41 results on '"GIA KOURLAS"'
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2. Spins, Jumps and Props, and One Onstage Party (Twister, Anyone?).
- Author
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
DANCE performance - Abstract
The article discusses the dance performance by the Big Dance Theater at the Kitchen in Manhattan, New York city of New York that runs through January 16, 2016 and is part of its "Big Dance: Short Form" program directed by Annie-B Parson and her husband Paul Lazar.
- Published
- 2016
3. Fleet Deities And Activists.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHY , *CHOREOGRAPHERS - Abstract
A choreographer can't always achieve gold, but he should try. On Wednesday night at the Joyce Theater, Ronald K. Brown's second program made for a drawn-out evening that relied heavily on older works. As vibrant as the dancing by his company, Evidence, was, where was the boldness? ''Come Ye,'' like much of Mr. Brown's work, has two points of departure: music and spirituality. The dance, from 2003, highlights the music of Nina Simone, whose title song is included, and Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Through a mix of modern and West African dance, Mr. Brown contrasts powerful unison lines with fleet-footed jumps that pull individuals fiercely away from his meticulous groupings. In the work he pays tribute to the fortitude of activists, and his choreographic structures reflect that, seemingly transforming nine dancers from ordinary folks into peace-seeking deities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2012
4. Take Classical Indian and Western Forms, Blend, Add Dash of Bollywood.
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GIA KOURLAS
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BHARATA natyam , *CHOREOGRAPHERS ,INDIC dance - Abstract
For the choreographer Hari Krishnan classical Indian dance -- Bharata Natyam -- formed his artistic beginnings. That is not to say that he has completely abandoned his roots. In 1999 Mr. Krishnan formed inDance, a Toronto company dedicated to reinterpreting classical Indian traditions in order to discover something new. On Friday night at the Joyce SoHo the sensibility of fusion flowed through the evening's five premieres. Mr. Krishnan opened the program with one of his most successful choreographic unions, ''Inverse,'' in which Hiroshi Miyamoto and Beth Despres gradually emerged from the darkness. With her back to the audience Ms. Despres raised one leg high in a generous sweep, lowered it and jumped lightly in the air, repeating the pattern with fervor, each time growing more dynamic with her shapes, which were embellished with classical details: splayed fingers or a flexed foot. ''Box,'' another intriguing work, featured live music as Nalin Bisnath (in modern dress) and Julie Neuspiel (in a traditional costume) performed a scorching side-by-side duet that explored Mr. Krishnan's affinity for hybridization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
5. Of Me I Sing: A Guided Tour of the Body.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCERS - Abstract
Noemie Lafrance is a site-specific artist who has traded conventional stages for winding stairwells, abandoned swimming pools and parking garages. She even choreographed a music video -- Feist's ''1 2 3 4'' -- for dozens of dancers in primary colors. They skip through space like crayons; it's cute. For her latest work, ''Home,'' seen on Wednesday night, Ms. Lafrance scales back. Although her Brooklyn apartment is her theater, the body is her site. Before the evening begins, audience members (there were 21 people at the 7:30 show) are given name tags and told to wash their hands. Cameras are permitted, with one caveat: Use them only when instructed. It feels like kindergarten. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
6. Chemistry Test for Partners In a Doomed Tale of Love.
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GIA KOURLAS
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MODERN dance , *COLLEGE graduates , *THEATERS - Abstract
Syren Modern Dance, formed in 2003 by Kate Mehan and Lynn Peterson, two Purchase College graduates, approaches dance from a traditional, accessible place. The movement is big and expressive, and the music, whenever possible, is performed live. If only that combination added up to something with a little more texture at the company's latest program. The show, seen at Ailey Citigroup Theater on Thursday evening, features two works choreographed by Ms. Mehan: ''Pelleas et Melisande'' and ''The Last of the Leaves.'' The Artemis Chamber Ensemble, conducted by Matthew Oberstein, accompanies both. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
