Davalois Fearon Dance (DFD)
BRIC
March 5-6
As part of their BRICLAB Residency, DFD will present a work in progress performance of For C.J. made in honor “…Fearon’s nephew, who fell victim to a fatal asthma attack. His passing was tragic and with proper care and treatment, entirely preventable. Urban planning and systemic redlining in government agencies have pushed populations of color to areas that face disproportionate levels of pollution, which results in the asthma hospitalization and death rates among Blacks and Hispanics being 3–5 times those of Whites. The piece features Fearon’s ballet-infused postmodern/Caribbean movement vocabulary; music composed by Mike McGinnis; wearable sculpture, costume, and makeup designed by interdisciplinary artist Jasmine Murrell; and set design by performer/visual artist Myssi Robinson.  For this iteration, Fearon takes her immersive audiovisual experience approach by calling on six live musicians to perform alongside DFD Dancers Morgan Anderson, Njeri Rutherford, and Mikaila Ware,” notes the release.  Find out more here
 
Ballet Vlaanderen
The Joyce
March 3-7
The Company, also known locally as Ballet Flanders, celebrates its 50th anniversary and in the Joyce season will present Akram Khan’s Kaash, artistic director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s Faun, and Crystal Pite’s Ten Duets on a Theme of Rescue.  Find out more here
 
Nederlands Dans Theater
March 4-7
New York City Center
The Dutch company an evening of works by Gabriela Carrizo (The missing door), Marco Goecke (Walk the Demon) and house choreographers Sol León and Paul Lightfoot (Singulière Odyssée ). Find out more here
 
Kimberly Bartosik / daela
NYLA
March 4-7
Bartosik’s through the mirror of their eyes which aims to “…brim with compassion and violence...” is performed by Joanna Kotze, Dylan Crossman, Burr Johnson, and three young performers (Dahlia Bartosik-Murray, Hunter Liss, Winter Willis).  Find out more here
 
Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre
Baruch Performing Arts Center
March 5-7
As part of the CUNY Dance Initiative, Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre presents the world premiere of Hindsight, an evening-length work that focuses “…on reflection and memory [and] references motifs and structures…” according to the release. Find out more here
 
Maki Morishita & Tabaimo
Japan Society
March 6-7
Choreographer Maki Morishita and Japanese visual artist Tabaimo come together for the multi-media dance work, Fruits borne out of rust, a solo danced by Chiharu Mamiya.  Find out more here
 
Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Dance Company
Williams Institutional C.M.E
March 8
Oyu Oro Afro-Cuban Dance Company shares the afternoon of music and dance with Francisco Mora-Catlett’s New York-based Afro Horn jazz ensemble.  Find out more here
 
Film Premiere - Pearl Primus
92nd Street Y
March 8
Celebrating dance icon, Pearl Primus, the film titled Pearl Primus, Omowale, Child Returned Home will be shown with a live performance with the Something Positive Dance Company, and Panel Discussion with Peggy and Murray Schwartz, Stan Sherer, Paul Dennis (moderator), Mary Waithe, Ninoska M’bewe Escobar.  Find out more here

When a dance work is replete with repetition and it feels more like a second chance to see what we may have missed, the choreographer must be commended.  Also, when the dancer delivering said movement presents it in a selfless way, we should take notice.  The choreographer and the dancer here is Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker who recently premiered Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind/Bach6Cellosuiten (In the Midst of Life/Bach’s Cello Suites) at NYU Skirball (February 13-15).  The title translated from the opening words of a Martin Luther chorale means “In the midst of life, we are in death.”  Continuing to bridge the marriage between music and dance, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras’ joined De Keersmaeker and her company Rosas in a memorable live performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Cello Suites” in Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind/Bach6Cellosuiten, but the treat was De Keersmaeker’s dancing the entire evening. There were six suites in all, and before each one, De Keersmaeker held up fingers to show where we were (one, two, three, etc.)  A series of duets that morphed to solos followed, and De Keersmaeker danced a distinctively beautifully solo in all.  For the most part, Queyras is positioned in different facings center stage, his sole cello very much a part of the tenor of the evening, and got each dance.  Also before each suite, the dancers tape geometric patterns on the stage which they follow, or not.  In sneakers and regular clothes, they energize the space, confound gravity and play with time through emotionally freeing movement filled with lush circles and unending patterns.  It’s simply the magic of pure movement.  Even more magical is watching De Keersmaeker’s with each dancer, finishing her part of the duet, then dashing off so that her partner would continue. Lit divisively as a way to listen more that see, in suite five we see De Keersmaeker through slits of light as Queyras plays.  In the suite six the entire company, Boštjan Antončič, Marie Goudot, Julien Monty and Michaël Pomero return with De Keersmaeker and Queyras.  Altogether, they are even more wonderful.

