This week we reconnect for class at the usual place and time followed by a performance this Friday (Negesti, are you ready???). We're be meeting at City Center at 7:40 to see performances by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (show starts at 8pm) of three works MEMORIA (26 minutes), the world premiere of Judith Jamison's AMONG US (PRIVATE SPACES: PUBLIC PLACES), and the classic and celebrated work REVELATIONS (38 minutes).
Audience entrances to New York City Center's Mainstage, Stage I & Stage II are on West 55th Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues.
Dance TRaC class will also be attending the performance.
His Passion Ignited a Generation.
His Music Fueled a Revolution.
His Legacy Inspires the World.
This Wednesday we're in for a treat! Immediately after class we'll be heading to the Eugene O'Neill Theatre for the brand new Broadway Musical FELA!
To prepare you for the experience of the show, a little bit about the show, the man, and more, all from the show's website.....
What is Fela! about, you ask?
FELA! is a new musical directed and choreographed by Tony Award winner Bill T. Jones, with a book by Jim Lewis and Bill T. Jones, in which audiences are welcomed into the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), FELA! explores Kuti's controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician. Featuring many of Fela Kuti's most captivating songs and Bill T. Jones's imaginative staging, this new show is a provocative hybrid of concert, dance and musical theater.
Who is Fela?
Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, a pioneer of Afrobeat music, a human rights activist and a political maverick. He is ranked among the world’s most influential musicians. Read a full bio of the man here.
Where is the theater and how long's the show?
The Eugene O'Neill Theatre
230 West 49th Street (between 7th and 8th Ave)
New York, New York
8pm - 10:45pm
While we had originally planned to visit Kurt Hentschläger's ZEE at 3LD & Technology Center, circumstances at the show changed and we couldn't quite work things out.
Luckily, a new alternate plan has been hatched....
The first stop is at EYEBEAM for "Postgravity Art :: Syntapiens" by the Slovenian artist collaborative of Dragan Živadinov, Dunja Zupančič, and Miha Turšič. Dragan will be expecting us, and will give us a private introduction to his work..... it is the abridged version of what he calls an "informance."
Here is Dragan (pictured left in Blue), performing in 1995 in zero-gravity conditions -- the first theatrical performance in such conditions in the history of the world!
BACKGROUND: In 1995 Živadinov dedicated himself to telecosmism, telelogy, and the 50-year projectile, Noordung, named after the Slovene space scientist Herman Potočnik Noordung (1892 - 1929) who wrote the book The Problems of Space Travel. The first show One Versus One opened on 20 April 1995 (pictured here), with restaging taking place every 10 years, the first one being on 20 April 2005. The show will play until 20 April 2045. During the fifth and final reprise in 2045, cosmonaut Dragan Živadinov (trained at Yuri Gagarin Cosmonauts Training Centre, Star City) will use a spacecraft to send 14 satellites into geostatic orbit, where they will transmit signals representing the roles played by each of the deceased performers (yes, the deceased) to Earth, and at the same time send high-resolution 3D projections of their faces into deep space. As images of cosmonauts, or "space sailors", they will continue the act of searching for eternal truth.
Next we'll be heading toX-Initiative to seeEverything, Nothing, Something, Always (Walla!), an open-ended theatrical performance in the form of a time-based installation that takes the form of a one-act live theatrical play looping for three hours, varying slightly with each repetition and simultaneously acting as a performative “sculpture” in the center of the exhibition space, visible from all angles. (Did you get all that??) Here's more: http://performa-arts.org/blog/emily-mast/
A little about the artist, Emily, from her bio on the PERFORMA website: Emily Mast is endlessly inclined to consider the nature of nothingness. She works primarily with performance, installation and writing. She has had solo shows at Samson Projects in Boston, The Paris Project Room in Paris and the Roski Gallery in Los Angeles. She has collaborated with numerous actors, dancers, writers, composers, choreographers, musicians and visual artists in Paris, Mexico, Portland and Los Angeles. She was a resident artist at Skowhegan in 2006 and participated in the Mountain School of Art in LA and United Nations Plaza in Berlin in 2007. In 2008 she curated the show “Egoesdayglo” at Five Thirty Three Gallery in Los Angeles. She received her MFA in 2009 from the University of Southern California. She is currently working on a children’s play that examines innocence and arson.
