This looks good! Here’s tonight’s schedule.

Friday, September 25, 7:00-10:00 PM
Lucie Baker Slow Burn
Renegade Performance Group (Andre Zachery) En Medias Res
I-danse Transplant I
Danielle Russo Dance Company la femme silencieuse
Hee Ra Yoo Fade (introspection)
stephanie blackmon woodbeck | Labor Force Dances So…come here often?
Jamel Gaines & Creative Outlet Dance Theatre of Brooklyn FORCES

8:00-9:00 PM
Alison Clancy One
Patricia Noworol Dance Company For Four
Ali Kenner & Co. proof
Mare Hieronimus Sleepwalking / wind picking up
Becca Alaly + Dancers Traumland
gloATL excerpt from plum
WHITE WAVE Young Soon Kim Dance Company An Excerpt from SSOOT II

9:00-10:00 PM
T. Lion Dance/BodyStories The Border Project
Neville Dance Theater Night Movements
Sharon Mansur/mansurdance here/there…(for one)
Robin Conrad Cupcake and Solo in a Black Dress
Avi Scher & Dancers Our Love’s Defense
CPD PLUS Music of the Spheres
Fayth Caruso Bonnie and Clyde
Flexicurve Shadow Songs

Visit the festival website.

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dance festivals

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Jacob Cooper - Stabat Mater Dolorosa, for string quartet, two vocalists, and film (2009)
JACK Quartet
Mellissa Hughes, soprano
Abigail Nims, mezzo-soprano

I’ve been carrying the program for this final performance in the WMMMT Festival around with me for several days, processing this searing work by Jacob Cooper. The JACK Quartet joined forces with soprano Mellissa Hughes and mezzo Abigail Nims, along with an unnamed projectionist (my guess it was Cooper, who created the powerful video).

Starting with the composer’s program notes:

“Stabat Mater Dolorosa is consistent with my recent work in that it uses an extremely slowed-down version of pre-existing music - in this case, the first movement of Pergolesi’s 1736 Stabat Mater - as a point of departure. Rather than depicting the grief of the Virgin Mary during Jesus’s death, as the original Stabat Mater text does, this piece is concerned with the grief of a contemporary mother. In Basra in March of 2008, Leila Hussein helplessly watched her husband murder their daughter Rand in a vicious “honor killing,” an attempt to cleanse the family’s reputation after Rand had fallen in love with a British soldier. The father openly admitted the killing and showed no remorse, yet the Iraqi police did not press charges against him. Leila Hussein, in an act of defiance exceedingly rare in honor killings, subsequently left her husband and publicly grieved over her daughter, expressing profound sorrow and speaking out against the general practice of honor killings. Much of the original Stabat Mater text describes how Mary’s grief was so great that, metaphorically, it caused her to die herself. In Hussein’s case, her public grieving caused her literal death as well: two months after first denouncing her daughter’s murder, she was shot and killed by anti-activists. Stabat Mater Dolorosa is an artistic hyper-magnification of a single instant: the last moment of the daughter’s life and the first of the mother’s death.”

Cooper boosted the meditative impact of the Pergolesi work by slowing tempos down to one-tenth the speed of the original, discarding vibrato, and limiting the dynamic range to sub-piano levels. A film played behind the musicians, at first an undefinable abstract swirl, ever so slowly resolving into the unblinking visage of a dying woman. The JACK Quartet and singers Hughes and Nims were astral, and the mood at the Miller was reverential - it is difficult to imagine a better way to encounter this important composition.

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music festivals honor killing

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I’ve seen this group for three seasons now, and they are evergreen. Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet unites (usually) modern classical music with modern classical ballet with deep knowledge and complete fluency. Chamber musicians and dancers share the space, and perform in close concert.

