this week in dance

LIC BLOCK PARTY

lic block party

SculptureCenter
Purves St. at Jackson & 43rd Aves.
Saturday, August 20, free, 12 noon – 5:00 pm
www.sculpture-center.org

SculptureCenter, one of the coolest places to see art in the five boroughs, is hosting the annual LIC Block Party on August 20 in Queens. The free afternoon, taking place inside and outside the gallery, will include live performances by Erin Markey, Daisy Press, OTIUM, Jessica Lang Dance, and Bianca Benson, DJ sets by Tygapaw, activity booths by Schuyler Tsuda, Jeannine Han & Eliza Fisher, Sam Stewart, Lauren Halsey, Jan Mun & Gil Lopez, Sydney Shen, Emma Banay & David Scanlon’s Quilt Music, Other Means, and Diamond Stingily, and an artists market with booths by American Chordata, Desert Island, Fastnet, Mixed Media, Packet Biweekly, the Perfect Nothing Catalog, Peradam, Sanguis Ornatus, and Workaday Handmade. There will also be food and drink available from such local restaurants as Bartleby & Sage, Doughnut Plant, Hibino LIC, Rockaway Brewing Co., and Stolle USA. Among the partners in the block party are the American Folk Art Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Noguchi Museum, Sculpture Space NYC, and Socrates Sculpture Park.

TICKET ALERT — CHITA: NOWADAYS

The legendary Chita Rivera will make her Carnegie Hall headlining debut on November 8 with special guests (photo by Laura Marie Duncan)

Who: Chita Rivera, Alan Cumming, Andy Karl, more
What: “Chita: Nowadays”
Where: Carnegie Hall, Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage, 881 Seventh Ave. at 57th St.
When: Monday, November 7, $40-$135, 8:00
Why: Tickets are on sale now to see Broadway legend Chita Rivera in her first-ever headlining show at Carnegie Hall. On November 7, Rivera, who has won two Tonys in addition to earning another eight nominations, will be joined by several leading men, including Tony winner Alan Cumming (Cabaret, Macbeth), two-time Tony nominee Andy Karl (Rocky, On the Twentieth Century), and others to be announced. The eighty-three-year-old Rivera will be celebrating a film, television, and stage career that began in the early 1950s and features such stage productions as West Side Story, Bye Bye Birdie, Sweet Charity, Chicago, and Kiss of the Spider Woman as well as the film versions of Sweet Charity and Chicago. “Chita: Nowadays” will consists of old favorites, new songs, and special collaborations, directed by Graciela Daniele, with musical director Michael Croiter leading a fifteen-piece band. “I’m absolutely thrilled to play one of the most prestigious venues in the world, Carnegie Hall,” actress-singer-dancer Rivera, who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, said in a statement. “We’re going to have a ball!”

BATTERY DANCE FESTIVAL 2016

Salzburg’s SEAD Company Bodhi Project will be making its U.S. debut at thirty-fifth annual free Battery Dance Festival (photo by Bernhard Müller)

Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, Battery Park City
20 Battery Pl.
August 14-20, free
batterydance.org

The thirty-fifth annual Battery Dance Festival takes place August 14 to 20, featuring more than thirty companies from around the world. Formerly known as the Downtown Dance Festival, the event is hosted by the New York City-based Battery Dance, which was founded by artistic director Jonathan Hollander in 1976. The festival will begin with a tribute to Iraqi dancer Adel Euro, who had been training with Battery Dance online before being killed in the July 3 suicide bombing in Karrada that took more than three hundred innocent lives; three of his Iraqi colleagues, refugees in America, will perform in his honor. Sunday’s lineup also includes Florida Dance Theatre, Joshua Beamish/Move: The Company, Razvan Stoian, XAOC Contemporary Ballet, and the U.S. debut of Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project from Istanbul. On Monday, the “Erasing Borders Festival of Indian Dance” consists of Avijit Das, Battery Dance, Carolina Prada, Pt. Krishan Mohan Mishra, Surabhi Bharadwaj, Sooraj Subramaniam, and Sumeet Nagdev Dance Arts. Tuesday brings together De Funes Dance, Jennifer Muller / The Works, Kilowatt Dance Theater, Shawnbibledanceco, and Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project. Wednesday features FJK Dance, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, Obika Dance Projects, Steps Repertory Ensemble, and Te Ao Mana. On August 18, taking the stage will be DoubleTake Dance, the Martha Graham School, Maxine Steinman & Dancers, Robin Aren/TRAC, SEAD Company Bodhi Project from Salzburg making its U.S. debut, and Y + Y Dance. Friday comprises Amy Marshall Dance Company, Ballet Inc., Battery Dance, Buglisi Dance Theatre, Lori Belilove & the Isadora Duncan Dance Company, Thomas/Ortiz Dance, and Trainor Dance. The festival concludes indoors on August 20 at the Schimmel Center at Pace University with performances by Battery Dance, SEAD Comapany Bodhi Project, and Unnath H.R., along with a reception. In addition, there will be free workshops at 10:30 am on August 15 with Zeynep Tanbay Dance Project, August 16 with Razvan Stoian, August 18 with Battery Dance, and August 19 with SEAD Company Bodhi Project; advance RSVP is needed here.

