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Inspired by her father – Stefanie Batten Bland’s PATIENCE(CE) comes to Harlem Stage with Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber Stefanie Batten Bland and her company, Company SBB premieres the evening-length, interdisciplinary work PATIENT(CE) – a Physical Requiem at Harlem Stage, October 22 – 24. Described as a physical requiem to Batten Bland’s father, the late Ed Bland, a contemporary jazz composer and filmmaker, PATIENT(CE) is made in collaboration with the futuristic jazz ensemble Burnt Sugar The Arkestra Chamber; lighting and visual by Alaric Hahn, additional visuals by Batten Bland, costumes by Deborah Fergueson and eight dancers. Not included in the cast this time around, as a performer, Batten Bland has danced for Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company, Sean Curran Dance Company, Pina Bausch Tanz Theater Wuppertal, Lar Lubovitch, Julie Taymor and currently works for Punch Drunk’s production, Sleep No More in New York City, to name a few. As a choreographer she recently received the 2015 Kevin Spacey Foundation Artists Choice Award for Dance in the US, mounted works on Ailey II, was the lead choreographer at the Paris Opera Comique in France, and has choreographed for directors including Jérome Savary, Van Cleef & Arpels and Louis Vuitton. Batten Bland talked with me about the making of PATIENCE(CE). Charmaine: What are your first recollections of making PATIENCE(CE)? Batten Bland: I began in 2011 when I was moving back to New York from France. My dad's film The Cry of Jazz was receiving a lot of attention from BAM’s film anthology and the American Library of Congress. We were also talking about its principles; the structure of jazz music, the trust, the highly attuned nature of the musician’s relationship to the group, understanding improv and getting harmony within a structure. This is something I also do in dance. The idea took some years and the first tinkering was made for Ailey ll in 2012. Once the rights were reverted back to me, I began a year and a half of researching, funding, workshopping and showing. As dance is a social creative experience for me, collaborating is already at its essence. Charmaine: Why Burnt Sugar…? Batten Bland: I met them in 2011 also and accidentally found out that many of them revered my father's film… using it in lectures at universities. There seemed an immediate care and profound understanding of my father's statement-- jazz is a closed form without room for advancement, as it was created specifically to illustrate the black person's experience in America. Within that closed format one searches for freedom, hence the sensational qualities that are within jazz, but structurally it never ventures out of a walled format. I think this is a deeper conversation of finding liberty within frustration and gauging that waiting game. Greg [Tate – founder/leader] and his musicians are creating a score that will be ever-changing, celebrating the past and the present, while I look at the present and the future. Charmaine: There is also visual installation by you and Alaric Hahn. Can you describe what audiences may see? Batten Bland: I don't want to give it away…but…I wanted to create a structure which we could not exit, yet one that we could manipulate. If I am physicalizing what is musically manifesting, and which in turn is about waiting until the times change, well, then I wanted to be able to change space as that would allow me to sculpt time. Charmaine: Are the dancers also considered collaborators? Batten Bland: Always. I only work with collaborators. Charmaine: How do you come about the movement-language? Batten Bland: I work with a storyboard (I'm quite cinematic like this). I figure out the arch of the creation and movement is explored in function of what tableau we are trying to tackle. Charmaine: Of the three parts did any one come first? Batten Bland: I'd say discussion came first. Discussion of music, American social issues and then debates between music and dance and exploring the similarities and current event, progress or not. Charmaine: What makes all these elements whole? Batten Bland: The piece makes it whole. In the end it is always the piece that steers, leads me and tells me when it is done. Charmaine: Is there anything else you’d like to share with the readers? Batten Bland: I'm a lucky person to have inherited such a thick and complex identity. I find it amazing that this musical form structurally expresses something so deep and profound. I was amazed how at the end of my father's life, he didn't express regret nor anger towards the disgusting things he was forced to do or be or how long it took (if ever) to reach dignity from the outside frame. Instead, he looked at it all and said what an amazing ride. I think this is the heart of the piece. It is perhaps abstract in a performative