7. Showing Young Performers' Versatility.
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GIA KOURLAS
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ENTERTAINERS , *THEATERS , *PERFORMING arts , *ARTS facilities , *ARTISTS - Abstract
Even when the programming is lackluster, Juilliard dancers have an advantage: choreography rarely looks better than it does in the richly wooden interior of the Peter Jay Sharp Theater. Their talent, of course, doesn't hurt; the Juilliard School consistently produces versatile dancers with daring responsiveness. This season's ''Juilliard Dances Repertory,'' seen on Wednesday night, is nearly all about luster. The program opens with Mark Morris's ''Gloria,'' a work from the early 1980s that Mr. Morris has described as being part of his ''ancient style.'' With its spiritual undertones, the dance, set to Vivaldi's Gloria in D -- performed live by the Juilliard Orchestra and a chorus of singers from the school -- remains spellbinding. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
8. Dance in Review.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
LAURA PAWEL Dance Company [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
9. The Everything And Nothing Of Race.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *CHOREOGRAPHERS , *DANCE schools - Abstract
SALLY SILVERS has immersed herself in tricky material for her new dance, ''Yessified!'' This work, which will be performed at Performance Space 122 beginning on Sunday, delves into race: specifically, how, as a white, liberal downtown choreographer from Tennessee, she could explore whiteness and blackness. ''I'm trying to think about whiteness as a racial category and not let it remain invisible, which is its power and its ability to be both everything and nothing at the same time,'' Ms. Silvers said after a recent rehearsal at her East Village apartment, which doubles as a dance studio. ''When people talk about race, they don't refer to whiteness. They refer to people of color.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
10. Dust Off Boombox. Play Cassette. Go Back in Time.
- Author
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE - Abstract
Judging by his accomplished new dance, ''Sound Memory,'' Julian Barnett was once an obsessive maker of mix tapes. In the work, which began a run at Danspace Project on Thursday night, he does more than scratch the surface of sound and memory before the age of digitization. Mr. Barnett places the audience on four sides of the stage, evoking a surround-sound experience for the performers. His musical resources -- boomboxes and audiocassettes -- remain decidedly low-tech. In the dance's opening moments Justin Ternullo and Hanna Kivioja are part of the audience, tethered to their seats by headphones. Amanda K. Ringger's gorgeous lighting casts the pair in an iridescent glow until the stage suddenly turns dark. Objects skid across the floor, which a laser of green light reveals to be dozens of cassette tapes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
11. The Power and the Majesty (and the Lovely Crown).
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHERS , *ADULT education workshops , *CONFERENCES & conventions - Abstract
In honor of her 10th anniversary as a choreographer Ivy Baldwin opened her new ''Bear Crown'' with a grand gesture. With the curtains still drawn at Dance Theater Workshop, the audience was greeted with several minutes of music modeled after Tchaikovsky's ''1812'' Overture, complete with a faint sound of cannon fire. In this clever use of an overture, rare in contemporary dance, Ms. Baldwin and the work's composer, Justin Jones, provide a moment of calm that separates a busy day from a night at the theater. They also set up a rush of anticipation that ''Bear Crown,'' seen on Wednesday night, never quite lives up to. In it Ms. Baldwin, inspired by a month's residency in Romania, focuses on ideas about power and majesty, and strips them away to reveal an underlying deterioration. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
12. Nice Plie, Now Drop And Give Me 10.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCERS , *CHOREOGRAPHERS ,UNIVERSITY of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. School of the Arts - Abstract
ETHAN STIEFEL is revered for his electrifying presence at American Ballet Theater, where he has been a principal dancer since 1997. In less ballet-centric circles around the country he may be better known as Cooper Nielson, the choreographer-dancer character from Nicholas Hytner's 2000 film ''Center Stage.'' But in Winston-Salem, where he presides over the school of dance at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, he is known simply as the dean. As such Mr. Stiefel may be glamorous, but he is no mere figurehead. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
13. A Choreographer Spars With Expectations.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHERS , *DANCE , *PERFORMANCES , *DANCE companies - Abstract
The Serbian choreographer Sasa Asentic is caught between two worlds in his astute and often funny lecture-performance piece ''My private bio-politics.'' In this critical look at the Serbian dance scene, presented over the weekend at Dance Theater Workshop, Mr. Asentic also explores larger issues in the world of contemporary dance. His observations, through text and movement, delve into questions of marketability and what constitutes authentic Eastern European dance. Mr. Asentic views the production, created with the artistic assistance of Olivera Kovacevic Crnjanski and dramaturgy by Ana Vujanovic, as an open-ended research project. Once a work in progress, it is now a ''work in regress,'' he said from the stage. In its second year of touring Mr. Asentic deconstructed it, showing less and less, until -- at a 2008 show in Belgrade -- he ''performed it without any performance,'' he said. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
14. A Tapper With History and Future Down to His Toes.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DRUMMERS (Musicians) , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Savion Glover's new evening, ''SoLo in TiME,'' begins with Carmen Estevez barefoot with her legs straddled around a cajon box drum, vigorously slapping its front to generate the sound of a thunderstorm. Then Mr. Glover walks onstage and begins tapping out a beat of his own, as if to say: ''That's what you can do with a drum? Listen to my feet.'' On the surface Mr. Glover's show, performed at the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night, is entirely about music (dancing included). It's been more than 10 years since the musical ''Bring In da Noise, Bring In da Funk'' turned Mr. Glover into a household name, but with his recent programs, ''SoLo in TiME'' included, it's clear that he's not interested in repeating himself. The evening demonstrates his sincerity and curiosity; he is still searching for ways not merely to showcase tap, but to strip it to its essence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
