Deborah Jowitt calls Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry’s Angel Reapers a “beautifully imagined and constructed theater piece.”

Here’s an excerpt of her review in Arts Journal: “What fascinates people about the Shakers—members of religious communities that settled in New England in the late 18th century, proselytized, expanded, and began to wither a hundred or so years later? We marvel at the austerely beautiful furniture they made, their ingenuity, and the fact that they considered drawing, singing, and dancing gifts from God that were to be practiced freely and diligently—all that and more, but what seems to boggle many contemporary minds is that Shakers were celibate.

Doris Humphrey barely hinted at underlying sexual tensions in her ecstatic 1931 dance The Shakers. The Finnish choreographer Tero Saarinen downplayed them in his glorious Borrowed Light (2004). Watching Angel Reapers, which plays at the Joyce Theater through December 11, you get the impression that for its greatly gifted creators, director-choreographer Martha Clarke and playwright Alfred Uhry, Shaker dancing—whether wild or formally patterned—was a sublimation for the erotic physical exertions that the community members denied themselves.”

Read the full article here.

The New Yorker’s Joan Acocella says the show “refuses to limit itself to either realism or vision.”

“Martha Clarke’s movement-theatre pieces have sometimes been heavy on eroticism, with good-looking people sitting around naked on the stage. And, as is often the case with sexy shows, they have tended toward the deluxe: panties, poetry. Now, in collaboration with the playwright Alfred Uhry, Clarke has made another show about sex, “Angel Reapers”—it débuted at the Joyce this week and runs through December 11th—but this one is abstemious.”

Read more.

Angel Reapers continues at The Joyce through Dec. 11. Purchase tickets here.

Last week, as part of The Joyce’s ongoing Dance Talks series, powerhouse collaborators Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry sat down to speak with Gideon Lester for a video-illustration discussion about their new dance/theater work about the Shakers, Angel Reapers.

Here’s an excerpt of that discussion. You can find the full length video here.

Angel Reapers continues at The Joyce through Dec 11. Purchase tickets now.

This holiday season, MOMIX returns to The Joyce with Botanica, an audience favorite. MOMIX is celebrated for conjuring up a world of surrealistic images by using props, light, shadow, humor, and the human body in a startling way. With Botanica, the company is in top form, creating “an animated world” that “comes fabulously alive.” (The New York Times). This is thanks, in part, to the magical talents of master puppet designer Michael Curry.

Mr. Curry’s twenty-five year career boasts collaborations with visual directors such as Julie Taymor (The Lion King) and Robert LePage and production designers like Mark Fisher and Eiko Ishioka. He has created works for The Walt Disney Company, Cirque du Soleil, Universal Studios and The Olympics, as well as many international opera and stage companies.

Take a look at just a few of Michael Curry’s captivating creations:

MOMIX

The Lion King

2002 Olympics, Salt Lake City

Bush Gardens

Purchase tickets for MOMIX now.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and MacArthur Award winning choreographer discuss the inspiration behind their collaborative work, Angel Reapers, here on video:

And, through an interview with Boston Globe writer Jeffrey Gantz:

“What interested me so much,’’ the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright explains, “was really trying to deny that sex existed. I mean, it just goes against nature. Men and women had no contact, really, but they did have meetings where they would sit on opposite sides of the room, and they would drink spiritual wine, which is no wine. It’s imaginary. They would get drunk; they would dance. They believed that if you danced naked, you were invisible.’’

Read more here.

Angel Reapers runs Nov 29-Dec 11. Purchase tickets here.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet is back for another season at The Joyce and this time, the company will be dancing in honor and remembrance.  Dwight Rhoden will be premiering his piece What Come, Thereafter.  This piece was created in tribute to Desmond Richardson and will be danced by Richardson himself.  2011-2012 will be Richardson’s final touring season with Complexions, so you don’t want to miss this.

“Hailed by The New York Times as ‘one of the great modern dancers of his time,’ Desmond Richardson is a multi-talented artist who has mastered a wide range of classical, modern and contemporary dance genres. Praised for his powerful dancing and singular performance quality, Richardson has been the hallmark performer who has shaped the essence of the Complexions style for over a decade.” Read more on Richardson on the company’s website.  

Mr. Rhoden is also paying honor and tribute to Denise Jefferson, who left the dance world in July of 2010, in another premiere titled Places Please.

“Appointed as director by Alvin Ailey in 1984, after teaching at the School for ten years, Ms. Jefferson — affectionately referred to as Ms. J — was instrumental in identifying a child’s potential, and mentoring myriad students as they began their journey to becoming some of the greatest dance artists in the world. ‘Powerful,’ ‘technical,’ ‘elegant,’ ‘consistent,’ ‘beautiful,’ ‘fierce,’ ‘a force of nature’— these are some of the adjectives most commonly used to describe Ailey students. They are also the words that best describe Denise Jefferson.” Read more about Jefferson here.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet has three exciting programs from which to choose and will be here for two weeks!  Places Please will be performed in all three programs.  Come and see brilliant movers dance in celebration of those who have made an impact in our dance community.

