edmond J. Safra Plaza, 36 Battery Pl., $10, 10:00 am

Hanukkah Family Day, Jewish Museum, Scheuer Auditorium, 1109 Fifth Ave. at 92nd St., free with museum admission, 12 noon – 4:00 pm

Karina Posborg is one of many filmmakers screening their Yule Log shorts at BRIC

Monday, December 19
Yule Log 2.016, fifty short films, the Stoop at BRIC Arts | Media House, 647 Fulton St., free, 1:00 – 6:00

Harmony for Peace Holiday Peace Concert, Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, 881 Seventh Ave. between 56th & 57th Sts., $21-$100, 8:00

Tuesday, December 20
MetLiveArts: The Little Match Girl Passion, directed by Rachel Chavkin and starring Ekmeles, Met Breuer lobby, 945 Madison Ave. at 75th St., $65, 7:00

Tuesday, December 20
and
Wednesday, December 21
Ronnie Spector’s Best Christmas Party Ever!, City Winery, 155 Varick St. between Spring & Vandam Sts., $55-$75, 8:00

Thursday, December 22
and
Friday, December 23
Yule Shul vs. Nutcracker: Rated R — A Love Show Holiday Extravaganza, (le) poisson rouge, 158 Bleecker St. between Thompson & Sullivan Sts., $15-$35, 8:00

christmas-for-the-jews

Thursday, December 22
through
Saturday, December 24
Merry Hanukkah with Judy Gold, Carolines on Broadway, 1626 Broadway between 49th & 50th Sts., $32.75

Saturday, December 24
A Very Jewish Christmas, with Modi, Gotham Comedy Club, 208 West 23rd St. between Seventh & 8th Aves., $25, 7:00 & 9:00

Sunday, December 25
Christmas for the Jews, with Joel Chasnoff, Dan Naturman, Cory Kahaney, and more, City Winery, 155 Varick St. between Spring & Vandam Sts., $25, 8:00

Friday, December 30
Kwanzaa 2016: Songs for the Soul, with Ruben Studdard, Dr. Linda H. Humes, and students from the Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, American Museum of Natural History, Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, Central Park West at 79th St., free with museum admission, 12 noon & 3:00

BROOKLYN MUSEUM FIRST SATURDAY: WORLD AIDS DAY

Marilyn Minter, “Blue Poles,” enamel on metal, 2007 (private collection, Switzerland)

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, December 3, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum honors World AIDS Day with its free First Saturday programming on December 3. There will be live performances by MC and producer SCIENZE, the Brooklyn Ballet (The Brooklyn Nutcracker), and DJ Sabine Blaizin; a curator tour of “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” led by assistant curator Carmen Hermo; a Community Resource Fair focusing on political advocacy; a hands-on sketching workshop with live clothed models; pop-art talks of “Infinite Blue” led by teen museum apprentices; a Day With(out) Art / Visual AIDS screening of the video compilation Compulsive Practice, followed by a discussion with Juanita Mohammed of the Women’s AIDS Video Enterprise, feminist writer and Brooklyn College film department chair Alexandra Juhasz, and HIV and gay civil rights activist Justin B. Terry-Smith; and a screening of David Kornfield’s The Red Umbrella Diaries, followed by a talkback with documentary subjects Dale Corvino and Essence. In addition, you can check out such exhibits as “Iggy Pop Life Class by Jeremy Deller,” “Beverly Buchanan — Ruins and Rituals,” “The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago,” “Life, Death, and Transformation in the Americas,” “Marilyn Minter: Pretty/Dirty,” and “Infinite Blue”; admission to “Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present” requires a discounted admission fee of $10.