Friday night’s program:

Romantic Pieces
Choreography: Miro Magloire
Music: Antonín Dvořák, Four Romantic Pieces
Musicians: Erik Carlson, violin; Melody Fader, piano
Dancers: Elizabeth Brown, Emery LeCrone, Andrea Spiridonakos

Dreams
Choreography: Miro Magloire
Dancers/Voices: Elizabeth Brown, Madeline Deavenport, Emery LeCrone

All the Rage (World Premiere)
Choreography: Constantine Baecher
Music: Martin Stauning, Stasis IX-X
Musicians: Erik Carlson, violin; Melody Fader, piano
Dancers: Elizabeth Brown, Madeline Deavenport, Lauren Toole

Moments
Choreography: Miro Magloire
Music: Salvatore Sciarrino, Caprices No. 2 and 6
Musician: Erik Carlson, violin
Dancer: Lauren Tool

Echoes
Choreography: Miro Magloire
Music: Anton Webern, Four Pieces for Piano and Violin, Opus 7
Musicians: Erik Carlson, violin; Melody Faber, piano
Dancers: Elizabeth Brown, Madeline Deavenport, Emery LeCrone, Andrea Spirindonakos, Lauren Toole

Read Roslyn Sulcas’s review in the New York Times.

Posts for peace, sound environmental stewardship, humane economic policy and promotion of human health and creativity. About the blogger.

dance festivals

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11 September
Preview - Monet’s Water Lilies
Museum of Modern Art
www.moma.org

Season Opening - New Chamber Ballet
City Center Studios
newchamberballet.com

12 September
Wordless Music Meets Miller Theatre Festival - JACK Quartet
Miller Theatre at Columbia University

15 September
Exhibition Opening & Artist Reception: A Tibetan Pilgrim: Photos by Tenzing Paljor
Tibet House
Event page

16 September
Screening - The Informant!
IMDb entry

Performance - Tiger Lilies
Caffe Vivaldi, 32 Jones Street
MySpace Music

19 September
Performance - Ute Lemper
Galapagos Art Space
Event page

24 September
Fall for Dance Festival
City Center
Event page

25 September
Dumbo Dance Festival
John Ryan Theater at WHITE WAVE, 25 Jay Street
Event page

26 September
New York Film Festival - Eccentricities of a Blond Girl
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

New York Gypsy Festival - Desert Caravan: Rhythm of Rajasthan
Symphony Space
Event page

27 September
New York Film Festival - Kanikosen
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

30 September
New York Film Festival - A Room and a Half
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

1 October
Fall for Dance Festival
City Center
Event page

3 October
WFMU Music Fest
Music Hall of Williamsburg
Event Page

4 October
New York Film Festival - Hadewijch
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

9 October
New York Film Festival - Around a Small Mountain
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

New York Film Festival - Mother
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

10 October
New York Film Festival - White Material
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

11 October
New York Film Festival - Life During Wartime
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

New York Film Festival - Bluebeard
Lincoln Center - Alice Tully Hall
Event page

17 October
Japan Society - inkBoat/Ame to Ame
Event page

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film festivals music festivals film dance

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Once again, this finely curated festival makes it hard to do anything else for seventeen days running. Just trying to see the movies currently without U.S. distribution is a rewarding challenge.

Here’s my aspirational list:

36 Vues du Pic Saint-Loup / Around a Small Mountain
Jacques Rivette, 2009, France
Variety. review

La Barbe-Bleu / Bluebeard
Catherine Breillat, 2009, France
IMDb entry

Cheongchun’s Sipjaro / Crossroads of Youth
An Jong-hwa, 1934, Korea
Variety. article

Singularidades de Uma Rapariga Loura / Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl
Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France, 2009
IMDb entry

Alle Anderen / Everyone Else
Maren Ade, 2009, Germany
IMDb entry

Ghost Town
Zhao Dayong, 2008, China
Distributor’s website

Hadewijch
Bruno Dumont, 2009, France
Toronto International Film Festival summary

Independencia
Raya Martin, 2009, Philippines/France/Germany/Netherlands
Toronto International Film Festival summary

Kanikosen
Sabu, 2009, Japan
Asian Media Wiki entry

Lebanon
Samuel Maoz, 2009, Israel
Reuters India article

Life During Wartime
Todd Solondz, 2009, USA
IMDb entry

Min Ye… (Tell Me Who You Are)
Souleymane Cissé, 2009, Mali/France
Screen Daily review

