Can’t make it to Joyce SoHo to see Jane Comfort and Company’s critically acclaimed Faith Healing? Watch the performance from in your own home, at the corner coffee bar, or anywhere you can find a wifi connection. We’re live streaming the performances and would love to hear your thoughts on the work during our moderated chats.

Download the program notes.

The Joyce Theater is pleased to present Jane Comfort and Company at Joyce SoHo as part of the American Masters series.  The company will bring a re-staging of the critically acclaimed Faith Healing to the SoHo stage. The theater-dance piece, inspired by Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” premiered at PS 122 in 1993 and was later produced Off Broadway at Classic Stage Company. 

Faith Healing has received both popular and critical acclaim:

“Faith Healing” stretches the limits of what is customarily meant by dance or drama to achieve a truly new form: a physicalized version of the play…The performances are smashing.” — The Washington Post

“Overjoyed at Comfort’s achievement, I wonder what it portends when the downtown dance hit of the year is a play.” – The Village Voice

“The five performers who make up the cast of Faith Healing are all gifted dancers. But the theater-dance piece by Jane Comfort also reveals what extraordinary actors they are. Ms. Comfort is clearly sensitive director. And she has found unusual and inspired ways to physicalize some of the central events straightforward and simple, and profoundly touching.” — The New York Times

Take a look at this excerpt from the show:

Faith Healing (Amanda excerpt) from Jane Comfort and Company on Vimeo.

The Joyce Theater Foundation Congratulates the 2008-2010 Bessie Award Recipients

FULL PRODUCTIONS HONORED:
837 Venice Boulevard
Choreographed by Faye Driscoll**

Pent-Up: A Revenge Dance
Created and choreographed by Okwui Okpokwasili

Stolen
Choreographed by Yvonne Meier

Crotch (all the Joseph Beuys references in the world cannot heal the pain, confusion, regret, cruelty, betrayal or trauma…)
Choreography, performance, installation and visuals by Keith Hennessy

Dark Horse/Black Forest
Direction and Choreography by Yanira Castro

Be in the Gray With Me
Choreographed by Pam Tanowitz

The Radio Show
Choreographed by Kyle Abraham**

Last Meadow
Created and choreographed by Miguel Gutierrez in collaboration with the performers, with assistance from Alex Anfanger and Neal Medlyn

PURO DESEO
Concept and direction by luciana achugar
Choreography and performance by Michael Mahalchick and luciana achugar

Comme Toujours, Here I Stand
By Big Dance Theater
Directed and choreographed by Annie-B Parson
Co-direction by Paul Lazar

Grupo de Rua’s H3
Direction and Choreography by Bruno Beltrao
Assistant directed by Ugo Alexandre Neves

parades & changes, replays
(a re-enactment of Parades & Changes, created by Anna Halprin in collaboration with Morton Subotnick - 1965)
Conception & artistic direction Anne Collod in dialogue with Anna Halprin and Morton Subotnick

PERFORMERS HONORED FOR WORK DURING THE 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 SEASONS:

Michelle Boulé
For channeling the essence of James Dean’s character Cal in East of Eden through fearlessly dancing, singing, acting, and brooding in Last Meadow

Young dancers from Sarah Michelson’s Dover Beach
Latysha Antonio, Sofia Britos, Non Griffiths, Allegra Herman
For their exacting performance in Sarah Michelson’s Dover Beach

David Leventhal
For bringing to exhilarating life more than 40 of Mark Morris’s works

Heather Olson
For committed creation and development in performances over many years and many works dancing with Tere O’Connor

Miki Orihara
For her commitment to the true spirit and rigorous interpretation of the work of Martha Graham

Ensemble of dancers in Paradigm
Carmen deLavallade, Gus Solomons jr, Carmen deLavallade, Dudley Williams, Valda Setterfield, Michael Blake, Hope Clark, and Keith Sabado
In work after work, these grand performers, without fail, bring into vibrant focus the essence of what it means to dance.

Kayvon Pourazar
For fully-embodying the choreographic sensibilities of the artists he dances with, most notably in the works of John Jasperse and Yasuko Yokoshi

Special thanks and congratulations to Lucy Sexton, DanceNYC, and Symphony Space.

** Joyce SoHo Resident Artists

For more informatino about the Bessies and recent recipients, visit www.dancenyc.org.

photo: Gus Solomons jr by Christopher Duggan/Nel Shelby Productions

The dance community grieved in the summer of 2009 to learn of the death of legendary German choreographer Pina Bausch. Throughout her monumental career, Bausch developed a dramatic and distinct form of dance theater that necessitated both physical risk and intense emotional expression from her dancers. Bausch’s large body of work inspired choreographers all over Europe and the world, and her influence is still felt today.

