Dance/Performance

Watercolors: Caroline Palmer reviews ARENA's new dance

Filed under: Dance/Performance

ARENA: waterBRIDGE
Southern Theater, May 8-10
Review by Caroline Palmer

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Austrian symbolist and Art Nouveau painter Gustav Klimt caused a stir in Viennese society with his sensual, color-saturated paintings. Among his subjects were water sprites, supernatural creatures inhabiting an alternative yet strangely beautiful realm most notably free of human inhibition. Choreographer Mathew Janczewski draws upon Klimt’s fantastic imagery as inspiration for waterBRIDGE but he also offers up a more complex physical and emotional journey that should ring familiar with mere mortals. Janczewski has remounted this 2002 work for his ARENA Dances troupe and it will be performed this weekend at the Southern Theater.

The work begins with water, naturally – droplets captured close-up on film and projected onto a white background. The dancers, bathed in Jeff Bartlett’s morning-golden light, slowly engage the space, scouting their territory, hugging the walls, flexing their limbs and melting into one another’s bodies. Janczewski is well known for his inventive partnering and the evidence of his skill comes early during a recent dress rehearsal. The dancers seamlessly wind and unwind around each other’s bodies. They toss and flip one another, at times teasing the edges of a small pool on the far side of the stage with lifts that send partners back safely into waiting arms or tumbling in a controlled manner to the floor.

Hey, wait: that's not Gustav Klimt!

Key to the work is its changing moods and subtle, even slightly ominous references to a coming change. Scott Killian’s original score is rich and layered, alternating between melancholy and euphoria, hard-driving energy and minimalist sound. Midway through the work both the music and the dance seem to reference, just slightly, The Rite of Spring, the 1913 Sergei Diaghilev ballet set to a composition by Igor Stravinsky. These seminal works signaled a seismic shift toward modernism and away from classicism in the arts and idealized pastoral life; Janczewski and Killian capture a similar sense of progress and change, albeit one that is also tinged with a longing for what’s compromised and left behind.

ARENA’s dancers – Gabriel Anderson, John Beasant III, Heather Klopchin, Stephanie Laager and Stephen Schroeder – are fearless movers who consistently find ways to inject warmth, dynamic flow, and dramatic tension into the challenging choreography. Klopchin is the featured performer and she transitions through several states – an innocent, a siren, a lover, an earth mother – while maintaining a compelling sense of control and grace. Along with Klopchin, the troupe functions as a tight unit, alternately conveying playfulness, aggression, hunger, loneliness, optimism and calm. In the final moments they stand together at the pool and gingerly step into it. They sigh in relief as their well-worked feet enter the cool water. -- Caroline Palmer

$18. Thursday and Friday at 8:00 p.m.; Saturday at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.340.1725; www.southerntheater.org.

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 8, 2008 6:53 AM | Comments (2)

 

Vital Force: Caroline Palmer reviews the Southern's latest

Filed under: Dance/Performance

Sva (Vital Force)
May 1-4, 2008
Review by Caroline Palmer

Where does “vital force” come from? Is it the relentless pull of gravity, the dangerous whims of nature, or a stubborn interior motivation? In the case of “Sva (Vital Force),” a collaborative work by local Bharatanatyam troupe Ragamala Music and Dance Theatre and Japan’s Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA, opening tonight at the Southern Theater, it’s all about the energy created by percussive performance drawn from distinct sources. Ranee Ramaswamy and Aparna Ramaswamy, the mother and daughter artistic directors of Ragamala, are no strangers to cross-cultural match-ups but this latest experiment shows just how adept they are at finding commonality without compromising the true essence of either form.

During a dress rehearsal on Wednesday night the drummers warmed up the stage with fiery precision percussion. Harumi Tamaoki played with flair, shouting out encouragements and rolling her body with the beat while Matt Steitle twirled his sticks and coolly kept the tempo. Leader Art Lee moved so quickly that his arms became a blur. They moved upstage to make room for the dancers but their presence remained strong, especially when the signature big drum was struck. It would have been easy for the seven women of Ragamala to surrender to such a “vital force” but instead they created their own, calmly responding with their own intricate physical gestures and foot stamps, at times ably matching or even attacking the drummers’ rhythms, at others offering complex contrasts. It was a memorable exhibition of virtuosity and concentration on the part of all involved.