Maedo / Mother
Bong Joon-Ho, 2009, South Korea
IMDb entry

Ne Change Rien
Pedro Costa, 2009, France/Portugal
Filmmaker’s website

Poltory Komnaty Ili Sentimentalnoe Puteshestvie na Rodinu / A Room and a Half
Andrey Khrzhanovsky, 2009, Russia
IMDb entry

Sweetgrass
Ilisa Barbash and Lucien Castaing-Taylor, 2009, USA
Previous post

Tatarak / Sweet Rush
Andrzej Wajda, 2009, Poland
IMDb entry

Morrer Como Um Homem / To Die Like a Man
João Pedro Rodrigues, 2009, Portugal
IMDb entry

Trash Humpers
Harmony Korine, 2009, USA
Toronto International Film Festival summary

White Material
Claire Denis, 2009, France
Toronto International Film Festival summary

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film festivals

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#1: Shingai Shoniwa at Siren Music Festival
Shingai Shoniwa of Noisettes at Siren Music Festival, Coney Island, NYC (2007)

#2: Upper Broadway, NYC
Vanishing New York: Bookstores. Two more wonderful independent bookstores bite the dust. And the storefronts remain vacant for months on end. Who wins?

#3: Frank Gehry Construction, Novartis Campus
A rare opportunity to see one of his buildings going up. The building is in the far background, right center.

#4: New York Harbor, 1918/1919
USS Siboney, in New York Harbor, her decks crowded with troops (my grandfather among them) returning home from France, circa late 1918 or 1919. Photographed by E. Muller Jr., New York. Digital restoration by Rick’s Image Works, NYC.

#5: Neighboring Buildings
Emerging NYC: Broadway & 100th Street, NYC. My neighbors hate this new building, but I like how it makes this nice image.

#6: Nurettin Tekkesi Sokak

#7: Hudson River, NYC
Emerging NYC: Bike path in heaven. Sometimes we get it right.

#8: Metro Theater, Broadway & 100th Street
Change for the better, change for the worse? The landmark theater is up for sale.

#9: Museo Dolores Olmeda Patino - Xoloxcuintle
Mexico City (2007)

#10: Templo Mayor, Mexico City
Templo Mayor, Mexico (2006)

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photography

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The current (and critically important) Climate Countdown issue of Foreign Affairs also contains a brief and thoughtful essay by Deepak Malhotra of Harvard Business School, on the contentious issue of discarding preconditions before negotiating with enemies.

One quote:

“Governments not only impose preconditions on others; they also impose preconditions on themselves. A government may want to wait until there is support among constituents for a peace process or insist on holding multilateral, as opposed to bilateral, talks. More commonly, even governments that are generally willing to negotiate often first set limits on their own behavior by refusing to talk to groups with ties to terrorists. The U.S. State Department, for example, publicly states that it will ‘make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals’.

“This position has the virtue of ideological purity but the vice of impracticality. When everyone at the table has clean hands, governments are unlikely to make progress on what is often the most important issue: the cessation of violence.”

No one is claiming this is easy stuff, but Malhotra puts forth his analysis so succinctly that no one can say they don’t have time to listen.

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diplomacy

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One caution - these are not pure vegan eateries, so purists will need to search onward. I’m not even a vegetarian yet!

Fresh
326 Bloor Street West (and other locations)
freshrestaurants.ca
Sampled: Blue Thrill, Deluxe Burger w/Sweet Fries, Thai Burger, Ayurvedic Bowl, Middle Eastern Plate, Bean Burrito, Fudge Cake, Blueberry Pie

fressen
478 Queen Street West
www.fressen.com
Sampled: Tabouli, Beet Salad, Jicima Salad, Skinny Linguine, Chocolate Terrine

Magic Oven
6 Wellesley Street West (and other locations)
www.magicoven.com

Rice Bar
319 Augusta Avenue
www.ricebar.ca
Sampled: Surfer’s Supper w/Tofu

Siddhartha Pure Vegetarian Cuisine
1411 Gerrard Street East
Toronto Life listing
Sampled: Bhel Poori, Masala Dosa

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vegan-friendly restaurants toronto

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William Bartram (1739-1823), artist, naturalist, “philosophical pilgrim”, traveled through Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas in the years immediately preceding the American Revolution, describing the landscape, flora, fauna, and people of the region.

