Monday, March 31, 2008

Gallim Dance Group AND "Passing Strange" this Wednesday!


Brace yourselves — we have a HUGE day coming up this Wednesday, with not one, but TWO incredible cultural events. 
First, from 4:30 to 6pm we will watch the Gallim Dance Group’s rehearsal “I Can See Myself in Your Pupil,” premiering April 10, and from 6 to 6:30 we’ll talk with the group's founder, Andrea Miller, about what we see during practice and her work as a choreographer. 

Afterward, we’ll grab a quick bite to eat – pizza at Two Boots on Bleecker? – and then head up to the Belasco Theatre at 111 West 44th Street in Times Square for the 8pm performance of the Broadway hit musical Passing Strange, featuring Stew and TRaC’s own Eisa Davis. The show runs 2 hours and 20 minutes, so please let your parents know ahead of time that it will be a late night. But well worth it — this is a hot ticket!

So... we will meet at the Joyce SoHo Theatre at 4:30pm. Please don’t be late, as it will interrupt the dancers’ work. In fact, try to arrive by 4:15pm.

ADDRESS: 155 Mercer Street (between Houston and Prince), SoHo
SUBWAY: R or W to Prince Street (then walk one block west to Mercer and half a block north to the theater) or B, D, F, or V to Broadway/Lafayette (then walk one block west to Mercer along Houston, and half a block south to the theater). The theater’s phone number is 212-352-3101. You all should have my cell phone number. 

Here’s a little snippet about Gallim Dance Group from their website

“The mission of Gallim Dance group is to create – to play inside the imagination – to dig into the madness of the mind and the body and to find pleasure in all its capacities. Miller’s works are simultaneously explosive and intimate expressions of the self and its inner mosaic of needs, weaknesses, desires and struggles. Her use of extreme physicality – movement that seamlessly shifts between explosive power and contained tension – creates a choreographic vocabulary where dancers appear to exist on the edge of their limits, hanging between insanity and elegance.”

Also check out Passing Strange’s website for audio, video, and buzz about the show. And click here to read the recent New York Times profile of the supremely talented Eisa Davis

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra - March 27!

Harkening back to the days when mambo was king, the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra brings the power of the big band to hits such as Machito's "Mambo America" and the legendary Tito Puente's "Mas Bajo."

To learn what the New York Times has to say about the band, click here.

Tonight we'll see the band in all its booty-shaking glory and get to meet its charismatic leader, Arturo O'Farrill, in a special pre-show meeting. (Photographers: bring your cameras!)

When: 6:30pm


Where: Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway


How to get there: Take the 1/2/3 train to 96th Street, then walk one block south. We'll meet in the lobby at 6:15pm. 

See you tonight!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Cai Guo-Qiang Wants to Believe


The first Multi TRaC outing is to the Guggenheim Museum to see I WANT TO BELIEVE, an exhibition by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang.

Check out the online catalog of the show by clicking this link.


Pictured at the right is Inopportune: Stage One, 2004. (Materials: Nine cars and sequenced multichannel light tubes, dimensions variable.)

The Guggenheim Catalog states:
Cai's focus on sociopolitical issues, especially relating to acts of terrorism, has become a central feature of his work since 9/11. The most overt example, Inopportune: Stage One, simulates the trajectory of an exploding automobile tumbling through space, offering up the contradiction between a spectator's abhorrence of violence and attraction to the abstract beauty of some violent images.
There's a cool video about how they installed the cars here.

High 5 always has tickets for Guggenheim shows, so anytime you want to take some people there, just shoot us an email.

enjoy!

~eric