this week in dance

DE MATERIE

Heiner Goebbels’s multidisciplinary reimagining of Louis Andriessen’s DE MATERIE runs at the Park Avenue Armory March 22-30 (photo by Wonge Bergmann)

Park Ave. Armory, Wade Thompson Drill Hall
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
March 22–30, $85-$195
212-933-5812
www.armoryonpark.org

Dutch composer Louis Andriessen’s four-part magnum opus, De Materie, makes its North American stage debut this month at the Park Avenue Armory, in a wildly inventive production directed by Heiner Goebbels, whose Stifters Dinge had its U.S. premiere at the armory in December 2009. Andriessen’s visionary work weaves in dance, spoken text, choral singing, jazz, science, philosophy, poetry, Renaissance music, and more, with Goebbels adding, among other things, one hundred sheep. Among those being referenced in the piece, which explores the relationship between matter and spirit, are Madame Curie, Piet Mondrian, Hadewijch, David Gorlaeus, and the De Stijl art movement. The work will be performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), conducted by Peter Rundel, with the ChorWerk Ruhr, more than two dozen actors and dancers, and others; tenor Pascal Charbonneau is Gorlaeus, soprano Evgeniya Sotnikova is Hadewijch, and Catherine Milliken is Madame Curie. The stage and lighting design is by Klaus Grünberg, with costumes by Florence von Gerkan, sound by Norbert Ommer, and choreography by Florian Bilbao. “This highly imaginative collaboration asks us to appreciate the inherent connections between all manner of innovation throughout society — from the discovery of radioactivity to the creation of a work of art,” new Park Avenue Armory artistic director Pierre Audi said in a statement. In addition to the six performances, there will be four special programs to shed more light on this monumental undertaking. On March 23 at 8:00 ($60), Andriessen will team up with pianist Jason Moran for “Improvisations: Louis Andriessen and Jason Moran,” an exploration of how jazz is used in De Materie while discussing improvisation in general. On March 24 at 6:00 ($15), WNYC’s John Schaefer will host “De Materie: Matter & Spirit,” a conversation with Goebbels, Columbia music professor and musician and composer George E. Lewis, and composer Missy Mazzoli. On March 25 at 6:00 ($15), Schaefer will moderate “Four Different Ways: Celebrating Louis Andriessen,” with Bang on a Can cofounder Julia Wolfe, electronic experimental musician and composer Nathan Michel, and Princeton music professor Donnacha Dennehy. And finally, on March 26 at 6:00 ($15), Audi will lead an artist talk with Goebbels, Rundel, and Andriessen.

REBECCA LAZIER AND DAN TRUEMAN: THERE MIGHT BE OTHERS

Rebecca Lazier makes NYLA debut with world premiere of THERE MIGHT BE OTHERS (photo by Maria Baranova)

New York Live Arts
219 West 19th St. between Seventh & Eighth Aves.
March 16-19, $15-$40, 7:30
212-924-0077
www.newyorklivearts.org
www.rebeccalazier.com

On the back cover of the new book There Might Be Others, which contains the music and dance score for Rebecca Lazier’s New York Live Arts commission along with collaborator notes, instructions, principles, and more, NYLA director of programs Tommy Kreigsmann says, “Seminal works of the avant-garde become so when the inherent risk at the heart of the experiment catalyzing the vision to its fruition pushes the work’s sphere of influence beyond its original form and often its intended meaning. Intrepid choreographer Rebecca Lazier [has a] penchant for musical interpretation and the infinite aesthetic and physical languages in its breadth, making her among the very best of her generation.” New York-based dancer, choreographer, and teacher Lazier will be making her NYLA debut with the world premiere of There Might Be Others on March 16-19, inspired by Terry Riley’s 1964, fifty-three-part composition, “In C,” one of the first major minimalist works. The live score will be performed by fiddler Dan Trueman and SŌ Percussion and Mobius Percussion (March 16-18) and members of Mantra Percussion (March 19). The piece features dramaturgy and design by Naomi Leonard, Davison Scandrett, and Mary Jo Mecca and will be danced by Simon Courchel, Natalie Green, raja feather kelly, Cori Kresge, Christopher Ralph, Anna Schön, Saúl Ulerio, Agnieszka Kryst, Jan Lorys, Ramona Nagabczynska, Pawel Sakowicz Rhonda Baker, Sara Coffin, and Tan Temel. On March 13 ($20, 1:30), Lazier (Coming Together/Attica, Terminal) and Trueman will host the Shared Practice workshop “Choreographing Being in Action — Staging Negotiation and Interaction,” while the March 17 show will be followed by a Stay Late Discussion with Neil Greenberg.