Bharatanatyam is one of the oldest dance traditions in India with a history spanning 2,000 years. Music and dance are central to the form but poetry, sculpture and literature also play influential roles. The first half of the Ragamala concert showcases these elements through classical works and in “Ardhanareeshwara Stotram,” Aparna Ramaswamy performs a creation story focused on the interplay between the divine feminine, Shakti, and the divine masculine, Shiva. Every part of her body is engaged, from her eyes to her fingertips, and as she seamlessly moves through pensive to aggressive states, she summons up the ancient duality. Ramaswamy’s interpretation is so confident that her performances always seem effortless but she has been studying the Pandanallur style since an early age and her skill is the result of years of training.

“Yathra” reveals another fine musical experience, this time from sitar player Shubhendra Rho and Indian cellist Saskia Rao de-Haas. Their dynamic live performance drives a group piece illustrating the human journey from birth to the twilight years. As the younger dancers leap through the space, Ranee Ramaswamy offers a subtle counterpoint, using her maturity to show a different side of Bharatanatyam. Her approach is less athletic and emphatic; the edges are smoothed out and her gestures flow with serenity and depth of experience. It is this sort of adaptability that drives the Ragamala spirit of invention and collaboration on display this weekend at the Southern.

$24. Thurs. and Fri. at 8:00 p.m. and Sun. at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Southern Theater, 1420 Washington Ave. S., Mpls.; 612.340.1725; www.southerntheater.org. There will be a gala performance on Sat. at 5:00 p.m. followed by a reception at the Weisman Museum. Tickets are $75. -- Caroline Palmer

Posted by Jeff Shaw at May 1, 2008 6:38 AM | Comments (0)

 

Fashionably dancing: Carl Atiya Swanson reviews the ARENA Bikini fundraiser

Filed under: Dance/Performance

ARENA Bikini fundraiser
March 29, 2008
Review by Carl Atiya Swanson

Dance is sexy. Bikinis are sexy. Put the two together and you have ARENA Bikini, a Macy's sponsored fundraiser for ARENA Dances, one of the Twin Cities' premier dance companies. This first-time event, held at the 414 Sound Bar in the warehouse district, was designed to promote ARENA’s upcoming show waterBRIDGE at the Southern Theatre, and to pay their dancers -- something that is always appreciated.

The dances were a wonderful display of physicality and elegance, demonstrating the skill that has made ARENA founder and artistic director Mathew Janczewski one of the most prominent choreographers in Minneapolis and a rising star in the national dance world. Choreography reminiscent of dance-line and Charles Atlas body building poses flitted together as the projectors overhead played clips of Rio de Janeiro and beach parties, with thumping club music tying the whole event together. The dancers interacted with the models, at one point dancing in the corners, acting like guys on the beach trying desperate pick-up lines. The well-heeled patrons cat-called and cheered, many of them wearing leis indicating that they had made additional contributions that night.

The ARENA bikini fashion show went swimmingly. More photographs by Daniel Corrigan.

Janczewski noted in his after-show thank-yous that it was very strange to go from works commissioned by the Walker Art Center (2007’s Ugly) to a swimwear show. However, fashion and art are not so strange bedfellows. Fashionistas have increasingly turned to dancers to enliven their runway shows. Conceptual designers Viktor & Rolf featured tap dancers as part of their 2000 haute-couture line and artist Vanessa Beecroft paired with Gucci in 1998 to display models in bikinis designed by Tom Ford for her 1998 installations.

In its 12th year, Janczewski wanted the company to expand from one show a year to two, requiring a lot more financial and administrative support. “Small arts organizations will only survive if they have a dedicated board to help drive the mission,” said Paul Kaminski, chair of ARENA’s board of directors. “Job number one for any board is to raise money. Job two is to create and nurture a mission and vision, along with staff of the company, to guide the organization into the future. We have done all of that with ARENA through a strategic planning process.” Furthering that mission meant finding new ways to draw in support and expand the audience for dance in a competitive market.