CaribBEING IN BROOKLYN

Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday program includes screening of Todd Kessler’s new film, BAZODEE, followed by a Q&A

Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway at Washington St.
Saturday, August 6, free, 5:00 – 11:00
212-864-5400
www.brooklynmuseum.org

The Brooklyn Museum is getting ready for Labor Day weekend’s West Indian American Day Carnival with an August First Saturday presentation filled with Caribbean energy and culture. The free events, some of which require advance tickets that night, will feature the live performance “Ganggang: Creative Misunderstanding Series” by disguise artist Alejandro Guzman, with Abigail Deville, Christopher Manzione, Clifford Owens, Elan Jurado, Geraldo Mercado, Jessica Gallucci, Marcus Willis, Sam Vernon, Tré Chandler, and William Villalongo; children’s storytelling with Linda Humes; a performance and reading by ethnomusicologist Danielle Brown from her memoir, East of Flatbush, North of Love: An Ethnography of Home; screenings of Bazodee (Todd Kessler, 2016), followed by a Q&A with actor and soca star Machel Montano, writer Claire Ince, and producers Susanne Bohnet and Ancil McKain, as well as the classic reggae flick Rockers (Theodoros Bafaloukos, 1978); Rusty Zimmerman discussing his “Free Portrait Project: Crown Heights”; a hands-on workshop in which participants can make their own Caribbean-inspired instruments; pop-up gallery talks in the excellent “Disguise: Masks and Global African Art” exhibition; a Backyard Bashment dancehall workshop and party with choreographer Blacka Di Danca, actor-comedian Majah Hype, and DJ MeLo-X; and the interactive mobile art center caribBEING House, featuring Ruddy Rove’s “Fine Art of Daggering” photos, a participatory wall map, and the opportunity to share your own Caribbean tale. In addition, you can check out such exhibitions as “Who Shot Sports: A Photographic History, 1843 to the Present,” “Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016,” “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull),” and “Agitprop!”

TICKET ALERT: BAM 2016 NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Mikhail Baryshnikov channels Nijinsky in Robert Wilson’s LETTER TO A MAN (photo by Lucie Jansch)

Who: Performers and/or creators Mikhail Baryshnikov, Isabelle Huppert, Ivo van Hove, Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, John Jasperse, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Alarm Will Sound, Howard Fishman, David Lang, Jonah Bokaer, Daniel Arsham, TR Warszawa, Cheek by Jowl, the Magnetic Fields, So Percussion, Wordless Music Orchestra, Shen Wei Dance Arts, Kyle Abraham / Abraham.In.Motion, Faye Driscoll, Mark Morris Dance Group, and many more
What: Annual fall interdisciplinary performance festival
Where: BAM Harvey Theater (651 Fulton St.), BAM Howard Gilman Opera House (30 Lafayette Ave.), BAM Fisher (321 Ashland Pl.)
When: September 7 – December 3
Why: Tickets for BAM’s 2016 Next Wave Festival have just gone on sale to the general public, but you better hurry if you want to see some of the hottest shows of what is always a great collection of innovative dance, music, film, theater, and hard-to-describe hybrid presentations from around the world. This year there are more than five dozen events, including performances, talks, and master classes. We don’t know about you, but we’ll be practically living at BAM this fall. Below are five of our don’t miss favorites.

Isabelle Huppert stars as a modern-day mythical queen in PHAEDRA(S) (photo by Pascal Victor/ArtComArt)

PHAEDRA(S)
BAM Harvey Theater
September 13-18, $30-$95
Isabelle Huppert is back at BAM, following her stunning turns in Sarah Kane’s 4.48 Psychosis in 2005 and Robert Wilson’s Quartett in 2009. This time she stars as the mythological queen in Phaedra(s), in which director Krzysztof Warlikowski and Odéon-Théâtre de l’Europe incorporate texts by Kane, Wajdi Mouawad, and J. M. Coetzee to tell the three-and-a-half-hour story of love and tragedy. On September 18, BAM will host the related panel discussion “Phaedra Interpreted” at Borough Hall as part of the Brooklyn Book Festival.

REMAINS
BAM Harvey Theater
September 21-24, $20-$45
John Jasperse, who presented the exhilarating Canyon at BAM in 2011, now looks back at his thirty-year career as well as toward the future in Remains, featuring dancers Maggie Cloud, Marc Crousillat, Burr Johnson, Heather Lang, Stuart Singer, and Claire Westby and music by John King. On September 22 at 2:00 ($30), Jasperse will teach a master class for intermediate to professional dancers at the Mark Morris Dance Center, and on September 23 at 6:00 ($25) he will participate in a talk with Tere O’Connor at BAM Fisher.

