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Archive for dance event

Fall For Dance at City Center

KATE MEHAN
SYREN Modern Dance
New York, NY USA
BIO | POSTS

This is one of the posters starting appear around the city (this one at 5th Ave N/R/W train stop). This is a great event at City Center (all tickets $10!!!) The shows are in Sept. Everything from Shen Wei, ABT, Cunningham, to Oregon Ballet Theater and much much more. A great mix, the right price, and a SUPERB venue. One of these days, we hope SYREN will get on the bill! In the meantime, we are enthusiastic supporters.

Check it out!

http://www.citycenter.org/tickets/productionNew.aspx?performanceNumber=3775

www.syrendance.org

Recent Posts by kate mehan

First Days in Monte-Carlo

NOELANI PANTASTICO
Pacific Northwest Ballet
Seattle, WA USA
BIO | POSTS

Hello Wingers! I’ve had such amazing adventures over the past month, and more recently, I made my way to Monte-Carlo! I won’t write much now because it is late here, but here are some pictures from my first days in the South of France!

This is the view from the plane :)

The Casino, where we will perform on the terrace later this month - Beautiful!!

And last, but definitely not the least, and ad for Les Ballets de Monte-Carlo. This one happened to be in a garage full of skooters (which I loved), but they can be seen all over the city.

More soon! xo

Recent Posts by noelani pantastico

Recent Inspirations

DAVID HALLBERG
American Ballet Theatre
New York City Ballet
BIO | POSTS

After reading Kristin’s questions about performances and the aspect of relevance in dance to today’s Apple audience, I thought I would take a moment to tell you all what has been inspiring me lately…

And hope this sheds some light on curious readers to get out and see some performances.

Jerome Bel

Bel’s “Show Must Go On”

This choreographer is coming to Dance Theatre Workshop on Nov 7-11.

I caught his “Show Must Go On” two years ago here in NYC and LOVED it. He does such a great job of showing the audience a real part of performance, not just lights and tutu’s.

Japan Society’s Butoh Festival

October 9-27

Butoh is another form of dance that transcends classical ballet and brings you into another form of understanding of movement. It takes some patience but rewards the viewer with a new understanding of movement.

Ohad Naharin

Brooklyn Academy of Music November 13-17

This choreographer from Israel, whom I’ve written about before, is action packed and always takes such advantage of the aspect of theater. Never shy of the physical side of dance, I have always left the theater from his shows completely inspired and in pain from what I saw!

What have you seen that you loved lately?
Shows, Movies, Etc.?

Recent Posts by david hallberg

New York International Fringe Fesitval

benny_40 USA_flag Posted by Taylor Gordon

For the past week I have been assigned to review dance performances at the 11th Annual New York International Fringe Festival for this off-Broadway website called OffOffOnline.com. Not only do I get to attend any number of free shows at my will but I get to voice my opinion and get paid for it! This week has given me a glimpse into the arts critic’s life I aspire to have (I even received my first official “press pass”!) See my published reviews here and here.

(my 1st press pass with the many brochures I received with it)

Being a ballet fanatic, the only performances I’ve been to since coming to the city have been strictly ballet. Of course I’ve been to Broadway shows and even a couple of modern performances, but after seeing the avante-garde kind of performances at the Fringe Festival it is clear how limited my, and perhaps that of much of the ballet world, exposure to the broad realm of dance theater really is.

The shows I’ve seen have been extremely out of the ordinary. One major difference between these and traditional dance performances is the use of multi-media and technology. Of the 3 productions I reviewed, all of them made extensive use of video and 2 used computer generated images. I think this epitomizes what’s coming in dance in the 21st century.

Sometimes, unfortunately, the special effects and loud visuals distract from the actual dancing. No matter how talented they are the dancers can get lost in the flashiness, especially if they are positioned against or beside a film screen in a way that forces the audience to decide to watch only one or the other.

In a world where audiences for dance, especially ballet and modern, are already dwindling it makes sense to attract newer, younger crowds to performances with different media. But since our society is constantly drowning in media it seems a shame to overshadow something as precious as dance.

These kinds of audiences are exactly what the Fringe Festival invites, with $15 tickets and downtown location and atmosphere. The venues (including 19 off- and off-off-Broadway theaters) are small, and the number of attendees even smaller. It was interesting, though, to get a glimpse of the community that appreciates these kinds of performances.

After each of the shows I attended I was surprised to hear fellow viewers discussing the work in depth, as if they were close friends rather than complete strangers as they actually were. People were far more open to opinion than conversations I’ve overheard at other ballet performances. I suppose these pieces leave more to the imagination.

