Take a look at some behind-the-scenes footage of the creation of Skyscrapers, the brilliant piece making its New York premiere at The Joyce tonight. A live performance inspired by a sensational OK Go video, Skyscrapers is a co-collaboration between Pilobolus associate artistic director Renee Jaworski and filmmaker Trish Sie.
Purchase tickets to see Skyscrapers performed live!
Take a look at this beautiful portrait of renowned ballerina Suzanne Farrell. Her company makes its Joyce debut with an all-Balanchine program next week.
Purchase tickets here.
Dances For A Variable Population/Naomi Goldberg-Haas creates work with dancers ranging in age from 22-92. For our performances at Joyce SoHo, Oct 13-15, 2011, we are rethinking some of our dances created for outdoor spaces. We are also re-staging choreography created with dancers in residencies outside of NYC. This “Mambo” from our popular show “Street. Straight. Mambo. Disco.” was created during a residency at The Yard in Chilmark, MA and then performed in the outdoor Downtown Dance Festival at Chase Plaza. The work was created in collaboration with Sandy Broyard, who had a nightclub act in Paris in the 1960’s and Kathy Joyce Costanza, a founder of Vineyard Dance, the oldest established dance company in Martha’s Vineyard. Here’s a clip of how we are working.
Mambo for OUT TO IN - Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population
Video by Don Mount
Dancers: Sandy Broyard and Kathy Joyce Costanza; Jamie Graham and Ani Javian
OUT TO IN, rehearsal for Joyce SoHo, Oct 13-15, 2011
Naomi Goldberg Haas/Dances For A Variable Population
In other news, we are excited about our new pieces set to a collage of ideas from Jad Abumrad’s Radiolab NYC*. Guest performers to DVP company include Chad Lindsey, who recently played Sascha in Pig Iron Theatre’s Obie award-winning Chekhov Lizardbrain, and Dina Paisner, who worked Judith Malina and Julian Beck’s Living Theater in its founding years.
Purchase tickets now for Dances for a Variable Population at Joyce SoHo Oct 13-15 7:30pm.
*Radiolab is a production of WNYC Radio. You can hear more Radiolab programs and download the podcast at radiolab.org
The surprise guest performers for the Joyce SoHo Benefit Auction has been announced! The all-female, hip-hop dance crew Decadancetheatre will be performing on Monday, November 15, at Joyce SoHo, so if you missed their sold-out performance in July 2010, here is your chance to see them.
Based in Brooklyn, this ground-breaking group presents authentic, New York City hip-hop around the globe, and they strive to place women at the forefront of hip hop as theatrical performance. Since their inception in 2004, they have received critical acclaim from The New York Times and The Village Voice, and they received the 2004 Best Choreography Award at the New York International Fringe Festival.
Here is a preview clip of this “…fierce coalition of b-girls.” (The New Yorker)
This special performance by Decancetheatre takes place amidst a live and silent auction event at Joyce Soho, where you can enjoy an evening of cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, raffles, and more. Decadancetheatre has collaborated with multimedia artist Holly Daggers and incorporated 3-D technology into their work, so audience members will have the opportunity to wear 3-D glasses to witness this exciting performance.
To see the performance and attend the event, find out how to purchase tickets by clicking here.
The Joyce Theater is teeming with activity right now with an exciting fall/winter season full of stellar performances, exhilarating presentations and artist programs at Joyce SoHo, educational events, master classes, and bustle at DANY Studios. And, in the midst of all this activity, another important and exciting event is taking place; we’re delighted to invite you to join us in celebrating and supporting Joyce SoHo and DANY Studios – two vital resources for dance at the Joyce SoHo Benefit Auction! This is a silent and live auction event that we hold each year at 155 Mercer Street, where guests enjoy cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, raffle prizes, and a phenomenal dance performance.
This year, we are previewing a few of the items that are up for bid with an ONLINE AUCTION. Peruse the growing list of extraordinary offerings and place bids on anything that interest you. You can also purchase tickets to the live event on Monday, November 15, donate an item to the auction (we’re always looking for new ideas!), submit absentee bids that can be carried over to the live event, or just get a head start on those holiday shopping lists!
