CrossCurrent IV - Various Artists
Flushing Town Hall
March 5
For one-night-only, Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company, in collaboration with Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York and Flushing Town Hall, presents “CrossCurrent IV” featuring Nai-Ni Chen, Kun-Yang Lin, and PeiJu Chien-Pott.  A panel discussion will follow the one-hour performance.  Peiju Chien-Pott will perform Martha Graham's Ekstatsis reimagined, Kun-Yang Lin will dance Home and Nai-Ni Chen will present Richter and Earth.  Find out more here 
 
Wendy Whelan and Brian Brooks
The Joyce Theater
February 28 – March 5
Some of a Thousand Words (New York City premiere) is the latest collaboration between former New York City Ballet principal dancer Whelan and choreographer Brooks.  Some of a Thousand Words  is Whelan’s second collaboration with Brooks.  Find out more here
 

The Kathak Ensemble & Friends
Danspace Project
March 2 – 4
The Indian dance performance collective The Kathak Ensemble & Friends, under director Janaki Patrik, returns with their all new Indian-influenced contemporary dance work WE SINFUL WOMEN.   Based on the eight (Pakistani) Urdu poems first published in 1990.  Find out more here
 
Malpaso Dance Company
BAM
March 1- 4
Malpaso Dance Company  returns to BAM with Dreaming of Lions, a new evening-length dance work by resident choreographer and artistic director Osnel Delgado.  Dreaming… draws “…inspiration from Ernest Hemingway’s…The Old Man and the Sea, performed to a new and original score composed and performed by Arturo O’Farrill along with his Afro Latin Jazz Ensemble.  Find out more here
 
Fritzlyn Hector
Symphony Space
March 4
Hector –aka "Fritz," the African-Haitian Brooklyn native, will present an evening of dance works that integrate urban, traditional and contemporary forms.   Find out more here
 
“It's Showtime NYC!” – Various Artists
Battery Park
March 3, 11, 17 & 25
A program of “Dancing in the Streets,” It's Showtime NYC!  comes to Battery Park with new dancers, new work, and new moves  celebrating the New York City street culture.  Find out more here 
 
Nihon Buyo Dance
Japan Society
March 3 – 5
The Kabuki-trained company, Nihon Buyo Dance (Nihon Buyo – translates to ‘Japanese dance’) brings the Japanese dance genre accompanied by a music ensemble featuring traditional instruments.  Find out more here
 
Various Artists
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
March 4 – 8
Gibney hosts “Our Configurations” a mixed-ability performance and programs featuring works by disabled and non-disabled artists and companies: AXIS Dance Company, Marc Brew, Kinetic Light, and Marissa Perel.  These performances are a result of the continued discussion around dance and disability.  Workshops are also scheduled.  Find out more here  
 
Jack Ferver
New York Live Arts
March 3 -4
Ferver will present Everything Is Imaginable, written and choreographed by Ferver and performed by Reid Bartelme, Lloyd Knight, James Whiteside and Ferver.   The New York-based writer, choreographer and director offers “…genre-defying performances explore the tragicomedy of the human psyche,” notes the release.  The presentation is not open for review. Find out more here

Some thoughts on Complexions Contemporary Ballet for AmNews

​The new face of the Martha Graham Dance Company is the result of artistic direction by Janet Eilber (since 2005) who is bent on bringing new audiences to see classic works and to introduce a spin on some.  In 2015, for instance, Eilber invited four younger choreographers (Kyle Abraham, Liz Gerring, Sonya Tayeh and Michelle Dorrance) to make their own version of the iconic Lamentations (1930), and because of that, audiences have come to see another side of Graham.  At the top of the evening (February 22), Eilber gives a lay person’s breakdown of the masterwork on the program—Act 2 of Clytemnestra (1958), inspired by Aeschylus’ trilogy, the “Oresteia.”  As just one from Graham’s series of drama-ridden, Greek theatre inspired works, this is the first and only evening-length one. From signature cupped-hands, calculated lines and curves in the Graham technique, there is no loss for drama and solid dancing from the ensemble in Clytemnestra.  PeiJu Chien-Pott goes all out as Clytemnestra, Lorenzo Pagano is tops as Aegisthus and the original set designer, the late Isamu Noguchi, deserves equal billing.  New on the program was Annie-B Parson’s I used to love you (world premiere) a re-imagining of Graham’s 1941 comedy Punch and The Judy.  Black and white video footage ran concurrently across the back during Parson’s wild and funny version.  Throughout, in really bright skirts made from a whole lot of materials and moving around the space on wheeled-office chairs to loud music, Anne O’Donnell, Leslie Andrea Willams and Laurel Dalley Smith are perfect, dancing narrators, commentators, chorus all at once; they truly carry the story.  More humor came from Graham’s Maple Leaf Rag (1990.  Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s lyrical Mosaic, was the other contemporary work on the program.  The evening’s gem was Ekstasis (1933) by Graham, reimagined by Virginie Mecene (Program Director and Director of Graham 2) and danced by Chien-Pott.  Eilber explains that Ekstasis was pivotal for Graham because after “...using a more static form…she discovered another way…a pelvic thrust gesture.”  Alone, Chine-Pott’s figure is outlined in a gold, tube-like dress, she slithers her pelvis, her shoulders, her head and ever-so-slightly her feet from here to there and she is breathtaking.  Ekstasis must be revered as the work that captures Graham’s “…embrace of the sensual and the erotic in all manifestations…whether physical or spiritual…” Ekstasis personifies the season’s theme—“Sacred /Profane.” The company of dancers are: So Young An, Chien-Pott, Laurel Dalley Smith, Abdiel Jacobsen, Lloyd Knight, Charlotre Landreau, Jacob Larsen, Lloyd Mayor, Ari Mayzick, Marizia Memoli, O’Donnell, Pagano, Ben Schultz, Anne Souder, Williams, Konstantina Xintara and Xin Ying.

