this week in dance

HUDSON RIVER DANCE FESTIVAL 2016

hudson river dance festival

Who: Stephen Petronio Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, and Urban Bush Women
What: Hudson River Dance Festival
Where: Hudson River Park, Pier 63 at 23rd St.
When: Wednesday, June 15, and Thursday, June 16, free, 6:30
Why: The second annual Hudson River Dance Festival takes place on June 15 & 16 at Pier 63 in Hudson River Park, featuring three New York City-based companies. Sponsored and presented by SHS Foundation in association with the Joyce, the two evenings will consist of performances by Stephen Petronio Company, who will be at the American Dance Festival in Durham next week; Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, which was recently named an Irreplaceable Dance Treasure by Dance Heritage Coalition; and multiple Bessie award winner Urban Bush Women. “There’s something exciting about bringing a work that’s been sealed inside the theater out into a public space,” Petronio explained in a statement. “Sharing a performance in this way is what summer in the city is all about.” Petronio Dance Company will perform Locomotor, with music by Clams Casino and costumes by Narciso Rodriguez; Lubovitch will present two duets, the Richard Rodgers tribute . . . smile with my heart and Concerto Six Twenty-Two, set to Mozart’s Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra; and Urban Bush Women will share 30th Anniversary Mash Up, consisting of excerpts from Give Your Hands to Struggle, Bitter Tongue, Shelter, Women’s Resistance, Batty Moves, and Walking with ’Trane. “A summertime sunset along the Hudson River waterfront is the perfect setting for experiencing the work of these three remarkable dance visionaries and their talented companies,” SHS Foundation president Richard Feldman said. “We invite everyone to join us at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 waterfront for the unusual vision of contemporary dance with the Hudson River as its magnificent backdrop,” added Hudson River Park Trust CEO and president Madelyn Wils.

MUSEUM MILE FESTIVAL 2016

Crowds take to the streets for annual Museum Mile Festival, beginning at the Met

Multiple locations on Fifth Ave. between 82nd & 105th Sts.
Tuesday, June 14, 6:00 – 9:00 pm
Admission: free
www.museummilefestival.org

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, now known as the Met Fifth Avenue with the addition of the Met Breuer in the old Whitney space, is the host of the thirty-ninth annual Museum Mile Festival, in which seven arts institutions along Fifth Avenue between 82nd and 105th Sts. open their doors for free between 6:00 and 9:00. (Met prez Daniel H. Weiss will deliver his opening remarks at 5:45.) There will be live outdoor performances by Dusan Tynek Dance Theatre, DJ Mickey Perez, Sammie & Trudie’s Imagination Playhouse, Mariachi Flor de Toloache, Silly Billy the Very Funny Clown, Miss 360, Alsarah and the Nubatones, Magic Brian, Kim David Smith, and Justin Weber Yo Yo in addition to face painting, art workshops, chalk drawing, and more. The participating museums (with at least one of their current shows listed here) are El Museo del Barrio (“Antonio Lopez: Future Funk Fashion”), the Museum of the City of New York (“Roz Chast: Cartoon Memoirs”), the Jewish Museum (“Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History,” “The Television Project: Some of My Best Friends”), the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum (“Beauty — Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial,” “Pixar: The Story of Design”), the Guggenheim (“Moholy-Nagy: Future Present”), the Neue Galerie (“Munch and Expressionism”), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (“Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology,” “Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs”), along with presentations by the New York Academy of Medicine, the 92nd St. Y, and Asia Society. Don’t try to do too much, because it can get rather crowded; just pick one or two exhibitions in one or two museums and enjoy.

ALVIN AILEY AT LINCOLN CENTER 2016

Alvin Ailey’s June season at Lincoln Center includes artistic director Robert Battle’s AWAKENING

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
June 8-19, $25 – $90
212-496-0600
www.alvinailey.org
www.davidhkochtheater.com

In June 2013, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performed at Lincoln Center for the first time in thirteen years. The late-spring season has now become an annual event, as the troupe, which takes over City Center every December, will be back at the David Koch Theater for the fourth straight year. From June 8 to 19, AAADT will present fourteen works across five programs, in addition to the opening-night gala. “Dance Trailblazers” consists of the world premiere of new La Scala Ballet director Mauro Bigonzetti’s Deep, Paul Taylor’s Piazzola Caldera, and the Ailey standard Revelations. “All Ailey” brings together Blues Suite, Love Songs, Cry, and Revelations. “Bold Visions” features Deep, Ulysses Dove’s Vespers, AAADT artistic director Robert Battle’s The Hunt, and Revelations. “Musical Inspirations” includes Ronald K. Brown’s Open Door, Battle’s Awakening, Judith Jamison’s A Case of You, and Revelations. And “21st Century Voices” highlights the latest additions to the repertory: Open Door, Battle’s No Longer Silent, Rennie Harris’s Exodus, and the world premiere of Kyle Abraham’s Untitled America: Second Movement.