15. Sweeping Movement and Harrowing Imagery.
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GIA KOURLAS
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PERFORMING arts , *THEATERS - Abstract
Doug Varone returned to the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night with ''Alchemy,'' a dance for eight set to ''Daniel Variations,'' which Steve Reich wrote in 2006 as a tribute to the kidnapped and slain journalist Daniel Pearl. A program note credited to Mr. Pearl's widow, Mariane, states, ''In the end, you can only oppose them with the strength they think they have taken away from you.'' Mr. Varone's new work, vigorously yet not always so deftly, pursues that idea of inner strength. Juxtaposing his signature sweeping movement with recognizable torture imagery (a figure with his back to the audience clasps his hands behind his head), ''Alchemy'' takes place on a stage that resembles a prison cell. There is no primary figure meant to represent Mr. Pearl; while the men, in black and gray, alternate between fear and resilience, the women, dressed in blue, offer comfort. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
16. The Loneliness of the Long-Distant Courtesan.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHY , *DANCE , *PERFORMING arts , *COURTESANS - Abstract
AS Dean Moss knows from experience, it's lonely to be an artist. For his newest work, ''Kisaeng becomes you,'' to be performed at Dance Theater Workshop starting Wednesday, he explores that isolation through the poetry of the kisaeng, Korean courtesans who were trained in the arts of entertainment, from the 10th to the 20th centuries. In 2006 Mr. Moss, a New York choreographer whose travels had taken him to Korea (he was also dating a Korean woman at the time), found himself perusing the shelves of St. Mark's Bookshop in the East Village when his gaze fell upon a title, ''Hwang Jini & Other Courtesan Poets From the Last Korean Dynasty.'' His curiosity was piqued. ''I thought, who are these people and what did they do?'' he recalled. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
17. Human, but Wild at Heart.
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GIA KOURLAS
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MODERN dance , *DANCE festivals - Abstract
Perhaps Hilary Easton, a native New Yorker, wouldn't be a choreographer if she hadn't spent her early days studying modern dance at the 92nd Street Y. Fittingly, her new work, ''The Reclamation,'' opened the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Festival on Thursday night at the Ailey Citigroup Theater. Now in its 15th year, the festival will present five contemporary companies over the next few weeks. In ''The Reclamation,'' Ms. Easton focuses on the convergence between humans and the natural world with the help of four dancers and two actors. Wearing layered black tops and shredded skirts by Madeleine Walach, the dancers cross the stage with skittish steps and slicing arms, trying excessively hard to appear more animal than human. Steven Rattazzi and Jean E. Taylor, outfitted in urban safari, stand close to the audience as they recite a list of warnings: [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
18. Dance in Review.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE - Abstract
BRIAN ROGERS [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
19. A Gentleman Does Something Ugly, Again.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *DANCE companies , *INTERVIEWING - Abstract
PAUL TAYLOR gets peevish about interviews. He knows they are ''part of the job,'' as he puts it, but until he gets into the groove, he tends to rely on a tactic he also employs in his dances: a mixture of the dark and the light. ''I see you have your pen,'' he said, twinkling his blue eyes in a kindly manner, his tone mocking. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