Free popcorn will be served.
What more could we want???
We've been given an amazing opportunity to see the legendary Garth Fagan Dance at the Joyce Theater this Tuesday (October 27th) and 7:00 in the evening. The show begins at 7:30pm and runs 2 hours and 10 minutes. Expect to be out by 9:40.
Here's a little about the show.
The New York City premiere, Mudan 175/39, was choreographed to traditional Chinese music played by the Grammy Award-winning Ying Quartet, with a composition by Tan Dun (wrote music for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). We also have some new faces onstage, one being Vitolio Jeune, a 5th season dancer from So You Think You Can Dance......
The second show is this Saturday, starting at 3pm. Make sure you're there by 2:40!
Ba Da Chui
Ba Da Chui means "eight great hammers," and this percussion quartet straight from China promises a feast of exuberant sound. Inspired by the Beijing opera tradition, this foursome will wield drums, cymbals, gongs and woodblocks to weave complex patterns into compelling music.
This show is part of Ancient Paths, Modern Voices: A City-Wide Festival Celebrating Chinese Culture.
Acclaimed pipa virtuoso Wu Man will introduce the group.
WHERE/WHEN
We'll be meeting at the University Settlement Society of New York, 184 Eldridge Street (at Rivington Street) at 2:40pm. map.
Subwayoptions
F, V to 2nd Avenue B, D to Grand Street
N, R, W to Prince Street
6 to Spring Street
BusM15 to Delancey Street
Address: 132 West 22nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.
Directions: The closest subway is the 1 to 23rd Street. Walk south on 7th Avenue to West 22nd Street, then east to the theatre.
Eugene O'Neill's groundbreaking play is the story of Brutus Jones, an African American man who sets himself up as monarch of a Caribbean island following a prison break in the United States. When the natives rebel after years of exploitation, Jones's mesmerizing journey into darkness becomes a terrifying psychological display of power, fear, and madness. With his demons in heavy pursuit and tom-toms beating, the Emperor is forced to confront the mortal sins of his past in search of forgiveness and salvation.
And we're kicking it off with a bang. After introductions we'll be opening up a copy of Time Out New York and walking down to the Chelsea District to check out some galleries. Remember, you can do that anytime! Gallery hopping is free; it's one of the most cost effective ways to find out what's going on in the contemporary art world.
Take, for example, this piece by Anselm Reyle, which is installed at Gagosian on 24th Street:
Yes, we will go check this out.
Then we're going to go up on the High Line, a public park built on a 1.45-mile-long elevated rail structure running from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street on Manhattan's West Side.
It used to look like this:
You'll see what it looks like now.
So that's our first day! Here's directions so you know where to go for your workshops every week.....
DIRECTIONS to the new High 5 HQ: 520 Eighth Avenue, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10018 map it here.
The easiest way is to take the A, C, or E train to 34th Street, then walk up 8th Ave to building #520. We're inbetween 36th and 37th Street. Look for the revolving door. Take the elevator to the 3rd floor and head to Studio A. (From week 3 on, we'll be in studio C!)
The building looks like this:
...but that's kind of what all old New York buildings look like, so just look for the number and the revolving door.
92ND STREET Y: HOWARD ZINN AND GUESTS: A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY (05/13/09 @ 8:00 P.M.)
Award-winning actors Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption, Bull Durham), Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Nim's Island), and Stanley Tucci (Big Night, The Devil Wears Prada) and a cast of readers will perform excerpts from historian, playwright, and social activist Howard Zinn's A Young People’s History of the United States.