All in all my experiences with the Fringe Festival have been really amusing. I’ve really enjoyed my new exposure to various companies and types of dance (Japanese hiphop, anyone?) and what’s even better is that I’ve been given the opportunity to challenge myself and write about them in a critical format. Just another day in the life of an aspiring dance writer!

(FringeCENTRAL - headquarters of the Fringe Festival downtown)

If you’re located here in the city I strongly encourage you to attend one of these shows - any show! - as part of the NY Fringe Festival! You really haven’t seen anything ‘til you’ve been to the Fringe. It runs through August 26 at various theaters, with its home base at FringeCENTRAL, located in the Village on Carmine Street at Varick. See Fringe website for show times and descriptions. Also see NY Times coverage here.

Recent Posts by taylor gordon

The Decadence of Dance

hall-<br />
berg_thumb USA_flag Posted by David Hallberg

Last night I finally attended Cedar Lake’s DecaDance. I am such a fan of Ohad Naharin. I have loved everything I have seen of his.

He has such an inventive way of theatricality and feeding the audience a certain spontaneity. You never know what will come next… absolute silence or deafening techno.

The dancers in the company showed such maturity in the piece and it showed that they spent a good amount of time on the work.

Bravo Cedar Lake!

Recent Posts by david hallberg

Communal celebration

susan40.jpg | USA_flag | Susan Kim

On Thursday night, I attended the inaugural Choreography Media Honors at the Director’s Guild of America. The entire extravaganza was presented in association with the Dance Camera West Film Festival. Hopefully, the night’s event will mark the first of many more to come.

It’s purpose: To honor the craft of choreography in and on the film media. As eloquently stated in the evening’s program of events, “Tonight we come together to celebrate the legacy of dance in media over the past two years–dance in all its various forms of expression. We have dance created to sell products, dance to tell stories, dance to make us laugh, dance to make us cry, dance created for no reason beyond that of pure self expression and artistry, exploring its relationship to film and video.”

So, continuing the work of the American Choreography Awards, the event honoured two year’s worth of choreography featured in commercials, television episodes, television variety shoes, music videos, short films, documentaries and feature films. About two hundred stand-out works created from 2004 to 2006 were nominated for recognition. Over the course of the evening, sixty-six of those nominees were revealed as the cream of the crop. Among them were some very familiar names: Fatima Robinson (”Dreamgirls“), Michael Rooney (”Jackass Number 2 Unrated,” “Think,” a Halifax commercial, “Saving Celebration,” a Target commercial, and “Flawless,” a George Michael music video), Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards, “Transformer,” a Citroen C4 commercial, and “My Love,” a Justin Timberlake music video), Kenny Ortega (”High School Musical“), Mia Michaels (”Calling You,” from So You Think You Can Dance), Tyce Diorio (”Cell Block Tango,” from So You Think You Can Dance), Shane Sparks (”Tranjie,” from So You Think You Can Dance, and “Push It To The Limit,” a Corbin Bleu music video), Wade Robson (”Ramalama,” from So You Think You Can Dance), John DeLuca (”Tony Bennett: An American Classic“), Rob Marshall (”Tony Bennett: An American Classic“), Travis Payne (”Product People,” a Target commercial, and “Commercial Break,” from Suite Life of Zack & Cody), Robin Antin (”Buttons,” a Pussycat Dolls music video) and Michael Minden (”Buttons“). A full list of all honorees is available below.

My favourite clip of the evening was a Nike commercial, choreographed by Luther Brown and Teresa Espinosa.

I couldn’t help but notice that almost every genre of dance but mine own dominated the ninety minute film presentation. Of those ninety minutes, perhaps thirty or forty-five seconds featured ballet, when “Ballet Russe” received an honorable mention under the documentary category. Even now, many days after the function, the thoughts inside my head are unsettled and my mind has yet to be made up as to how I feel about this. In the meantime, I’d love to hear–er, read–what anyone else might think…

For me, the best part of the entire evening had to do with the format of its presentation. The night’s honorees were not asked to approach the stage one at a time, but were asked to stand and be recognized at the beginning and end of the viewing. Adam Shankman, one of the evening’s speakers, said it best: “This is a true celebration. None of us are here to compete with anyone else to win a specific award. We’re all here to simply honor–and, celebrate–the work of all the honorees here today. (Isn’t this so much better than sitting at home in front of the television, patting ourselves on the back while watching our best works on repeat? It’s so much more fun to do it together in this theatre and cheer for each other, instead.)”

Of course, the night was even more noteworthy because I was sitting in the company of celebrities, some of whom have very recognizable names in the Hollywood community. After the special film presentation, the “real” celebration began and I met and schmoozed with Paula Abdul, Carrie Ann Inaba and Dan Karaty, along with the evening’s honorees.

Good thing I don’t get star struck!

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Recent Posts by susan kim

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