this week in dance

OKINAWAN VIBES: TRADITIONAL DANCE FROM OKINAW, WITH LIVE MUSIC

Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, September 18, and Saturday, September 19, $40, 7:30
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

As part of its 2015-16 performing arts season, Japan Society is celebrating the history of culture of Okinawa, located in the Ryukyu island chain south of mainland Japan, with the three-month series “Okinawan Vibes.” The festival begins September 18-19 with “Traditional Dance from Okinawa, with Live Music,” copresented with Yokohama Noh Theater. The event features dancers Satoru Arakaki, Sayuri Chibana, Izumi Higa, Kota Kawamitsu, Sonoyo Noha, Yoshikazu Sanabe, and Ayano Yamashiro and musicians Shingo Nakamine, Kazuki Tamashiro, Hiroya Yokome, Hokuto Ikema, Hideo Miyagi, Natsuko Morita, and Satoshi Higa from Okinawa Prefectural University of Arts performing a quartet of court and folk dances from during and immediately after the Ryukyu Kingdom (fifteenth to nineteenth centuries), including the women’s dance onna odori, the masked classical dance shundo, and folk dances known as zo odori; the dancers will be wearing such extravagantly colored costumes as the bingata, the hanagasa, and kasuri kimonos, while the musicians will be playing the taiko, the koto, the sanshin, the kokyu, and the fue. Each evening will be preceded by a lecture led by Dr. James Rhys Edwards and will be followed by a meet-the-artists reception. In addition, Japan Society is hosting an Okinawan dance and music workshop on September 19 ($45, 4:00), in which participants will learn about the karaya dance and sanshin and see an onnagata demonstration. “Okinawan Vibes” continues with Go Takamine’s rarely shown Paradise View on October 2, “Obake Family Day: Experience Japan’s Ghosts & Goblins” on November 1, “Explore Okinawa: Art, Culture, and Cuisine from the Ryukyu Islands” on November 3, the lecture “Okinawa, the Birthplace of Karate” on November 7, and the workshop “Creating Bingata, Okinawa’s Vibrant Textile” on November 8.

AUTUMN MOON FESTIVAL AND MORE

A CELEBRATION OF ASIAN CULTURE
Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden
1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island
Saturday, September 19, $8-$10, 12 noon – 4:00 pm
718-425-3504
snug-harbor.org

On September 19, Staten Island’s beautiful Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden will be hosting its sixteenth annual Autumn Moon Festival, an afternoon of special programs celebrating the Asian harvest. Taking place in the Chinese Scholar’s Garden, the festival will include an arts and crafts family workshop, a performance of Rabbit Days and Dumplings by Elena Moon Park and Friends, traditional music and dance, Asian-inspired food, martial arts and Tai Chi demonstrations, calligraphy lessons, and more. In addition, on Saturday and Sunday, Snug Harbor is holding a party for the grand opening of the Staten Island Museum, with games, live music, crafts, science, food, and more; admission for that is free. And finally, on Saturday at 2:00 and 8:00 and Sunday at 2:00, the Harbor Lights Theater Company will be presenting Rent in the Music Hall ($35-$45); the production continues through October 4.

FALL FOR DANCE FESTIVAL 2015

New York City Center
131 West 55th St. between Sixth & Seventh Aves.
Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 13, 11:00 am
Festival runs September 30 – October 11, $15
212-581-1212
www.nycitycenter.org

One of the hottest tickets of the season is always the annual Fall for Dance Festival at City Center, ten days of performances by twenty companies from around the world, each show a mere fifteen bucks. Tickets go on sale Sunday, September 13, at 11:00 am, so don’t waste any time if you want to see any of the below programs, because these events sell out ridiculously fast.

Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, 8:00
Miami City Ballet, Allegro Brillante, George Balanchine
Doug Elkins Choreography, Etc., Hapless Bizarre, Doug Elkins
L.A. Dance Project, Murder Ballades, Justin Peck
Che Malambo, Che Malambo, Gilles Brinas and dancers

Friday, October 2, and Saturday, October 3, 8:00
La Compagnie Hervé Koubi, U.S. premiere of What the Day Owes to the Night, Hervé Koubi
Steven McRae, U.S. premiere of Czardas, Steven McRae
Project FFD: Pam Tanowitz, One Last Good Chance, Pam Tanowitz
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Four Corners, Ronald K. Brown

Tuesday, October 6, and Wednesday, October 7, 8:00
Companhia Urbana De Dança, Eu Danço — 8 solos no geral, Sonia Destri Lie and dancers
Fang-Yi Sheu and Herman Cornejo, Pheromones, Fang-Yi Sheu
Houston Ballet, Maninyas, Stanton Welch
Paul Taylor Dance Company, Brandenburgs, Paul Taylor

Thursday, October 8, and Friday, October 9, 8:00
Nrityagram, Invoking Shiva, Surupa Sen
San Francisco Ballet, Solo, Hans van Manen
Stephen Petronio Company, Locomotor, Stephen Petronio
Dorrance Dance, world premiere of a Fall for Dance commission, Michelle Dorrance

Saturday, October 10, 8:00, and Sunday, October 11, 7:00
Boston Ballet, Pas de Quatre, Leonid Yakobson
Bill Irwin and Tiler Peck, Time It Was/116, Bill Irwin, Tiler Peck, and Damian Woetzel
Jesús Carmona & Cia, U.S. premiere of Ímpetu, Jesús Carmona
L-E-V, Killer Pig, Sharon Eyal and Gai Behar

TREE OF CODES

Park Ave. Armory
643 Park Ave. between 66th & 67th Sts.
September 14-21, $30-$90
212-933-5812
armoryonpark.org

Codes are one-to-one correspondences, messages that have been transformed from one communication into another. Tree of Codes, originally presented earlier this summer at the Manchester International Festival, is a seventy-five-minute contemporary ballet that uses light, sound, color, mirrors, and movement in unique ways, transforming Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2010 book, Tree of Codes, into something entirely other. Foer’s book is a work of art that is both a literary narrative and sculptural object; every page of the paperback boasts a different die-cut as surprising word combinations continually reveal themselves. Foer’s three-dimensional story begins with Bruno Schulz’s Street of Crocodiles — which has previously been adapted by the Quay Brothers into a classically creepy stop-motion animation film — and Foer then cut out words to create a whole new tale. British choreographer Wayne McGregor (Infra, Chroma), London-born DJ and music producer Jamie xx (We’re New Here, In Colour), and Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson (“The Collectivity Project” on the High Line, “NYC Waterfalls”) have turned Tree of Codes into a site-specific multidisciplinary performance piece, featuring members of the Paris Opera Ballet and McGregor’s company, that will take place in New York City’s most creative space, the Wade Thompson Drill Hall at the Park Avenue Armory, from September 14 to 21. “At the armory, we are always encouraging artists to push the limits of their specific disciplines. Wayne McGregor, Olafur Eliasson, and Jaime xx are each pioneers in their respective fields, and their collective vision for Tree of Codes asks us to bend our preconceived notions of traditional ballet and also the world around us,” armory president and executive producer Rebecca Robertson said in a statement. The armory has previously hosted work by the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Shen Wei Dance Arts, STREB Extreme Action, Massive Attack, Christian Boltanski, Ann Hamilton, Tom Sachs, Paul McCarthy, Ryoji Ikeda, and many others, who have taken great advantage of the fifty-five-thousand square-foot space. Tree of Codes is likely to do the same.