Discover the extraordinary history of ordinary people who created the movements that made the U.S. what it is today. By giving public expression to rebels, dissenters and visionaries from our past and present, this program seeks to educate and inspire a new generation working for social justice.
Actual ticket price: $27
1395 Lexington Ave., Manhattan 4, 5 or 6 train to 86th St.
This Saturday, May 9th, Multi TRaC will head to the Chelsea district on Manhattan's westside to check out some contemporary artists and gallery hop around the district for about two hours.
Where to meet: outside the Gagosian Gallery, located at 522 West 21st Street and the corner of 10th Avenue, at 1pm sharp!
How to get there: Take the C or the E train to 23rd street and walk towards 1oth Ave.
At the Gogosian Gallery, we'll see an exhibition entitled "Picasso: Mosqueteros" featuring hundreds of the late works by the famous Pablo Picasso! (All of the work in this show was completed when he was in his eighties in the 1960's and 1970's.)
He wrote of his work: I enjoy myself to no end inventing these stories. I spend hour after hour while I draw, observing my creatures and thinking about the mad things they're up to. --Pablo Picasso, 1968
"Picasso: Mosqueteros" is the first exhibition in the United States to focus on the late paintings since "Picasso: The Last Years: 1963-1973" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1984. Organized around a large group of important, rarely seen works from the collection of Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, as well as works from The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museo Picasso Málaga and other private collections, "Picasso: Mosqueteros" aims to expand the ongoing inquiry regarding the context, subjects, and sources of the artist's late work.
Listen to this excited madman critic promoting the show:
Check out more about this exhibit on the Gagosian website. Google 'Picasso: Mosqueteros' to find reviews of the work and to learn more before we go!
After we spend some time with Pablo, we'll head out and see one or two other galleries in the hood. There's hundreds in the area, so we'll have to decide which together....
Get ready for our show on Wednesday, April 22nd, immediately following class!
ANGELA's MIXTAPE
By Eisa Davis
Directed by Liesl Tommy
With Kim BrockingtonDenise BurseEisa Davis
Ayesha NgaujahLinda Powell
Designers: Clint Ramos, Jane Shaw, Sarah Sidman, Jessica Jahn Production Manager Mark Sitko Production Stage Manager Ryan Radeuchel Assistant Stage Manager Danielle Teague-Daniels Props Johnson Henshaw Associate Producer Anna Hayman Casting Paul Davis/Calleri Casting Press Jim Baldassare
“On this mixtape, style will dictate, we bounce back and forth in time…”
Using the rhythms of music and memory, Eisa tells the story of a radical upbringing on the dividing line between Oakland and Berkeley, California-- in a family that includes her aunt, professor and activist Angela Davis.
Time shifts between the 70s, 80s, and 90s as smoothly as a DJ fading from song to song. Each track, each memory, has a built-in switch to the next, for theatrical momentum that keeps on building.
The music crosses styles and decades, but it's hip-hop and a b-girl stance that keeps the piece bouncing in the present.
Do some research on Angela Davis before the show! This will be also behelpful before you go into the show....
All mixed up?A short glossary of terms.
Back to the Future The most popular film of 1985 features Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a teenager who travels back in time from 1985 to 1955 and accidentally prevents his parents from meeting, putting his own existence at stake.Ronald Reagan quoted the film in his 1986 State of the Union Address.
CommunismAs codified by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, communism is the ultimate result of socialism, a process occurring only after capitalism has collapsed in on itself. In this stage of social evolution, the working class, bourgeoisie, and the ruling class can no longer exist. From the Manifesto: “Communism deprives no man of the power to appropriate the products of society; all that it does is to deprive him of the power to subjugate the labor of others by means of such appropriation.”
