I’m a Jersey boy, loud and proud.  It wasn’t until I moved to London at 19 to study dance did i begin to question or understand my heritage.  I would tell people,”oh ya know, I’m 1/4 French, 1/4 Italian, a little German etc.. and my English friends would say, “Are you baking a cake? A little of this a little of that? What are you talking about? YOU’RE AMERICAN!”

So what is it to be American?  Martha Graham asked this question over 80 years ago, and never found an answer.  The Martha Graham Dance Company revisited this question with their newest work in collaboration with SITI Acting Company, American Document (2010) and through this mind blowing, brave new work came to many beautifully interesting and thought provoking conclusions that Martha herself would have been proud to see come to life.

The stage is bare except for a drum and a briefcase.  The curtain is raised long before the house lights go out, and, without warning, an actor walks on stage directly to the briefcase, takes out some paper work, dons a pair of glasses and begins to read to the audience as actors and dancers begin to harmoniously fill the stage with the all too familiar shapes and floor patterns specific to the Graham vocab.  You can barely tell which are the actors and which are the dancers.  The execution is totally flawless.

American Document (2010) unfolds through poetry of Walt Whitman, writings of Jack Keroac, letters from soldiers of the Iraqi War, being followed by gorgeous selections of choreography that intertwine each monologue or conversation, seamlessly flowing from one minute into the next until you reach the emotional end of a very probing ride.

American Document (2010) makes you surrender to the hidden thoughts we all have, surrender to answering questions maybe we’re too afraid to ask ourselves, surrender to accepting that, good or bad, Americans are a people of a rich diversity with blood on our hands and love in our hearts. We are a social contract and we are a melting pot of immigrants.  Illegal or not, we are all American.   Quite honestly, I am afraid to say anymore about some of the sections without giving too much away.  American Document (2010) is absolutely not to be missed.  It is a PHENOMENAL and important contemporary work.  It is sure to be a new masterpiece for the Graham repertory.

The next selection of the evening is Sketches from ‘Chronicle‘ which I discovered from the artistic director, Janet Eilber’s post intermission speech, is a piece that was created in a response to an invitation to perform in Germany during the turbulent pre WWII era when so many of her friends, people she knew and artists she respected, were being persecuted.  She declined the invitation…  Well this season at the Joyce, this work ferociously stands up to its meaning and its devastatingly reverent history.  I have never seen such power, such unity, and such strength as I see in these women. Jennifer DePalo is fiercely insane in her control and abandon; not to mention, her army of women are nothing short of Goddesses of dance in Steps in the Street and Prelude to Action.   Watching these ladies perform this piece, I can only imagine that it must be a real privilege to be apart of such beauty, power, and grace.  Their artistic interpretation and scientific precision is incomparable!  LOVE LOVE LOVE!!

What is it to be an American?   What is it to be a Graham dancer?  The answers can only be found by experiencing WHAT IT IS in which this outstanding company has to offer.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio
Performance:  Martha Graham Dance Company
Venue:  The Joyce Theatre
Show Date:  June 8, 2010
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Ok, I don’t how most of you may feel about contact improv, I know how I feel about it…. eew, don’t touch me, Hello?  Swine flu!!  But, I have to say, when guided by a charming, intelligent, and beautiful dancer such as Jill Johnson of the Forsythe Company, it is a completely different experience.

It is a nasty, cold, rainy, Saturday morning, and to be honest, I may still be feeling the effects of my Friday night, so I am not looking forward to three hours in a dance studio after spending the last 40 hours of my week rehearsing…. but I schlep my way down to Baryshnikov Studios anyway.  (I mean what is it with these dance studios being all the way over on 10th Avenue anyway?)   After getting myself warm and ready, she pops in some music by Ray Charles and begins with some basic body crossing exercises that she says stimulates both the right and left side of the brain.  We carry this idea of cross body/brain stimulation into circular exercises focusing on how to relate the hips to the shoulders, elbows to knees, and hands to feet.

We work on this through an individual group improv exploring new pathways for ourselves and extending this idea into folding our bodies, using this for getting down to and up from the floor.  Through all of these different exercises, she plays a variety of music ranging from Korean rap music to even Justin Timberlake.  Before I know it, I am partnered up with a very talented dancer and we are flying through the studio across the floor creating some beautiful and fun movement using everything we have worked on…. and BAM… It is 1:00pm and the workshop is over.

Hearing Forsythe one never really knows what to expect, but what you can expect is an excellent caliber of whatever it is you’ll be doing.  Although I am not a fan of contact improv, I am definitely excited and now inspired by Jill Johnson’s workshop, and I highly recommend checking her out when she’s in your neighborhood!  She is just what the Doctor ordered; after Jill’s class, I am feeling refreshed and magically cured of my ails from dancing all week (and partying all night).  Take 2 of these and call me in the morning!