nature, but what makes it tick is the grace we have in how we use the "now," the opportunity to live with and appreciate the present tense with one another. I'm a hopeless optimist, I find appreciation, love and joy from within the structure, and thus I am free. Read and see more here Visit Harlem Stage here The José Limón International Dance Festival The Joyce Theater October 13-25 Closing out two weeks of celebration, 70 years of works by José Limón, The José Limón Foundation, joined by companies from around the world, present a total of 14 Limón works created over 30 years. Guest companies for this final week are Coreoarte from Caracas, Venezuela, founded by former company member Carlos Orta; sjDANCEco from San Jose, California, founded by former company members Gary Masters and Fred Mathews; and American Repertory Ballet of Princeton, NJ. Guest companies on the Next Generation program are North Carolina School of the Arts, Canadian Contemporary Dance Theater, University of Arizona/ Tucson, and Southern Methodist University/Dallas, Texas. Find out more here Jon Kinzel Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center October 21–24 & 28–31 As part of the series “Making Space,” in his new work, Manhattan Mild (working title), Kinzel “…considers physical endurance and psychic restlessness as choreographic source material..[and]…explores athleticism and personal histories within the intergenerational cast of dancers,” according to the release. Find out more here Pat Graney Company Peak Performances October 22-25 According to the release, for Girl Gods, Graney and dancers “…interviewed their mothers about power and anger, what was acceptable and what was not. [And] The Mother as icon, whether she wants to be or not, runs through the work… creat[ing] an extra surface of tension amid some familiar domestic touchstones in like flowers, candy, cupcakes and chicken. Find out more here Maher Benham and Coyote Dancers Martha Graham Studio Theatre October 23-25 Works by Benham will be highlighted in this weekend of dances dedicated to the company's teacher, mentor, and friend Dudley Williams (1938-2015). The performances are presented in collaboration with Deborah Zall and Classic Contemporary Dance Heritage, Ltd. Find out more here Colleen Thomas 92nd St Y's Buttenwieser Hall October 23-25 Thomas’ Her(e) Repetitive Blueprint examines “…the inevitability of our perception [when] called into question. [And asks] How can we see clearly if we are beholden to the stories we keep telling ourselves?” notes the release. Find out more here Michele Brangwen Dance Ensemble Mark Morris Dance Center October 24 The Ensemble will present a free program featuring the New York premiere of SKAMATO, a ska influenced work with music by Grammy-Nominated trumpeter and composer Tim Hagans, plus more. Find out more here Milteri Tucker’s Bombazo Dance Company BAAD! October 24 Tucker and Company presents the new evening-length work Bamboula, inspired by her family roots in Puerto Rico and New Orleans. The concert is part of the Pepatian/BAAD! Open Call residency supported by the Jerome Foundation. Find out more here Misty Copeland's proteges: Twin teenage brothers from Brooklyn, on 60 Minutes Overtime In May, 60 Minutes featured the story of ballerina Misty Copeland's childhood: how a dance teacher took a teenage Misty under her wing and changed her life. Later, a feature on two teenage boys from Brooklyn -- identical twins Shaakir and Naazir Muhammad -- who have now been taken under Misty's wing, was highlighted. The 17-year-old boys found the world of ballet at age six, when professional dancers from the Brooklyn Ballet visited their school as part of an outreach program. What they saw were strong men dancing with pretty girls, and they were sold. So when their parents told them they couldn't do ballet, they forged their mother's signature on a permission slip, and began sneaking out to attend class. By age seven, both boys got scholarships to attend the Brooklyn Ballet School, and by age 11, they were accepted into the competitive school at ABT. That's where they first caught a glimpse of Misty Copeland. Until then, Naazir said he felt like "the black sheep in the room." "Everyone is Caucasian in the room except for a few people and then Misty came in," he said. Misty Copeland has been looking out for the twins ever since. See the full 60 Minutes Overtime piece here This all-star evening and one that the curators of this annual treat for dancers and dance lovers should be proud of, covered a bunch of dance genres in one evening, not an easy feat in the dance world. By far the standout of the evening were Odissi dancers of Nrityagram, Bijayini Satpathy and Surupa Sen in Sen's Shivashtakam (An Ode to Shiva). They are captivating in their sculptural shifting from one eye catching pose to another as they celebrate the God of dance and destruction, Shiva.