LETTER TO A MAN
BAM Harvey Theater
October 15-30, $35-$120
BAM regular Robert Wilson reteams with Mikhail Baryshnikov in this multimedia staging of the diaries of Vaslav Nijinsky; the two collaborated at BAM in 2014 with The Old Woman. Baryshnikov recently paid tribute to his friend Joseph Brodsky in Brodsky/Baryshnikov, while Wilson has presented such aural and visual spectacles at BAM as Quartett, The Black Rider, and Woyzeck. On October 24 at 7:00 at NYU’s Center for Ballet and the Arts, “Inside Nijinsky’s Diaries” will consist of an actor reading from the diaries, followed by a discussion (free with advance RSVP).

Ivo van Hove merges multiple Shakespeare plays into KINGS OF WAR (photo by Jan Versweyveld)

KINGS OF WAR
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
November 3-6, $24-$130
In-demand director Ivo van Hove and Toneelgroep Amsterdam return to BAM for a four-and-a-half-hour adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, Henry VI Parts I, II & III, and Richard III. Van Hove has previously staged such works as Angels in America, Cries and Whispers, and Antigone (with Juliette Binoche) at BAM, in addition to the double shot of A View from the Bridge and The Crucible on Broadway.

THANK YOU FOR COMING: PLAY
BAM Fisher
Judith and Alan Fishman Space
November 16-19, $25
Choreographer Faye Driscoll follows up Thank You for Coming: Attendance with this new work, which we got a sneak peek at this past weekend on Governors Island. Driscoll’s presentations (There is so much mad in me, 837 Venice Blvd.) are always involving and unpredictable, and this piece is no exception. Driscoll will also be teaching a master class on November 18 at 2:00 ($30) for performers at all levels.

BRONX MUSEUM SUMMER SEASON OPEN HOUSE

David Thomson and Jonathan Gonzalez will perform solos as part of summer season open house at Bronx Museum

Bronx Museum of the Arts
1040 Grand Concourse
Wednesday, July 13, free, 6:00 – 8:00
718-681-6000
www.bronxmuseum.org

The Bronx Museum of the Arts’ annual summer open house takes place on July 13 at 6:00, celebrating not only the season but the opening of three new exhibitions. At 6:30, BAX/Dancing While Black Fellow Jonathan Gonzalez will perform Arthur Aviles’s In the Garden of Mi Amigo El id in the galleries, followed at 7:15 by a solo work by artist-choreographer and Bronx native David Thomson in the North Wing on the second floor. Attendees will also get a sneak peek at the new exhibitions “Art AIDS America,” “CAZA: Rochele Gomez, Margaret Lee, Alejandra Seeber,” and “En Foco Presents Mask: Photographs by Frank Gimpaya,” with member tours of the first at 5:00 and the third at 5:30. In addition, the Keith Haring Foundation – Project Street Beat Mobile Medical Unit of Planned Parenthood of New York City will be on hand. (On Saturday, July 16, at 3:00, Robb Hernández, PhD, and Joey Terrill will lead a free public tour of “Art AIDS in America” sponsored by AIDS Center of Queens County and AIDS Healthcare Foundation.)

THE RUBIN BLOCK PARTY

Rubin Block Party will have Nepalese-inspired theme this year (photo courtesy Rubin Museum of Art)

Rubin Museum of Art
West 17th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Sunday, July 17, free (including free museum admission all day), 1:00 – 4:00
rubinmuseum.org

Block parties are a type of social ritual, so it is rather apropos that the Rubin Museum of Art’s annual summer block party, taking place on July 17 on Seventeenth St., is being held in conjunction with the exhibition “Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual,” which runs through March of next year. Hopefully it won’t rain between 1:00 and 4:00, when the museum will host Nepalese-inspired music and dance by Dikyi, Sonam Rinzin with Brooklyn Raga Massive, and Kabina Maharjan Singh and her son; educational activities with KathaSatha, Walung Community of North America, Yulha Fund (“Voice of the Himalayas”), and Mero Gaon; traditional Nepali dress demonstrations with Adhikaar; interactive weaving demonstrations with Grassroots Movement in Nepal; yoga with Susan Verde; art workshops in which participants can make rainsticks, frog masks, pinwheels, prayer flags, flower garlands, and hybrid animals; an interactive “Karma Chain” weather ritual; henna tattoos; Himalayan food from Café Serai; ice cream from Van Leeuwen; and more. In addition, the museum will be open for free all day long (11:00 am – 6:00 pm), so you can check out such exhibits as “Gateway to Himalayan Art,” “Masterworks of Himalayan Art,” “Genesis Breyer P-Orridge,” and “Sacred Spaces” in addition to “Nepalese Seasons: Rain and Ritual,” with museum tours and gallery searches for children. Namaste!