PERFORMANCE MIX FESTIVAL 2016

Michael Helland kicks off the thirtieth Performance Mix Festival with (photo by David Gonsier)

Michael Helland kicks off the thirtieth Performance Mix Festival with RECESS: DANCE OF LIGHT (photo by David Gonsier)

Abrons Arts Center
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
June 6-11, free – $20
212-598-0400
newdancealliance.org
www.abronsartscenter.org

The thirtieth Performance Mix Festival returns to its original home this week, presenting more than three dozen emerging and midcareer dance artists and companies in fifteen events at the Abrons Arts Center, celebrating the past while looking toward the future. Focusing on experimental, multidisciplinary works, the festival has also been held at such locations as Dixon Place, the Joyce SoHo, HERE, and Dance Theater Workshop. The 2016 edition of PMF opens June 6 with Michael Helland’s site responsive one-man live-sculpture show RECESS: Dance of Light, which promises to “recharge your batteries and combat the symptoms of neoliberal fatigue.” On June 7, “Path Breakers Create Ever-Evolving Worlds of Performance” consists of Michael Freeman’s It’s not that I have anything against living…, Headlong and the Riot Group’s Magic Wand, an excerpt from James & Jen | McGinn & Again’s a Gram & a Gone, and Johanna S. Meyer’s work in progress Handbuilt. On June 8, the free “Edgy NYC” brings together feminist performance and video by Susana Cook, Jess Dobkin, Rebecca Patek and T. L. Cowan & Jasmine Rault as Mrs. Trixie Cane & Her Handsome Cellist, and festival founder and director Karen Bernard. On June 9, “Typography, Images, Landscape, Heightened Drama” pairs Jil Guyon’s Desert Widow with GREYZONE’s Drift. On June 10, “Three Artists…Three Fantastical/Fanciful Perspectives on Performance” comprises Melinda Ring and Renée Archibald’s Renée vs the Rectangle, Paula Josa-Jones | Performance Works’ Speak, and Patti Bradshaw and Valerie Striar’s Flowers in Space. The festival concludes June 11 with “Three Genres of Improvisation: Contact Improvisation, Spontaneous Connections: Improvised Music, and Raise the Hoof: Tap,” with Patrick Crowley, Carly Czach, Rob Flax, Elise Knudson, Tim O’Donnell, and Sarah Young (contact improvisation), David Garland, Anaïs Maviel, and Roxane Butterfly (improvised music), and Jane Goldberg, Max Pollak, Brinae Ali, and Jennifer Vincent (tap). Among the other performers over the course of the festival are LAVA, Yasuko Yokoshi, Rachel Thorne Germond, Arthur Avilés, Emily Wexler, and Louise Moyes and the Daly Collective, who will deliver a free excerpt from If a Place Could Be Made: Kitty and Daniel Daly of St. Mary’s Bay Newfoundland, Had 12 Children, Six of Whom Were Very Tall and Six of Whom Had Achondroplasia, or Dwarfism.

FREE SUMMER DANCE 2016

Eiko will continue her BODY IN PLACES sojourn at the River to River Festival this summer (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

The free summer dance season is upon us, with presentations in parks all around the city, including participatory programs in addition to companies from across the globe and site-specific projects by local favorites. Bryant Park will be hosting several dance series, while Central Park (and others) has SummerStage and Prospect Park has Celebrate Brooklyn! River to River boasts the most exciting lineup, but you need to reserve your free space in advance. There will also be a handful of cool performances in Socrates Sculpture Park and Hudson River Park as well as at Lincoln Center. You’ll find those and other festivals below; more information will be added as it becomes available.