In addition to all of this, you will have the chance to walk away with a prize without placing a single bid! (Although, we do hope you’ll find something that piques your interest to bid on). All you have to do is click the “Refer A Friend” button on the auction homepage to spread the word about this important fundraising event to all your friends. The person listed as the Top Referrer when the online portion of the auction closes on will be awarded FIVE free raffle tickets. He or she will then be entered in our grand drawing with the chance to win jewelry, theater tickets, a luxury vacation, or one of the other great prizes!
Visit the website at www.biddingforgood.com/joycetheater to check out some of the wonder items up for grabs, or to get more information about the live event on November 15th.
The Joyce SoHo Benefit Auction
Monday, November 15, 2010 at 6:30pm
Joyce SoHo, 155 Mercer Street, New York, NY 10012
Proceeds from the Benefit Auction will support programs and services at Joyce SoHo and DANY Studios.
Joyce SoHo was created in 1996 when The Joyce Theater Foundation acquired 155 Mercer Street. Thanks to generous funders, The Joyce renovated and expanded the facility to ensure dance artists a well-maintained and affordable space to develop and perform their work. Now a thriving center for dance open year-round, Joyce SoHo nurtures hundreds of dance artists and draws diverse audiences to downtown New York. The newly-opened Dance Art New York (DANY) Studios, located at 305 West 38th Street, has joined Joyce SoHo in serving the needs of independent choreographers, not-for-profit dance companies and the dance/theater communities by providing nine affordable studios appropriate for rehearsals, auditions, classes, workshops and more.
For more information about the auction, please contact Maureen Cavanaugh Neufeld at mcavanaugh@joyce.org, or 646-467-8556.
We look forward to seeing you at the Joyce Soho Benefit Auction!
A jury of 29 European critics brought together by Tanz, Germany’s leading dance magazine, proclaimed les Ballets C de la B’s Out of Context – for Pina production of the year 2010.
In Out of Context - for Pina, director Alain Platel uses a movement vocabulary that emerges from the unconscious, the uncontrolled: spasms, teeth chattering, grimacing, balance impairment and the whole repertoire of silly walks. Working with the eight virtuoso dancers who have been with him for quite some time now, Patel attempts to expose the tension between the wide range of unrestrained movements and the traditional choreographic elements, between unconscious and subconscious.
Platel says, “Presumably, the dance has always had this function: to be a physical translation of exaggerated emotions. In some cases, such as trance dance, the connection to the body in a state of hysteria is very direct. In this context, it is interesting to note that the root of the word choreography is derived from a medical term that refers to a disorder of the nervous system. Your symptoms are sudden, rapid, uncontrolled body movements and hysteria. We find that this behavior, as well as other forms of strange, extreme or provocative behavior, is an essential part of humanity ”
Photo: Chris Van der Burght
Tanz praised Out of Context for its use of humor and playfulness on stage. The jury also recognized the work’s call to make dance a popular art form, in the name of Pina Bausch, to whom the performance is dedicated.
This is the second time that the German magazine has awarded the work of Alain Platel. In 2007, les ballets C de la B, the company he founded in 1984, was proclaimed company of the year, together with Rosas, another Belgian dance company.
In the other categories, Tanz selected Martin Schläpfer as choreographer of the year, Canadian ballerina Carol Prieur as female dancer of the year, Friedemann Vogel as male dancer of the year and Ivorian Gintersdorfer/Klassen as company of the year.
We headed over to the Gallim Dance blog to find this post about Andrea Miller’s new work:
Wonderland, premiering at The Joyce Theater this August, is an investigation of pack mentality and the danger of “falling into the seduction of the pack.” Miller aims to create a contagious environment in which people are tempted to follow the leader and chaos without considering their own actions. A key question for Miller throughout the creative process has been, What separates us from animals? Is it our ability to incorporate logic into our choice-making? And what makes us animals? Watch the below video to see excerpts from Wonderland in rehearsal and hear more from Andrea about the creation of the work.