9/11 TABLE OF SILENCE

Special “Table of Silence Project” performance ritual of peace returns for fifth year to Josie Robertson Plaza (photo by Terri Gold)

Josie Robertson Plaza, Lincoln Center
65th St. between Broadway & Amsterdam Ave.
Friday, September 11, free, 8:15 am
www.tableofsilence.org

Every September 11, there are many memorial programs held all over the city, paying tribute to those who were lost on that tragic day while also honoring New York’s endless resiliency. One of the most beautiful is “The Table of Silence Project,” a public performance ritual for peace featuring one hundred dancers on Josie Robertson Plaza at Lincoln Center. “The ‘Table of Silence Project’ represents the common threads of humanity which unite all mankind into a single force with common goals and aspirations regardless of race, culture, or religion,” choreographer and artistic director Jacqulyn Buglisi said in a statement. “Through this event, we wish to achieve the dual purpose of celebrating and honoring peace and freedom for all people suffering oppression, through listening, a united moment of silence — a call for Peace in our world.” Beginning at 8:15 am, thirty-one minutes before the first plane hit the World Trade Center in 2001, the dancers, all dressed in white, will slowly begin gathering around the Revson Fountain to a rhythmic drumbeat, followed by silence and then a soft score. Buglisi Dance Theatre partnered with the September Concert and Dance/NYC for the meditative event, which lasts about a half hour and can also be livestreamed here. “The future of humanity depends on what we do in the present,” Buglisi added about the project, which she conceived for the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks. Buglisi was inspired by Italian artist Rossella Vasta’s ever-evolving series of one hundred ceramic plates that help form the Table of Silence; as Vasta explained on her website, “One hundred is one times 100 and this refers to the original Latin meaning of religion that is derived from ‘religere.’ The dishes become the offering to humanity and represent transcendental values beyond any religion. Silence becomes a sacred space with no religious discrimination.”

DANCENOW JOE’S PUB FESTIVAL 2015

Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan will host the DANCENOW Challenge at Joe’s Pub on September 12 (photo by Yi-Chun Wu)

Joe’s Pub
425 Lafayette St. by Astor Pl.
September 9-12, 24, $20-$30, 7:00
212-539-8778
www.dancenownyc.org

For its twentieth annual season, the DANCENOW Joe’s Pub Festival looks to the past, present, and future of the artistic discipline, as fifty choreographers return to the small Lafayette St. stage to present works of no more than five minutes. The festival, which encourages experimentation and innovation, takes place September 9-12, with each night hosted by different dance makers and DANCENOW veterans. “This celebration is about honoring the amazing artists, many of whom got their start through DANCENOW and now have very successful careers, who took a leap of faith to create work for our unconventional programs over the past two decades,” DANCENOWNYC founder and producer Robin Staff said in a statement. “After twenty years, DANCENOW remains steadfast in its ‘less is more’ vision, embracing limitation as a powerful inspiration for creativity.” On September 9, Raja Feather Kelly/feath3r theory and B.S. MOVEMENT: Bryan Strimpel and Shaina Branfman oversee a program with such choreographers and companies as the Bang Group, Aszure Barton & Artists, Jane Comfort & Company, and PearsonWidrig DanceTheater. On September 10, Deborah Lohse/a.k.a. TruDee and Mark Gindick host binbinFACTORY/Satoshi Haga & Rei Fukuzawa, Li Chiao-Ping Dance, Heidi Latsky, and others. September 11 includes Jamal Jackson Dance Company, Gus Solomons Jr., TAKE Dance, and ZviDance, with hosts Larry Keigwin and Nicole Wolcott. And September 12 is led by Chelsea Murphy and Magda San Millan (Chelsea & Magda), with Doug Elkins Choreography, Claire Porter/PORTABLES, Amber Sloan, and more. On September 24, there will be a dozen encore performances, along with special guests Brian Brooks and Nicholas Leichter.

CARNIVAL 2015: ONE CARIBBEAN ONE PEOPLE ONE VOICE

Spectacular costumes are all part of the fun of annual West Indian American Day Carnival on Labor Day in Brooklyn (photo by twi-ny/mdr)

WEST INDIAN AMERICAN DAY CARNIVAL AND PARADE
Eastern Pkwy. from Schenectady Ave. to Grand Army Plaza
Monday, September 7, free, 11:00 am – 6:00 pm
718-467-1797
wiadcacarnival.org