STEPHEN PETRONIO COMPANY: BLOODLINES II

Longtime Stephen Petronio Company dancer Gino Grenek will dance the male solo in MIDDLESEXGORGE at the Joyce this week (photo by Sarah Silver)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
March 8-13, $10-$60
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
petron.io

Last April, Newark-born dancer and choreographer Stephen Petronio premiered his new initiative, “Bloodlines,” at the Joyce, presenting Merce Cunningham’s RainForest. The five-year project will consist of iconic works from master American choreographers, paired with a new work by Petronio. This week the New York-based company returns to the Joyce with the second edition of “Bloodlines,” performing Trisha Brown’s Glacial Decoy, her 1979 silent piece featuring costumes and visual design by Robert Rauschenberg, who also designed the lighting with Beverly Emmons. Glacial Decoy was Brown’s first piece for a proscenium stage and debuted the same year that Petronio joined her company as its first male dancer. To complement the all-female Glacial Decoy, Petronio has chosen to reconstruct his 1990 piece about gender and power, MiddleSexGorge, set to commissioned music by the British band Wire and inspired by Petronio’s participation with the AIDS activist organization ACT UP in the late 1980s. Company dancer and assistant artistic director Gino Grenek, in his seventeenth and last season with the troupe, will take the male solo and one half of the male duet. “The piece is ferocious and the dancers must be fearless in their execution of the dance. Hands grab, legs fly, heads whip, and torsos twist at warp speed. It is a rite of passage for every Petronio dancer to perform MiddleSexGorge,” Grenek writes on the company’s blog. “I adore it, I crave it, and I am humbled by it.” Also on the bill is the world premiere of Petronio’s Big Daddy Deluxe, an updated version of his 2014 solo “talking dance” Big Daddy, a tribute to his late father, built around text from Petronio’s 2014 memoir, Confessions of a Motion Addict; the work has now been expanded for the full company, which includes Grenek, Davalois Fearon, Kyle Filley, Cori Kresge, Jaqlin Medlock, Tess Montoya, Nicholas Sciscione, Emily Stone, and Joshua Tuason. The March 10 performance will be followed by a Curtain Chat with members of the company

PLATFORM 2016 — A BODY IN PLACES: EIKO SOLOS

Eiko performs one of her solos for an intimate audience in a Lower East Side textile studio as part of Danspace Project Platform series (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

Eiko performs one of her solos for an intimate audience in a Lower East Side textile studio as part of Danspace Project’s “Platform” series (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

A BODY IN PLACES: EIKO SOLO #4
Danspace Project
St. Mark’s Church in-the-Bowery
131 East Tenth St. between Second & Third Aves.
Monday – Friday through March 19, $20, varying times
Platform continues through March 23
866-811-4111
www.danspaceproject.org
eiko solo #4 slideshow

New York-based Japanese dancer and choreographer Eiko Otake’s “A Body in Places” is the centerpiece of Danspace Project’s tenth “Platform” series, a five-week multidisciplinary exploration of Eiko’s work, including live performances, art and video installations, film screenings, lectures and discussions, a book club, and more. Every Monday through Friday, Eiko will be performing “A Body in Places: Eiko Solos,” unique hour-long dances that occur around Danspace’s home at St. Mark’s Church on East Tenth St. Between ten and twenty-five ticket holders will meet at the church, then be led to a secret location, where Eiko will perform exclusively for them. On March 3, the group walked over to 44 East Third St., a three-story townhouse that once was the home of the Reuben Gallery, the site of the first Happenings back in 1959, and currently the studio of textile artist Suzanne Tick. The performance began in the basement, as Eiko, wearing a luxurious kimono, moved alongside Tick working at a loom as the audience gathered around the space. At her trademark slow pace — but with occasional bursts of energy — Eiko headed up the stairs and continued in the main room, spreading out her arms and legs, then bringing her body together in an almost fetal-like position, and even emitting guttural sounds, before heading to the top floor, where, during part of her performance, one of Tick’s cats rested next to her on the floor until Eiko got up and eventually concluded with a flourish in the outdoor patio. It was an intimate, one-of-a-kind performance, a modern-day Happening, during which the performer and the crowd bonded in touching ways amid the unusual surroundings. The solos continue through March 19 at a different time each day; among the other locations on the schedule are the ANNA clothing store on East Eleventh St., Middle Collegiate Church on Second Ave., Dashwood Books on Bond St., the Sirovich Center for Balanced Living on East Twelfth St., and the Zürcher Gallery on Bleecker St. For our interview with Eiko about the Platform series as a whole, go here.