The collaboration with Macy’s came about almost by chance. ARENA had turned to Jeff Turner, a “brain for hire,” to help them find new ways to increase exposure. Turner had worked for a number of years with Marshall Fields/Dayton’s and still had connections with Laura Schara, Macy’s trend consultant and the brains behind the Glamorama charity event. “We approached Macy’s to see about getting some help and costuming from them and they turned around and one-upped us, offering to sponsor the event,” explained Janczewski in a telephone conversation. Still, he said, the collaboration between Macy’s and ARENA has been loose. “We’ll basically get together and see what happens.”

What happened was a mix of short athletic dances and a traditional runway show with models displaying 2008 swimwear lines. Using the walkway of Sound Bar’s main lounge as a catwalk, ARENA’s dancers performed three excerpts in between the models’ walks. Betsey Johnson’s lingerie-inspired, black lace trimmed line went first, followed by Jessica Simpson’s All-American basic print line.

Despite these high-profile turns, there was still some trepidation at the prospect of the event, and Janzcewski said that the worry of “selling out” had crossed his mind.

Still, Sarah Thompson, the ARENA board vice-chair and head of the benefits committee was extremely pleased with the way the event turned out and was already looking ahead to next year. “I would love to see more of the short dance excerpts. I think it is a great way to show off the work and get people involved with ARENA.”

ARENA has always been a collaborative dance company and is already planning future work with other artists. Their fall ’08 show will feature nationally lauded string quartet ETHEL performing live onstage with dances choreographed by Janczewski. “They are basically the rock stars of the classical world, and I was choreographing to their music and just thought, what the hell, lets see if we can’t get them here to play with us.” With that kind of drive to collaborate for new works and their support structure, expect to see new and exciting works from ARENA for a long time to come. -- Carl Atiya Swanson

waterBRIDGE opens at the Southern Theatre Thursday May 8. For more information, see www.arena-dances.org

Posted by Jeff Shaw at March 31, 2008 5:48 AM | Comments (0)

 

Good Dancing! Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker at the Walker

Filed under: Dance/Performance

Listening to the early music of minimalist composer Steve Reich is a bit like standing next to a mechanical device that hums and bangs in repetition and just happens to sound a little bit like beautiful music. Watching Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker dance to that music is a little bit like lifting the lid on that mechanical device and peering in at the spinning and pounding parts. If you ever wondered how a person sits through a Steve Reich composition--and you know who you are--Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker has the answer: watch her dance to it.

It’s not that she makes it any less raw. She’s an incredibly raw performer. Her eyes dart about and her brow furrows when the rest of her is still. She hisses and punches the air when the rest of her is unmitigated grace. It’s like Lionel Hampton groaning and grimacing his way through Flying Home or the torn and bent cover of a perfect book.

Photo: Tina Ruisinger

If, at the Walker last week, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker seemed to own this dance piece called FASE: Four Movements to the Music of Steve Reich its because she does--and she has for more than a quarter of a century. She was barely 22 when she choreographed Violin Phase, one of four parts that she would assemble into FASE at the end of a transformative year at New York’s Tisch School of the Arts. It was 1982. She took it home with her to Brussels. Jean-Marc Adolphe, editor of the French magazine Mouvement, writes of her return home with the seed of what would be her career-defining masterpiece: “A year, fifteen minutes; what was in Anne Teresa de Keermaeker’s luggage when she came back from New York? Undetectable at customs control, in her muscles was a quarter-of-an-hour solo, constructed on the music of Steve Reich.”

What Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and did at the Walker Art Center for three nights last week was exactly what she did on a Brussels stage almost 26 years ago, when she first performed FASE : she animated the rote patterns of early Steve Reich compositions with deceptively complex movement. And she had a partner--dancer Tale Dolven, who was just one year old when FASE premiered and earned Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker an international audience.