Hans Van Manen's quick-paced, trio ironically titled Solo and danced beautifully by Gennadi Nedvigin, Joseph Walsh and Hansuke Yamamotof San Francisco Ballet closed the first half. Stephen Petronio Company in Petronio's quick-paced, tour de force and demanding Locomotor (2014) also tops the evening. After the Joyce Theater premiere, I wrote: "Locomotor is all about moving in many directions, especially backwards, and doing it well...the Hip-hop experimentalist Michael Volpe’s (aka Clams Casino) very cool score matched the speed and intensity of the dancers’ fast and furious runs, contact partnering, heaving lifting male duet, peppered by pauses here and there." Missed was Davalois Fearon, replaced by Cori Kresge. The company: Gino Grenek, Barrington Hinds, Jaqlin Medlock, NIcholas Sciscione, Emily Stone and Joshua Tuason with guest performer, Melissa Toogood were again great. Michele Dorrance, the latest tap sensation, closed the evening with the premiere of Myelination, commissioned by Fall for Dance Festival, is another of her deconstructed take on tap dance. Dorrance with Emma Portnet and Byron Tittle criss-cross their legs (a take on the definition of the work's title - a sheath around a nerve) and play with tapped timing in front of the curtain rises. When the curtain does rise there is more visual teasing: the huge City Center stage is filled with nine musicians and singers, plus a cast of nine more dancers who sing and dance their hearts out. By far, Dorrance is a knock-out hoofer, but missing is some raw and traditional tap. On the large Joyce Theater stage (October 6-8), the very small Bharatanayam dancer and choreographer Aparna Ramaswamy is commanding in the premiere of The Rose At Dawn. Musicians (vocalists and percussionists) line one wall, while introduced by a poem each time, Ramaswamy enters center and traverses the stage to tell each story. In traditional costume, toes and fingers painted red and eyes encircled with dark makeup exaggerating her every movement and gesture, Ramaswamy and the musicians are one. They celebrate the ways and means of peoples in the ancient temples of southern India through this all-encompassing dance form complete with requisite elements. The musicians and the atmosphere compliment the beguiling Ramaswamy in each section: Om Kara Karini, Varnam and Two Scenes from the Mullai Tinai. At any moment, exaggerating her back in a deep curve and settling into bent knees, she shifts on and off balance, her eyes dart and her fingers gesture, while her elbows bend and her wrists drop just so. In one instance, between fast and then slower music, she descends to her knees, brings her palms to her heart, lowers her forehead to the floor and we follow the continually changing tableau until she gestures to end. Ramaswamy takes us on many beautiful journeys in a very short time. The musicians are: Preethy Mahesh (vocals), C.K. Vasudevan (Nattuvangam), Sakthivel Muruganantham (Mridangam), Sruthi Sagar (Flute) and Anjna Swaminathan (Violin).
Nancy Stark Smith, dancer, teacher, and cofounder of Contact Quarterly, presented Steve Paxton with the 2015 Bessie for Lifetime Achievement in Dance. Ella Baff, Senior Program Manager for Arts and Cultural Heritage, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Sam Miller, President, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and Jan Schmidt, former Curator, The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts presented Movement Research with the 2015 Bessie for Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance. Other presenters included Kyle Abraham, Ivy Baldwin, Ping Chong, Robin Dunn, Marcelo Gomes, Rennie Harris, Cynthia Hopkins, Jennifer Monson, Liz Prince, and Linda Celeste Sims.
