[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.]
julio 2014
¡hola, difus@s!
the first month of summer has passed all too quickly, and, doubly encumbered by guilt (about not spending more time outdoors—which seems an ethical imperative after our interminable winter—and not spending more time writing my dissertation—which really is this summer’s imperative), i didn’t manage to see quite as much as i’d have liked. most of what i saw good, but just good, which left me wondering whether some of what i missed might actually have been great.
cedar lake contemporary ballet’s performance of sidi larb cherkaoui’s orbo novo at BAM came quite close to being great. his choreography is just gorgeous (and he’s a remarkable dancer himself), and they did a fine job with the piece. after seeing their limitations so manifest in the other two programs comprising their 10th anniversary celebration, though, i’d love to see what another company (e.g., les ballets c de la b) would do with the work. cedar lake contemporary ballet certainly has ample financial resources and popular support, but they tend much more towards athletic showmanship than conceptual rigor. nowhere was that more apparent than in jo sterngren’s necessity, again, which i felt i should have loved (very much indebted to pina bausch, juxtaposing a lecture by jacques derrida and music by charles aznavour)…but i didn’t. the company didn’t seem to understand the piece at all, broadly over-dancing the aznavour sections and seeming absolutely flummoxed during the derrida sections. while i’m not sure i’ll see them again (i’d seen them once before), they do deserve much credit for drawing such a diverse crowd to contemporary dance—although i still have my reservations about BAM’s audience expansion, at least when it includes aggro-macho types looking to pick a fistfight during intermission. i’m not kidding. (i also got served water instead of vodka at the BAM café prior to one of the shows, which happened to another friend of a friend two nights later. wtf.)
the two all-male dance performances i saw on either side of cedar lake contemporary ballet, moving men at dixon place and 10 hairy legs at new york live arts, were much more enjoyable. though both programs were more modest in scale and ambition, that modesty was a virtue, a warm reminder (especially for one in the throes of dissertation writing) that often “good enough” is quite an achievement.
modesty is not a quality anyone would attribute to robert wilson, whose aesthetic may be minimalist but whose ambition is maximalist, but his artistic achievements are monumental. both his quartett and einstein on the beach are among the most singular, memorable works of theater i’ve ever seen (or will). his most recent production, the old woman at BAM this past week, didn’t quite reach those heights, but it was far, far better than the life and death of marina ambramovic and zinnias. willem dafoe and mikhail baryshnikov were phenomenal together (and, to be sure, responsible for drawing a very non-wilson crowd to BAM, with very mixed reactions), and the design was, as always, incredible. during the performance we saw, though, the tech got a little sloppy in many places, which was unfortunate but understandable—wilson is unbelievably exigent in his coordination of light, sound, and movement. when the pieces fall precisely into place, the effect is mesmerizing…and that, i think, is the point of his style of theater, not so much to narrate a story but to create an experience. in that regard, the old woman reminded me a lot of richard foreman’s work (most recently, old-fashioned prostitutes), leaving me wanting to see more of both his and wilson’s productions.
another artist whose career i’m eager to continue following is kelly reichardt. her first feature-length film old joy is a quiet, superbly nuanced exploration of friendship between men, and her other films (wendy and lucy, meek’s cutoff) were just as rigorously understated and beautifully crafted. her latest, night moves, caught me by surprise, as it was playing outside the usual repertory / indie circuit (which hopefully means it will be on screens longer, too). night moves is every bit as laconic (and beautifully shot) as reichardt’s other films, but its pacing is strikingly quicker, relentlessly propelling the narrative forward and underscoring the urgency of the issues she plumbs—ecology, politics, violence, and community.
derek jarman’s jubilee, which i caught at BAM at the very end of may (and so didn’t have a chance to comment on it in the last boletín) shares the political urgency of night moves, though with a wildly different aesthetic and narrative sense. it was, in a word, mind-blowing, all the more so because its outrage and despair are as resonant now as they were in 1978.