The two, looking every part the teacher and the pupil as they stood still and the music of Piano Phase started. The moment they began to move they were a mechanically perfect match--it looked and sounded like this:

The next piece, Come Out, had them stomping to their positions dressed in what can only be called a fascist contrast to the pale sanitarium gowns of Piano Phase. Reich composed Come Out for the Harlem Six in 1966. It was a commission by a civil rights activist consumed by the cause of the six black youths arrested during the Harlem Riots of 1964 and charged with murder. The piece Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker picked for FASE is a loop of excerpts from a taped interview with Daniel Hamm, one of the Harlem Six. “I had to, like, open the bruise and let some of the bruise blood come out to show them,” he says. “Come out and show them” is looped and eventually piles upon itself until his voice is virtual static. All the while, this is happening:

The contrast and mystery and repetition of it all is cold chaos. Then comes Violin Phase. It’s Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker dancing alone to the brisk bowing of a violin. She dances around and inside a circle. It is a childish dance--she slaps the floor and nearly skips. Then it is a playfully seductive dance--she dances away from the audience and repeatedly, maybe even spontaneously, flips up her gown to reveal her silken underwear underneath. Then she is the child again. She is so comfortable in this piece that she seems to be making it up--there is no suggestion at all that this is a creation jotted down in a notebook (it is).

Photo: Herman Sorgeloos

All night there is a man seated somewhere in the middle of the dark theater who grunts and coughs as he applauds longer than anybody else between the pieces. At one point, when the rest of the theater is silent, he growls: GOOD DANCING!

He has said it all.

Posted by Jeff Severns Guntzel at February 11, 2008 12:52 AM | Comments (0)

 

Air Guitar Championships: AC/DC, Airness, Awesome

Filed under: Dance/Performance

If the guitar isn't actually there, does the player make a sound? Minnesotans have the opportunity to find out Saturday night when the U.S. Guitar Championships come to the Varsity Theater. No rinky-dink operation, the tour have been to places like Washington DC and New York, and will continue on to Los Angeles and Houston, culminating in the prestigious World Air Guitar Championships in Oulu, Finland. City Pages took a moment to chat with Kriston Rucker, cofounder of the U.S. Championships.

City Pages: So, how does one go about judging and air guitar competition?

Kriston Rucker: We have three criteria. First, technical ability—and that doesn't mean it has to be note for note, but it has to look like you're producing the music. Next, would be stage presence. A lot of people can perform in their bedroom, but not many can do it in front of hundreds of people—you have to be able to engage the crowd. The last is "airness" which is a sort of je ne sais quoi factor—you know it when you see it. It's the extent to which the performance transcends the imitation of an art form, and becomes an art form in and of itself.

CP: Are there any tunes that are really hard to pull off? Any that are reliably crowd-pleasers?

KR: I'd say the most hackneyed or cliché would be "Eruption" by Van Halen. A lot of songs repeat, but it really depends on what you do with the song. My favorite Motörhead's "Ace of Spades." There are also a number of AC/DC songs that are pretty solid. You have to pick songs you really like—if you're not a fan people can tell.

CP: Do you find a lot of competitors play guitar as well?

KR: Many do, but the best ones generally don't. I think it's because with real guitarists it limits what you might think to do—too much mimicry and not enough creativity.

CP: How do you feel about popular video games like Guitar Hero? Do you feel that it could bring in a new level of competitor?

KR: I think they're pretty different. Air guitar is a performance art, and Guitar Hero is just a video game. I do love the game though—I think they both tap into a similar appreciation for guitar rock.

CP: Who do you feel are going to be your big competitors at the World Championships in Finland?

KR: It varies from year to year—I'd probably say Japan, Australia, and New Zealand are big ones to beat.

Come see Minnesotans compete for the ultimate in 'airness' Saturday night at the Varsity. $12. 10:00 p.m. 1308 4th St. S.E., Minneapolis; 612.604.0222.

Posted by Jessica Armbruster at June 15, 2007 6:04 PM | Comments (0)

 

Scenes from a Marriage, by Linda Shapiro

Filed under: Dance/Performance

In the opening dance of Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater's Chair, Sandbag, Rose: Fairy Tales of Love and War, Pimsler and Suzanne Costello invite you into their Red Eye Theater living room--literally to sit on the stage with them--and draw you into the core of their hectic married lives. Well, not entirely their lives, as "His/Her" was sort of constructed by New York choreographer David Gordon, who, as he puts it in a program note, "suggested, and cajoled, and vetoed, and...argued for the choreographic usefulness of uneasy investigation." Mixing dialogue and moves from ballet, yoga, and mimetic- and modern-dance vocabularies, they negotiate, nitpick, send up, put down. Lines like "May, the month of May, the last month of school, the month your son was born" roll off of their tongues in barbed cadences, with an occasional, equivocal sign of affection. It's a portrait of a working marriage in real time with two people multitasking like mad while thoroughly distracted. And you can't take your eyes off of them because they transpose the mundane to the mesmerizing. --Linda Shapiro

