Jazz pianist, composer, and producer Vijay Iyer will be at SummerStage this weekend, teaming up for a specially commissioned work with Armitage Gone! Dance (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Central Park SummerStage
Rumsey Playfield
Saturday, July 16, and Sunday, July 17, free, 8:00
212-360-2777
www.summerstage.org
New York-based choreographer Karole Armitage and her aggressive, physical company, Armitage Gone! Dance, are teaming up with jazz pianist Vijay Iyer to present the world premiere of the SummerStage commission UnEasy on July 16-17. The work will involve the dancers moving around Iyer and his band, which will also include a bassist, drummer, violinist, and cellist. Over the past few years, Armitage has staged such exciting pieces as GAGA-Gaku, Ligeti Essays, and an updated version of her 1981 breakthrough, Drastic-Classicisim, mixing in elements of punk and street dance; the SummerStage program will begin with the Quantum Theory section of her recent Three Theories, which also tackles the Big Bang, the Theory of Relativity, and String Theory. The Rochester-born Iyer is a jazz prodigy who has been playing the piano and violin since he was a young child. The Grammy nominee, who has released such well-titled albums as Memorophilia, Architextures, Panoptic Modes, Historicity, and Tirtha over the course of his fifteen-year career, played Castle Clinton earlier this summer and next month will take part in the Pi Recordings series at the Stone, joined by saxophonist Steve Lehman and drummer Tyshawn Sorey on August 17 and 18 and guitarist Libery Ellman, violinist Matt Maneri, bassist Stephan Crump, and drummer Damion Reid on August 20. The SummerStage evenings will begin with the world premiere of The Melting Pot from Harlem-born Juilliard graduate Darrell Grand Moultrie’s new company, Dance Grand Moultrie, along with the New York City premiere of Regality, performed with the August Wilson Center Dance Ensemble.
At a huge gang meeting in the Bronx (actually shot in Riverside Park), the Warriors are wrongly accused of having killed Cyrus (Roger Hill), an outspoken leader trying to band all the warring factions together to form one huge force that can take over the New York City borough by borough. The Warriors then must make it back to their home turf, Coney Island, with every gang in New York lying in wait for them to pass through their territory. This iconic New York City gang movie is based on Sol Yurick’s novel, which in turn is loosely based on Xenophon’s Anabasis, which told of the ancient Greeks’ retreat from Persia. Michael Beck stars as Swan, who becomes the de-facto leader of the Warriors after Cleon (Dorsey Wright) gets taken down early. Battling Swan for control is Ajax (Sex and the City’s James Remar) and tough-talking Mercy (Too Close for Comfort’s Deborah Van Valkenburgh). Serving as a Greek chorus is Lynne (Law & Order) Thigpen as a radio DJ, and, yes, that young woman out too late in Central Park is eventual Oscar winner Mercedes Ruehl. Among the cartoony gangs of New York who try to stop the Warriors are the roller-skating Punks, the pathetic Orphans, the militaristic Gramercy Riffs, the all-girl Lizzies, the ragtag Rogues, and the inimitable Baseball Furies. Another main character is the New York City subway system. The Warriors is screening July 14 in Tompkins Square Park as part of the EPIX Movie Free for All series and will be preceded by live performance from unsigned local band Dog Soldier. In addition, EPIX will be giving away an iPad and four $100 Visa gift certificates at the event.