20. Surviving City Streets, in Many Voices.
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GIA KOURLAS
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THEATER audiences , *PERFORMING arts , *MUSICAL theater , *HIP-hop culture , *AFRICAN American arts - Abstract
''The Movement: A Theatrical Experience'' aims ''to inspire audiences to cultivate their dreams, embrace change and share their hopes with the world,'' the director and choreographer Angel Feliciano says in his program notes. Opening at the Joyce SoHo on Thursday night, the show involves a mixture of musical theater, hip-hop and spoken word and brushes upon ideas about gentrification and hustling to survive. One line in particular, spoken by a cast member, sets up this overly ambitious show: ''Before you dream, you must live.'' The living begins with a film that operates like a trailer for the actual work. As the camera pans over abandoned lots and graffiti-covered buildings, a tourist finds a silver mask while standing in front of the marquee of ''Phantom of the Opera.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
21. The Motions of Romance, Fleeting and Passionate.
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Gia Kourlas
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PERFORMING arts , *CHOREOGRAPHERS , *DANCERS - Abstract
Jacqulyn Buglisi doesn't exclude men from her choreographic renderings, but it's clear that she reserves her greatest love for the female form. On Tuesday night at the Joyce Theater, Ms. Buglisi -- a former principal with the Martha Graham Dance Company -- demonstrated that affinity in four works, the last of which featured a bona fide star: Martine van Hamel, an American Ballet Theater veteran. In ''Suspended Women,'' from 2000, a mass of dancers rush to the front of the stage in a whoosh of tulle. The work proposes a world of female independence, but at times the dancers look like tormented lovers on the cover of a gothic novel. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
22. In a Double Bill of Debuts, Subtle Studies in Stillness.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHERS , *CHURCH , *WOMEN dancers , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Two budding choreographers shared the stage at Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church on Thursday night in a double bill that examined degrees of stillness. Tara O'Con, in ''Walk It Once,'' began her investigation in near darkness, as a dancer, using her head to burrow into the floor, revealed little more than the muscular expanse of a bare back. ''Standard Gravity, part 2b,'' by Enrico D. Wey's troupe Living Laboratory, enacted a slice of American suburbia -- or at least that's what the neat square of synthetic lawn placed in the center of the stage signified -- in which a group of dancers alternated brisk walking with stationary poses. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
23. At Danspace Project, the Pulse Behind Recollection.
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GIA KOURLAS
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METRONOME , *TEMPO (Music theory) - Abstract
Jeanine Durning begins her newest work, ''Ex-Memory: waywewere,'' with a video montage of local dance figures -- among them, Juliette Mapp and Christopher Williams -- discussing their recollections of the solo she is set to perform. The consensus is that they don't remember much about the specifics of her dancing, but details emerge -- among them, the image of flailing limbs and a body strapped to a metronome. Ms. Durning begins the piece with that solo. As a metronome clicks back and forth, echoing throughout the space like a prancing horse, she sings a verse, culminating with the words ''I'd love to see you.'' She rises from her seat to perform phrases filled with darting changes of weight. While Ms. Durning's movement is floundering and ferocious, it also has an elastic quality; it's as if she were being pulled in several directions at once. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
24. The Dance Master With Kaleidoscope Eyes.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CHOREOGRAPHERS , *DANCE , *DANCERS , *CREATIVE ability - Abstract
He was known as Buzz and used to boast that he had never had a dance lesson in his life. He wasn't the type to gas on about his choreographic ideas, the best of which, he often said, came to him while he soaked in the bath. But the director and choreographer Busby Berkeley's vision was solidified by two seemingly disparate concepts: his appreciation for beautiful women and his time spent in the Army, where he created large-scale parade drills for troops while stationed in Europe during World War I. Whether or not there was any tangible connection between those ravishing dances and the rejuvenating power of time spent in a bathtub, Berkeley's wild imagination and famous overhead shots remain astonishing, especially in the way he turned dancing bodies into intricate human kaleidoscopes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