both film and dance figure prominently on my july calendar, but there’s quite a bit of good music and at least some theater and performance on offer, too:
film: the release of richard linklater’s 12-year project, boyhood (which i can’t wait to see), brings most of his earlier work to series at anthology film archives and ifc. note that the ifc series, “time regained: cinema’s present perfect” includes some amazing one-night only films (among them, sokurov’s russian ark). other series to look for are luís buñuel and spike lee at BAM, latinbeat 2014 at the film society at lincoln center, and femmes noirs at film forum.
dance: anne teresa de keersmaeker is back in town, presenting four early works at lincoln center. the diptych she presented at BAM last fall was my introduction to her work and one of the season’s highlights, so i’ll be seeing at least three of these four. though i’m not a big fan of ballet, i’m quite curious about spartacus, also at lincoln center. outside the city, the fire island dance festival takes place july 18 to 20, and the jacob’s pillow festival continues in the berkshires.
music: outdoor concerts are a summer staple, and BRIC has some of the best lined up for prospect park, including bebel gilberto and deltron 3030. the new york philharmonic plays central park, too, from july 11 to 13. for opera buffs, the passenger promises to be a monumental production at the park avenue armory, and for the more disco-inclined, “the first ladies of disco” at lincoln center and gloria gaynor at the 92Y should be fun evenings.
theater + performance: the sonic life of a giant tortoise is reportedly excellent and ends on july 3 at jack in brooklyn, and i’m curious about the pigeoning at here. given how consistently worthwhile the abrons art center’s programming was this spring, their two performances in july, rehearsal the perils of obedience and denuded, both have my attention.
art: i’m still working through the museum shows in last month’s boletín, so i don’t want to add too much more to my list. however, warhol’s “13 most wanted men” at the queens museum looks great, as do “living with pop. a reproduction of capitalist realism” at artists space and hervé guibert at callicoon.
as always, there’s more below (and apologies for the few links that weren’t properly assigned in the last issue). enjoy!
abrazos,
p
july / julio
1-10: by any means necessary: a spike lee joints retrospective (film)
1-3: the sonic life of a giant tortoise (theater)
2-9: big screen epics (film)
2- : film forum at socrates sculpture park (film)
2-30: newfilmmakers ny series (film)
3: the first ladies of disco (music, dance)
4-10: time regained: cinema's present perfect (film)
5: robert glasper experiment featuring talib kweli / glenn kotche / aja monet (music)
7: legends of music: gloria gaynor with valerie smaldone (music)
8: an evening with jason momoa: conversation and screening of "road to paloma” (film)
8-16: rosas: anne teresa de keersmaeker (dance)
9- : the pigeoning (theater)
10-11: rehearsal the perils of obedience (performance)
10-13: the passenger (opera)
11- : boyhood (film)
11-31: buñuel (film)
11: coming together / attica (film, dance)
11: denuded (performance)
11-20: latinbeat 2014 (film)
11-13: new york philharmonic in central park (music)
11: tara kamangar, east of melancholy: piano music from russia to iran (music)
12: alloy orchestra: he who gets slapped / stephane wrembel (film, music)
12: catch 63 (performance)
15- : pilobolus dance theater (dance)
17: shen wei dance (dance)
17-19: walter dundervil: arena (dance)
18: bebel gilberto / vinicius cantuaria / netsayi (music)
18-: femmes noirs (film)
18-20: fire island dance festival (dance)
19: deltron 3030 / nomadic massive (music)
20-27: films by richard linklater (film)
22: behind the groove: welcome party for a batalha do passinho (dance)
23-24: fjk dance: tango and arabesque unframed (dance)
23-25: sam kim: fear in porcelain (dance)
24: the man with the horn: music of miles davis (music)
25: amandla: a revolution in four-part harmony neo muyanga & william kentridge’s second-hand reading (film, music)
25: pam tanowitz dance / eighth blackbird (music, dance)
25-26: sila: the breath of the world (music)
25-27: spartacus (dance)
26: mahmoud ahmed (music)
30: cécile mclorin salvant with the bill charlap trio: celebrating sarah vaughan (music)
31: dance theatre of harlem / leyla mccalla (dance)