Wednesday, June 1
Bryant Park Presents Dance Party: Cuban Salsa, with Los Hacheros, Fountain Terrace, 6:00

Saturday, June 4, through Saturday, September 24
Bryant Park Moves with Limon Dance, northeast corner of lawn, Bryant Park, 10:00 am

Wednesday, June 8
Bryant Park Presents Dance Party: Bachata, with Voz a Voz, Fountain Terrace, 6:00

Wednesday, June 15
Bryant Park Presents Dance Party: Forro, with Eliano Braz the Forro Fidler, Fountain Terrace, 6:00

Wednesday, June 15, and Thursday, June 16
Hudson River Dance Festival: Stephen Petronio Company, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Urban Bush Women, Pier 61 at Chelsea Piers, 6:30

Thursday, June 16
River to River Festival: Chimatek: Chimacloud Control Center, by Saya Woolfalk, installation on display June 16-26, Fulton Center, 7:00

Dance Heginbotham will perform a site specific LMCC commission as part of River to River Festival (photo by Amber Star Merkens)

Friday, June 17
Bryant Park Presents Modern Dance, with Alia Kache/Kachal Dance, BARKIN/SELISSEN PROJECT, and LaneCoArts, Bryant Park Stage, 6:00

River to River Festival: Dance Heginbotham, site-specific commission set to Erno Dohnanyi’s Serenade in C Major for String Trio, solo guitar music by Heitor Villa-Lobos, and the “Fandango” from Luigi Boccherini’s Quintette No. 4 in G Major, III, Winter Garden, Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St., 7:00

Saturday, June 18
SummerStage: Dance on the Lawn, preshow Master Class with Calvin Wiley, Red Hook Park, 7:00

Saturday, June 18, and Sunday, June 19
River to River Festival: A Body in Places, installation by Eiko Otake, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 12 noon – 4:00 pm

River to River Festival: When I Return Who Will Receive Me, by Okwui Okpokwasili, Fort Jay Magazine, Governors Island, 1:30

Sunday, June 19
River to River Festival: A Body on Governors Island, by Eiko Otake, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 4:30

Monday, June 20
River to River Festival: Riff This, Riff That, by Ephrat Asherie Dance, 33 Maiden Lane, 1:00 & 3:00

River to River Festival: The Planet-Eaters: Seconds, by Will Rawls, Diker Pavilion, National Museum of the American Indian, 5:00

Tuesday, June 21
River to River Festival: The Planet-Eaters: Seconds, by Will Rawls, Diker Pavilion, National Museum of the American Indian, 1:00

River to River Festival: Riff This, Riff That, by Ephrat Asherie Dance, 33 Maiden Lane, 1:00 & 3:00

River to River Festival: A Body on Wall Street, by Eiko Otake, Wall & Broad Sts., 5:00

River to River Festival: Chimatek: Chimacloud Control Center, by Saya Woolfalk, installation on display June 16-26, Fulton Center, 7:00

Wednesday, June 22
River to River Festival: A Body on Wall Street, by Eiko Otake, Wall & Broad Sts., 2:00

River to River Festival: The Planet-Eaters: Seconds, by Will Rawls, Diker Pavilion, National Museum of the American Indian, 4:00

Bryant Park Presents Dance Party: Latin Festival, with Grupo Arcano, Pete Nater & Associates, and the New Swing Sextet, Fountain Terrace, 6:00

River to River Festival: R2R Living Rooms, South Street Seaport, 8:30

Thursday, June 23
River to River Festival: Chimatek: Chimacloud Control Center, by Saya Woolfalk, installation on display June 16-26, Fulton Center, 5:00

Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25
River to River Festival: The Set Up: Kapila Venu, by Wally Cardona, Jennifer Lacey, and Jonathan Bepler, Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport Museum, 9:00

Jillian Peña’s PANOPTICON takes place at Federal Hall as part of River to River Festival (photo by Ian Douglas)

Thursday, June 23, and Friday, June 24
River to River Festival: Panopticon, by Jillian Peña, Federal Hall, 8:00

Friday, June 24
Bryant Park Presents Modern Dance, with 227 Dance Project, Earl Mosley’s Diversity of Dance, and Amy Marshall Dance Company, Bryant Park Stage, 6:00

Saturday, June 25
River to River Festival: A Body in Places, installation by Eiko Otake, Nolan Park, Governors Island, 12 noon – 4:00 pm

SummerStage: Brooklyn Dance Festival, with preshow master class with Mr. Kid, Betsy Head Park, 7:00

Celebrate Brooklyn! Philadanco, Prospect Park Bandshell, 8:00

River to River Festival: The Set Up: Kapila Venu, by Wally Cardona, Jennifer Lacey, and Jonathan Bepler, Melville Gallery, South Street Seaport Museum, 8:00