25. Familiar Music Dominates A Breezy Show.
- Author
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
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OPERA - Abstract
David Parsons returned to the Joyce Theater on Tuesday night with a typically breezy repertory program and a clear intention: to give the audience a boost. While there was nothing out of the ordinary about that -- Mr. Parsons likes to please -- the real news will happen on Thursday night with the premiere of ''Remember Me,'' his collaboration with East Village Opera Company, a rock-opera band. The opening night of Parsons Dance did include ''Ebben,'' an excerpt from the new work in which Kevin Ferguson stood with his back to the audience as Abby Silva circled him, rising on the balls of her feet as she reached toward him imploringly. It was out of context, to be sure, but in this short dose also somewhat overwrought. Still, Ms. Silva, who performed in every piece on the program except one, was a refreshing sight. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
26. Path Back To Dance, By Degrees.
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GIA KOURLAS
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BALLET dancers , *BALLERINAS , *WOMEN dancers , *QUALITY of life - Abstract
RADIANT under the golden dressing-room bulbs in a studio at City Center, Victoria North, her blond hair swept into a tight French twist, stepped into her first costume of the evening, a short buttercup dress. In lieu of point shoes, she wore slippers resembling soft ski boots, which made sense as she narrowed her eyebrows in distress. Hopping gently on one foot, she moaned. ''I think I did something to my ankle last night,'' she told a fellow ballerina, who -- using language that only a dancer or an orthopedic surgeon would understand -- suggested that if it wasn't her Achilles, it could be her flexor hallucis longus. After popping two pills, Ms. North, 23, bent over to knead her lower leg. ''I never take drugs,'' she said, looking up. ''It's Aleve.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2008
27. It's a Workspace in Progress.
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GIA KOURLAS
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PERFORMING arts , *ARTS facilities , *ART & society - Abstract
ELLIE COVAN, the founder and executive director of Dixon Place, gave up acting more than 20 years ago, but she still knows how to make an entrance. As she dashed up the stairs to her Bowery loft, the on-and-off site of her performance space since 1991, her streaked blond hair bounced like a halo in the dusty afternoon light. Amid the clatter of cowboy boots and a flurry of breathless apologies, she radiated the sort of madcap persona that mercifully hasn't faded over the years, not even now, while presiding over the new Dixon Place, a state-of-the-art laboratory theater on Chrystie Street that was scheduled to have opened on Tuesday. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2008
28. Hungary and America, With Stops In Between.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *PERFORMING arts , *DANCERS , *CHOREOGRAPHY - Abstract
In her program notes Vicky Shick writes that ''Glimpse,'' her newest dance, was choreographed in Budapest and New York, with ''a lot of time imagining everyone together.'' Such disconnection shows. ''Glimpse,'' which began performances on Thursday night at Danspace Project, is a fleeting look into a narrow world that feels a bit like a Hungarian cafe. The completion of any act seems futile. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
29. Dance in Review.
- Author
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *CHOREOGRAPHERS - Abstract
LEFT FIELD REVIVAL Joyce SoHo On Friday night at the Joyce SoHo, Left Field Revival, a performance duo from Seattle, sought to find the center of the earth. ''To the Core'' began with a film in which a woman, sitting at a table on a rooftop, finds a message in a bottle: ''I went to the center of the earth. Back by dinner.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
30. Guggenheim Spirals, In Sound And Motion.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *MUSICIANS , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Forty years after ''Juice: A Theater Cantata in 3 Installments'' was performed at the Guggenheim Museum, Meredith Monk is back with a new work, or rather a new-old work. In ''Ascension Variations,'' presented at the museum on Thursday night, Ms. Monk, the heralded composer, director, singer, choreographer and filmmaker, follows the spatial structure of ''Juice.'' Or, as she explained in a WNYC interview, ''Here's the same bottle, but the liquid's different.'' This poignant site-specific work for 120 performers blends selections from Ms. Monk's recent ''Songs of Ascension'' with elements of the 1969 ''Juice.'' The audience members begin on the ground floor of the Guggenheim's majestic rotunda. From the ramps that swirl above their heads, voices waft throughout the space. Four performers, smashed together to resemble a caterpillar and covered in red from head to toe, slowly plod up the ramp. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