One of those choreographers is Alain Platel, the artistic director of les Ballets C de la B, who has attributed his most recent work to Bausch. This highly-anticipated choreographic collective will perform Out of Context-For Pina at The Joyce Theater from Oct. 19-24. Of Pina Bausch, Platel says, “Even those [who] oppose her, are influenced by her. What she did was ask the dancers questions and use their answers as material for performance. Her mix of speech and gesture drawn from the dancers was a revelation” (Sarah Frater, “Platel’s Bold Dance Moves,” The Wall Street Journal, 5/28/10).

les Ballet C de la B, Photo by Chris Van der Burght

With Pina Bausch on my mind in anticipation of seeing les Ballets C de la B, it was great luck that I had the opportunity to see Tanztheater Wuppertal, Bausch’s company, perform Vollmond (Full Moon) at BAM on October 7th. From the audience’s warm reception to the company’s first performance in the United States since Bausch’s death, it was obvious that Bausch is still beloved and honored by many. However, New York Times dance critic Claudia La Rocco called the performance, “tired and predictable, as if Bausch had run out of new ideas and instead offered up her trusty style,” (“Swimming Through Bausch’s World,” 9/30/10). For a Bausch veteran, perhaps that was the case, but for those Bausch virgins out there like me, the performance was mind-blowing.

In the course of one evening, I witnessed dancers hurl themselves off a giant rock, swim through a pool of water on stage, light their hair on fire, get completely naked, dance in the rain, throw buckets of water into the air, kiss, scream, cry, and oh yes, dance themselves into complete exhaustion. Water continually splashed and arced through the air as the dancers moved with physical intensity and emotional ferocity. The dancing, the set, the music, the over-the-top-ness of it all, helped me to grasp what Bausch really meant by “dance theater.” I left feeling overstimulated and emotionally drained by the world that Bausch had created in Vollmond.

La Rocco says that “It’s hard to overstate the influence [Bausch’s] violently charged, dreamlike worlds and stark stagescapes have had,” (Swimming Through Bausch’s World, 9/30/10). It was clear from the audience’s enthusiastic and lengthy applause that Bausch’s achievements do not go unnoticed, and that audiences, dancers, and choreographers everywhere still mourn her loss.

Platel’s Out of Context-For Pina promises to be a dance spectacle of a different sort, but dance theater nonetheless. On a stark and bare stage, the dancers wear little more than their underwear, sing into microphones, and spasmodically convulse in a work that strays from Platel’s typical use of elaborate sets and live music. Audiences can expect a raw and emotionally-charged performance that certainly owes much to the groundbreaking work of Pina Bausch.

Photo: Chris Van der Burght

To see Platel’s Out of Context-For Pina, purchase tickets for les Ballets C de la B by clicking here.

les ballets C de la B “succeeds in knocking us off our feet.”
De Standaard

Check out this clip for a glimpse of Out of Context-For Pina, the witty and seductive dance-theatre piece created by Alain Platel and members of the Belgian choreographic collective les Ballets C de la B. Featuring artists from Ballet Preljocaj and Compagnie Montalvo-Hervieu, some of the hottest dancers performing in Europe today, the work takes place on an empty stage where dancers, clad in underwear alone, move to an eclectic score that includes Bach, Ravel, and R&B.

Purchase Tickets Now

“Dance is absolutely necessary for children’s education,” says award winning Queens 5th grade teacher Neme Alperstein.  She ought to know, as she has seen its impact on the numerous children she has taught during the over fifteen years she’s partnered with The Joyce Theater Dance Education Program for Schools.  Neme has worked with a team of teachers at her school and with Teaching Artist Susan Thomasson and the Joyce Education Department to bring dance into the curriculum and into the lives of children.

Her students, a mini United Nations, have discovered that there are no boundaries or borders with dance, only possibilities. They’ve learned critical skills, danced and created dances with each other and with dance artists and viewed performances of national and international dance companies on the Joyce stage.

Learn about the program, and invite a class or school you know to join today. http://www.joyce.org/education/school.php

I had the pleasure of taking a Gaga class from Ohad Naharin, the artistic director of Batsheva Dance Company, last Friday morning at DANY Studios. Gaga is a technique Naharin has developed over the years to train the dancers in his company to perform his specific style of movement, and—more recently—a creative exercise class he has begun offering to non-dancers. The class I took, part of The Joyce’s Master Class series, was specifically for dancers but I could see how individuals of varying abilities and dance experiences could benefit from the exercises.

