this week in dance

ALVIN AILEY AMERICAN DANCE THEATER: NEW YORK CITY WINTER SEASON 2016

Alvin Ailey winter season at City Center includes company premiere of Johan Inger’s WALKING MAD (photo by Paul Kolnik)

New York City Center
130 West 56th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
November 30 – December 31, $25-$150
212-581-1212
www.alvinailey.org
www.nycitycenter.org

For many people, the coming of Thanksgiving signals that Christmas is not too far off. For others, like us, it means that Alvin Ailey’s annual season at City Center is right around the corner. From November 30 to December 31, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will be at the West Fifty-Sixth Street institution, presenting three world premieres, one company premiere, four new productions, and sixteen returning favorites. Mauro Bigonzetti follows up his 2008 Ailey piece, Festa Barocca, with Deep, set to music by French-Cuban twin sisters Ibeyi. Kyle Abraham’s three-part Untitled America, the first two parts of which debuted in December 2015 and this past June, will now be seen in its entirety for the first time. Longtime Ailey dancer Hope Boykin has choreographed r-Evolution, Dream., a large ensemble work inspired by the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., with music by Ali Jackson and writings recorded by Hamilton Tony winner Leslie Odom Jr. Johan Inger reimagines Ravel’s Bolero with Walking Mad, with additional music by Arvo Pärt.

GRACE will be part of an all-Ronald K. Brown evening on (photo by Paul Kolnik)

GRACE will be part of Ailey celebration of Ronald K. Brown on December 14 at City Center (photo by Paul Kolnik)

AAADT artistic director Robert Battle’s The Hunt is getting a makeover, as are Alvin Ailey’s Masekela Langage, Ulysses Dove’s Vespers, and Billy Wilson’s The Winter in Lisbon, which pays tribute to Dizzy Gillespie. The season also includes pieces by Christopher Wheeldon, Rennie Harris, Judith Jamison, Matthew Rushing, Paul Taylor, Talley Beatty, and Ronald K. Brown, who will be celebrated on December 14 with performances of Open Door, Ife / My Heart, Four Corners, and Grace. There are still tickets left for the opening-night gala ($70-$90), “An Evening of Ailey and Jazz,” with Battle’s Ella, excerpts from John Butler’s Portrait of Billie, Beatty’s The Road of the Phoebe Show, Wilson’s The Winter in Lisbon, Ailey’s For Bird – With Love and Pas de Duke, and live music and a gospel choir joining in on Revelations. On December 17 and 20, “Bold Visions” consists of r-Evolution, Dream., Vespers, The Hunt, and Revelations, while several “All Ailey” programs consist of a mix of repertory classics. Saturday matinees are followed by a Q&A with the dancers, while the always greatly anticipated season finale takes place on New Year’s Eve.

FAYE DRISCOLL — THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY

Faye Driscoll (center) makes her BAM debut with THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
November 16-19, $25, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
fayedriscoll.com

Over the summer, we saw a work-in-progress LMCC Open Studios presentation of Guggenheim Fellow and Bessie Award winner Faye Driscoll’s latest piece, Thank You for Coming: Play, followed by an open and honest discussion about the project. Seeing the resulting production last night at the BAM Fishman, I am once again in awe of the Brooklyn-based choreographer’s creative ingenuity and absolute unpredictability. The second part of a trilogy that began with Thank You for Coming: Attendance, which had its New York premiere at Danspace Project in March 2014, Play also contains participatory, immersive elements at the beginning before evolving into a (possibly?) semiautobiographical narrative about a human being named Barbone searching for personal identity in a radically changing world. The fantastic cast, consisting of the bold and courageous Paul Singh, Laurel Snyder, Sean Donovan, Alicia Ohs, and Brandon Washington, make faces, constantly change wardrobe, repeat abstract dialogue, and call out declarations; there are also unexpected appearances by composer-musician Bobby McElver and Driscoll. What they all say and what they do are not always in sync as they grab one another, dress and undress in plain view, and disappear behind white boards on a set designed by Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin that Driscoll deconstructs and reconstructs. (The absurdly funny props and garments are by Jamie Boyle.) At one point Driscoll breaks out into a fierce song about rage that evokes Young Jean Lee, whom she has collaborated with in the past. Thank You for Coming: Play works best when it’s far from obvious; references to Donald Trump felt out of place in a show that otherwise is empowered by a tremendously infectious energy and a controlled chaos that is both passionate and intimate. Play marks Driscoll’s BAM debut; here’s hoping that we’ll soon be seeing her endless inventiveness at the Harvey or the Howard Gilman Opera House.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL — THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY

Faye Driscoll makes her BAM debut with THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY (photo by Maria Baranova)

FAYE DRISCOLL
BAM Fisher, Fishman Space
321 Ashland Pl.
November 16-19, $25, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
fayedriscoll.com

On July 30, we were on Governors Island, checking out a work-in-progress LMCC Open Studios presentation of Brooklyn-based choreographer Faye Driscoll’s latest evening-length piece, Thank You for Coming: Play. Like its dazzling predecessor, Thank You for Coming: Attendance, which had its New York premiere at Danspace Project in March 2014, it is a participatory, immersive work. In Attendance, people were invited to join in a swirling, exhilarating finale. At the advance look at Play on Governors Island, the audience again was involved, but we don’t want to spoil the surprise about how the interaction influenced dancers Paul Singh, Laurel Snyder, Sean Donovan, Alicia Ohs, and Brandon Washington. It all made for a charmingly controlled chaos; it will be fascinating to see how the piece, which had its world premiere in September at the Wexner Center at Ohio State University, has evolved, as Driscoll also took detailed notes at a wide-ranging postperformance discussion in which attendees were not shy about sharing their thoughts, which is exactly what Driscoll wanted. As she writes on her website, “I make dances that are mistaken for plays and load-in like installations. Sets are designed to break apart, musical scores are made from performers’ stomps and voices, props are worn, used, and reused for fantasy, excess, and loss. Performers sing, fight, frolic, and make love in bursts, like rapid fire flip-books of human emotion. Awkward virtuosic bodies teeter on the edge of high art and slapstick. A viewer feels a rollercoaster of joy, outrage, arousal, and discomfort while performers hold a frank gaze that says, ‘You are me and I am you.’ Embarrassment and exhilaration live side by side. I aim for an immersive world of sensorial complexity and perceptual disorientation. Through performers’ powerful exposure, heightened proximity, and at times physical connection with the audience, viewers feel their own culpability as co-creators of the performance. My work is a rigorously crafted group experience that comes off as improvised, chaotic and spontaneous.” The second part of a trilogy, Thank You for Coming: Play is running November 16-19 at the BAM Fisher; in addition, Driscoll, the recipient of the Harkness Dance Residency at the BAM Fisher, will be teaching a class, open to performers at all levels, on November 18 at 2:00 ($30) at the Mark Morris Dance Center across the street.

CROSSING THE LINE — ARTIST’S CHOICE: JÉRÔME BEL / MoMA DANCE COMPANY

(© 2012 Museum of Modern Art, New York. photo by Julieta Cervantes)

MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, Marron Atrium
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Thursday, October 27, through Monday, October 31, free with museum admission, 12:30 & 3:00
crossingthelinefestival.org
www.moma.org

In the fall of 2012, French conceptual choreographer Jérôme Bel presented The Show Must Go On as part of the three-week MoMA series “Some sweet day.” The piece was performed by professional dancers, teachers, and choreographers. Bel is now returning to MoMA for “Artist’s Choice: Jérôme Bel / MoMA Dance Company,” a new, site-specific work that will feature an unusual troupe composed of MoMA staff members, who had to audition in order to be chosen. Bel is a main focus of this year’s Crossing the Line festival, FIAF’s annual multidisciplinary lineup of dance, art, theater, film, and discussion. Bel restaged The Show Must Go On last week at the Joyce, and he is bringing back 1995’s eponymously titled Jérôme Bel for its New York premiere October 27-29 at the Kitchen. At MoMA every afternoon at 12:30 and 3:00 from October 27 to 31, staffers will dance in the Marron Atrium, moving around and among the crowd, many of which are, of course, rather dance savvy. (Maria Hassabi just won a Bessie Award for PLASTIC, her 2016 dance that also took place in the atrium and other locations around the museum.) Others won’t know quite what’s going on, which is all part of the fun.