31. Conjuring Up a World Where Images Abound.
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GIA KOURLAS
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DANCE , *ENTERTAINERS - Abstract
''Max,'' a new production by Ohad Naharin, opens in silence on a darkened stage as 10 dancers, five men and five women, are poised with their backs to the audience. The men stand; the women bend in deep plies, tip over -- by dropping a knee to the floor -- and turn in profile, their heads bowed as if in prayer. In this tremendously potent work, there are few obvious displays of emotion, yet ''Max'' is full of imagery that slips between real life and dance in fleeting flashes. Performed by the Batsheva Dance Company at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday night, ''Max'' produces a formal structure full of breath, as if the air around the dancers and not just the movement, is responsible for shifting the dynamic from mischievous to ominous. At times it's balmy; in other moments it's ice cold. Succinctly and mysteriously, ''Max'' zeros in, just as its press notes say, on the pleasure and pain of being alive. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
32. Rolls of Paper, and Origami Used as Kites.
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
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DANCE , *DANCERS , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Have you ever wanted to wrap yourself up in paper and call it a night? In ''Fold,'' Neta Pulvermacher, an Israeli-born choreographer with a wild imagination, did just that on Thursday evening at Danspace Project. More precisely, her dancers wrapped, and she spoke and sang. The new dance takes inspiration from a line by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze: ''We define the abstract machine as the aspect or moment at which nothing but function and matter remains.'' In this chaotic work, which Ms. Pulvermacher dedicates to her son, rolls of white paper and origami shapes that dancers fly like kites dominate the landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
33. Part Visual, Part Musical And a Little Experimental.
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GIA KOURLAS
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CONCERTS , *MUSICAL performance ,REVIEWS - Abstract
''Project Perpetuum,'' performed at the Chelsea Art Museum on Wednesday, brought together a chamber jazz duo, a dancer, a choreographer and a singer. As an evening of music and dance, the one-night affair was altogether civilized -- at times, to the point of being stilted. Even so, the program had a riveting centerpiece in the dancer Emma Desjardins. The show, featuring nine numbers, was titled after ''Perpetuum,'' an album by the pianist Gerd Baier and the drummer Philipp Gutbrod. Taking inspiration from literature, art and science, the music was given vocal embellishment by the singer and actress Micaela Leon (though her barely audible humming and breathless gasps added little). Its visual counterpart was left up to Ms. Desjardins, with Anne Zuerner credited as the choreographer. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
34. Revisiting the Many Facets of Balanchine and Robbins.
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
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BALLET , *DANCE , *CHOREOGRAPHY - Abstract
New York City Ballet's latest evening, titled ''Founding Choreographers II,'' isn't as sedate as it sounds. The program, performed Wednesday night at the David H. Koch Theater, builds a world of dance, illuminating the virtuosity of a ballerina, the lush poetry of a couple and finally the scintillating power of a group. The first two ballets capture markedly different sides of George Balanchine in dances he choreographed near the end of his life: ''Ballo della Regina,'' an allegro fireworks display created for Merrill Ashley in 1978, and ''Robert Schumann's 'Davidsbundlertanze' '' from 1980, a passionate exploration of Schumann's life, drawing on his relationship with his wife, the pianist Clara Wieck. The finale is Jerome Robbins's pulsating ''Glass Pieces.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
35. Writhing, Twisting Torsos And an Indoor Snowfall.
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GIA KOURLAS
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THEATER reviews , *BALLET - Abstract
At the start of ''the devil you know is better than the devil you don't,'' the stage is veiled by a scrim on which snow falls rapidly. The effect of this video projection is slightly dizzying; as fluffy white bits glide past like a rushing waterfall, the sensation is that you're rising. In this work, created by the husband-and-wife artistic team of Zoe Scofield (choreography) and Juniper Shuey (video design), this kind of approach transforms every potentially pretty moment into something more raw. Opening at Dance Theater Workshop on Thursday night, this 70-minute work is the New York debut of these Seattle artists. Ms. Scofield, a former ballet dancer with a proclivity for distorting classical vocabulary, writhes and twists her torso at every opportunity, rising on the tips of her toes, breaking harshly at the joints and splaying her fingers like claws. Along with Morgan Henderson's formulaic electronic score, the piece also features nine additional dancers from Barnard College. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