What a man - free of religious and racial bigotry, modestly courageous (he shows us there is such a thing), ever sensitive to beauty, kindness, and nobility, and desiring above all to live in peaceable harmony with all earthly creatures. He fights ravenous alligators bent on consuming him, meditates on the peaceful nature of the rattlesnake, and engages Muscogulges (Creeks and Seminoles), Chactaws, and Cherokees in civil discourse and remembers them with clear-eyed respect:

“The males of the Cherokees, Muscogulges, Siminoles, Chicasaws, Chactaws, and confederate tribes of the Creeks, are tall, erect, and moderately robust; their limbs well shaped, so as generally to form a perfect human figure; their features regular, and countenance open, dignified and placid; yet the forehead and brow so formed, as to strike you instantly with heroism and bravery; the eye rather small, yet active and full of fire; the iris always black, and the nose commonly inclining to the aquiline.

Their countenance and actions exhibit an air of magnanimity, superiority and independence.

Their complexion, of a reddish brown or copper colour; their hair long, lank, coarse, and black as a raven, and reflecting the like lustre at different exposures to the light.

The women of the Cherokees, are tall, slender, erect and of a delicate frame; their features formed with perfect symmetry, their countenance cheerful and friendly, and they move with a becoming grace and dignity.”

So many descriptions and stories. But for the purposes of this blog, two extended passages on dance may prove useful:

“This prologue being at an end, the musicians began, both vocal and instrumental; when presently a company of girls, hand in hand, dressed in clean white robes and ornamented with beads, bracelets and a profusion of gay ribbands, entering the door, immediately began to sing their responses in a gentle, low, and sweet voice, and formed themselves in a semicircular file or line, in two ranks, back to back, facing the spectators and musicians, moving slowly round and round. This continued about a quarter of an hour, when we were surprised by a sudden very loud and shrill whoop, uttered at once by a company of young fellows, who came in briskly after one another, with rackets or hurls in one hand. These champions likewise were well dressed, painted, and ornamented with silver bracelets, gorgets and wampum, neatly ornamented with moccasins and high waving plumes in their diadems: they immediately formed themselves in a semicircular rank also, in front of the girls, when these changed their order, and formed a single rank parallel to the men, raising their voices in responses to the tunes of the young champions, the semicircles continually moving round. There was something singular and diverting in their step and motions, and I imagine not to be learned to exactness but with great attention and perseverance. The step, if it can be so termed, was performed in the following manner; first, the motion began at one end of the semicircle, gently rising up and down upon their toes and heels alternately, when the first was up on tip-toe, the next began to raise the heel, and by the time the first rested again on the heel, the second was on tip toe, thus from one end of the rank to the other, so that some were always up and some down, alternately and regularly, without the least baulk or confusion; and they at the same time, and in the same motion, moved on obliquely or sideways, so that the circle performed a double or complex motion in its progression, and at stated times exhibited a grand or universal movement, instantly and unexpectedly to the spectators, by each rank turning to right and left, taking each others places: the movements were managed with inconceivable alertness and address, and accompanied with an instantaneous and universal elevation of the voice, and shrill short whoop.”

“Their music, vocal and instrumental, united, keeps exact time with the performers or dancers.

They have an endless variety of steps, but the most common, and that which I term the most civil, and indeed the most admired and practised among themselves, is a slow shuffling alternate step; both feet move forward one after the other, first the right foot foremost, and next the left, moving one after the other, in opposite circles, i.e., first a circle of young men, and within, a circle of young women, moving together opposite ways, the men with the course of the sun, and the females contrary to it; the men strke their arm with the open hand, and the girls clap hands, and raise their shrill sweet voices, answering an elevated shout of the men at stated times of termination of the stanzas; and the girls perform an interlude or chorus separately.”

Too bad there weren’t more like William Bartram. But perhaps we still have time to learn.

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dance

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