PARIS!

Company XIV shows off its can-can-cans in latest immersive Baroque burlesque production (photo by Mark Shelby Perry)

The Irondale Center
85 South Oxford St. between Fulton St. & Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn
Monday to Saturday through November 12, $25 to $525
866-811-4111
companyxiv.com
www.irondale.org

It takes a while for Company XIV’s latest decadent Baroque burlesque extravaganza, Paris!, to get cooking, but once it does, it quickly goes from hot, hot, hot to sizzling. Troupe founder and director Austin McCormick, who has previously reimagined such fairy-tales as Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Snow White, revisits the myth of Paris and the golden apple, which Company XIV first tackled in its streamlined 2012 dance-theater-opera, Judge Me Paris. The company goes all out this time in its temporary new space, the Irondale Center in Fort Greene, which they have outfitted in Louis XIV grandeur, with ornate red velvet couches and chairs, numerous chandeliers, and costumed greeters welcoming you to the festivities. Before the show starts, you can walk around the main floor and the balcony, where some of the performers are getting ready and the heady enticements begin. The first act is surprisingly ordinary for Company XIV, offering little that is new as the emcee, the half-man, half-woman Zeus/Fifi (Charlotte Bydwell), introduces the story, in which the mortal shepherd Paris (Jakob Karr) must decide which of three goddesses — Venus (Storm Marrero), Pallas Athena (Marcy Richardson), or Juno (Randall Scotting) — deserves the golden apple. “My lovely goddesses! Your time has come,” Zeus announces. “Tighten your corsets, stuff your bustiers, dot your moles, and present your most delicious selves to our virginal judge. His ears are half-open, his eyes are half-closed, and his skin is untouched. . . . This young man wants much and it’s yours to give.” There’s a beautiful duet by Paris and Mercury (Todd Hanebrink) and a rather naughty sheep orgy, but things really start to hit their stride in the second act, as soprano Richardson dazzles the audience with unique versions of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and Adele’s “Skyfall” and performing breathtaking feats on the pole. Countertenor Scotting scores big with two songs by Handel and Leonard Cohen’s “I’m Your Man,” a very funny gender-twisting spoof. In the short third act, Marrero brings the house down with stirring renditions of Daughter’s “Youth” and Rihanna’s “Love on the Brain” as Paris makes his choice.

Venus (Marcy Richardson) reaches new heights in Company XIV’s PARIS (photo by Mark Shelby Perry)

Over the last few years, while searching for a permanent home, Company XIV has performed at such venues as the Minetta Lane Theatre, 428 Lafayette St. across from the Public, and the 303 Bond Street Theatre in an abandoned warehouse in Brooklyn; they have found quite a treasure in the Irondale Center, formerly the auditorium of the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, which they have outfitted in regal splendor. Throughout the tale, the ensemble of Nicole von Arx, Nicholas Katen, Mark Osmundsen, Cara Seymour, and Taner Van Kuren, wearing various body-revealing get-ups courtesy of the endlessly inventive Zane Pihlstrom, who also designed the set, dances in ever-changing configurations, mixing comic bits into their sexy numbers and occasionally making their way through the audience, where the patrons can order drinks and snacks all night long. (The actors also provide entertainment during the two intermissions, including a lovely flute and cello duet and a playful pregnancy vignette.) The relatively inconsequential text is by Jeff Takacs (with contributions from Bydwell), with fanciful lighting by Jeanette Yew. The emcee is repetitive and takes up too much time, but the rest of the characters excel as they go from group can-cans to intimate solos, duets, and trios. Director and choreographer McCormick limits the complex acrobatic elements of the troupe, focusing more on dance and song, like Martha Graham gone wild, and it works well here, after a slow start. Paris! runs through November 12 — tickets begin at $25 and go up to $525 for those VIPs who want to party like it’s 1699 — and will be followed by Company XIV’s annual holiday favorite, Nutcracker Rouge.