Naharin led us through a guided improvisation, asking us to “decorate our insides” and to “find space” in many areas of the body. We “grabbed and let go” at the same time. We shook and wiggled; We even got “groovy.” This direction from Naharin helped to provoke movement that had a fluid, organic quality that actually made quicker, smaller movements look and feel easier, not to mention more enjoyable to do. We individually explored small and large articulations of everything from the pelvis, to our fingers and our necks, as Naharin spoke and moved himself.

Naharin’s guided improvisations begun standing, then moved to the floor, and then moved around the space. After about an hour and 20 minutes, rehearsal director Danielle Agami took the reins and taught a few sections from the work the company was performing at The Joyce, Project 5. Agami was gentle and specific, as she coaxed from the class the strange and cool attitude of the three women at the mics (if you’ve seen the show). Asking us to feel as if we have just landed from another planet, she requested we “get weirder.”

It was clear to me after seeing the company perform and taking this class, that the Batsheva dancers use this exploration of “weird” to cross over to “cool.” I’m not sure I crossed the threshold this time, but I certainly left with an appreciation for this particular means of doing so.

Check out les ballets C de la B’s class on October 22, the next in the series of master classes. Company member Ross McCormack leads the class, which will include dance phrases from Alain Platel’s Out of Context, being presented at The Joyce, and improvisation based on the learned material.

Please contact Maggie Lockhart at mlockhart@joyce.org to register for the master class with les ballets C de la B or if you have any questions.

-Laura Diffenderfer, Programming Associate

One of my first orders of business as The Joyce Theater’s new marketing intern was to learn about the companies performing as part of the fall ‘10/winter ’11 season. So, I sat down with Laura Diffenderfer, The Joyce Theater’s Programming Associate, to find out about what she calls “an especially exciting season.” The season is packed full of international companies new to the Joyce, world premieres, 40^th anniversaries, old favorites, and of course, incredible dancing. Jerome Bel and Batsheva Dance Company have already kicked off the season, but Diffenderfer gives some highlights of what audiences can expect from the other companies during the rest of the fall/winter season.

Sankai Juku, “Japan’s most prominent success in dance” (The New York Times) will be at The Joyce from Oct. 5-17. This internationally renowned, all-male company typically performs in larger spaces, says Diffenderfer, but director Ushio Amagatsu’s recent work, Tobari-As if in an Inexhaustible Flux, is appropriate for a smaller space, which makes it a perfect fit for The Joyce. This will give audiences the chance to witness the Japanese art of Butoh in a more intimate setting. Next in the lineup, from Oct. 19-24, is les Ballets C de la B, a company from Belgium that will be performing Out of Context-For Pina, an homage to the late Pina Bausch. Diffenderfer expects the performance to be exemplary of European dance theater, and says, “It’ll be wild and beautiful.”

les Ballets C de la B, photo by Chris Van der Burght

Fans of contemporary ballet will happy to know that both Complexions Contemporary Ballet (Nov. 16-28) and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (Oct. 26-Nov. 7) are performing at The Joyce this season. Cedar Lake will have two different programs that include New York premieres by Alexander Ekman, Jacopo Godoani, and Hofesh Shechter. Also, both Garth Fagan Dance (Nov. 9-14) and Ballet Hispanico (Nov. 30-Dec. 12) are celebrating their 40^th anniversary years with performances at The Joyce.

From Dec. 14- Jan. 2, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo will perform at The Joyce, and as Diffenderfer says, “What’s not to love about men in pointe shoes?” The Trocks carefully re-stage classical ballets and revive them with humor, parody, and most interestingly for an all-male company, brilliant pointe work. Diffenderfer expects this performance to be a crowd pleaser.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, photo by Sascha Vaughn

Audiences will see another all-male cast with Compagnie Philippe Saire (Jan 6-9) at their debut performance with The Joyce. “This is the company that I am most excited to see,” said Diffenderfer, as she explained that they will be performing on a stage covered in gravel for their work Lonesome Cowboy. She said that this piece will be extremely physical and will explore the nature of male relationships and identity.

As the season nears its end, Tango Inferno (Jan 11-23) returns to The Joyce with, according to Diffenderfer, a “hot” and “fun to watch” performance that includes live music. She says that amidst all of the modern dance in the season, this “sizzling and sweaty” performance will give audiences something a little different to see. Parsons Dance will close the season Jan. 25-Feb. 6 with two world premieres, including one by Monica Bill Barnes, and a presentation of David Parson’s masterwork, Caught.

For tickets to see any these exciting performances at The Joyce Theater, go to http://www.joyce.org/performancestickets/calendar_joyce.php, and select “purchase tickets.”