[note: many, if not most, of these links may no longer be working, but such is the nature of the digital. hopefully, the url and context are enough to help you find any further information you want. if not, feel free to contact me, and i’ll try to help.]
junio 2014
¡hola, difus@s!
for those of us (still) tied to the academic calendar, may is a mad, mad month. exhausted (but, yes, often exhilarated) by a semester’s worth of preparing and delivering classes, we teachers find ourselves caught between the scylla of student anxiety and the charybdis of administrative demands. but, to borrow a phrase from derek jarman’s at your own risk, which i just finished and highly recommend, “as the shadows closed in, the stars came out.” much of what i saw this past month was among this year’s best (and definitely most memorable) so far.
christian rizzo’s ni fleurs, ni ford-mustangs, performed by the lyon opera ballet at BAM was unlike anything i’d ever seen in dance. though i’d enjoyed another work of his at fiaf just a few days before, i initially found this piece maddeningly deliberate, a glacial progression of minimal movement but exquisitely costumed and scored…so much so that i almost sympathized with the person who at the end screamed, “when are you going to dance?!” (but, seriously, that was the third such “basic bitch” interjection at a dance performance there in the past year…the gentrification of fort greene and clinton hill is even killing the quality of BAM audiences…grrrrr…) then, while talking it over with a friend, i realized just how brilliantly paced the whole thing had been, building ever so incrementally—sonically as well as visually—only to explode in a few, all too fleeting minutes of absolute magic. the only comparable experiences i’ve had have been cinematic, with the works of abbas kiarostami (whose masterpiece the wind will carry us comes back to ifc this month) and nuri bilge ceylan (whose work you should get to know before his palm d’or-winning winter’s sleep arrives this autumn). like those masters’ films, rizzo’s choreography demands as much attention as it does surrender but rewards both generously, offering a much-needed corrective to (and escape from) our habitual relationship to time.
rizzo’s economy of movement was, in a sense, matched by the wooster group’s economy of means in their early shaker spirituals (a record album interpretation). the conceit is quite simple: a group of women (including frances mcdormand, who is always a joy to watch) sing along, via earbuds, with the eponymous record, interrupted occasionally by an actor reading the liner notes, and, after working their way through the album, they dance to a few of the numbers. the set design and costuming are, appropriately, equally simple. yet, the overall effect is rivetingly strange, eliciting all sorts of questions about community, media, and representation.
also drawing on religious texts but much less reverently, the mysteries is an incredibly lean and engrossing production, with almost no set but an army of actors and playwrights. director ed sylvanus iskandar, paying tribute to the medieval tradition of biblical storytelling, commissioned short plays based on the bible from over 50 writers, emerging and established, and stitched them together in three acts, spanning 6 hours (including two 45-minute breaks for dinner and dessert, which come as part of the show). the first two acts are definitely more cohesive than the third (apparently, they cut three hours from the original script), but all the pieces fit together remarkably well. some are wildly imaginative retellings, others are angry indictments, and still others (for me, the best) are postsecular ruminations (for the difference between the latter two categories, see terry eagleton’s take-down of richerd dawkins in the london review of books). the acting is wonderful, and the cast’s commitment and stamina are impressive throughout. what’s more, the cast casually mingles with the audience before and after the show and during the intermissions, which does more to break down the fourth wall than so much (pseudo)brechtian gimmickry. all in all, “the mysteries” does justice to its title and the traditions from which it draws. as i walked home from the theater, i was reminded of my parish priest’s comment that “the mysteries” are not called so because they are incomprehensible or inexplicable but rather because they are (in his words) “endlessly generative,” open to ongoing engagement and interpretation.
among the month’s other highlights, ida at film forum is a haunting allegory of poland’s relationship to its holocaust past, and jodorowsky’s the dance of reality at the landmark sunshine cinema is a mind-blowing, magical realist (and, in many instances, shockingly realist) trip through chilean history. the seattle symphony’s program at carnegie hall featured the new york premiere of a gorgeous new work by john luther adams, and the estonian philharmonic chamber choir and tallinn chamber orchestra’s arvo pärt program was, as expected, sublime—and both composers were in attendance. (for the record, i’m not usually a fan of carnegie hall, largely due to their liberal rental policy, but may was an exception.) while maud le pladec’s democracy at new york live arts was good, if not great, hearing julia wolfe’s trap set quartet live was awesome (and continues a trend of choreographers working with live music). also at new york live arts, john jasperse was in excellent form with within between, as intensely cerebral as it was physically demanding; he’s a genius. in the visual arts, sophie calle’s installation at the church of heavenly rest is the best of her work i’ve seen (as i’ve said before, i think her practice works better as publication than installation)—read the epilogue to anne carson’s men in the off hours after you go—, kara walker’s a subtlety is worth waiting in line (it moves reasonably fast, plus all the inappropriate viewer photography inside is fascinating), and the dan graham-gunther vögt pavilion on the roof of the met is a terrific summer afternoon / evening hangout.
having spent most of the past five summers out of new york, i wasn’t sure whether i’d have enough content to keep this going through august. as i worked my way through my growing list of venues, though, i found much to recommend…which offers me some consolation for choosing to stay put this summer (and sacrifice my annual kirkpinar pilgrimage for some dissertation progress, which, for those of you who know me, is no small thing to give up). below are just a few highlights, so be sure to check out the full list at the end and, as always, take some risks, experiment.