Purchase tickets here.

Interviewed by intern Bethany Miller, November 2, 2011

In an interview with Gesel Mason, I asked the choreographer what inspired her to create her work, Women, Sex, & Desire: Sometimes You Feel Like a Ho, Sometimes You Don’t. She explained that when she taught in public high school, she observed a general struggle with acceptance among her students. Gesel started asking questions such as, “What is love?” “What does it take to be your full sexual self?” “What do you need?” and “What does the word ‘ho’ mean to you?” These are questions that she saw students asking themselves every day. Gesel began recreating, through dance, what she and her students experienced in real life. During the process of creating the work, Gesel asked her performers to define “sexy” and used their responses — comfortable, confident, loud, vulnerable, and inappropriate/appropriate, among others — to help color the new work.

Women, Sex & Desire… is a multi-media performance that uses discussion, video documentary, and choreography to expresses women’s sexual desires, choices, and the fact that humans are sexual beings. It is a journey through diverse opinions and personal experiences. Gesel says that her challenge for this work is to create a safe space/performance in which intimate subjects can be shared and discussed. It requires vulnerability and intimacy with the audience and performers. Because the subjects of sex and love are personal and unique to everyone, Gesel says that the piece is constantly changing and evolving. Stories and discussions lead the work, resulting in new experiences for the performers and audience members at every performance. The work provokes you to ask questions about your own self and sexuality.

Joshua Beamish, artistic director of MOVE: the company, interned with The Joyce in May. He prepared an audio track from an interview he conducted with Gesel at that time. In it, Gesel talks about how her 10-month residency with The Joyce, during which she was afforded the opportunity to restructure the work and with the assistance of a dramaturg (Morgan Jenness), impacted Women, Sex & Desire… Listen in.

Gesel Mason’s Women, Sex, & Desire: Sometimes You Feel Like a Ho, Sometimes You Don’t, will be performed November 10–13 at Joyce SoHo. More information

MacArthur Award winner Martha Clarke teams up with Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer Prize winner Alfred Uhry to bring the stirring Angel Reapers to the Joyce stage next month. Clarke describes the collaboration between the two artists as being like parsnips and chocolate, saying “In the beginning Alfred wrote an Alfred Uhry play which was linear and I worked in my wacko intuitive way. We began to develop something that was really interesting.”

Something really interesting, indeed! The collaboration between Clarke and Uhry began several years ago when Uhry suggested that Clarke read the biography of “Mother Ann” Lee, the founder of the Shaker Movement in America. Clarke found herself inspired by the “prophet” and her radical religious sect whose members were forbidden to marry or bear children and purged themselves of sin through spasmodic, spinning, vibrating motions.

Take a look at this Hartford Courant article for more on the collaboration and the inspiration behind the new work.

Angel Reapers opens November 29. Purchase tickets here.

Following its North American premiere at Portland State University’s Lincoln Performance Hall on Thursday, Chunky Move’s Connected was met with praise. Catherine Thomas of The Oregonian called the remarkable collaboration between Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek and sculptor Reuben Margolin “a meta-commentary on the nature and meaning of art.” She goes on to say, “it’s a testament to the choreography that the movement grabs the eye as much as the increasingly complex sculpture.”

Read the full review. And, for more insight into the creation of the work, read this Sydney Morning Herald article.

Chunky Move performs at The Joyce November 2-8. Purchase tickets now.

Beautifully controlled and engrossingly effective. Creative precision and exhilarating energy. Jill Sykes, Sydney Morning Herald

This is what has been said about Sydney Dance Company, one of Australia’s leading companies in contemporary dance.  Raphael Bonachela, director of Sydney Dance Company has teamed with composer Ezio Bosso to create a stunning evening of work investigating the breath of life and the impact of the landscape on the earth and cities.

The Stage London claims the collaboration between Bonachela and Bosso “must be a match made in heaven … rarely can music and movement have been so perfectly combined.”

Check out this video of Raphael Bonachela speaking about 6 Breaths and LANDforms, which the company will perform on the Joyce stage November 8-13.  These pieces premiered at the Canberra Theatre in May 2010.

Next month, acclaimed Australian company Chunky Move brings Connected to the Joyce stage. The work, created by Artistic Director Gideon Obarzanek and visual artist Reuben Margolin, explores the physical connection between bodies and kinetic design though the use of a large scale undulating sculpture that moves in sync with the dancers. Margolin’s sculpture measures 35′ x 10′ x 20′ and is made of paper, magnets, string, steel, wooden ring, 88 pulleys, and one motor.

Take a look at the sculpture in action in this footage of Connected.

And, take a look at some of Margolin’s other pieces:

Nebula

Soda Fountain

Yellow Spiral

Learn more about Reuben Margolin.

Purchase tickets for Chunky Move now.