Tag Archives: next wave festival

SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS: GEZEITEN

Sasha Waltz returns to BAM with U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (photo by Gert Weigelt)

Next Wave Festival
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
November 3, 5, 6, $20-$55, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.sashawaltz.de

Berlin-based choreographer Sasha Waltz returns to BAM’s Next Wave Festival with the U.S. premiere of GEZEITEN (TIDES), following 2002’s KÖRPER, which we called “playful and powerful, enlightening and frightening,” and 2005’s IMPROMPTUS, which we described as “a beautifully expressive piece.” Set in a postapocalyptic world, GEZEITEN incorporates physical objects and smoke and fire as the dancers deal with disaster. The nearly two-hour piece features music by Jonathan Bepler and Johann Sebastian Bach, costumes by Beate Borrmann, lighting by Martin Hauk, and stage design by Waltz and Thomas Schenk. As shown by her previous appearances at BAM, Waltz is a creative choreographer who is not afraid to push the envelope, keeping audiences rapt, never knowing quite what is going to happen next. There are only three performances of GEZEITEN, so don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to see this daring company in Brooklyn.

KUROSAWA’S SAMURAI: THRONE OF BLOOD

Kurosawa offers a different kind of MACBETH in THRONE OF BLOOD

BAM will be screening Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD in conjunction with the New York premiere of Ping Chong’s theatrical adaptation as part of the Next Wave Festival

THRONE OF BLOOD, AKA MACBETH (KUMONOSU JÔ) (Akira Kurosawa, 1957)
BAMcinématek
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Wednesday, November 3, 4:30 & 9:30
Thursday, November 4, 4:30, 6:50, 9:10
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Akira Kurosawa’s marvelous reimagining of MACBETH is an intense psychological thriller that follows one man’s descent into madness. Following a stunning military victory led by Washizu (Toshirô Mifune) and Miki (Minoru Chiaki), the two men are rewarded with lofty new positions. As Washizu’s wife, Asaji (Isuzu Yamada, with spectacular eyebrows), fills her husband’s head with crazy paranoia, Washizu is haunted by predictions made by a ghostly evil spirit in the Cobweb Forest, leading to one of the all-time classic finales. Featuring exterior scenes bathed in mysterious fog, interior long shots of Washizu and Asaji in a large, sparse room carefully considering their next bold move, and composer Masaru Sato’s shrieking Japanese flutes, THRONE OF BLOOD is a chilling drama of corruptive power and blind ambition, one of the greatest adaptations of Shakespeare ever put on film. BAMcinématek is screening the film in conjunction with the centennial of Kurosawa’s birth and the Next Wave Festival presentation of Ping Chong’s theatrical version of THRONE OF BLOOD, running at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House November 10-13. The film series continues with KAGEMUSHA on November 5, THE HIDDEN FORTRESS on November 6, YOJIMBO on November 7, SANJURO on November 14, and RAN on November 21.

VOLLMOND (FULL MOON)

Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND is a wet and wild experience (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Through October 9, $25 – $85 (October 1 performance reviewed)
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de

Returning to BAM for the first time since the sudden death of their founder and artistic director, Pina Bausch, in June 2009, Tanztheater Wuppertal is dazzling audiences in Brooklyn with the U.S. premiere of the 2006 evening-length piece VOLLMOND (FULL MOON). A large rock sits alone on a sparse black stage above a shallow, barely visible river of water. The first half of the 150-minute show is an utter delight as the twelve-member company enacts vignettes of love, romance, and the playful battle between the sexes, the men dressed in dark pants and button-down shirts, the women in elegant evening gowns and high heels. They flirt, kiss, and tell jokes, occasionally giving way to sparkling solos by the diminutive Rainer Behr and Ditta Miranda Jasjfi and others. Water, the elixir of life, is at the center of it all, whether the men are pouring drinks for the women or they all go for a swim in the river, rain crashing down in a breathtaking display.

Women dominate the battle of the sexes in VOLLMOND (photo by Jan Szito)

But the second half takes a darker turn, as costumes dim and tend toward black, the kissing and jokes replaced by violence and pain, the high tides of the full moon now pulling more turbulent currents to the surface. The first three solos are performed by the troupe’s older members, new co-artistic director Dominique Mercy (who has been with the company since Bausch took it over in 1973), longtime comic relief Nazareth Panadero, and the lithe, rail-thin Julie Anne Stanzak, their movements sharper and less fluid than those of the younger dancers. Where wooden sticks were earlier used to create a cool thwooshing sound, now they are weapons. Instead of filling a wineglass with a drink, a man now shoots a plastic cup off a woman’s head using a water pistol. The music also borders on the morose, including Cat Power’s eerie “Werewolf.” But soon the sexes are back in each other’s arms for a wet and wild finale. Bausch’s unique melding of dance, theater, comedy, and music is in abundant evidence throughout VOLLMOND, another terrific crowd pleaser from one of the world’s most gifted talents. Athough no one takes the customary choreographer’s bow after the show, Bausch’s presence is felt all night long. At one point, Panadero brings out a chair and warns a man away from it, stating that even ghosts need to sit down; everyone in the theater instantly understands whom she is talking about. Discussion and speculation over the future of Tanztheater Wuppertal swirl around whether it can go on without Bausch; VOLLMOND is a must-see on its own merits, but even more so considering the possibility that it could be the company’s last stand in New York.

VOLLMOND (FULL MOON)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to BAM without their fearless leader (photo by Jan Szito)

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
September 29 – October 9, $25 – $85
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.pina-bausch.de

Back in 1984, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch performed at BAM for the first time, presenting DAS FRÜHLINGSOPFER and LE SACRE DU PRINTEMPS, and over the years the insanely entertaining German troupe has returned with such memorable evening-length pieces as DANZÓN, MASURCA FOGO, NEFÉS, and last year’s BAMBOO BLUES. And for Bausch, evening-length really means evening-length, as many of her productions run between two and a half and three hours, and they rarely if ever lag. Instead they’re filled with offbeat humor, playful dialogue, unusual props, wild stage designs, and, of course, creative movement. Bausch died in June 2009 at the age of sixty-eight, so this will mark Tanztheater Wuppertal’s first BAM appearance without their endlessly innovative and always elegant director and choreographer. VOLLMOND (FULL MOON) will run at the Howard Gilman Opera House from September 29 through October 9, but tickets are already scarce, so act quickly, whether you’re a fan of contemporary dance or not, because you’ll find lots to love regardless. Bausch’s twelfth show at BAM features set design by Peter Pabst, costumes by Marion Cito, and musical collaboration by Matthias Burkert and Andreas Eisenschneider, with an eclectic score that includes songs by Magyar Posse, Cat Power, Amon Tobin, René Aubry, Alexander Balanescu, Tom Waits, Siegfried Ganhör and to rococo rot, Jun Miyake and Sublime, and others. There will also be a lot of water.

DELUSION

Laurie Anderson is back at BAM with another multimedia examination of the personal and the political (photo by Leland Brewster)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Harvey Theater
651 Fulton St.
Through October 3, $20-$60
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Examining the twenty years of her life she has spent sleeping, Laurie Anderson’s new show, DELUSION, running at BAM’s Harvey Theater through October 3, consists of approximately twenty short mystery plays that move smoothly between the personal and the poltical, an intimate multimedia work about dreams and the state of the nation. Commissioned for the 2010 Vancouver Cultural Olympiad, DELUSION features some of Anderson’s sharpest writing in years, performed in her unique talk-singing style either as herself or as deep-voiced alter ego Fenway Bergamot. Anderson glides between several microphones on a stage that includes video projections on a loveseat, shredded paper, a small scrim, and a large screen in back, depicting leaves flying in the wind, smoke drifting endlessly, a chalkboard filled with hard-to-decipher words and images, moonscapes, a child witnessing her mother’s death, and giant live shots of Anderson herself, playing her specially made violin. Joined by Colin Stetson on bass saxophone and Eyvind King on a more traditional violin, both men primarily seen in silhouette, Anderson, dressed in her trademark white shirt and thin black tie, tells jokes and stories about age, memory, Iceland, nineteenth-century Russian space theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, punctuation, and her own heritage. The centerpiece of the show is “Another Day in America,” from Anderson’s latest album, the just-released HOMELAND; “And so finally here we are, at the beginning of a whole new era, the start of a brand new world,” she sings as Bergamot. “And now what? How do we start? How do we begin again? . . . And so which way do we go?” Throughout the ninety-minute performance, Anderson, who has previously staged such pieces as THE END OF THE MOON, SONGS AND STORIES FROM MOBY DICK, EMPTY PLACES, and the seminal UNITED STATES: PARTS I-IV at BAM, is warmer and friendlier than ever, filled with charm and good humor, making strong eye contact with the audience as she delves into fascinating topics with a wink and a knowing smile.

BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Don’t get washed out of getting tickets to see Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND at BAM (photo by Laurent Philippe)

Brooklyn Academy of Music
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, 30 Lafayette Ave.
BAM Harvey Theater, 651 Fulton St.
September 23 – December 19, $20-$85
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

Now in its twenty-eighth year, BAM’s Next Wave Festival is, as always, a terrific collection of productions scouted from around the world. Single tickets go on sale Monday, August 30, for Laurie Anderson’s phantasmagoric DELUSION and Pina Bausch’s VOLLMOND, an extremely strong one-two punch to get the season going, featuring a pair of longtime BAM favorites; we recently caught Anderson at (le) poisson rouge, and she’s still at the top of her game, while VOLLMOND is the final piece from the inventive, innovative, and endlessly entertaining Bausch, who passed away in June 2009, leaving behind a BAM legacy that included the thrilling BAMBOO BLUES, NEFÉS, and FUR DIE KINDER VON GESTERN, HEUTE, UND MORGEN, among other splendid shows. The rest of the series goes on sale September 7, with such highlights as Ralph Lemon’s HOW CAN YOU STAY IN THE HOUSE ALL DAY AND NOT GO ANYWHERE?, Stew’s BROOKLYN OMNIBUS, Julia Stiles in the Ridge Theater’s PERSEPHONE, Sasha Waltz’s GEZEITEN, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s version of Akira Kurosawa’s THRONE OF BLOOD, Thomas Ostermeier’s take on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, Gísli Örn Gardarsson and Nick Cave’s experimental exploration of Franz Kafka’s METAMORPHOSIS, and Mikel Rouse’s multimedia extravaganza GRAVITY RADIO. Subscription tickets are available right now; if you buy seats to four or more shows, you can save up to forty percent and receive such benefits as priority access to future seasons, flexible scheduling, and discounts for additional tickets.

CHUNKY MOVE: MORTAL ENGINE

Chunky Move promises to amaze Brooklyn with cutting-edge MORTAL ENGINE (photo by Andrew Curtis)

Chunky Move amazes Brooklyn with cutting-edge MORTAL ENGINE (photo by Andrew Curtis)

BAM Next Wave Festival
Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
December 9-12, $20-$40, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.chunkymove.com

The Australian company Chunky Move, which made its U.S. debut at the 2001 Next Wave Festival with CRUMPLED and CORRUPTED 2, returns to BAM for the highly anticipated MORTAL ENGINE, a sixty-minute piece that comes with the following warning: “This production contains partial nudity, smoke, laser and strobe lighting effects, and loud volume audio,” which is just what we’ve come to expect from this cutting-edge troupe. In the spring of 2005, we were amazed by Chunky Move’s insanely good TENSE DAVE at Dance Theater Workshop, and in February 2008 we caught their insanely good GLOW at the Kitchen, calling it “a visual and physical wonder . . . What could have been gimmicky is instead revelatory, a breathless, virtuosic half hour that investigates the essence of the organic form,” and there’s every reason to believe that MORTAL ENGINE should continue the insanely good trend. GLOW is directed and choreographed by company founder Gideon Obarzanek, with interactive system design by Frieder Weiss, laser and sound by Robin Fox, music composed by Ben Frost, and lighting design by Damien Cooper. The December 10 performance will be followed by an Artist Talk with Obarzanek, Weiss, and various members of the cast and crew, moderated by André Lepecki. Be prepared for a whirlwind of sight, sound, and movement.

Athletic skill and dazzling technology interact in MORTAL ENGINE (photo by Andrew Curtis)

While GLOW was an intimate gathering in the Kitchen, where the small audience sat on four sides of the dance space, a tiny vinyl rectangle on the floor, MORTAL ENGINE turns out to be a much larger spectacle, performed on an steeply raked white platform at center stage of the vast Howard Gilman Opera House, where dancers walk, crawl, twist, turn, and hang on as the lights and sounds react to their movements, in a dazzling display. Two of the floor panels occasionally tilt up vertically, creating walls against which, at one point, two dancers wriggle, as if attached by a sticky substance, accompanied by a fascinating oozy sound. Unfortunately, at times the vastly talented crew gets caught up in the spectacular technology, as long patches of the piece abandon the dancers and simply show off amazing computer-generated interactive lighting and sound design that takes the audience away from the compelling narrative of duality and interconnectedness. But then smoke machines unleash a dense fog that becomes otherworldly as green lasers shoot out across the theater, involving the spectators in the gorgeous maelstrom, the bands of light manipulated onstage by two dancers. Even though a passing random thought of Laser Floyd is hard to avoid, it’s an unforgettable scene, the highlight of a choppy but fascinating night of dance theater.