FIRST SATURDAY: SHE KNOWS NO BOUNDS

Honeybird will be part of woman-centric lineup at Brooklyn Museums First Saturday program on March 6 (photo by Monique Mizrahi)

Honeybird will be part of woman-centric lineup at Brooklyn Museum’s First Saturday program on March 5 (photo by Monique Mizrahi)

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

Women are the headliners at the Brooklyn Museum’s free March First Saturday program. There will be live music by Honeybird, Denitia and Sene, Yahzarah, and drummers from Tom Tom magazine (with a talkback moderated by Mindy Abovitz); dance by the Erica Essner Performance Co-Op (“Reflex 2015,” followed by a Q&A); storytelling by Ashley “SAYWUT?!” Moyer and Queer Memoir; a screening of Faythe Levine and Sam Macon’s Sign Painters, followed by a talkback with Levine and sign painter Marcine Franckowiak; an art workshop; and pop-up gallery talks. In addition, the galleries are open late so you can check out such exhibitions as “Coney Island: Visions of an American Dreamland, 1861–2008,” “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (to a Seagull),’” “Forever Coney: Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection,” “This Place,” and “Agitprop!”

CULTUREMART 2016

Purva Bedi, Kristin Marting, and Mariana Newhard’s ASSEBMLED IDENTITY is part of the 2016 edition of HERE’s CULTUREMART performance festival

Purva Bedi, Kristin Marting, and Mariana Newhard’s ASSEMBLED IDENTITY is part of 2016 edition of HERE’s CULTUREMART performance festival

HERE
145 Sixth Ave. at Dominick St.
March 2-12, $15
212-647-0202
here.org

We nearly forgot about HERE’s annual CULTUREMART performance festival, which usually is held in January/February, but fortunately we were reminded of this forward-thinking series just in time as March began. A project of the HERE Artist Residency Program, or HARP, the multidisciplinary festival features eleven workshop productions from March 2 to 12, with all tickets only $15. Things get under way March 2-3 with one of New York’s most innovative teams, Reid Farrington and Sara Farrington, who repurpose footage of old films to create something new with live actors. This year they are presenting CasablancaBox, in which they go behind the scenes of the making of Casablanca. In Things Fall Apart (March 5-6), Kate Brehm uses folding chairs to examine her place in the world; it’s on a double bill with Rob Roth’s audiovisual Soundstage. RADY&BLOOM Collective Playmaking explores the ocean in O (March 5-6), which is being shown with Adam J. Thompson / the Deconstructive Theatre Project’s live-cinema Venice Double Feature, which examines social media and voyeurism. Purva Bedi, Kristin Marting, and Mariana Newhard delve into the science behind identity in Assembled Identity, part of a March 8-9 double bill with Lanie Fefferman’s math-centric chamber opera, Elements. Also on March 8-9, Paul Pinto goes inside the mind of the political activist and philosopher in Thomas Paine in Violence; also on the bill is Leah Coloff’s ThisTree, stories and songs about family and legacy. CULTUREMART concludes March 11-12 with Amanda Szeglowski/cakeface’s Stairway to Stardom, a dance-theater work dealing withtalent and fame, teamed with Chris M. Green’s American Weather, which looks at our very questionable future.