The 2015 NY Dance and Performance Awards presented at the Apollo Theater are as follows: Lifetime Achievement in Dance Steve Paxton For a relentless curiosity into the possibility of movement, from the redefinition of modern dance with the movers who gathered at Judson Church in the 1960s, to the development of contact improvisation now practiced around the world, and for his ongoing rigorous and surprising choreographic investigations. Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance Movement Research For nearly four decades as a creative incubator for innovation, enquiry, and dialogue. For providing a range of platforms to disseminate ideas about dance, art, and civic life via its classes, publications and weekly performance gatherings. For championing the importance of artistic process. Outstanding Production Dorrance Dance with Toshi Reagon and BIGLovely for The Blues Project at The Joyce Theater For a symphonic dialogue between a stellar company of tap artists and a groundbreaking blues band; a true fusion of dance and music, expanding the boundaries of two great American traditions. Outstanding Production David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group for I Understand Everything Better, Abrons Arts Center and The Chocolate Factory For creating a mysterious and whimsical world in which to explore the dual devastations of personal loss and public destruction, taking the audience on a visceral journey through internal and external storms. Outstanding Production Justin Peck for ‘Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes, New York City Ballet For a bracing new interpretation of a well-known score, wiping it clean of prior associations and using it as the springboard for an entirely new ballet marked by wit, surprise, poignant intimacy, and robust ensemble energy. Outstanding Production Roger Guenveur Smith for Rodney King at BRIC Arts Media For a powerful and timely performance using gesture, voice, and historical document to link the personal tragedy of Rodney King's life to our national tragedies of racism and police brutality. For extending that conversation into the street in an improvised post-show town hall that evolved into a peaceful demonstration in reaction to the Eric Garner case unfolding in New York City. Outstanding Revival Alexei Ratmansky for The Sleeping Beauty, American Ballet Theatre For recapturing the spirit and style of Petipa from 19th-century ballet notation starting with simple steps to reconstruct that world’s ideas about movement, musicality, aesthetics, and storytelling in dance. Sustained Achievement in Performance (posthumous) Lawrence Cassella for his work with Ivy Baldwin For the ability to be smooth, strong, fast, fearless, dangerously sexy, and bizarrely hilarious. For more than a decade of creation in a richly intertwined collaboration with choreographer Ivy Baldwin. Sustained Achievement in Performance Lauren Grant for her work with the Mark Morris Dance Group For nearly two decades’ work gracing Mark Morris’ choreography with invigorating spontaneity, expansive phrasing, and robust musicality. For bringing to life an extensive and varied repertory, embodying the essence and individual tone of each work. Sustained Achievement in Performance Amar Ramasar for his work with New York City Ballet For his natural ease and contemporary presence on the classical stage. For his ongoing contributions to a wide range of new ballet work, and for his sensitivity and skill in the demanding and sometimes unseen art of partnering. Outstanding Performance Ryoji Sasamoto in OQ by Kota Yamazaki at Japan Society For his mastery and presence in a dance palace filled with extraordinary movers. For a never-ending flow of movement merging an ingrained sense of lock and pop with a contemporary sense of fluid release. Outstanding Performance Melissa Toogood for her work in the 2014−15 season with Pam Tanowitz, Kimberly Bartosik, Merce Cunningham, Rashaun Mitchell, Stephen Petronio, and Sally Silvers For dancing so precise and fluid, elegant and electric, it captivates the viewer in each work in which she appears. For committing herself so completely to enhancing and transforming the vision of an astounding number of unique choreographers. Outstanding Sound Design Tei Blow for I Understand Everything Better by David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group, Abrons Arts Center and The Chocolate