Tag Archives: danspace project

COIL 2014

Multiple venues
January 3 – February 1, $15-$20
212-352-2101
www.ps122.org

PS122’s East Village home might be under renovation, but that isn’t stopping the organization from presenting the ninth annual incarnation of its winter performance festival, Coil. This year’s festivities comprise nine cutting-edge works in various disciplines, with tickets for all shows only $20, so there’s no reason not to check out at least one of these unique, unusual productions. Reid Farrington stages the ultimate heavyweight match in the world premiere of Tyson vs. Ali at the 3LD Art & Technology Center (January 3-19), in which live action and multiple screens pit Mike Tyson against Muhammad Ali. Mac Wellman’s Muazzez at the Chocolate Factory (January 7-17), from “A Chronicle of the Madness of Small Worlds,” transports the audience, and actor Steve Mellor, into outer space. Heather Kravas’s a quartet at the Kitchen (January 8-12) consists of four dancers performing four dances in four parts each. Director Phil Soltanoff, systems designer Rob Ramirez, and writer Joe Diebes boldly go where no one has gone before in An Evening with William Shatner Asterisk at the New Ohio Theatre (January 9-12), creating a hybrid work highlighted by humans interacting with video clips of words spoken by Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk on Star Trek but strung into new thoughts and statements. Tina Satter’s highly stylized House of Dance at Abrons Arts Center (January 9-13) investigates a tap-dance contest and the relationship between a teacher and his student. The performance series CATCH 60 celebrates its tenth anniversary with the one-night-only CATCH Takes the Decade at the Invisible Dog Art Center (January 11), with works by Cynthia Hopkins, Molly Lieber & Eleanor Smith, Anna Sperber, Ivy Baldwin, and others. Okwui Okpokwasili’s solo Bronx Gothic at Danspace Project (January 14 – February 1) is a song-and-movement-based coming-of-age story about two eleven-year-old girls. All three parts of Jeremy Xido’s solo piece The Angola Project will take place at the Invisible Dog (January 14-17). And family tragedy lies at the center of Brokentalkers’ Have I No Mouth at Baryshnikov Arts Center (January 14-26), with company director Feidlim Cannon and his mother trying to put things back together. In addition, the Red + White Party will get folks mingling as SPIN New York on January 12 ($30 and up) with Elevator Repair Service, and the SPAN conversation series will be held at NYU on January 18.

JANIS BRENNER & DANCERS: 5 DECADES II

Janis Brenner & Dancers will revisit the 1920s, 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s and present a 2011 world premiere at Danspace Project this week

Danspace Project
St. Marks Church in-the-Bowery
131 East 10th St. at Second Ave.
April 7–9, $15-$20, 8:00
212-674-8112
www.danspaceproject.org
www.janisbrenner.com

For more than twenty-five years, Janis Brenner has been choreographing works that explore the mind-body connection, set to a wide range of music by such composers as Meredith Monk, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, Pat Benatar, Eddie Money, the Beatles, and Marianne Faithfull as well as Dvorak, Schubert, Bach, and Mozart. Last year the choreographer/dancer/artistic director, who established Janis Brenner & Dancers in 1989 after working with the likes of Michael Moschen, Annabelle Gamson, and Murray Louis, staged 5 Decades, featuring works from five different decades celebrating the history of dance. She is now back with the sequel, 5 Decades II, at Danspace Project April 7-9, consisting of the world premiere of the site-specific The Mind-Stuff Variations, with live music by Jerome Begin and his ensemble; duets from Louis’s 1976 ballet, Cleopatra, and Brenner’s Pieces of Trust (1987 & 1989); Brenner performing two 1929 pieces by Mary Wigman, Seraphic Song and Pastorale; and a revival of Brenner’s 1998 signature work, heartSTRINGS. The works will be performed by Brenner, Kyla Barkin, Esme Boyce, Sumaya Jackson, Luke Murphy, Christopher Ralph, Aaron Selissen, and Chen Zielinski, with lighting by Mitchell Bogard and costumes by Ramona Ponce, Susan Soetaert, and Frank Garcia.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Danspace Project will offer tasty Food for Thought Nov. 4-6 (photo by Victoria Lam)

Danspace Project
St. Mark’s Church
131 East Tenth St. at Second Ave.
November 4-6, $5 with two cans of food or $10
212-674-8112
www.danspaceproject.org

Danspace Project’s annual Food for Thought benefit, in which attendees are asked to contribute ten dollars or two cans of food and five dollars, with food proceeds going to the St. Mark’s Church Food Program, features three nights of special performances at the church. On Novembber 4, Ishmael Houston-Jones presents “One of These Is Not Like the Others,” with works by Kyle Abraham, Will Rawls, Regina Rocke, and Samantha Speis. On Friday night, Iréne Hultman presents “Friends Two,” a series of duets pairing Andrew Robinson and Gabrielle Malone, Vicky Schick and Susan Rethorst, and Colin Gee and Judith Sanchez Ruiz. And on Saturay night, Jodi Bender curates “Groove Things,” comprising works by Lindsey Kelley and Mindy Upin; Kyli Kleven, Steve May, and Tess Dworman; Ryan McNamara; and Jillian Sweeney. Food for Thought always offers an exciting look at up-and-coming dancers and choreographers, but be sure to get there early, because tickets are not available in advance, only at the door the night of the show.