Stuart Pimsler Dance and Theater
December 2-4
Red Eye Theater
15 W 14th St, Mpls.;
612.870.0309

Posted by Dylan Hicks at November 28, 2005 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

 

Kenyan hip hop and Afrofuturism, plus a rap battle

Filed under: Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music , Music

For a $25 entry fee, you can compete tonight in Freestyle Fridays at Digital City Music in North Minneapolis, where a grand prize of $1500 awaits the winner (if I have the rules straight). The rap battle is cheap to watch, in any case ($3), and I'll be there with a camera covering it for City Pages. 905 West Broadway, Minneapolis, MN 55411-2615, 612.588.2000. Registration is at 5:00 p.m., showtime 7:00 p.m. Click photo for more weekend hip hop as part of Saturday's local celebration of Kenyan independence (including a new Kenyan hip-hop documentary and a night of music at the Blue Nile). Also read more on Saturday's finale of the Soap Factory's essential Afrofuturism event, which kind of ties it all together.

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 21, 2005 3:06 PM | Comments (0)

 

Sound Unseen 2005: What shouldn't you miss?

Filed under: Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture , Pop Culture

Besides the film reviews in City Pages, Terri Sutton's essay on rock docs about dead dudes, and the festival's own full schedule of movies and music between Oct. 7 and Oct. 16, Complicatedfun.com has a recommended list of essentials from this year's Sound Unseen program, which kicks off Friday. Among them, Shawn Hewitt at the Entry on Saturday, DJ Spooky's live "remix" of The Birth of a Nation at the Varsity on Monday, and Scene Minneapolis, 1977-1984 at the Oak Street on Thursday, Oct. 13. Expect more on that bizarre DJ Spooky/D.W. Griffith mashup soon...

Posted by Peter S. Scholtes at October 6, 2005 6:14 PM | Comments (0)

 

The apocalypse will be mimed

Filed under: Dance/Performance

K&K Mime, a traveling miming duo featuring twin brothers who are the founders of "gospel mime," vow to catapult viewers to the next dimension of worship with only the sheer force of their silence. The self-proclaimed God-appointed prophets to the nation slap on robes and some white cream over their stubbly faces and mime gospel tunes for a tearful audience. But from the looks of this video, it's hard to tell if they're actually mimes or just untalented dancers who didn't quite make the cut on Star Search. I just mimed this post. Did you feel it?

Posted by at August 24, 2005 12:03 PM | Comments (0)

 

Public display of introspection

Filed under: Dance/Performance

Local Strategy, a Twin Cities artist collective, is searching for visual artists, musicians, dancers, fabricators, and volunteers to participate in Landmark, a free 24-hour public-art event taking place at the Stone Arch Bridge on August 27th and 28th. The group describes the upcoming event thusly:

At sunrise on Saturday, August 27, a choreographed system of performances and installations will emerge from the landscape, and stay in continuous motion until sunrise on Sunday, August 28. The events are inspired by the history, geology and natural wonder that are embedded and alive in this site. Some of the events are clearly marked, others you will discover as you explore the area on and around the Stone Arch Bridge.

Events so far include a sound score to last 24 hours, a sky procession, a great cake contest, afternoon performance tours, evening storytelling, and "surprise" events that will emerge from the landscape. The bridge, apparently, holds many secrets. So if you ask real nicely maybe it will reveal the surprises in store.

Posted by at July 13, 2005 5:20 PM | Comments (0)

 

Only moments remain...

Filed under: Dance/Performance

"Brilliant uprising of musical mischief" to take place downtown

Received a letter today from someone called the "The Innominate Composer." It seems said composer has written a piece entitled "The Hobbled Hobbit," which he/she only describes as a "new and refreshing" piece of music. Mr. Innominate has distributed parts of the composed piece around the Cities, as well as clues to where the spontaneous one-time performance will take place (today at 2:00 at 100 S. Washington Ave.) The composer says that a calling card will be left at the location regarding the subsequent event/musical performance. Did I just get punked? Or is this the new flash mob?

Posted by at June 30, 2005 1:37 PM