Tom Ze

Lincoln Center Festival 2011 Announced
Three LEADING International Companies Highlight
LINCOLN CENTER FESTIVAL 2011 - July 5-August 14

Mariinsky Ballet (Kirov) returns to Lincoln Center, joining Royal Shakespeare Company and The Cleveland Orchestra

OTHER FESTIVAL 2011 PRESENTATIONS:

* Director Peter Brook directs the U.S. Premiere of A Magic Flute
* Druid Theatre Company performs Seán O'Casey's classic drama The Silver Tassie, directed by Tony Award-winner Garry Hynes
* Royal Danish Opera offers U.S. Premiere of Poul Ruders' opera Selma Ježková; Royal Danish Orchestra performs an orchestral concert and an evening of chamber music
* Amon Miyamoto directs U.S. Premiere of Yukio Mishima's The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, starring popular Japanese star Go Morita
* Merce Fair, a day-long immersion in performances, workshops, video and art installations, celebrates the artistry of choreographer Merce Cunningham
* Influential Brazilian singer-songwriter Tom Zé makes rare U.S. concert appearance
* David Michalek's large-scale, outdoor video installation, Portraits in Dramatic Time, to be shown each evening from July 5-31 on Josie Robertson Plaza

Tickets and more information are at the Lincoln Center Festival website.

DOWNLOAD: Flashmen ft. Sewingpattern - As The Night Rolls On [Guitar Edit] (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: 33Hz - I Feel Alive (Eli Escobar remix) (MP3)

Dublex Inc

This weekend is packed with plenty of opportunities to get down outside. To begin with there is P.S.1's weekly Warm Up, followed by New Release's Beach Party, LIC on Saturday (8/8). This week's Warm Up features the Music Committee of the (late) Merce Cunningham Dance Company: Stephan Moore and David Behrman, Eats Tapes, Lovefingers (highly recommended disco! check out the tons of free mixes on his site), Master Khan (check out his mix from last month on Beats In Space), and special guests. More info on Warm Up and Stephan Moore & David Behrman below:

Stephan Moore is a Brooklyn sound artist whose work relies on the collection and use of real world sound, perception of sonic environments, improvisation and interactivity. David Behrman has been active as a composer and artist since the 1960s, making sound and multimedia installations for gallery spaces as well as concert music. The MCDC was founded in 1953 by Modernist choreographer Merce Cunningham, who commissioned more new music by American composers than any other single choreographer.

Warm Up Admission
On Warm Up Saturdays, from 2:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., the admission fee to P.S.1 and Warm Up is $10.00. Included in this price is access to all exhibitions and to Warm Up. We do not offer special discounts for seniors or students on Warm Up Saturdays. Cash only.

More info on Warm Up, including where to buy advanced tickets and free admission for MoMA members and L.I.C. residents can be found here.

continued....

Continue reading "the week in Dance w/ Showtrotta (part 2) (PS1, Dublex Inc, Boys Noise, Simian Mobile Disco, BEMF, 33Hz, more)"

As you've noticed, the weather really sucks which really sucks for All Points West and the Dan Deacon/No Age/Deerhunter Pool Party at the Williamsburg Waterfront. Another outdoor show today (8/2) is the Merce Cunningham Dance Company Performance in Rockefeller Park...

Due to current weather conditions, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company performance at 2 pm and the Dance in the Park: Family Movement Workshop at 4 pm have been cancelled.We are still doing everything possible to make the 6 pm performance at Rockefeller Park. Stay tuned!

There was also a Merce Cunningham performance on Saturday. Merce himself passed away a week ago today which was also the day rain and lightning causes the cancellation of Trail of Dead's performance at the Williamsburg Waterfront.

Friday at All Points West was also rainy, though Saturday was beautiful all day.

UPDATE: All Points West is opening late

UPDATE 2: The Pool Party has been moved to Brooklyn Bowl.

UPDATE 3: APW supposedly opening at 3:40

UPDATE 4: APW doors are open

UPDATE 5: The 6pm Merce Cunningham show is happening as scheduled.

I'll keep you posted with any news.

Merce Cunningham, dancers & Sonic Youth @ BAM (more by Stephanie Berger)

Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night [July 26th]. He was 90 and lived in Manhattan.

Mr. Cunningham ranks with Isadora Duncan, Serge Diaghilev, Martha Graham and George Balanchine in making people rethink the essence of dance and choreography, posing a series of "But" and "What if?" questions over a career of nearly seven decades.