Factory For a virtuosic live audio performance mixing recorded sounds, percussive rhythms, a live mic, and spinning vinyl to transport the audience from the mountains of Japan to the hurricane-ravaged shores of New York. Outstanding Visual Design Geoff Sobelle, Steven Dufala, Christopher Kuhl, Nick Kourtides, Jamie Boyle, and Rachel McIntosh for The Object Lesson by Geoff Sobelle at BAM Fisher For creating an immersive environment built from the material debris of an individual life. For sparking curiosity in the audience about the need, meaning, and weight of their own lives’ objects. As previously announced, the 2015 Emerging Choreographer Award was given to Storyboard P for fusing various styles of hip-hop with elements of modern and jazz dance, creating a cinematic choreographic vision for new dance narratives and abstract movement-based works. The 2015 Juried Bessie Award was given to Pavel Zuštiak for his poetic layering of movement and visual imagery, and conceiving of the stage space as a decentralized world in which the corporeal body is the focus and canvas for a wide range of human expression. The full list of nominees can be found at: http://bessies.org/2015-nominees-announced/. Dance Magazine honors five exceptional artists:
The recipients are an illustrious group from various sectors of the dance world, and this is the first year we are honoring a flamenco artist. The five awardees are ** flamenco artist Soledad Barrio ** American Ballet Theatre principal and budding choreographer Marcelo Gomes ** former ballerina and current artistic director of National Ballet of Canada Karen Kain ** dance archivist, writer and historian David Vaughan and ** founding artistic director of Urban Bush Women Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Mikhail Baryshnikov will present to Ms. Kain; Millicent Johnnie to Ms. Zollar, Julie Kent to Mr. Gomes, Martín Santangelo to Ms. Barrio and Valda Setterfield to Mr. Vaughan. Performers will include Soledad Barrio with flamenco musicians playing live, members of Urban Bush Women and dancers from ABT. The Dance Magazine Awards recognize outstanding men and women whose contributions have left a lasting impact on the dance world. The event will be held at The Ailey Citigroup Theater (405 West 55th Street) Monday, December 7, 2015. Event begins at 7:30 PM, followed by a reception. Visit Dance Magazine here Gibney Dance is thrilled to introduce POP: Performance Opportunity Project, a brand new program that will provide the dance community with increased support for showings and performances. POP enables dance artists to self-produce performances and showings at Gibney Dance through a curated rental process. Artists can participate through either a POP: Performance in the black-box theater or an informal POP: Showing in one of our studios. Application available online now. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. Find out more and apply HERE Stefanie Batten Bland/Company SBB PATIENT(CE)-A Physical Requiem Presented in partnership Company SBB Supported in part by a dance stipend from The Mertz Gilmore Foundation, through Harlem Stage Thurs-Sat | Oct 22-24 | 7:30 P.M. | $40 Sat | Oct 24 | 2 P.M. | $40 Choreographic artist Stefanie Batten Bland will create an evening-length, interdisciplinary work inspired by the structure of jazz with its formal emphasis on the eternal present. Through a collaboration with futuristic jazz ensemble, Greg Tate's Burnt Sugar Arkestra Chamber, and visual installation by Ms. Batten Bland and Alaric Hahn, PATIENT(CE) will examine the critical relationship that the musical, physical and visual arts have with space and time. Find out more - Harlem Stage - October 22- 24 See more here (footage & photos) Moderator - (Charmaine Warren) Q & A - Stefanie Batten Bland - "PATIEN(CE)" - Saturday, 10/24 |
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AuthorI am a performer, historian, consultant and dance writer. I am a Empire State College's online program Center for Distance Learning. I am also a former faculty member at The Ailey School and the Alvin Ailey/Fordham University dance major program, Hunter College, Sarah Lawrence College (Guest), Kean University and The Joffrey Ballet School's Jazz and Contemporary Trainee Program. I write on dance for The Amsterdam News, Dance Magazine and various publications. Click below to read more about me at my home page - "About Me." |