Davis, Angela Y.American political activist and professor of philosophy.In 1970, at age 26, Davis became the third woman and the 309th individual to appear on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List.A target of then-California Governor Ronald Reagan and FBI director J. Edgar Hoover’s Cointelpro policies, she was first fired from UCLA for her activism and membership in the Communist party, then charged with murder, conspiracy, kidnapping, and interstate flight after a gun registered in her name was used in an attempt to free the Soledad Brothers, political prisoners for whom she had sought justice.She went underground for two months before being arrested in New York City, and was acquitted of all charges in 1972.John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s song “Angela”and the Rolling Stones’ “Sweet Black Angel” advocated for her release.In the 80s, Davis ran for Vice President on the Communist Party ticket. Currently Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Davis speaks nationally and internationally with a focus on the eradication of the prison industrial complex.Aunt of American playwright and performer Eisa Davis.
Flint’s Bar-B-QOakland, CA.Mmm, mmm!
GrenadaAn island nation peopled mainly by descendants of Africans in the southeastern Caribbean sea.A peaceful socialist revolution in Grenada toppled a dictator in 1979, then President Ronald Reagan and the United States invaded the country in 1983 in response to the government’s close ties with Cuba. Grenada’s population was approximately the same at the time of the invasion as it is now: a whopping 90,343.
Hip-Hop TheaterAs delineated by the Hip-Hop Theater Festival, live theater written by and about the hip-hop generation.Often using elements of hip-hop culture (including MCing, DJing, hip-hop dance, graffiti, spoken word), hip-hop theater tells urgent stories seldom represented on stage, through language that embraces hip-hop’s multi-literate and poly-lingual vitality.
MacrobioticFrom the Greek “macro” (large, long) and “bios” (life), is commonly known as a dietary practice based on the principles of yin and yang. Meals often include whole grains, legumes, vegetables (from earth and sea), and fermented soy. A macrobiotic lifestyle encourages living in balance with nature by eating local, seasonal and organic foods with the belief that this will lead to world peace.
MixtapeAlso known as a mixed tape.A compilation of songs recorded in a specific order, traditionally onto a compact audio cassette, it generally reflects the musical tastes of its compiler, which can range from a casually selected list of favorite songs, to a conceptual mix of songs linked by theme or mood, to a highly personal statement tailored to the tape’s intended recipient.Notable subgenres include the romantic mix and the break-up mix.
New York Women’s House of DetentionBuilt on the site of the Jefferson Market Prison thatsucceeded Jefferson Market at the corner of Sixth and Greenwich Avenues in Manhattan. Mae West, Billie Holiday and Black Panther Afeni Shakur, mother of Tupac, were some of the women arrested and held there before Angela Davis’s arrest. Believed to have been the world’s only art deco prison, it was demolished in 1973 and replaced with a garden and library.
THE FIRST is the New York Times review of the show, which is very positive. I thought this paragraph was interesting, as we touched on this in our discussion in class:
It’s telling that Kent, the play’s most vulgar character, is the one who speaks most easily, whipping out clichés and malapropisms as if they were pistols. The others wrestle awkwardly with language, and “reasons” is filled with instances of misinterpreted words and of people groping for mots justes that never arrive.
THE THIRD I find the MOST interesting. It's a presentation called The Sell: ‘Reasons to Be Pretty.’
Drew Hodges, the CEO of SpotCo, a Broadway advertising agency, narrates a slideshow of some of the rejected poster art for "reasons to be pretty" and talks about how they came up with the concept for the final ads. It involves putting out an ad on CraigsList and asking over 250 people to come in and tell their own stories about their bodies AND photographing them.
We'll be heading to the Lyceum Theater at 149 West 45th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues immediately after class on Wednesday, March 24th to see Neil LaBute's new play REASONS TO BE PRETTY. The show starts at 8pm is approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. (Bring $$ or food so you won't be hungry during the show!)