He went on doing so almost to the last. Until 1989, when he reached the age of 70, he appeared in every single performance given by his company, Merce Cunningham Dance Company; in 1999, at 80, though frail and holding onto a barre, he danced a duet with Mikhail Baryshnikov at the New York State Theater. And in 2009, even after observing his 90th birthday with the world premiere of the 90-minute "Nearly Ninety," at the Brooklyn Academy of Music he went on choreographing for his dancers, telling people as they went to say farewell to him that he was still creating dances in his head.

In his final years he became almost routinely hailed as the world's greatest choreographer. For many, he had simply been the greatest living artist since Samuel Beckett. [NY Times]

Merce Cunningham's "Nearly Ninety" debuted at BAM in the spring with musical accompaniment from John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi and Sonic Youth.

The Merce Cunningham Dance Company is scheduled to perform three free shows at NYC's Rockefeller Park on August 1st and 2nd (presented by River to River Festival). Assuming those go on as scheduled, they will most likely include some kind of tribute to the great choreographer.

A set of videos showcasing Merce's work (including "Nearly Ninety") below...

Continue reading "Merce Cunningham dies at 90, RIP "

P.S.1 has announced the lineup for its annual series of Saturday afternoon dance parties in Long Island City. Last year's program featured live music and DJ sets by James Murphy, James Chance & the Contortions and Tony Conrad to name a few.

This year, we get the Arthur Russell ensemble Arthur's Landing, Talibam! and The Phenomenal Handclap Band (on the same bill), Xeno & Oaklander, Growing, Glenn Branca and more. Full schedule, and more info, below...

Continue reading "PS1 'Warm Up' 2009 - Long Island City music series lineup"

Merce Cunningham & Sonic Youth & friends @ BAM (more by Stephanie Berger)

EVENING STARS: MERCE CUNNINGHAM DANCE COMPANY Location to be announced Co-produced with The Joyce Theater, Merce Cunningham Dance Company will create a site-specific Event featuring a unique combination of new material and movement from past and current repertory. Come celebrate one of the most extraordinary contemporary masters in his 90th year!
August 1 6:00pm & August 2 2:00pm, 6:00pm
location TBA, FREE

The above picture comes from the four-performance run that ended at BAM yesterday (4/19). More pictures from that HERE. The above description is of a free event happening in NYC this summer as part of the River to River Festival (location TBA). More 2009 River to River Fest events listed HERE.

photos by Stephanie Berger

"It is not unusual these days to hear Merce Cunningham called the world's greatest living choreographer. I go further: I have long thought that he is the greatest living artist since the death of Samuel Beckett, almost 20 years ago.

His latest world premiere, "Nearly Ninety," presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday (his 90th birthday), is not a perfect work of art...

...The music, composed and performed by John Paul Jones, Takehisa Kosugi and Sonic Youth (Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Steve Shelley), sounds now like a rock musician's worst hangover, as if the pot and the kettle were calling each other every color under the sun before settling down and breeding a whole tribe of tintinnabulations. One powerful guitar chord out of the blue happened on Thursday to coincide with the most electrifying gear change in the Goggans-Squire duet, but even such moments are mere effects... [NY Times]

The show's 4th of four performances takes place today, Sunday the 19th, at BAM. More pictures below...

Continue reading "Merce Cunningham at 90 - Sonic Youth, John Paul Jones & more @ BAM, Brooklyn - pics"

"April 16 marks the 90th birthday of Merce Cunningham--one of the most important choreographers of our time--whose radical approaches to space, time, and technology continue to redefine the way we experience dance. Over the course of his celebrated career, he has forged a distinctive language of movement, illuminating the body's inherent drama and limitless capacity for change. And as a longtime collaborator of John Cage, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jasper Johns, he has played a leading role in fostering innovation across art forms.

In celebration of his birthday, Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to BAM with the world premiere of a dazzling evening-length work created in collaboration with and performed live by underground rock legend Sonic Youth, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi. With an intriguing multi-tiered décor by world-renowned architect Benedetta Tagliabue, lighting by Tony and Obie-winning designer Brian MacDevitt, and costumes by Romeo Gigli, this new masterpiece is testament to the boundless imagination of a man who, on the cusp of his ninth decade, still keeps us on our toes."

This show is happening at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House on Apr 16 at 7pm, Apr 17 & 18 at 7:30pm, and Apr 19 at 3pm. Its running time is 90min with intermission. Tickets are ON SALE (thx Hiro).

It's not totally clear to me if Sonic Youth will be playing any of their own songs at the four BAM performances (I'm looking into though). What they'll decide to put on the setlist at the No Fun Fest show they're playing in Brooklyn in May is also somewhat of a mystery.

Sonic Youth's 16th album, 'The Eternal', is out via Matador Records on June 9th. Maybe we'll get a plain old Sonic Youth concert some time around then.