Sunday, June 26
River to River Festival: Panopticon, by Jillian Peña, Federal Hall, 1:00

River to River Festival: An Epilogue for Otro Teatro: True Love, by Luciana Achugar, Front St. between Beekman St. & Peck Slip, 3:00

SummerStage: Christian Cultural Center C3 Choir, Mr. Reed, Boots Step Team, DJ Styff, Betsy Head Park, 4:00

River to River Festival: R2R Living Rooms, South Street Seaport, 6:00

Wednesday, June 29
SummerStage: Screening of A Ballerina’s Tale (Nelson George, 2015), with Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project and preshow panel discussion, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Friday, July 1
Bryant Park Presents Modern Dance, with WILLYLAURY&CO., BARE Dance Company, and Sean Curran Company, Bryant Park Stage, 6:00

SummerStage: Maimouna Keita Dance Company, with preshow master class, Herbert Von King Park, 7:00

Saturday, July 2
Hot Summer Nights! On Stage at Kingsborough: The Glenn Crytzer Orchestra with special guest Lindy Hoppers from the Syncopated City Dance Company, Kingsborough Lighthouse Bandshell, 8:00

Thursday, July 7
Gibney dance-mobile — Amy Miller + Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance, Foley Square, 5:30

Friday, July 8
Bryant Park Presents Modern Dance, with Black Boys Dance Too, Adam Barrauch / Anatomiae Occultii, and Cherlyn Lavagnino Dance, Bryant Park Stage, 6:00

Saturday, July 9
Gibney dance-mobile — Amy Miller + Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Saturday, July 16
Gibney dance-mobile: Excerpts of Gina Gibney’s Duet, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Sunday, July 17
SummerStage: Legacy Women, Recess Monkey, Music with a Message, Double Dutch Dreamz, St. Mary’s Park, 4:00

Thursday, July 21
Gibney dance-mobile: Excerpts of Gina Gibney’s Duet, Fort Greene Park, 7:30

Celebrate Brooklyn! Camille A. Brown & Dancers: Black Girl: Linguistic Play, Brandee Younger, Prospect Park Bandshell, 7:30

Saturday, July 23
Lincoln Center Out of Doors Family Day: Dance Theatre of Harlem Company and School, Josie Robertson Plaza, 1:00

Jamaica Dance Festival: Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company performs Raindrops, On the River of Dreams, Mirage, Coin Stick Dance, The Flying Goddesses, and Song of the Water Lily, Rufus King Park, 6:45

Gibney dance-mobile: Excerpts of Gina Gibney’s Duet, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Hot Summer Nights! On Stage at Kingsborough: Svetlana & the Delancey Six, with special guest tap star Michela Marino Lerman, Kingsborough Lighthouse Bandshell, 8:00

Sunday, July 24
Lincoln Center Out of Doors — Heritage Sunday Global Beat of the Bronx: From Bambara to Breakbeats, with Bambara Drum and Dance Ensemble, Bombazo Dance Company, Chief Joseph Chatoyer Dance Company, and Full Circle Souljahs, Hearst Plaza, 1:00

Wednesday, July 27
SummerStage: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, Carolyn Dorfman, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Thursday, July 28
Gibney dance-mobile — Amy Miller + Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance, Hudson River Park’s 14th Street Park, time TBA

Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Maurice Hines Tappin’ Thru Life, Michael Mwenso & the Shakes, Damrosch Park, 7:30

Friday, July 29
Suite Summer Festival: Program I, In-Sight Dance, Socrates Sculpture Park, 6:00

Young Dancemakers Company will perform an excerpt by Robert Battle in Socrates Sculpture Park on July 30

Saturday, July 30
Young Dancemakers Company, excerpt by Robert Battle, Socrates Sculpture Park, dancing the art at 2:00, performance at 2:30

Gibney dance-mobile — Amy Miller + Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance, Brooklyn Bridge Park, 7:00

Suite Summer Festival: Program II, In-Sight Dance, Socrates Sculpture Park, 3:00

Sunday, July 31
Suite Summer Festival, In-Sight Dance, Socrates Sculpture Park, Program I at 3:00, Program II at 4:00

SummerStage: Marc Cary: The Harlem Jam Sessions, Joseph Webb: Dancing Buddhas, WBGO Kids Jazz with Brianna Thomas & the Jazz Travelers, Queensbridge Park, 4:00