Read what dancer Elyse Morris has to say about the DANY Master Class Series:
“I really like this new contemporary master’s series. I was blessed to take workshops from both Camille Brown and Andrea Miller – two artists I greatly admire! Camille challenged us to be clearly intentional with the energy and rhythm of our movement as if we were performing in front of a deaf audience. Andrea gave us a gaga-inspired warm up, which challenged the way in which I initiated movement. She spoke of the body, not only having one plumb line, but actually utilizing several lines of energy to support the body. Learning diverse approaches to movement expand the language of the mover, inspires creativity in future visionaries, and also further aids in the promotion of this art form we call dance.”
The series continues with classes led by choreographer Robert Battle and dancer Desmond Richardson.Last week, I caught up via cell phone with a very busy Robert Battle, who is preparing this week’s class. Battle will become the Artistic Director Designate of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater on July 1, 2010. The Joyce and Robert Battle have had a longtime friendship. Battle was a veteran dancer of Parsons Dance, appearing numerous times on the Joyce stage. He was also introduced as a choreographer to New York audiences at The Joyce when he created well over six works for the Parsons company. His company, Battleworks, has also appeared at The Joyce.
Robert Battle received his training at Juilliard, and he is fluent in the classical modern dance idioms of Graham, Limón and Taylor. His choreography is inspired by that classical tradition, upon which he aspires to build. Battle’s dance class begins with a warm-up based upon classical modern dance principles and culminates with phrases from his theatrical, inventive and physically strenuous choreography. The Friday, June 1st class he conducts at DANY Studios may be among the last opportunities to study with him in an intimate laboratory setting.
Desmond Richardson’s class follows on Friday, June 18.
A look inside the Stephen Petronio Master Class, and a look ahead to a class taught by Camille A. Brown:
By his own admission, Stephen Petronio likes to talk. During the his recent class, part of the ongoing DANY Studios Master Class Series, the choreographer informed, guided and supported the dancers through their exploration of Petronio Technique. Led by Petronio’s voice, participants initiated movement from the bones, and were directed to consciously navigate energy through the body and out into space. “The way you think will inform how you behave. Energy makes forms,” Petronio advised.
Petronio, whose company is in its 25th year, has made a point of studying the body’s anatomy, influenced by Irmgard Bartenieff and Susan Klein. This predilection was evident in the phrases that were taught during class. Amanda Wells led participants in material from I Drink the Air Before Me, and in dances like Middlesex Gorge and City of Twists, Petronio dancers slice, cut, drill into the ground and hurl themselves through space. The wild fury of his works belies the calm underpinnings that are at the center.
The series continues this Friday, May 28, 10am-12pm with a class conducted by choreographer Camille A. Brown. Ms. Brown is a tiny spit-fire of a dancer, who knows how to get a groove thing going. She uses her high energy to craft a movement vocabulary that mixes a “get down” vibe with contemporary dance sensibility. Ms. Brown’s unique style draws elements from several dance genres to create works that are filled with spirit, humor and pathos. Big, bold movements combine with gestures that express “urban cool,” as with her Groove to Nobody’s Business, or a sense of the spiritual, as with her solo Mary, a tribute to her grandmother. Camille, who is currently preparing for her shared season at The Joyce Theater with Andrea Miller, Kate Weare, and Monica Bill Barnes in August 2010, invites dancers to join her in a celebration of the spirit and dance during this upcoming master class.
To RSVP for Camille A. Brown’s Master Class, contact Maggie Lockhart at mlockhart@joyce.org.
Stefanie Nelson Dancegroup (gracing the stage at Joyce SoHo this weekend) has created Proximity Spiral, a dark and sexy evening length work based on the structure of a Fibonacci sequence. If the promise of a red marley floor isn’t enough to get you in the door (it looks amazing), perhaps this review of an excerpt from Proximity Spiral will do the trick.