art: most of the museums are opening their summer blockbusters this month, and the biggest, for better or worse, will likely be the whitney’s jeff koons show (which will also be the last in its current home). some other museum shows, both ongoing and opening, i’ll hope to check out this month include ragnar kjartansson’s me, my mother, my father, and i; lygia clark: the abandonment of art; christoph schlingensief; city as canvas: graffiti art from the martin wong collection; charles james: beyond fashion; and (why not?) exposed: the history of lingerie. as gallery shows go, the following are at the top of my list: mika rottenberg at andrea rosen, rebecca horn at sean kelly, tara donovan at pace, and benjamin butler at klaus von nichtssagend.
dance: somewhere between circus and performance, streb: forces isn’t your typical modern dance show, but it’s a terrific, spirited evening of extreme movement (i’ve seen three iterations of this show, and it just gets better with each). zvidance’s surveillance looks timely (especially with facebook’s proposed listening capability), and cedar lake contemporary ballet is sure to be gorgeous (note that the program differs each night). moving men at dixon place and 10 hairy legs at new york live arts should be perfect for celebrating pride with your gbff.
film: forget the seasonal onslaught of hollywood schlock; you can beat the heat (if it ever comes, that is) with some real cinema throughout the month. BAMcinemaFEST has a tightly curated slate of films, including boyhood (which i’ll be seeing next month), and the film society at lincoln center presents open roads: new italian cinema and human rights watch film festival. outside the festivals (a format i generally avoid), the special film events i want to see are the reprise of kiarostami’s the wind will carry us, the epic burning bush, pierre huyghe’s cine club, and joseph cornell’s films.
music: the new york philharmonic’s biennial and the new york electroacoustic music festival both take place, with plenty of other old (e.g., schola antiqua of chicago) and new (e.g., momenta quartet, circuit des yeux / tsembla / kuupuu, opera cabal and acme) music to fill up your musical calendar. “all composers gay” and “broadway’s best in drag” are my pride picks, and i’m really excited that both me’shell ndegeocello (whose “if that’s your boyfriend (he wasn’t last night)” was a kind of an anthem in undergrad) and janelle monae are playing this month.
theater + performance: i’ve yet to see the killer, so i’d like to check it out this month (partly because i’ve not yet been in their new space)..but i’m probably more likely to see drella and gertrude stein’s saints first. robert wilson is back with the old woman, and, while i’ve not been as impressed with his more recent work, i bought tickets for this november because (1) i his visuals are singularly gorgeous and (2) mikhail baryshnikov and willem dafoe are a match made in heaven, kind of the male equivalent of isabelle huppert and cate blanchett on stage later this summer.
again, be sure to check out the full calendar below and share with whomever you like (they can also sign up here)!
abrazos,
p
june / junio
1-5: the wind will carry us (film)
1-8: new york philharmonic biennial (music)
1-8: the chairs (theater)
1-15: the mysteries (theater)
1-22: macbeth (theater)
1-22: streb: forces (dance)
1-29: the killer (theater)
2-8: new york city electroacoustic music festival 2014 (music)
3: an evening with me'shell ndegeocello (music)
3: contact! an evening of young american composers (music)
3: moving men (dance)
3-8: ronald k. brown / evidence (dance)
4: janelle monae (music)
4: riverside symphony presents composers without boundaries (music)
4-14: dd dorvillier: a catalogue of steps (dance)
4-25: newfilmmakers ny series (film)
5: dudley saunders' in these boxes (music)
5-12: open roads: new italian cinema (film)
5-15: wareart:subterra festival (theater)
6-7: drella (performance)
6-11: 2 autumns, 3 winters (film)
6-14: dd dorvillier: diary of an image (dance)
6-15: lovebirds (theater)
7: catch 62 (performance)
8: tangos by piazzolla with octavio brunetti and elmira darvarova (music)
9: adam neely’s mass extinction event: //exigence\\ (music)
9: broadway’s best in drag (music)
10-14: performance mix festival: 28 (dance)
11: william basinski: cascade (music)
11-14: cedar lake contemporary ballet (dance)
11-14: zvidance: surveillance (dance)
11-24: burning bush (film)
12-13: opera cabal and acme (opera)
12-28: and if you lose your way, or a food odyssey (theater)
12- 28: gertrude stein's saints (theater)
13: we were wild once (theater)
13-21: turquoise (theater)
13-22: human rights watch film festival (film)
14: circuit des yeux / tsembla / kuupuu (music)
15: schola antiqua of chicago (music)
16: jacqueline jonée presents “all composers gay” featuring jean-pierre lemarié (music)
16: opera in eden (opera)
17: boyhood: clips and conversation with richard linklater and ellar coltrane, moderated by eric kohn (film)
17-19: flight (dance)
17-22: rioult dance: new york (dance)
18-29: BAMcinemaFEST 2014 (film)
19-20: tales of pele: hawai’i’s goddess of fire (dance)
20-: the mountain (theater)
20-: venus in fur (film)
21: joseph cornell program 1 (film)
21: rove: close encounters / dance party (performance)
21-22: extraordinary concert (theater)
22: momenta quartet: ghost opera (opera)
22: xapa ("hara"): traditional sarakatsani wedding (music)
22-29: the old woman (theater)
22-29: the other mozart (theater)
23: “i am not a cheese; i do not have a process.” alan cumming on acting (theater)
24: pierre huyghe cine club (film)
24: steve james: hoop dreams, the interrupters, and life itself (film)
25-: yves saint laurent (film)
25: nyc10 dance initiative (dance)
26-28: 10 hairy legs: 10 men / 20 legs in new york city (dance)
26-28: cherylyn lavagnino dance (dance)
27-28: lawrence graham-brown: omnia vanities (dance)
29: either/or: morton feldman's "for philip guston” (music)