Wednesday, August 3
Lincoln Center Out of Doors: Soledad Barrio and Noche Flamenca, and Manhattan Camerata: Tango Fado Project featuring Nathalie Pires, Damrosch Park, 7:00

Saturday, August 6
SummerStage: Complexions Contemporary Ballet, preshow master class with Jamel Gaines, Clove Lakes Park, 7:00

Wednesday, August 10
SummerStage: Tamar-kali with ASE Dance Theatre Collective, Nathan Trice Rituals, Rumsey Playfield, Central Park, 8:00

Saturday, August 13
SummerStage: Carolyn Dorfman, preshow master class with Theresa Lavington, East River Park, 7:00

Sunday, August 14, to Friday, August 19
Battery Dance presents the Battery Dance Festival, Robert F. Wagner Jr. Park, 6:30

Thursday, August 18
SummerStage: Tamar-kali with ASE Dance Collective, preshow master class with Calvin Wiley, Marcus Garvey Park, 7:00

Friday, August 19
SummerStage: Nathan Trice Rituals, Harlem School of the Arts Young Dance Alliance, preshow master class with Calvin Wiley, Marcus Garvey Park, 7:00

Saturday, August 20
Battery Dance presents the Battery Dance Festival, closing event and reception, the Schimmel Center at Pace University, free with advance RSVP, 6:00

YVONNE RAINER — THE CONCEPT OF DUST: CONTINUOUS PROJECT-ALTERED ANNUALLY

“The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move?” at MoMA, with Emmanuele Phuon, Patricia Hoffbauer, David Thomson, and Yvonne Rainer, 2015 (photo by Julieta Cervantes © 2015 The Museum of Modern Art, New York)

The Kitchen
512 West 19th St. between Tenth & Eleventh Aves.
June 2-4, 8:00
212-255-5793 ext11
thekitchen.org
www.americandance.org

The new American Dance Institute initiative ADI/NYC at the Kitchen kicks off June 2-4 with the Performa presentation of legendary dancer, choreographer, and avant-garde filmmaker Yvonne Rainer’s “The Concept of Dust, or How do you look when there’s nothing left to move,” an ongoing work-in-progress that combines body movement and spoken text to examine aging and mortality. The eighty-one-year-old Rainer, who has created such dances as Terrain and Two People on Bed/Table and such films as Kristina Talking Pictures and A Film About a Woman Who . . . , will perform in the work, along with dancers who are given the freedom to improvise in order to heighten the unpredictable, personal nature of the forty-five-minute piece, set to British minimalist Gavin Bryars’s “The Sinking of the Titanic.” The opening-night gala includes a champagne reception with Yvonne and the Raindears. ADI/NYC continues through July 2 with Brian Brooks’s Wilderness, Jane Comfort & Company’s You are here, Susan Marshall & Company’s Chromatic, and Jack Ferver’s I want you to want me.

DanceAfrica — SENEGAL: DOORS OF ANCIENT FUTURES

WAATO SiiTA will be celebrating its native Senegal at DanceAfrica at BAM this weekend (photo courtesy of the artist)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAMcafé, BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
May 27-30, free – $60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

For its thirty-ninth season, BAM’s extraordinary DanceAfrica program takes audiences to Senegal, celebrating “Doors of Ancient Futures.” The Memorial Day weekend festivities, under the leadership of new artistic director Abdel R. Salaam (from Forces of Nature) and beloved artistic director emeritus Chuck Davis, feature performances in the Howard Gilman Opera House by the Senegalese troupes Les Ballets de la Renaissance Africaine “WAATO SiiTA” and Compagnie Tenane, Senegalese legend Germaine Acogny (“the Mother of Contemporary African Dance”), and Brooklyn’s own BAM/Restoration DanceAfrica Ensemble, joined by Forces of Nature founding member Dyane Harvey-Salaam and Reverend Nafisa Sharriff. Be on the lookout for both traditional and contemporary movement, including krumping, popping, and breakdancing. There will also be a late-night dance party May 28 in the BAMcafé with DJ Tony Humphries, workshops on May 30 with WAATO SiiTA choreographer Pape Moussa Sonko, a FilmAfrica series consisting of ten films screening in BAM Rose Cinemas (including Nicolas Cissé’s Le Terreau de L’Espoir, Yared Zeleke’s Lamb, and Jason Silverman and Samba Gadjigo’s Sembene!), and the oh-so-fab outdoor DanceAfrica Bazaar (May 28-30), chock-full of vendors selling African products, from clothing and music to jewelry and food.