DANCE NEW AMSTERDAM: RAW DIRECTIONS
Dance New Amsterdam’s “Raw Directions” showcases the work of five post-emerging and mid-career choreographers. In the world premiere of “Charles” (by Netherlands native Pascal Rekoert), the Flexicurve company performs a fast-paced piece set to Beethoven and Mozart, inspired by Charlie Chaplin. David Appel’s untitled piece employs a series of short dances (and five dancers) to explore the way we structure our lives and how we engage with our environment. A live, original score by Galen Bremer accompanies “Light House” — Anne Zuerner’s work drawing from her years spent on the Rhode Island coast. In “This Is No Waltz,” by Megan Bascom (with a score by Cal Hawkins), the interplay of reciprocal and mutual action is seen in fleeting partnerships, both tender and reckless. In the New York premiere of Lane Gifford’s “land·scape,” the maddeningly intense pace of our lives is explored through consumption, convolution, sensory overload, self-image and accumulation — in an animated setting, through a dynamic dance narrative.
Wed., Jan. 30 through Sat., Feb. 2 (Wed., Thurs., Fri at 7:30pm, Sat. at 3pm & 7:30pm). At 280 Broadway (entrance at 53 Chambers St.). For tickets ($17 general admission, $12 in advance), call 212-227-9856 or visit dnadance.org.
THE FIRE THIS TIME FESTIVAL
Horse Trade Management Group’s fourth annual presentation of the Fire This Time Festival gives early-career playwrights of African and African-American descent the chance to explore new voices, styles, and challenging new directions — in a 10-minute format. That core element of the festival is supplemented by a panel discussion (“Submitting, Self-producing and Other Survival Skills for Artists”) and fully staged readings of new plays in development.
Among the (very) short plays: Cynthia G. Robinson’s “Nightfall” follows a Sudanese couple forced to confront the mayhem that haunts their village and threatens to destroy their family. In “Always,” by Danielle T. Davenport, a man looks up his childhood friend for the first time in two decades — during a reading of her celebrated novel (whose plot borrows liberally from their shared history). In “Orchids and Polka Dots,” by Nathan Yungerberg, a 1950s housewife meets up with a fledgling young research scientist and a tall glass of water infused with 100 gamma of LSD. J. Holtham’s “Favored Nations” takes place in an upscale office, where two brothers meet to settle their father’s will.
Through Feb. 2, at The Kraine Theater & The Red Room (both located at 85 E. Fourth St., btw. Second Ave. & Bowery). For tickets ($15), visit horsetrade.info or call 212-868-4444. Admission to panel discussions and readings is Pay-What-You-Will. For a full schedule of events, visit firethistimefestival.com and horsetrade.info.
THE LIVING THEATRE’S “HERE WE ARE”
True to the promise of its name, The Living Theatre will, we hope, live forever. But their current production is your last chance to see them in their current space. After the final curtain comes down, it’ll be curtains for their longtime 21 Clinton Street space (they’ll soon be found elsewhere, we’re assured).
For now, though, the oldest experimental theatre group still producing in the United States continues its 66th year with the world premiere of Judith Malina’s “Here We Are” — in which the 86-year-old Artistic Director uses the inadequacy of the voting process (“the core of our own poorly organized society,” she asserts) to ask the big questions. Where are we? How did we get here? What have we tried in the past that has mislead us? What are the new ideas for the new world? How can we achieve them together and put aside violence, without the fear of retribution? How can the theatre help us do this? The audience and the ensemble will work together to come up with some “creative possibilities for a post-revolutionary world of beauty and non-violence.”
Through Feb. 23. Wed.-Sat. at 8pm. At The Living Theatre (21 Clinton St., just below Houston St. at Avenue B). Wed. tickets are “Pay What You Can.” Otherwise, tickets are $20 ($25 for students/seniors). For reservations, call 212-352-0255 or visit livingtheatre.org.
“AMERICAN SCRAPBOOKS” AUTHOR EVENT
Move over, Pinterest — there’s an old school way to cut, paste and share the things that strike your fancy. “Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance” is the latest by Ellen Gruber Garvey. Previously, the New Jersey City University Professor of English authored the award-winning “The Adman in the Parlor: Magazines and the Gendering of Consumer Culture.” For this new cultural chronicle, Gruber Garvey sets her sights on how, as she describes it, “men and women 150 years ago grappled with information overload by making scrapbooks — the ancestors of Google and blogging.”
Scrapbooking wasn’t just for marquee names such as Abraham Lincoln and Susan B. Anthony. Abolitionists and Confederates, janitors and farmworkers all used the technique to chronicle the high and low points of their lives, and every mundane event in-between. What they chose to collect, the author tells us, “opens a new window into the feelings and thoughts of ordinary and extraordinary Americans. Like us, nineteenth-century readers spoke back to the media, and treasured what mattered to them.” Gruber Garvey’s in-store appearance includes a slideshow and a meet and greet. Bring your camera, snap a photo with her, and you’ll have made a very good start on your own scrapbook.
Free. Tues., Jan. 29, at 7pm. At St. Mark’s Bookshop (31 Third Ave., at Ninth St.). For more info, call 212-260-7853 or visit stmarksbookshop.com.
MONK IN MOTION: THE NEXT FACE OF JAZZ
There will never be another Monk — but this concert series serves as a showcase for the best of those young artists who are building on his legacy of precision and innovation. A partnership between BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center and the Thelonious Monk Institute, “Monk in Motion: The Next Face of Jazz” pays tribute to the three winners of the annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition by giving them a stage to perform on and a chance to show New York audiences the breadth and depth of their talents. First up, it’s first place winner Jamison Ross — a 24-year-old drummer from Jacksonville, FL. Before the concert, Willard Jenkins moderates the panel discussion, “21st Century Drummer’s Roundtable” (with Carl Allen, Allison Miller and more). The series continues Feb. 16 with second runner-up Colin Stranahan (a 26-year-drummer from Denver, CO), and concludes March 2 with the runner-up: 28-year-old Richmond, CA native Justin Brown (another drummer!).
The concerts begin at 8:30pm on Sat., Feb. 2 & 16 and March 2 — preceded by the free panel or film screening at 7pm. In Theatre 2, at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center (on the Borough of Manhattan Community College campus; 199 Chambers St., btw. Greenwich & West Sts.).Concert tickets are $25 ($15 for students/seniors). For more info, visit tribecapac.org and monkinstitute.org.
Nancy Spero: From Victimage to Liberation: Works from the 1980s & 1990s
The career of Nancy Spero (1926-2009) spanned five decades. Renowned for her serious engagement with contemporary political, social and cultural concerns, Spero chronicled wars and apocalyptic destruction in her work, as well as the cycle of life. The role and identity of women in prehistoric times and the present remained a key focus of Spero’s oeuvre — and her paper collages and large-scale paintings continue to radiate a keen sense of timeless importance.
Through Feb. 16, at Galerie Lelong (528 W. 26th St., btw. 10th & 11th Aves.). Hours: Tues.-Sat., 10am-6pm. Call 212-315-0470 or visit galerielelong.com.