Every Labor Day, millions of people line Eastern Parkway, celebrating the city’s best annual parade, the West Indian American Day Carnival, waving flags from such nations as Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, the Cayman Islands, Antigua, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Aruba, Curaçao, and many more. The festivities actually begin on September 3, with special events (listed below) every day leading up to the parade. The Labor Day partying commences at 2:00 am with the traditional J’Ouvert Morning, a precarnival procession featuring steel drums and percussion and fabulous, inexpensive masquerade costumes, marching from Grand Army Plaza to Flatbush Ave. and on to Empire Blvd., then to Nostrand Ave. and Linden Blvd. The Parade of Bands begins around 11:00 am, as truckloads of blasting Caribbean music and groups of ornately dressed dancers, costume bands, masqueraders, moko jumbies, and thousands of others bump and grind their way down Eastern Parkway to Grand Army Plaza, participating in one last farewell to the flesh prior to Lent. There will also be local politicians galore, with Sen. Charles Schumer and his ever-present bullhorn doing lots of meeting and greeting. Don’t eat before you go; the great homemade food includes ackee and saltfish, oxtail stew, breadfruit, macaroni pie, curried goat, jerk chicken, fishcakes, rice and peas, and red velvet cake. The farther east you venture, the more closed in it gets; by the time you get near Crown Heights, it could take you half an hour just to cross the street, so take it easy and settle in for a fun, colorful day where you need not hurry. This year’s marshals are Facebook global head of diversity Maxine Williams, U.S. Virgin Islands governor Keith E Mapp, and, TWU Local 100 secretary-treasurer Earl Phillips. Oh, and be prepared to see a whole lotta twerkin’ going on that would make even Miley Cyrus blush; we particularly like when the twerkers get the police involved.

Thursday, September 3
Caribbean Freedom Festival, with KES the Band, RemBunction, Scorpion, Young Devyn, Da Big Show, Mr. Pearly, and more, hosted by Riggo Suave, Barrie Hype, Herbert Holler & the Freedom Party NYC, Milo Miles, Biggie and DJ One Plus, and an Ole MAS carnival characters competition, Brooklyn Museum, $25, 7:00 pm – 1:00 am

Friday, September 4
The Official Stay in School Concert and College Fair, with live music by Mr. Pearly, DJ Super Soca Bass, martial arts demonstrations, a fashion show, spoken word, and more, Brooklyn Museum, free, 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Brass Fest, with Ricardo Drue, Lyrikal, Skinny Fabulous, Pressure Busspipe, Preedy, Hypasounds, Ravi B & Karma, Bunji Garlin, Fay-Ann Lyons & the Asylum Vikings, DJ Sounds 4 Life, DJ Back 2 Basics, Foreign Bass, DJ Spice, DJ Renee, Boodoosingh Tassa Drummers, and Kutters Rhythm Section, hosted by Vybezman Redman and MC Wassy, Brooklyn Museum, $55, 8:00 pm – 3:00 am

Saturday, September 5
Junior Carnival Parade, St. John’s Place between Kingston & Brooklyn Aves. to Brooklyn Museum at Washington Ave., 9:00 am – 3:00 pm

Steelband Panorama 2015, championship showdown with Pan Sonatas, CASYM, Pantonic, Steel Xplosion, ADLIB, METRO, “D” Radoes, Crossfire Steel Orchestra, Harmony Steel Orchestra, Despers USA, Bench Warmers Rhythm Section, and Brooklyn Steel Orchestra, with music by DJ One Plus, hosted by MC Godfrey Jack and Jemma Jordan, Brooklyn Museum, $45, 8:00 pm – 3:00 am

Sunday, September 6
Diamanche Gras: A Tribute to Yesteryear, with the Mighty Sparrow, King David Rudder, Swallow, Edwin Yearwood, Something Positive Inc., the Sunshine Band, Boodoosingh Tassa Drummers, Sumkinabakanaal Rhythm Section, the Kings and Queens of the MAS Bands, DJ One Plus, and the Golden Krust Caribbean Bakery & Grill National Jamaican Patty Eating Contest, hosted by MC Wassy, MC Godfrey Jack, and Jemma Jordan, Brooklyn Museum, $35, 7:00 pm – 1:00 am