My friend and I went to DUMBO yesterday for an open artists’ studios tour (some of the buildings that house groups of artists’ studios have a day once a month when they allow visitors inside to peruse and talk to the artists about their work). We stayed for a while afterward to explore the area a bit. We found these in a grocery store there, which I found interesting. Never had fiddleheads before. And $25.99 per pound?!!!
I’m sure I’ll have much more to say on this over time, so I labeled the post Part One.
Here are a couple of write-ups from The Dance Enthusiast on the panel discussion on dance criticism two weeks ago that I took part in.
I was going to wait for the video to go up online so I could embed that or link to it but it hasn’t gone up yet. I usually take notes at such things, but since I was on the panel didn’t — and I feel lost doing a write-up without my notes.
Anyway, these two write-ups are good. We talked about how there are virtually no paying jobs for dance writers now, in the internet age, how there’s only one full-time dance critic in the country (no one was allowed to speak his name — but it’s Alastair Macaulay of the NY Times of course), and the situation is only getting more dire as newspapers let go more and more of their arts critics and close down entire arts sections.
Robert Johnson, esteemed longtime dance critic, currently at the New Jersey Star Ledger but he’s written and / or edited for practically every dance publication in existence (Dance Magazine, Pointe, etc.) was on the panel as well, and he was probably the person most knowledgeable about dance history and the history of writing about dance of anyone in the room. He’s a very nice man as well and I was glad to finally meet him. As Jowers points out in her write-up, when Marc Kirshner of TenduTV (the moderator) asked how newspapers got into this situation, Johnson pointed to an intriguing-looking book by Dolores Hayden and said it likely has a great deal to do with the suburbanization of American culture. Newspapers are local and most of them serve their urban communities, and with people leaving those urban centers and spreading out, there’s just not as much interest in what goes on in the cities anymore — like dance and classical music performances, art openings, etc.
That definitely resonated with me since many of my readers here found my blog through my writing on the dance TV shows and aren’t located anywhere near New York. I’ve tried to write about the local dance performances I see in a way that makes those people interested in seeing a performance,
So You Think You Can Dance has announced its 10 returning star dancers, who’ll partner this coming season’s 10 contestants. They are: Twitch (big smile), Kathryn McCormick, Mark Kanemura (yay), Pasha and Anya (obviously yay), Allison Holker, Lauren Gottlieb, Neil Haskell, Dominic Sandoval, Ade Obayomi, Courtney Galliano, and Comfort Medoke. So obviously no Danny Tidwell. Interesting, there are no final winners, right? And there are several returning star dancers who didn’t make it to the finals.
I recently came across this author, Maria Murnane, and her book, Perfect on Paper: the (Mis)Adventures of Waverly Bryson, when I was researching indie-published book award contests (Murnane won a load of them, before being picked up by Amazon Encore, Amazon’s new publishing house).
It’s a really lovely book, sweet and funny with a cast of characters who are definitely very relatable — the annoying guy who just seems to be everywhere you are, the bitchy competitive co-worker who seems intent on stealing your job, the hot guy in whose presence you just can’t seem not to make an ass of yourself, etc. After being jilted at the altar by her fiance, Waverly sets out on a series of hilariously bad dates in an attempt to overcome her heartbreak and find that ever-elusive Mr. Right. But in the process, she finds herself instead.
Of course there are lots of bad date / overcoming evil ex novels, but what’s original here is Waverly’s knack for coming up with clever little sayings, sometimes darkly comical, that speak well to the single urban career girl, such as, “Ever had to work with a total nightmare? Honey, just wait until the company holiday party. We’ll see who’s all alone in the corner.” And, “Not everyone can have a cookie-cutter family, right? Honey, I’d cut your losses and settle for the cookies.” Waverly eventually creates a line of greeting cards bearing said clever sayings, and voila, her real calling emerges. Also, Waverly works in sports PR (as did Murnane — I like it when authors put their job details into their books; you can learn a lot about other walks of life that way) so there are some interesting, amusing scenes about the sports world — making this a book not only for women, but for men as well.
Basically, a great summer beach / plane / park / outdoor cafe — wherever you read when it’s warm out — read. (Above, my copy at Tatiana’s on Brighton Beach, where I always celebrate the first warm day of the year with red caviar and champagne.) And you get a lot of double-takes with this book in your hands, I’ve found. People are like, “What’s that?” Kind of fun reading something only available on Amazon!
Now, Murnane has her own line of the “Honey Notes” out, available in her Honey Shop, along with t-shirts and tote bags. C’est unique!
One of my Facebook friends and blog readers found this video of Marcelo dancing MacMillan’s gorgeous Manon pas de deux with Viktoria Tereshkina. I think I missed her when she toured NY with the Kirov but she is a really beautiful dancer, like a feather. I so love MacMillan — why why why can’t we see more of his work here? And the music is really gorgeous as well. So I’m posting it. Happy Friday everyone!
In Independent Publisher‘s Living Now Book Awards, in the category of Women’s Fiction. I’m so happy! Happy Earth Day, everyone!
Also, check out the other medalists — in all the categories, but particularly in my own. Stressed in Scottsdale by Marcia Fine and Shaken and Stirred by Crystal Black Davis both look very entertaining as well as enlightening. And Stressed is set in my old neck of the woods!
Independently published and small press-published books face an enormous uphill battle both in the marketplace and in terms of gaining acceptance within the greater publishing industry (despite the fact that a small press novel won this year’s Pulitzer). I’m immensely grateful to publications like Independent Publisher and ForeWord, and Amazon’s Breakthrough Novel Award (open for the first time this year to self-published books) for their invaluable recognition and support.
