New Voices from Japan + East Asia
Japan Society presented its 20th showcase of contemporary dance with works from emerging choreographers in East Asia over a mid-January weekend.
PlusWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Internationally renowned choreographer and dancer Marc Brew needs little introduction to dance aficionados. He has worked with, among many others, the Australian Ballet School, Infinity Dance NY, and CandoCo, and presented work at the Bejing Olympics and Paralympic Games in 2008. Having founded Marc Brew Company in 2001, he makes work which is challenging, endlessly inventive, and beautiful. His newest production, “An Accident / A Life” sees him team up with another dance great, the Belgian dancer, choreographer and director Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui. This piece examines, in part, the devastating car crash in South Africa which left Brew paraplegic and killed the three other passengers—Brew's girlfriend, her brother and their friend. But as with so much of Brew's work, this is but one component of the piece. I caught up with Brew to find out more details.
Japan Society presented its 20th showcase of contemporary dance with works from emerging choreographers in East Asia over a mid-January weekend.
PlusIn a four-day span of early January I saw: Monica Bill Barnes wrestle a giant beach ball at Playwrights Horizons; Malcolm-x Betts and Nile Harris shoot blanks into the rafters of the Chocolate Factory in honor of Judith Jamison’s spirit; Symara Sarai run in and out of a swirling lasso at New York Live Arts Studios; and Angie Pittman dart across a shallow stage, in character as a vampire, cape flying, at BAM Fisher Hillman Studio in a shared bill with Kyle Marshall Choreography. In short, it was APAP season.*
PlusSara Veale’s new book Wild Grace: The Untamed Women of Modern Dance (Faber & Faber) examines the lives of nine boldly subversive dancemakers over nearly a century, starting with Isadora Duncan and ending with Pearl Lang. Along the way, it provides a pared but potent mini-history on the emergence of women’s rights.
PlusNo matter the theme, an evening with David Dorfman Dance is likely to uplift. The gregarious choreographer has a habit of engaging with the audience pre and/or post show with energy approaching that of a church revival gathering.
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