BESSIE AWARDS 2016

Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson’s CHAMBRE is nominated for a Bessie Award for Outstanding Production (photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Tuesday, October 18, $20-$30, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bessies.org
www.bam.org

The thirty-second annual Bessie Awards are returning to their early home at BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, where on October 18 they will celebrate the best in dance. Since 1984, the awards, named after dancer, choreographer, and teacher Bessie Schönberg, who passed away in 1997 at the age of ninety, have honored such performers, designers, composers, and choreographers as Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Paul Taylor, Wendy Whelan, Martin Puryear, Annie-B Parson, Mark Morris, Faye Driscoll, Nari Ward, Ohad Naharin, Alexei Ratamansky, Movement Research, John Jasperse, and Linda Celeste Sims. Among this year’s nominees are Nicholas Bruder, Molly Lieber, Aaron Mattocks, Gillian Murphy, and Jamar Roberts for Outstanding Performer, Ralph Lemon, Eamonn Farrell, Holly Batt, and DD Dorvillier and Thomas Dunn for Outstanding Visual Design, and Admanda Kobilka and Ustatshakirt Plus for Outstanding Music Composition / Sound Design. The twelve nominees for Outstanding Production include Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson’s Chambre, Maria Hassabi’s PLASTIC, Heather Kravas’s dead, disappears, Lemon’s Scaffold Room, and Justin Peck’s Heatscape, in addition to works by luciana achugar, Souleymane Badolo, Camille A. Brown, Pat Graney, Dada Masilo, Liz Santoro and Pierre Godard, and Safi A. Thomas with H+ | the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory.

Maraia Hassabi’s site-specific MoMA presentation PLASTIC is competing for Outstanding Production at the 2016 Bessie Awards (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s presentation of Donald McKayle’s Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder has already been named Outstanding Revived Work, with Joya Powell grabbing the coveted Outstanding Emerging Choreographer award; the October 18 show, hosted by Adrienne Truscott, will feature performances by those winners as well as an all-star tap tribute to Lifetime Achievement in Dance awardee Brenda Bufalino. In addition, Pam Tanowitz won the Juried Bessie Award, and Outstanding Service to the Field went to the Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts and Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center executive chairman Alex Smith; Eiko Otake will receive a Special Bessie Award from Meredith Monk. Other presenters include Ayodele Casel, Ishmael Houston-Jones, Judy Hussie-Taylor, Judith Jamison, Alastair Macaulay, and Alice Sheppard. The show will be preceded by the Bessie Awards Angel Party at the Mark Morris Dance Center ($100-$6,000), honoring Marilynn Donini, Stephanie French, Karen Brosius, and Jennifer Goodale, and will be followed by a free dance party at BRIC with complimentary pizza from Two Boots.

SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS: NEITHER

Shen Wei Dance Arts makes its BAM debut with world premiere of NEITHER (photo by Jasmine Lai)

BAM Next Wave Festival
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
October 5-8, $20-$55, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.shenweidancearts.org

New York-based Shen Wei Dance Arts (Folding, Still Moving) is doing something unusual this week: They will be presenting the world premiere of their latest work, Neither, on a proscenium stage that was actually built for dance and theater. Over the last handful of years, we have seen the immensely talented and creative company perform in the Park Avenue Armory, in the Charles Engelhard Court at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and at the Prospect Park Bandshell as part of the free Celebrate Brooklyn! summer arts series. From October 5 to 8, the troupe will be making its BAM debut at the Howard Gilman Opera House with Neither, a sixty-minute dance adaptation of the 1977 anti-opera composed by Queens-born indeterminate composer Morton Feldman for soprano and orchestra and with a sixteen-line libretto by Samuel Beckett that begins, “to and fro in shadow from inner to outer shadow / from impenetrable self to impenetrable unself by way of neither / as between two lit refuges whose doors once neared gently close, once away turned from gently part again.” The work will be performed by Lilly Balch, Cecily Campbell, Kate Jewett, Cynthia Koppe, Janice Lancaster Larsen, Russell Stuart Lilie, Chelsea Retzloff, Jennifer Rose, Zak Ryan Schlegel, Austin Selden, and Alex Speedie, with lighting by Jennifer Tipton and projections by Rocco DiSanti. Shen Wei is the choreographer as well as the costume and set designer; the stage will include mysterious doors and his black, white, and gray abstract painting “Untitled No. 12-1.” The recording of the opera is by Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, conducted by Kwamé Ryan and featuring soprano Petra Hoffmann.