Workshop Fee: $40
Student Discount: $29.99
(Use code STUD online www.smarttix.com or by phone 212-868-4444)
Group Discount (3 or more): $25 each (Group reservations can only be made by phone 212-868-4444)
This workshop series continues through June 2010.

FUTURE DATES
Dec 12, 2009, 1 PM – 4 PM
Jan 23, 2010, 3 PM – 6 PM
Feb 13, 1 PM – 4 PM
Mar 13, 1 PM – 4 PM
Apr 3, 1 PM – 4 PM
May 15, 1 PM – 4 PM
Jun 5, 1 PM – 4 PM

 
iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio
Workshop:  Forsythe Workshop with William Forsythe protégé Jill Johnson
Instructor:  Jill Johnson

Venue:  The Studios of Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC)
Review Date:  Saturday, November 14, 2009
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Gina Gibney choreographs a gorgeous, organically flowing, 55 minute piece set to a memorable piece of music by Ryan Lott and atmospherically influenced by a brilliant live projection designed by Joshue Ott/superDraw. The set design and costumes by Lex Liang and lighting design by Kathy Kaufmann are just the right final ingredients to make this work a totally fierce piece of dance that I would love to see again and again!

View Partially Obstructed begins with some incredible dancing, moving set pieces, solos and duets in front and behind the set pieces and screens littered throughout the space, creating a mysterious and powerful effect.   It is clear that the process of creating this work is as just as important if not more important than the product of what we as an audience sees.  

Between the quintet of three female and two male dancers is a very strong connection that helps define the space as much as the moveable set pieces.  The relationships and choreography convey a beautiful message about the delicate balance between what we see in one another and what we don’t, and how we handle those realities.   It is a spectrum of creative movement vocabulary, and even the original light show, that starts and finishes the program, has such a powerful impact that it leaves the audience breathless.

If all views were this partially obstructed, theatre and dance would be something everyone would want to see.  In every show there are a lot of people who do a lot of work to put it together, but in this case, every aspect of design seems even stronger than the next without any one of them overpowering the other.  Gina Gibney’s work, View Partially Obstructed, is perfectly combined to create a really great piece that I hope gets a nice long life because it deserves it.
 

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio
Performance:  Gina Gibney Dance, View Partially Obstructed
Choreographer:  Gina Gibney
Venue: Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York City
Show Date:  October 13, 2009
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To go to the depths of the lower east east of Manhattan, where it takes an hour to get home or $50 for a cab, you better put on a show that entertains, provokes thought, and inspires me, or else I’m gonna get real mad!   Thursday night, October 8 (the night after seeing the cerebral and intense Forsythe), I trekked my tired dancing feet down to the Abrons Art Center for the opening night of The Chase Brock Experience. 

Very fortunately, I find the company to be extremely talented, littered with energetic performers, accessible choreography and sometimes fun and sometimes emotional music that the audience is able to connect with and certainly enjoy.  If there is a pop medium for modern dance, Chase Brock has found it.  His two hour concert consisting of four diverse works is like watching all the fun parts of So You Think You Can Dance, without all the annoying interviews and awful judging table comments.  The only thing missing is the adorable Cat Deely.

The show opens up with a Junk and Lies.  It is a technical festival of coupe j’etes, penchés, turns in second…  There may have even been some pointe work.  Brock wants to make sure that the audience knows his dancers choose to be there.  He wants us to know that his dancers are capable of anything, and they certainly accomplish this even if they are dressed in tuxedos and ball gowns, or shirtless and dancing in socks!  They are well trained and they are beautiful performers, and it is well exhibited in the opening piece.

Curious Episode is a short duet between two women that brings the music "Baroque and Blue" by Claude Bolling to life. While one instrument is going, the dancer physicalizes the sounds, and while the other instrument is going, the other dancer follows the lead.  If there is a canon in the music then the two girls, Ashley Eichbaur and Erica Furst, dance in canon; if the music descends the scale, they follow the music down and dance through some very creative floor work.  It is very funny, short sweet and Ashley and Erica are charming and endearing.

Slow Float is the third piece on the program:  nothing very memorable about this one, except for a curtain call for a trio in the middle of the piece, not that it isn’t warranted, it is just out of place and, unfortunately, the only thing that I took away from it.

Intermission

The closing piece, American Sadness, looks like the cast of Twilight meets The Breakfast Club.  This work is an interesting mix of pieces combined through theme, emotion, and music. American Sadness is choreographed to the album of Gabriel Kahane making for a series of vignettes playing out the story between a couple, their friends, and their relationship to one another over a period of time.  Although it seems fragmented going back and forward through time and is fun, serious, interesting, occasionally provincial, and expected, it does tells a good story and is beautifully danced.  My only issue with the particular work is that it is a little edgy -with lighting and stage pieces and a shower scene, but gets interrupted by these phrases of movement straight out of ballet class!  Uggh!  Brock sets up great moments, has original movement that is cool and keeps onlookers involved, then all of a sudden we are jarred out of the moment with tombe, pas de boure j’ete, or out of nowhere a girl on pointe boure-ing out on stage and giving you epaulment en arabesque… and I’m like WTF?  Really?  Why did you just do that?  But then, thankfully, we’re sucked right back in with some interesting chase sequence or something.