Apollo Theater Launches Major Commissioning Initiative Dedicated to the Creation of a Diverse 21st Century Performing Arts Canon

$2 Million from the Ford Foundation and $1 Million from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Provide Founding Support for Apollo New Works for the Development and Presentation of World Premieres by Camille A. Brown, Stefon Harris, Jon Boogz and Lil Buck, Ebony Noelle Golden, Ballet Hispánico, Daniel Bernard Roumain & BANDALOOP, Black Gotham Experience, Soul Science Lab, The New Black Fest, and Talvin Wilks

The Apollo Theater announced today its first multi-work commissioning
initiative dedicated to the creation of a diverse, 21st century American performing arts canon, Apollo New Works. Made possible with the support of a $2 million grant from the Ford Foundation for the creation of new work by artists of color, the initiative is also funded by a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for the Apollo’s Master Artist in Residency, a central component of the program. Apollo New Works extends the non-profit Apollo Theater’s commitment to the articulation and projection of the African American and African diasporic narrative. Many of the works will premiere at the Apollo’s new theaters at the Victoria, scheduled to open in fall 2020. Apollo New Works will provide audience access to some of the commissions while in process and allow artists to respond to and be inspired by Harlem, the Apollo Theater, and its communities.
“Thanks to the generous support of the Ford Foundation and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Apollo New Works expands our commitment to collaboration with established and emerging artists of color whose work is essential to the Apollo, Harlem, and the world,” said Kamilah Forbes, Apollo Theater Executive Producer. “Artists reflect the celebrations and challenges of society, and our goal for this initiative is to champion a group of voices and promote a new generation of storytellers in an effort to develop a more diverse American canon.”

Read more here

Exploring the Metropolis, Inc. (EtM) announces the sixth round of our Choreographer + Composer Residencies applications! 

Deadline: Monday, April 6, 2020 5:00 P.M. EST

• This residency provides four choreographer/composer teams (eight artists total) with free rehearsal and workspace for a three-month period.
• Artists may start their residencies in October 2020 or January 2021.
• The artist team will have the space to develop new work.
• Each team is required to give one free public program in coordination with JCAL.  
• Each artist will receive a stipend of $2,000.

This is primarily a choreographic residency. Choreographers may apply individually without a composer. However, composers MUST apply with a choreographer and may not apply as individuals. 

For more information, application and guidelines, click here. 

Dance/NYC and its program partner Gibney are pleased to invite you to apply for the Disability. Dance. Artistry. Residency Program, made possible by the generous support of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs CreateNYC Disability Forward Fund and the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation. Dance/NYC will award week-long residencies to disabled dance artists and/or integrated dance companies at Gibney from May 21, 2020 through June 20, 2020.  The purpose of the residency program is to expand opportunities for dancers with disabilities, and to advance accessibility and inclusion within the larger dance, residency and presenting communities.

The Residency Program responds directly to Dance/NYC’s research, Performing Disability. Dance. Artistry. (Dance.NYC/PerformingDDA18), which underscores the need and opportunity to engage residency centers in the professional development and training of disabled artists and to provide critical training to presenters, driving mentorship and shared learning among artists and presenters.

Apply here

The choreographer Deborah Colker’s Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) references Brazilian writer Joāo Cabral de Melo Neto’s poem of the same name and which brings attention to the people and their coexistence with the underdevelopment in the Capbaribe River region of Northeast Brazil.  The film helps to make this real and most of the action is on stage, but the film, filling the back wall, pulls attention from the dance.  The dancers move through a desperately dry riverbed, and in comparable sequences on stage bringing to life Colker’s connection to what nature gives and what is taken away.  Covered in thick mud, the gender neutral dancers, often move in unison from one idea to another, rolling and disrupting the dust likened to the dry riverbed that cover the stage.  Later, isolated body parts dart through oversized crate-like structures re-imagining a Brazilian slum underscoring the dancers’ commitment to the work.  To be sure, they and give more to the work than Colker’s movement cannon does, but with so much happening so little is delivered.  Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) ran at The Joyce from February 4-9.