36. Classicism To Begin, Stylistic Mix For Dessert.
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
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BALLET , *DANCE , *BALLET dancers - Abstract
New York City Ballet bookends its newest program, ''Early Music Masters,'' with refinement, in Balanchine's ''Divertimento No. 15,'' and impetuousness, in Jerome Robbins and Twyla Tharp's 1984 collaboration, ''Brahms/ Handel.'' Drearily wedged in the middle is Peter Martins's ''Stabat Mater'' from 1998. Set to Pergolesi and named for the medieval Latin hymn about the Virgin Mary's sufferings at the cross, the work was created in memory of the revered ballet teacher Stanley Williams. The program, performed Friday night, began with Balanchine's mesmerizing look at classicism set to Mozart's Divertimento No. 15 in B flat major. Created for the Mozart Festival in 1956, the ballet opens with a bright allegro movement, which paves the way for its theme-and-variations centerpiece: a gleaming display of ballet form. Even with a slightly ragged corps de ballet, ''Divertimento'' is as beautiful as a rainbow. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
37. Connections Wanted: Inquire Onstage.
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GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
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MUSIC , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Rebecca Lazier's new ''Terminal,'' performed by her company, Terrain, at the Joyce SoHo on Thursday night, isn't so much a place as a state of mind. White dance-floor tape cuts a diamond pattern onto the stage, and Ms. Lazier's four dancers enter at its different points, creeping closer to the center in sweeping turns and tentative steps but finding little connection. The setting evokes an in-between space for transient beings who, it seems, want to get to a better place. Gregory Spears's score, ''Canons (After Maurice Ravel),'' is played on cassette recorders; the low-fi sound is mainly background noise until strains of ''Bolero'' bubble to the surface. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
38. Series of Introductory Explorations: Young Choreographers, Early Works.
- Author
-
GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
- *
DANCE , *PERFORMING arts - Abstract
Fresh Tracks, the longest-running series at Dance Theater Workshop, may have introduced audiences to choreographers like Meredith Monk, Bill T. Jones and David Parsons, but in recent years there have been few examples of innovation. It might be time to admit that the format itself is stale, serving neither a prospective dance audience nor the artists. The latest installment of the series, seen on Friday night, introduced the work of six emerging choreographers selected through an audition process by several panelists and mentors. Those chosen receive 50 hours of rehearsal space and additional workshops in grant-writing, fund-raising and marketing. But all the behind-the-scenes assistance has done little to alter this musty rendition of a variety show. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
39. Dance in Review: Yoshiko Chuma and Shirotama Hitsujiya.
- Author
-
GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
- *
THEATER reviews , *CULTURAL activities - Abstract
YOSHIKO CHUMA and SHIROTAMA HITSUJIYA Center for Remembering & Sharing In ''X2,'' an enchanting evening of dance-theater by Yoshiko Chuma and Shirotama Hitsujiya, the world is a block of ice where human beings have been frozen in time. It's a screwball comedy, Japanese style. In the work, performed Friday night at the Center for Remembering & Sharing in Greenwich Village, the collaborators look at the political implications of a country trapped in an ice age. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
40. A Love Triangle's Toll Goes Beyond Three People.
- Author
-
GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
- *
OPERA , *OPERA companies , *DRAMATIC music - Abstract
''Remember Me'' is the name of David Parsons's newest work, and one thing is certain: it won't be easy to forget. The collaboration between Mr. Parsons and the East Village Opera Company, a band that brings a rock sensibility to opera, is pretty much as it appears on the surface: a blatant and banal attempt to create a youthful Broadway musical. In the production, performed on Thursday night at the Joyce Theater, there are 15 numbers, including an overture; 14 dancers; and 2 vocalists. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2009
41. That Old 20th-Century Fixation on the Nature of Humanity.
- Author
-
GIA KOURLAS
- Subjects
- *
DANCE - Abstract
As a choreographer, the modern-dance pioneer Doris Humphrey had a fairly simple aim: to illuminate the state of being human. Certainly in dance, that sentiment has fallen out of fashion. ''A Celebration of the Humphrey-Weidman Legacy,'' performed on Sunday afternoon at the 92nd Street Y, brought some early gems back to the stage and, with them, a touch of human spirit. The program, staged and directed by Gail Corbin and Deborah Carr, was dedicated to the memory of Ernestine Stodelle, who died in January, and who was an original member of the company started in 1928 by Humphrey and Charles Weidman. Ms. Stodelle's reconstructions made possible much of the afternoon, which featured several rarely seen works like Humphrey's ''Air for the G String.'' [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2008
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