Tag Archives: joyce theater

RONALD K. BROWN, EVIDENCE: DEN OF DREAMS / DANCING SPIRIT

Ronald K. Brown returns to the stage in a special duet in upcoming Joyce season (photo © Julieta Cervantes)

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
February 6-11, $10-$46
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.evidencedance.com

It’s always a thrill to see Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence, a Dance Company, bring its electrifying work to the Joyce, or anywhere, for that matter. Founded by Brown in 1985, the Brooklyn-based troupe dazzles audiences with its unique and inspired integration of traditional African dance with contemporary movement while emphasizing a strong sense of community and a social conscience. Evidence will be at the Joyce February 6-11, highlighted by the world premiere of Den of Dreams, a duet performed by Brown and Bessie winner Arcell Cabuag in celebration of Cabuag’s twentieth anniversary as associate artistic director, a job that includes teaching master classes and working with dance schools around the globe. Evidence will also present the company premiere of Dancing Spirit, a 2009 work Brown choreographed for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in honor of Judith Jamison’s twentieth anniversary as AAADT artistic director, featuring music by Duke Ellington, Wynton Marsalis, Radiohead, and War and melding Afro-Cuban and Brazilian styles. Also on the bill are 2002’s Come Ye, a call for peace set to the music of Nina Simone and Fela Kuti, and March, a duet, excerpted from 1995’s Lessons, set to a speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., being performed as a tribute to the fiftieth anniversary of the reverend’s assassination. Opening night will also feature Upside Down, an excerpt from Brown’s 1998 Destiny, with music by Wunmi. The season is part of Carnegie Hall’s wide-ranging festival “The ’60s: The Years that Changed America” and will include a curtain chat following the February 7 show, a master class on February 9, and a family matinee on February 10. The dynamic company includes rehearsal director Annique Roberts, assistant rehearsal director Keon Thoulouis, Shayla Caldwell, Kevyn Ryan Butler, Courtney Paige, Demetrius Burns, and Janeill Cooper.

L.A. DANCE PROJECT

Sterling Ruby created the scenic design for Justin Peck’s Murder Ballades, part of the L.A. Dance Project’s two-week season at the Joyce

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 13-25, $26-$66
212-242-0800
www.joyce.org
www.ladanceproject.com

The innovative and exciting L.A. Dance Project follows up its 2016 Joyce debut with a two-week run at the Chelsea institution, performing a pair of what promise to be terrific programs, boasting an impressive array of collaborators. For the first program, the company, which was founded in 2012 by former New York City Ballet principal dancer Benjamin Millepied, will be presenting 2015’s Hearts & Arrows, choreographed by Millepied, with music by Philip Glass performed live by PUBLIQuartet, sets by English conceptual artist Liam Gillick, lighting by Roderick Murray, and costumes by company dancer Janie Taylor; Ohad Naharin’s Yag, a forty-minute piece for six dancers, set to music by John Zorn, Gaetano Donizetti, John Taverner, Ennio Morricone, Ran Slavin, and Maxim Waratt and for which LADP rehearsed with ballet masters from Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company; and the world premiere of Millepied’s In Silence We Speak, a duet, inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura, for Taylor and Carla Korbës that you can get a sneak peek at here. The second program consists of New York City Ballet resident choreographer Justin Peck’s 2013 Murder Ballades, with an original score by Bryce Dessner of the National, sets by American artist Sterling Ruby, and lighting by Brandon Stirling Baker; Merce Cunningham’s MinEvent, a collage of excerpts from Cunningham’s oeuvre, with live piano by Adam Tendler; In Silence We Speak; and the world premiere of Millepied’s multimedia Orpheus Highway, set to Steve Reich’s Triple Quartet, played live by PUBLIQuartet. The company also includes Stephanie Amurao, Aaron Carr, David Adrian Freeland Jr., Rachelle Rafailedes, Nathan B. Makolandra, Julia Eichten, Robbie Moore, Morgan Lugo, and Lilja Rúriksdóttir. There will be a Curtain Chat following the June 15 performance of Program 2. LADP’s 2016 season at the Joyce sold out, so you better hurry if you want to see this sizzling hot company.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY AT THE JOYCE

Anne Souder and Lloyd Mayor perform in Martha Graham’s “Dark Meadow Suite.” (photo by Hibbard Nash Photography)

Anne Souder and Lloyd Mayor perform in Martha Graham’s “Dark Meadow Suite,” which will be part of two-week season at the Joyce this month (photo by Hibbard Nash Photography)

The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
February 14-26, $10-$60
212-691-9740
www.joyce.org
marthagraham.org

The Martha Graham Company will explore various aspects of magical thinking in three separate programs in its winter season at the Joyce, taking place February 14-26. Program A consists of a world premiere by Annie-B Parson, inspired by Graham’s Punch and the Judy and with text by playwright Will Eno, and Pontus Lidberg’s Woodland, both of which were created for the company, and Graham’s Dark Meadow Suite and Maple Leaf Rag. Program B comprises a new work by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui dealing with Sufi mysticism, Nacho Duarte’s Rust, and Graham’s Primitive Mysteries and Diversion of Angels. Program C features the new Parson and Cherkaoui works in addition to Graham’s Clytemnestra Act II and Maple Leaf Rag. There will be an All-City Panorama University Partners Showcase on February 18 at 2:00, with Graham classics Helios, Panorama, Plain of Prayer, Prelude to Action, and Steps in the Street performed by high school and college dancers from around the country, and the February 22 show will be followed by a Curtain Chat. The company, which began life as the Martha Graham Studio in 1926, is currently made up of dancers So Young An, PeiJu Chien-Pott, Laurel Dalley Smith, Abdiel Jacobsen, Lloyd Knight, Charlotte Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Ari Mayzick, Marzia Memoli, Anne O’Donnell, Lorenzo Pagano, Ben Schultz, Anne Souder, Leslie Andrea Williams, Konstantina Xintara, and Xin Ying, under the artistic direction of former principal dancer Janet Eilber.

CROSSING THE LINE 2016

Jérôme Bel’s THE SHOW MUST GO ON will go on at the Joyce as part of FIAF’s tenth annual Crossing the Line festival

French Institute Alliance Française and other locations
Florence Gould Hall, 55 East 59th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
FIAF Gallery, 22 East 60th St. between Madison & Park Aves.
September 22 – November 3, free – $55
212-355-6160
crossingthelinefestival.org
www.fiaf.org

We can’t help but get excited for FIAF’s annual multidisciplinary fall festival, Crossing the Line, now celebrating its tenth anniversary. Every summer, we eagerly await the advance announcement of what they’ll be presenting, then scour the lineup for the most unusual events to make sure we see them. This year is another stellar collection of cutting-edge international dance and theater, beginning September 22 and 24 with screenings of concluding episodes seven, eight, and nine of Nature Theater of Oklahoma’s epic Life and Times at Anthology Film Archives ($11), along with a Thursday night party in FIAF’s Florence Gould Hall ($10) that begins with a screening of the eighth chapter of Kristin Worrall’s rather ordinary life, with the artists themselves serving up PB&Js. The festival features a special focus on French choreographer Jérôme Bel, who will be involved in four programs, beginning October 17 (free with RSVP) with a screening of his short biographical film on Paris Opera dancer Véronique Doisneau, followed by a discussion with Bel and Ana Janevski. Bel’s award-winning The Show Must Go On will go on at the Joyce October 20-22 ($36-$46), with Bel hanging around for a Curtain Chat after the 2:00 show on October 22. Bel will present the New York premiere of his controversial eponymous 1995 signature work at the Kitchen October 27-29 ($20) while also moving over to the Museum of Modern Art October 27-31 (free with museum admission) for Artist’s Choice: MoMA Dance Company, a site-specific piece for MoMA’s Marron Atrium that will be performed by members of the MoMA staff.