Here are my thoughts on this week’s Dancing with the Stars.
I was going to post a video of Tiler Peck for all the Huffington Post readers who’ve never heard of her, since she was seen so little on last week’s results show, but sadly — shamefully really — except for a couple of rehearsal videos from last year’s Vail Dance Festival, there are virtually no videos of her on YouTube other than last week’s DWTS.
Since following her on Twitter, I’ve been waiting for magnificent ballerina Drew Jacoby’s DancePulp to launch. (photo of her above taken from here) And I just received a press release that it has — on Hulu, via TenduTv. DancePulp is a series of interviews with movers and shakers in the world of dance — don’t know when it’ll air but remember her tweeting that she was interviewing David Hallberg — conducted with Jacoby herself. Click on the “continue” link below to read the full press release.
Continue reading “DREW JACOBY’S DANCE PULP LAUNCHES ON HULU VIA TENDUTV”
Swallow received a positive review in ForeWord Reviews this week, which made me very very happy. ForeWord is an industry magazine, specializing in independently-published books and is read by librarians and booksellers and the like. The reviewer called me an “exuberant writer” — both in the book and here on my blog! Hehehe, no, really?!?! 🙂 I so love the last sentence.
Also, I’ve made the book available on Smashwords, which is an e-book seller and distributor. I know lots of people don’t have a Kindle and some were having problems downloading the Kindle ap to their computers or iphones, etc., so on Smashwords it is available in a variety of formats for virtually any kind of e-reader, including your computer. It’s been approved for the Apple iPad and should be on that soon. And pricing is the same as on the Amazon Kindle.
Finally, on Thursday night the newish writer organization SheWrites had its first NYC get-together, at the chi chi Marc Forgione bar and restaurant in TriBeCa. Huge turnout! I got a t-shirt (above) since I was one of the first five to arrive. And those of us who’ve published did a book exchange. So, I ended up making off with two books — The Last Bridge, a really intense-looking novel by Teri Coyne, and The Futurist’s Mistress, a book of poetry (which I don’t read nearly enough of) by Lorraine Schein. If you’re a writer (you don’t need to be published and you don’t need to be female; you just need to be supportive of women’s writing) I recommend joining. It’s free and fun and there are great networking and socializing opportunities.
As usual, I am very behind on blogging. My friends Chris Atamian, Mika and I all went to see Misnomer Dance Theater last weekend at Symphony Space uptown and I haven’t had time to review. So instead I’m going to link to their live-streaming of the show, which I was told is available on video from their website (and which should be much more interesting to you than my review anyway!) I didn’t have time to post about their live-streaming beforehand but I think this is an EXCELLENT idea for dance companies. People everywhere can see the performance, not just those who live in the locale where they happen to be performing. It’s like TV.
Anyway, I’ve always thought of Chris Elam and his troupe as one of the most original choreographer / performers in dance today. Elam, who’s traveled widely and picked up a lot of his movement from his study of foreign cultures, has won many awards; he also choreographed Bjork’s Wanderlust video. When I’d blogged about So You Think You Can Dance a couple seasons ago, you might remember I’d said I thought Mark Kanemura would fit in with this group. This is the first time I’d ever seen their dance titled “Misnomer” which eventually became the company’s name, and I was really floored by the humorous, playful, sometimes provocative shape-shifting. Anyway, see for yourselves: here or here.
Above image of Elam from the company’s flickr page.
Ballet season is almost here in NYC! New York City Ballet opens April 29th with a program that includes two premieres — one by Benjamin Millepied and one by Alexei Ratmansky (now ABT’s resident choreographer). The Millepied ballet, set to music by Thierry Escaich, will star several SLSG favorites: Janie Taylor, Sara Mearns, Sean Suozzi and Amar Ramasar.
The Ratmansky, set to a score by Eduoard Lalo, will be danced by Wendy Whelan, Jenifer Ringer, Sara Mearns, Robert Fairchild, Megan Fairchild, Abi Stafford, and Daniel Ulbricht.
The two world premieres will launch this season’s Architecture of Dance – New Choreography and Music Festival, devoted to new work. Acclaimed architect Santiago Calatrava has created scenic designs for five of the season’s premieres, including opening night’s Millepied piece.
Go here for tickets and details.
Above drawing by Santiago Calatrava.
ABT, currently on tour in Chicago, opens its classical season at the Met, in honor of its 70th anniversary this year, later, in May.
ABT, NYCB, Yankees — CLEARLY the best time of the year 😀
Reviewed by Christopher Atamian, SLSG Experimental Dance Critic
Watching the delightfully down-to-earth Laura Pawel Dance Company is an intensely comforting experience, like sitting down to a meal with an old friend, or in this case, seven old friends as it were. Better than being guillotined? Most definitely!
A graduate of Sarah Lawrence at a time when the school produced a cadre of dance pioneers including Lucinda Childs and Meredith Monk, Pawel has been on the New York City dance scene since the late 1960’s, part of the post-Judson Church movement that was more interested in everyday movement and dialogue than virtuoso jumps or classical dance technique. The company members are all well above forty today and a few have what can only be considered eccentric day jobs for a dancer: Emily Kistler, for one, is an operating room nurse…
Continue reading “BETTER THAN BEING GUILLOTINED: LAURA PAWEL DANCE COMPANY”
