I had a ticket to this show last Friday, December 1, but I didn’t get to see it. Let me tell you what happened instead: Brooklyn-based LAVA is a feminist acrobatic dance company. Their latest show is called A Goddessey. On the night in question, I head to their space in Brooklyn, excited to have a…
Tag: dance
Pilobolus
Dancers as birds in flesh-toned leotards. Sculptures brought to life on a pedestal. Kaleidoscopic videos of dancers in real time. Misfit characters dancing with tiny chairs. An audience in awe as summer rain held off last Thursday evening and the phenomenonal dance troupe called Pilobus reigned supreme from the bandshell in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Just…
Lila Downs, Orkesta Mendoza, and Garth Fagan Dance
My first two Celebrate Brooklyn! events of the season, and they could not have been more different. Thursday evening, I was exhausted from work and not up to crowds. I brought my dinner to Prospect Park and spent a peaceful evening on the grass under a tree listening first to the zany, rollicking, madcap musical…
Doug Varone and Dancers
Composers. Color. Costumes. Sculptural forms. Pattern. Art. Emotion. Humanity. Movement. I think I love dance because it is the intersection of all of the art forms. Last Thursday evening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, I had the pleasure of experiencing the work of Doug Varone and Dancers for the first time. As usual, it…
Tom Gold Dance
Modern dance that focuses on classical training is my favorite combination. I am not a professional dancer, although I have danced. I am also not a scholar in cultural studies. I am just a Brooklynite with a passion for the arts, and when time and money allow, I see a lot of dance. It is…
Vortex Temporum
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker is one of the contemporary choreographers I most admire. I discovered her accidentally, through my love of contemporary music. The first time I saw her work was at Brooklyn Academy of Music, when her dance company, Rosas, presented Drumming, performed to the seminal percussive work of the same name by Steve Reich. I already…
The Glory of the World
The winter season at BAM has begun, and I’d like to propose a toast to The Glory of the World. I had seen Big Love at BAM in 2001 (by the same writer/director team) so I was excited to see what they had dreamed up this time. It was a raucous party, that’s what it was. It…
The Hard Nut
There’s something seriously subversive going on in downtown Brooklyn this holiday season. It’s going to completely upend your cherished memories of elegant sugar plum fairies and dancing flowers. Purists beware — then prepare to be wildly entertained. I am talking about The Hard Nut, of course, and word on the street is that Mark Morris…
Continu
And so another exciting Next Wave Festival comes to a close — at least for me. I saw my final performance of the fall season last night at BAM. Sasha Waltz & Guests presented Continu, set to music by Edgard Varèse, Claude Vivier, Iannis Xenakis, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. (A percussion piece by Xenakis was…
Steel Hammer
“He laid down his hammer and he died. Lord, Lord. He laid down his hammer and he died.” I have had Pete Seeger’s voice singing his version of the folk song, John Henry, racing through my head like a runaway train ever since I left Steel Hammer — a collaboration between composer, Julia Wolfe, and SITI Company….
Hagoromo
What a week of BAM-tastic choral music, live music and dance! It is a privilege to attend such amazing Next Wave Festival performances. For as many shows as I attend, I miss so much (but until we have clones — heaven forbid — I will never be able to experience as many cultural events as…
Batsheva — The Young Ensemble
Last night at The Joyce Theater, the curtain dropped at the end of the performance of the deliciously varied Decadance, an always evolving sampling of choreography created by Ohad Naharin, the creative force behind Batsheva, the marvelous Israeli-based dance company. Clapping wildly, I turned to the woman sitting next to me and gushed, “That was…
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