I think Chase Brock has a great vision, some creative ideas, gorgeous dancers, and I truly look forward to seeing his work as he matures.  I hope he can continue to explore his voice and fight against the urge to slip into the conventional steps that we already all know and do, that frankly in this millennium should just stay in class and off the stage.  Why?  Because… Chase Brock has the potential to do some seriously good work!

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I leave the theater in deep thought.  Decreation deconstructs a moment from that conversation with someone that decides the course of the future for that particular relationship.  It fragments the words exchanged, sheds a different light on those moments that often define what it is that makes up that relationship… Still following me??  Imagine it on stage with no one to explain it to you…. 

The sometimes abstract and sometimes literal and deliberate dramaturgy is written by Rebecca Groves.  She weaves these emotions of jealousy and rage and acceptance perfectly. There is no question that people will disappoint you, and mistakes can be forgiven but not forgotten.  The script and performance of it taps into that part of your brain that replays a conversation over and over again, until you have driven yourself crazy with what it even means to begin with.

I have to stop here and apologize for my cerebral review.  It is hard to review the physicalization of these ideas because I’m not sure what I saw.  It is completely different from anything else I have ever seen.  I don’t even know if I liked it or not.  It is riveting yet somewhat detached but still very emotional.  To get an idea as to what it looked like, strip away the image of technical dancing, no arabesques or pointed feet, and now take Bat Sheva, lock them in an asylum for a couple of years with no light, then suddenly flip the switch and throw them on stage and see what happens.  When I try to do what I remember them doing I feel like I’m covered in bed bugs and cobwebs…. ya now know what I’m talking about.  How do you describe 20 some odd dancers twitching on stage to no music and offensively loud screeching microphones?%$@*!

Having said all that, the piece is an interesting work:  it raises a lot of questions about how it is when you relive those intense relationship changing moments, it blurs the lines between dance and theater, and anything that is edgy and intelligent is not always easy to watch.  Forsythe will be at BAM Oct 7-10.

iDANZ Critix Corner
Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio
Performance:  Decreation
Choreographer:  William Forsythe
Venue: BAM, Brooklyn, NY
Show Date:  Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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I will start with my least favorite.  Whisper Within by TAKE Dance choreographed by Takehiro Ueyama, Four Screaming Women from Jane Comfort and Company, and Exposition #2 from Mute choreographed by Luka Kito and Megan Boyd.  These 3 works stand out because they are what everyone hates about modern dance.  Pointless, under rehearsed, boring, and quintessential "downtownyness" with unfinished lines, typical, unoriginal, tired, old choreography.  If you have something to say and can’t find an original way to say it, then don’t create work. Modern Dance will never move to the forefront in the art world if we as a dance community don’t say "this is not good," "no one but your friends want to see this," and "stop masturbating on us."  There, I said it.  I don’t want work I saw in college, and I don’t want 4 people talking to me and making gestures and not even able to get the script or the gestures right.  If Cirque De Soleil can do the things they can do, I would like to hope that four people standing on stage saying the same 10 words over and over can actually get it right!

Let’s move on to some better stuff…  Homage to Mahler, by Hanya Holm performed by Betsy Fisher, Sacred Things (excerpt) by Wallie Wolfgruber & Co., an excerpt from View Partially Obstructed from Gina Gibney Dance, Riptide from Banana Peel Dance, a collaborative work between Aaron Draper and his dancers Kimberly Almquist and Nicole Mitchell and Becoming by Li Chaio-Ping.  These 5 pieces are more original than the previously mentioned works; they are better performed, more interesting, have a better use of space, and have an idea that keep me involved.  Sacred Things begins looking under-rehearsed and is looking a little too difficult for the dancers until Ryoko Kudo enters the stage and the piece really begins to take shape.  Her presence is startling, she is fearlessly being thrown and carried and has me on the edge of my seat waiting to see where she will go next.  She saves the first act for me. 

Li Chaio-Ping has some exceptional moments and is very exciting to watch her as she calmly dives into some exciting choreography.  Gibney’s excerpt is beautifully danced.  Her performers are exquisite and seamless, although I didn’t understand the sections that were put together, I totally enjoy watching them, they are completely intoxicating.  These works will keep me from wanting to leave and hang myself from some ballet barre down the street at ABT.