THE MARIINSKY AT BAM: A TRIBUTE TO MAYA PLISETSKAYA

Mariinsky principal dancer Uliana Lopatkina is part of four-night tribute to Maya Plisetskaya at BAM (photo by Natasha Razina)

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Peter Jay Sharp Building
230 Lafayette Ave.
February 24-28, $30-$175
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.mariinsky.ru/en

Last May, Maya Plisetskaya, who became an international star with the Bolshoi Ballet in the 1950s and ’60s, passed away at the age of eighty-nine. Russia’s Mariinsky Theatre will be honoring the legacy of the legendary prima ballerina in its second annual residency at BAM this week. “It has always seemed to me that books were written by people who were absolutely extraordinary. Supersmart. Superscholarly,” the absolutely extraordinary dancer and choreographer writes in the preface to her 2001 memoir, I, Maya Plisetskaya. “And here was a ballerina picking up the pen. It reminded me of an old joke. When a huge ship, practically the Titanic, sank in the ocean, only two passengers survived, because they could float: a government minister, because he was such a big turd, and a ballerina, because she was an airhead.” Running February 25-28, “A Tribute to Maya Plisetskaya” is divided into four programs, featuring current Mariinsky principals Uliana Lopatkina and Diana Vishneva, neither of whom have been called airheads, performing live with the Mariinsky Orchestra, with musical direction by Mariinsky artistic and general director Valery Gergiev and either Gergiev or Alexei Repnikov conducting. (As a bonus, on February 24, Gergiev will conduct “Folk, Form, and Fire: The Prokofiev Piano Concertos,” with the Mariinsky Orchestra and soloists George Li, Alexander Toradze, Daniil Trifonov, Sergei Redkin, and Sergei Babayan.)

Woman in the Room (photo by Gene Schiavone)

Diana Vishneva will perform “Woman in a Room” as part of Mariinsky tribute to Maya Plisetskaya at BAM (photo by Gene Schiavone)

On February 25, Vishneva and other members of the Mariinsky Ballet Company will perform Carmen Suite, choreographed by Albert Alonso specifically for Plisetskaya and with music by Rodion Shchedrin after Georges Bizet; Lopatkina will dance Camille Saint-Saëns’s The Dying Swan, choreographed by Michel Fokine; and, on film from 1975, Plisetskaya will be seen in Maurice Ravel’s Boléro, choreographed by Maurice Béjart. The February 26 schedule consists of ten pieces honoring Anna Pavlova and Vaslav Nijinsky, who had profound effects on Plisetskaya’s career; the evening includes Valeriya Martinuk and Alexei Popov performing the pas de deux of Colombine and Harlequin from Robert Schumann’s Le Carnaval, choreographed by Michel Fokine; Maria Shirinkina and Vladimir Shklyarov joining in Carl Maria von Weber’s Le Spectre de la rose, also choreographed by Fokine; Lopatkina and Roman Belyakov teaming up in Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Pavlova and Cecchetti, choreographed by John Neumeier; and Martinuk and Popov taking on Tchaikovsky’s pas de deux of Princess Florine and the Bluebird from The Sleeping Beauty, choreographed by Marius Petipa. Vishneva is the star attraction on February 27, performing Carmen Suite and 2013’s Woman in a Room, with choreography by Carolyn Carlson and music by Giovanni Sollima and René Aubry, inspired by the films of Russian auteur Andrei Tarkovsky. The tribute concludes February 28 with a dozen works celebrating Plisetskaya, Pavlova, and Galina Ulanova, with Ekaterina Osmolkina and Maxim Zyuzin performing the Maria and Vaslav adagio from Boris Asafyev’s The Fountain of Bakhchisarai, choreographed by Rostislav Zakharov; Lopatkina and Andrey Ermakov in Gustav Mahler’s La Rose Malade, choreographed by Roland Petit; Lopatkina and Shklyarov in an excerpt from Shchedrin’s The Little Humped Back Horse, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky; and Martinuk and Zyuzin performing the act III adagio from Farid Yarullin’s Shurale, choreographed by Leonid Yakobson. “I planned the book for a local, Russian audience,” Plisetskaya explains in her memoir. “But I was also thinking about a far-away Western audience. The far-away ones who know very little about the byways, the delirious fantasies, the masquerades of our strange, incredible, and unbelievable former Soviet life.” For four nights, all of that will be brought together in Brooklyn at BAM, where you can also currently see the Maly Drama Theatre’s marvelous version of Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard.