Faye Driscoll presents Thank You for Coming; Play at BAM Fisher. I could swear that Faye Driscoll has done something to her eyebrows. They seem to slant downward the way they would if she were an Indian dancer portraying one of the nine permanent emotions: “karuna” (compassion or “the pathetic”). Even though the guy I’m sitting next to in BAM Fisher’s front row laughs boisterously at the … [Read more...]
Archives for November 2016
Journey for Two
David Vaughan and Pepper Fajans in Co. Venture at Baryshnikov Arts Center. They make a charming pair: David Vaughan (b. 1924) and Pepper Fajans (b. 1985). I don’t mean “charming” as in, “let’s have them over for dinner” (although that would be nice). I mean that’s how they appear at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in the U.S. premiere of Co. Venture by the Brooklyn Touring Outfit that they … [Read more...]
Lives in Layers
Jonah Bokaer and Daniel Arsham bring their latest work to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Hooded figures swathed in pale clothing stand, isolated in pools of light, on the stage of the BAM Gilman Opera House, as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival. Their faces are hidden, and they’re frozen in diverse positions. In place when we enter the theater, they could be statues awaiting renovation. This … [Read more...]
Double Feature
Kate Weare Company and Liz Gerring Dance Company present New York seasons. It’s rare to see, on two adjoining nights, two hour-long dances by two gifted, highly original choreographers who were born and raised in California (a native Californian myself, I couldn’t resist throwing in that last commonality). The distinctive styles that Kate Weare and Liz Gerring have developed are nothing … [Read more...]
India in New York
Mark Morris curates "Sounds of India" for Lincoln Center's White Light Festival. Mark Morris has made many trips to India, beginning in 1981. I’ve only gone in my dreams. My fascination with the country’s dance styles came from seeing New York performances by visiting companies, dipping into epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, treating my dance history students to videos and master … [Read more...]
Remembering and Re-imagining an Era
Danspace Project's Platform 16: Lost & Found revisits and examines the decades when HIV/AIDS felled so many. I look around St. Mark’s Church. It’s really filling up; people are sitting on risers well beyond the usual cut-off place. Friday, November 4th is the second night of this three-night performance: Variations on Themes from Lost and Found: Scenes from a Life and Other Works by … [Read more...]
Born in Vail
Vail Dance Festival: Re-Mix NYC performs at City Center, November 3 through 6. Damien Woetzel is celebrating his tenth year as director of Colorado’s Vail Dance Festival. And whatever you might have expected from a former principal dancer in the New York City Ballet, Vail Dance Festival” ReMix NYC is probably not it. Still, you may have had glimpses of others of Woetzel’s projects before … [Read more...]
Communicating Across Borders
Babel (words) by Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet at Lincoln Center's White Light Festival. Once, according to the King James Bible, all human beings on earth spoke the same language, and when they had found a suitable construction site, they said. “Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.” But their God, who famously said, “I the Lord thy God am a … [Read more...]