Last but not least, my totes favs of the evening…  Pray/Prey from the Stefanie Nelson Dance Group and Wooden Heart from the Julian Barnett Project.  Both of these pieces take chances and go to places and explore ideas in ways I haven’t really seen before.  Pray/Prey is a trio that explores the control men have over women and vice versa.  With the male literally miming the playing of music as the two girls dance and fall over each other to get to him, they find themselves fighting him, but can’t resist the attraction; it is at times humorous and at times creepy.  I love this piece and will be sure to catch their next performance.  I am totes intrigued!

The piece that closes the evening and for good reason is Barnett’s, Wooden Heart, with music by Portishead,  …so right there they already get 10 cool points because they use music, good music not random sounds from answering machines or whatever some of the the other groups use; it is actually music, with a pulse and a beat and a melody…. I am starving for it.   Anyway, it is a really cool duet where there is a microphone and  performers singing, dancing up against the wall, unison dancing that is creative and organic, AND an interval where Julian’s partner Jocelyn Tobias crawls across stage on her back for minutes…. I am gagging!  I love, love, love it!  It reveals the secrets that lie behind the motivation between the attraction of women and men.  A witty and cunning piece of dance!  Yay!

Friday Night’s Performance of DTW’s DanceNOW was exactly what I remember of my Halloween trick or treat pillowcase of candy from when I was little, some amazing pieces of delicious chocolate, and then some awful packages of old Tootsie Rolls, broken Sweet-Tarts, and rusty pennies.  I am thankful for the fun works I saw and terribly disappointed by what is allowed to be shown and accepted as "dance NOW". 

iDANZ Critix Corner Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio Performance:  2009 DanceNOW (NYC) Festival Venue:  Dance Theater Workshop (DTW), NYC Performance Date:  Friday, September 11, 2009 www.iDANZ.com

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 Sir MacMillian, Duato, and Young Soon Hue….
Oh My!

Tulsa Ballet is tearing through New York City right now, and I have had the pleasure of seeing their brilliance Tuesday Night at the Joyce Theatre.   Although they have not been seen in NYC in over 20 years,  I wish to say this . .  Tulsa Ballet better not make us wait another 20 before coming back to town because it has spectacular performers that need to be seen with the chops to perform very difficult work with veracity, technical perfection, beautiful precision, and personality! 

The evening starts with Sir Kenneth Macmillian’s, Elite Syncopations.  Though I found that most of the choreography itself to be a little lack luster, the company members of Tulsa sold it.  With such over the top performances which matched their eye popping costumes, I am immediately seduced by the quirky and fun piece simply because the company holds nothing back, and share all they have right up front.  Group sections are danced in synch without missing a step; duets and solos are performed with honesty and connection to each other and with the audience.  They are a breath of fresh air and I couldn’t wait for more.

Nacho Duato, one of my favorite choreographers, has his piece up next.  Originally set on Compania Nacional Danza in 1996, Por Vos Muero seems as though it is created for this company.  Each dancer of the Tulsa Ballet embodies the aesthetic of Duato’s intricate work perfectly … especially the unstoppable and gorgeously ferocious, Serena Chu. 

The opening, dancers slowly running in place in flesh tone tights, accompanied by old Spanish music and text, immediately sets an entirely different tone of the previous work.  Before you know it, you have women, with hand-held masks running dressed in 18th century looking dresses, flowing beautifully throughout with gorgeous dancing and choreography, then in come the men in velvet capes, with old church incense burners hanging from chains encircling, hiding, and revealing a soloist.  The piece completely takes my breath away.  It is a whirlwind of ferocious dancing, and phenomenally performed neo-classical work!  I am left totally breathless by the piece and Tulsa’s deep understanding and performance of it.

Finishing off the program is This Is Your Life, choreographed by Young Soon Hue on Tulsa in 2008. An interesting take on the 1950’s game show, the piece begins with the characters sitting in chairs across the stage and an MC talking to and interpreting for the "contestants" on the "show."   After hearing a brief synopsis about each of their stories, you get a performance from each of them, solos, duets, group sections.  It is another display of the company’s virtuosic dancers excelling at contemporary classical work.  For This is Your Life, it goes beyond just dancers doing the steps well; these artists have quality and fire.  Each dancer brings themselves to the marley and leave nothing unexposed.  I feel that I know each one of them so well by the end of this piece; I am a little sad for it to be over.

I have never left a ballet performance feeling so enraptured and inspired by not only the showmanship, but also the life the dancers bring to the work.  These divas are NO JOKE!!  Watch out because Oklahoma has a little secret and, thanks to the performance I just saw at The Joyce, the cat is out of the bag.  Tulsa you can hide no longer, and NYC hopes to see a lot more of you.

iDANZ Critix Corner 
Official Dance Review by Dante Puleio
Performance: Tulsa Ballet Company
Venue:  The Joyce Theater, New York City
Date:  August 11, 2009
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