Why it’s called American Street Dancer
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
PlusWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
The story began with an impulse to go back and give something back—to the performing arts traditions of India. Acclaimed British dancer and choreographer of Bangladeshi descent, Akram Khan, long known for dancing between worlds—contemporary dance and classical Kathak, decided to return to his roots. He and his close colleague Mavin Khoo assembled a group of master artists and students back in 2022 in the temple town of Swamimalai in Tamil Nadu, India, for a creative lab called “Seeking Satori.” Satori is a Japanese Buddhist term meaning “sudden enlightenment.” The objective of the week-long, residential intensive was to create an opportunity to reflect, share, immerse, re-invest, and enhance their relationship with their classical Indian art forms. From the initial gathering, an idea grew to create a production involving these master performers and their dance forms: Kathak, Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kutiyattam. But rather than a collection of disparate classical solos, which would be the usual outcome of a production involving individual classical artists, the creative endeavor would instead be a collaborative act of storytelling combining their particular forms.
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Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Plus“Lists of Promise,” a new work currently in a two-week run from March 13- 30 at the East Village cultural landmark, Theater for the New City, promised more than it delivered, at least for now.
Plus“State of Heads” opens with a blaze of white light and loud clanking onto a white-suited Levi Gonzalez, part Elvis, part televangelist addressing his congregation. A pair of women sidle in—Rebecca Cyr and Donna Uchizono—dressed in ankle-length white dresses and cowered posture.
PlusThe late John Ashford, a pioneer in programming emerging contemporary choreographers across Europe, once told me that he could tell what sort of choreographer a young artist would turn into when watching their first creations.
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Vivid, persuasive reporting of a complex production. Brava, Karen.