This series of workshops follows on The Fierce Urgency of Now public dialogue event that took place in November and brought us together to process the election and its ramifications. These workshops are designed for artists, activists, friends, colleagues, and affiliates, and are meant to give us some basic tools for moving forward in the reality of the current presidency. At the same time, they will help us to connect, process, continue conversations and find new allies.
All workshops are FREE and require no previous experience.
Workshops can be taken in combination or individually.

Find out more and Please RSVP - HERE.

​Brooklyn, NY - STooPS is seeking artists of all mediums and genres to share engaging, site-specific creations this August on various STooPS throughout Bed-Stuy.
 
Apply at stoops.submittable.com/submit.
We are looking for all types of art including dance, theater, music, poetry/spoken word, visual art, jewelry making, textile design, film/video, etc. We’re especially looking for interactive work that invites the community to connect with the artist and/or each other.  Last year’s event attracted nearly 300 attendees and, more importantly, helped create lasting relationships between community members and artists. We look forward to highlighting even more art from our neighborhood. Learn more about STooPS at stoopsbedstuy.org.

Part of our commitment is to provide artists with support and growth opportunities throughout the STooPS experience. This year, we’ve implemented a series of new engagements to enhance the artists’ experience including an Artist Orientation Webinar, Artist Development Workshop, and office hours where selected artists can connect with the STooPS team to ask questions and get feedback on their work. Additionally, all selected artists will receive a $50 stipend. 

Visit www.stoopsbedstuy.org/be-an-artist to learn more about the calendar of exciting activities for STooPS Artists this season.
And be sure to check out our Frequently Asked Questions page for additional details on the STooPS experience including technical, payment, and logistical information.
STooPS Artists will also be connected to a range of resources. Artists selected for STooPS will receive updates about performance opportunities, grants, affordable housing, and much more. STooPS was developed by and for artists, and we are proud of the community that sustains us.

To apply, artists must submit a bio, artistic resume, work samples, and a proposed description of the work they intend to share using the online application form by April 14, 2017. Paper applications are also available upon request.
 
To apply online visit stoops.submittable.com/submit.
For paper applications, please call (347) 927-8892.
Please direct any additional questions to info@stoopsbedstuy.org.                         

​From our stages and screens at Lincoln Center in New York City—which draw more than six million people to the largest performing arts center in the world—to theaters, concert halls, and galleries across America, the arts inspire and delight people from every walk of life, at every stage of life.

A child's early introduction to ballet teaches strength and discipline. A veteran's exposure to art therapy brings healing and hope. A student's participation in music class improves math scores and critical thinking skills. Art shapes achievement, with profound and practical effects.

Still more, art anchors communities. In American cities and towns, arts institutions and districts are breathing life into neighborhoods—attracting investment, spurring development, fueling innovation, and creating jobs. Arts and culture help power the U.S. economy at the astounding level of $704.2 billion each year.

Beyond our shores, American arts institutions are the envy of the world. In a unique public-private model, private sources provide the vast majority of funding for our artists and arts organizations. Government helps in targeted ways at pivotal moments, for example, by providing early funding to get projects off the ground or helping to create or expand promising initiatives to achieve greater reach and impact.

Underlying all of this is the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more than 50 years, the NEA has provided leadership in the public arts arena. Yet today it faces an uncertain future as its federal funding is considered for elimination. The total cost of the NEA is less than one dollar a year for every American. But because it is so successful and its imprimatur so prestigious, every dollar the NEA contributes leads to nine additional dollars being donated from other sources.

A great America needs that kind of return.

We hold close the words of Lincoln Center’s inaugural president, John D. Rockefeller III, who said, "The arts are not for the privileged few, but for the many. Their place is not on the periphery of daily life, but at its center. They should function not merely as another form of entertainment but, rather, should contribute significantly to our well-being and happiness."

​Read full statement here

​The School of Dance in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah invites applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, interdisciplinary contemporary practice hybrid artist/scholar, to begin August 2017.

The School of Dance is looking for a faculty member who bridges and/or fuses two (or more) contemporary movement practices, one of which is rooted in modern/contemporary dance. Other disciplines may include but are not limited to jazz, break, house and hip-hop and other forms from the African diaspora, ballet, physical theater and other dance/movement forms facilitating hybrid possibilities. The ability of this faculty member to research, work, model and think in interdisciplinary modes is important. We see such knowledge and research being introduced in our technique, creative process, and theory courses throughout the curriculum, thereby broadening and enhancing possibilities throughout the School of Dance. 

Please direct questions to Professor Stephen Koester, Search Committee Chair, Stephen.koester@utah.edu

Read more here

The School of Dance in the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah invites applicants for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position, Arts-Dance Education/Community Engaged Scholar-Artist, to begin August 2017. 

​The School of Dance holds two tracks in dance education in Modern Dance and Ballet. This faculty would help rebuild the BFA in Dance Teaching in Modern Dance as well as help teach the teaching/pedagogy offerings and continue to develop the community partnerships (including art/social justice, special education, elderly, refugee, local, national, and international populations). We see this faculty member as actively researching in the community partnership area, able to establish and coordinate new projects, and essentially help envision and expand upon current offerings in the Modern Dance and Ballet Programs. The College of Fine Arts is also initiating a new Master of Arts Teaching. This new hire could play an integral part in the delivery of its curriculum.This hire would serve several goals of the Modern Dance program, School of Dance, and College of Fine Arts. 

Please direct questions to Professor Pamela Geber Handman, Search Committee Chair, p.geber@utah.edu

Read more here