Tenth annual Crossing the Line festival features special focus on breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen, including AUTARCIE (….): A SEARCH FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Tenth annual Crossing the Line festival features special focus on breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen, including U.S. premiere of AUTARCIE (….): A SEARCH FOR SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Breakdance world champion Anne Nguyen is making her U.S. debut with a pair of works: the free Graphic Cyphers will take place September 23 at Roberto Clemente Plaza in the Bronx at 2:00 and in Times Square September 25 at 2:30 and 4:30, while Autarcie (….): a search for self-sufficiency has its American debut September 29 to October 1 ($20) at Gibney Dance. “I seek to reconcile the peculiarities of hip-hop with demanding theatrical performance to question the place of human beings in the modern-day world,” Nguyen says; you can hear more from her at the October 1 artist talk “Towards Cultural Equity: The Artist’s Perspective” (free with RSVP) with fellow panelists David Thomson, Mohamed El Khatib, and Rokafella, moderated by George Emilio Sanchez. The UK’s Forced Entertainment, which is “interested in confusion as well as laughter,” will likely dish out a healthy portion of both at the New York premiere of Tomorrow’s Parties in Florence Gould Hall September 28 and 30 and October 1 ($20). From September 30 to October 2 ($35-$55), Venice Biennale lifetime achievement award winner Romeo Castellucci will deliver the one-man show Julius Caesar. Spared Parts, making the most of Federal Hall’s marble columns. This past June, dancer-choreographer Maria Hassabi gave an informal preview of her latest work, Staged, on the High Line; she will now bring the final piece down to the Kitchen, below the High Line, where it will be performed by Simon Courchel, Jessie Gold, Hristoula Harakas, and Oisín Monaghan October 4-8 ($20).

Romeo Castellucci will make his New York City debut channeling Julius Caesar at Federal Hall

On October 6-8 and 13-15 ($35), drag fabulist Dickie Beau will conjure up Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, and Richard Meryman at Abrons Arts Center for Blackouts. [Ed. note: All performances of Blackouts have been canceled because of unexpected travel circumstances.] Also on October 13-15 ($20), Lora Juodkaite and Annie Hanaeur will perform the U.S. premiere of Rachid Ouramdane’s Tordre (Wrought) at Baryshnikov Arts Center; CTL veteran Ouramdane will take part in the October 15 artist talk “Towards Cultural Equity: The Institutional Perspective” (free with RSVP) with keynote speaker Patrick Weil, panelists Firoz Ladak and Zeyba Rahman, and moderator Thomas Lax. On October 25 (free with RSVP), Aaron Landsman will host Perfect City, in which a group of young people from the Lower East Side will gather at Abrons Arts Center and discuss what the future holds in store for them, particularly in their neighborhood. The festival ends on November 3 with My Barbarian’s Post-Party Dream State Caucus at the New Museum (free with RSVP), held in conjunction with the exhibition “The Audience Is Always Right.” Throughout the festival, you can check out Mathieu Bernard-Reymond’s “Transform” art exhibit in the FIAF Gallery, and Tim Etchells’s multichannel video installation “Eyes Looking” will be projected at 11:59 each night in Times Square as October’s Midnight Moment.

RIOULT DANCE NY: WOMEN ON THE EDGE . . . UNSUNG HEROINES OF THE TROJAN WAR

Queen Clytemnestra and King Agamemnon battle over Iphigenia’s fate as part of RIOULT DANCE NY’s (photo by Sofia Negron)

Queen Clytemnestra and King Agamemnon battle over Iphigenia’s fate as part of RIOULT Dance NY’s “Unsung Heroines of the Trojan War” (photo by Sofia Negron)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 21-26, $10-$56
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
www.rioult.org

RIOULT Dance NY kicked off its Joyce season on June 21 with a trio of works focusing on mythological women, as New York City–based French choreographer Pascal Rioult channels his mentor, Martha Graham. The evening began with 2013’s Iphigenia, based on Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis. Iphigenia (Catherine Cooch) is in love with Achilles (Jere Hunt), but her father, King Agamemnon (Brian Flynn), is considering sacrificing her to appease a goddess who has prevented the winds from carrying the Greek ships to do battle against Troy. Meanwhile, Iphigenia’s mother, Queen Clytemnestra (Charis Haines), wants to protect her daughter. Michael Torke’s score ranges from noirish jazz to elegant Baroque-style music as the characters, dressed in white (all the men are bare-chested except for Flynn, and their pants are loosely wrapped spirals of fabric; the costumes are by Karen Young), remain within a large white circle in front of a haphazard log structure. (The set is by Harry Feiner, with lighting by Jim French that turns the circle from white to blue to purple to red.) Cooch gives a highly expressive performance as the title character, from a balletic solo to pas de deux with each of her parents to an emotional quartet with Hunt, Haines, and Flynn. The story is narrated by Oscar-nominated actress Kathleen Turner, barefoot and wearing black, her legendary husky voice adding context to the lovely dances.

Charis Haines is Helen of Troy in Pascal Rioult’s emotional ON DISTANT SHORES (photo by Sofia Negron)

Following intermission, Haines is back, this time as Helen of Troy in On Distant Shores . . . a redemption fantasy, dancing among four Trojan War heroes (Flynn, Hunt, Michael Spencer Phillips, and Sabatino A. Verlezza) who at first appear to be dead until she raises them one at a time, she in a flowing white dress, the men in tight black shorts. (The costumes are by Pilar Limosner.) As projections on the back wall shift from heavenly clouds to ominous darkness, Haines moves swiftly in between and around the men to Aaron Jay Kernis’s cinematic score. At one point she kneels on the floor in desperation, as if resigned to her fate, but her warriors stand by her, determined to fight for her.

RIOULT Dance NY presents world premiere of CASSANDRA’S CURSE at the Joyce (photo by Eric Bandiero)

The splendid night of antiwar statements concludes with the world premiere of Cassandra’s Curse, inspired by Euripides’ The Trojan Women. Sara Elizabeth Seger is Cassandra, the Trojan prophetess who has been cursed so that no one will believe her prophecies. She is trying to warn everyone that the Greek army is hiding within a large Trojan horse, but they are not listening. “If she had used a thousand words, no one would have believed her,” Turner narrates. Feiner’s set features a series of movable screens that entrap Seger in a cage as Brian Clifford Beasley’s projections of the horse and Turks unspool behind her. Richard Danielpour’s dramatic score is performed live by the Uptown Philharmonic, conducted by Kyle Ritenauer and consisting of four violinists, two violists, and a cellist. The three pieces work together extremely well, a kind of clarion call, through movement, music, and text, for peace in these difficult times. Rioult is also presenting a second program that includes the New York City premiere of 2015’s Polymorphous, 2014’s Dream Suite, 2002’s Bolero, and a selection of duets from various other repertory works. (The June 23 show will be followed by a Curtain Chat with members of the company.)

RIOULT DANCE NY AT THE JOYCE

RIOULT Dance NY will present New York City premiere of POLYMORPHOUS and more at Joyce this week (photo by Richard Kirk Smith)

Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
June 21-26, $10-$56
212-645-2904
www.joyce.org
www.rioult.org

New York City–based French choreographer Pascal Rioult brings his RIOULT Dance NY troupe to the Joyce this week for two programs of favorites and premieres. The decidedly antiwar Program A, “Women on the Edge . . . Unsung Heroines of the Trojan War,” consists of 2013’s Iphigenia, based on Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis and set to music by Michael Torke; 2011’s On Distant Shores, a “Redemption Fantasy” about Helen of Troy, with music by Aaron Jay Kernis; and the world premiere of Cassandra’s Curse, inspired by Euripides’ The Trojan Women, with a commissioned score by Richard Danielpour that will be performed live by the Uptown Philharmonic, conducted by Kyle Ritenauer. The June 21, 23, and 25 shows will be narrated by Oscar- and Tony-nominated actress Kathleen Turner. (The June 23 show will also be followed by a Curtain Chat with members of the company.) Program B is highlighted by the New York City premiere of 2015’s Polymorphous, set to J. S. Bach’s “The Well Tempered Clavier,” and also includes 2014’s Dream Suite, set to Peter Iliych Tchaikovsky’s “Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C Major” and with a design inspired by the paintings of Marc Chagall; 2002’s Bolero, set to the Ravel classic; and a selection of duets from various other pieces from throughout Rioult’s two-decades-plus career.

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