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.
Superlatives seem useless when making reference to Pina Bausch and her vast legacy. Words seem reductive. How to define the woman who was a genuine game changer in pushing the boundaries of dance theatre, whose iconoclastic approach sometimes left audiences—and some of her dancers alike—punch-drunk, and in tears? She often experienced walkouts, heckling, disgust from stunned crowds. She was once berated by The New Yorker critic Arlene Croce for deploying, as she saw it, the “pornography of pain,” and exploiting the women. Croce even found some of the work “misogynistic.” Harsh and a little myopic perhaps, but indeed, Bausch didn't shy away from depicting violence, sexual or otherwise, within her repertoire. Degradation, rape and humiliation were common themes for her.
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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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