Ask Your Mama!Music by Laura Karpman,on a text by Langston Hughes
"Hot jazz, German lieder, cha-cha, and Afro-Cuban drumming come together in this collaboration between four-time Emmy-winning composer Laura Karpman and five-time Grammy-winning soprano Jessye Norman, based on Langston Hughes’s epic poem, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. A heady mixture of intersecting cultures, Ask Your Mama! brings together the collective memories of America and the hope for its future in a compelling tapestry of orchestral music integrated with technology and sound samples drawn from a dozen traditions."
Go to this site to download/read the Langston Hughes poem and listen to Laura Karpman, the composer, talks about ASK YOUR MAMA.
Here is a link to the complete critique of Rick Moody's book, The Black Veil, ranted and argued by Dale Peck. You know, the one that started, "Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation."
The flamewar started by that review made it into every literary circle. Even the New York Times Magazine weighed in on the issue.
All of this for us to think about. Basically, the debate is: What is the role of the critic? Everyone's got a different opinion. And everyone is right. And wrong. :)
Paul Taylor (b: July 1930) is one of the foremost American choreographers of the 20th century.
The Paul Taylor Dance Company has represented the 'gold standard' of the modern dance world for more than 50 years. In the decades since the company's first performance, Taylor’s provocative choreography has not only won him accolades and acclaim, it has cemented his position as a cultural dance icon and one of history’s most celebrated artists.
Check out this little essay, written by PT, called Why I Make Dances.
Check out clips of Paul Taylor’s Piazzolla Caldera as depicted in Matthew Diamond’s 1997 motion picture documentary Dancemaker, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Multi TRaC class begins tomorrow at the Jacob Blaustein Building in midtown Manhattan. The Jacob Blaustein Bulding is located at 165 East 56th Street between 3rd Ave and Lexington Ave. (It's close to the corner of 3rd Ave.) You can take the 4,5,6 or E,V trains to get there. If you take the 4, 5, or 6 train, get off at the 59th street stop and walk south to 56th and make a left. If you take the 6, E, or V train, get off at the 51st Street Station and walk north to 56th and make a right. You will need a photo ID of some kind to get into the building.
It is imperative that you get to class by 4:30. I will be there to meet you in the lobby, then you we'll go up together to the conference room we're meeting in. If you are late, tell the security guards who you are and they will call meto come down and escort you up. Please be on time!
Any problems you can contact me at eost@high5tix.org.
NOTE: Your first show will be immediately following class tomorrow. We will leave class tomorrow a little early to walk over to City Center for the Paul Taylor Dance Company, which begins at 7pm. Bring some food and/or money for a snack on the way.
SAVE THE DATE! Our second show will be at Carnegie Hall next Monday, March 16th, at 8pm! Check out the show here: www.askyourmama.com
Wednesday, 3/11, First class at AJC! PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING CLASS: Paul Taylor Dance Company at City Center. 4:30-9:15pm.
Monday, 3/16, Performance: Ask Your Mama! (Music by Laura Karpman, on a text by Langston Hughes at Carnegie Hall. 8pm.
Wednesday, 3/25, Class at AJC. PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING CLASS: Reasons to be Pretty on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater. 4:30-10:30pm
Wednesday, 4/22, Class at AJC. PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING CLASS: Angela's Mixtape at The Ohio Theater. 4:30 - 10pm.
Saturday, 5/9, Chelsea Gallery Hop. Meet at the Gagosian Gallery, 522 West 21st Street at 10th Ave. 1:00-3:00.
Wednesday, 5/13, Final class at AJC. LAST PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING CLASS: HOWARD ZINN AND GUESTS: A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY at the 92nd Street Y. 1395 Lexington Ave at 86th Street. 8pm!
Saturday, 5/16, The TRaC Finale! We will all come together to finish off TRaC in style.... details to come!
been there, done that.... in Fall 2008
DONE! Wednesday, 10/15 First Class! At the Dance Theater Workshop. 4:30 - 6:30.
DONE! Wednesday, 10/29 Class at new location! Meet at the Jacob Blaustein Building at 165 East 56th Street between 3rd Ave and Lexington Ave. 4:30 - 6:30.
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