Tag: Dance New Amsterdam

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So You Think You Can Dance’s Ellenore Teaching at DNA

 

I received news from Dance New Amsterdam that Ellenore Scott, finalist from season 6 of SYTYCD, will be teaching an intermediate / advanced contemporary class there for two weeks starting August 17th. I thought it sounded fun and thought I’d pass on the info to you guys, if anyone is in NY and takes classes. Apparently, Scott has been touring with Janet Jackson and is taking a two-week hiatus from that to teach. DNA is located downtown and has excellent rehearsal studios and a good little theater as well (I’ve seen performances and rehearsals there). The news on them of late has been that they’re in danger of losing their lease, and are trying to reach an agreement with the city. Hopefully they’ll work something out, because I know it’s an important space for small dance companies.

Anyway, here’s Ellenore’s schedule. And check out the rest of their upcoming classes and events here.

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JENNIFER BELLE REHEARSED PROFESSIONAL LAUGHERS AT DANCE NEW AMSTERDAM

Ha, I love it when my two favorite subjects – dance and lit – collide! A favorite author of mine (ever since her Going Down days), Jennifer Belle, publicized her latest book by hiring actresses to read it in public places throughout New York and laugh hysterically while doing so. She happened to audition the actresses at Dance New Amsterdam, the large studio in lower Manhattan that’s a favorite of small dance companies for inexpensive rehearsal space and that’s recently been in danger of closing due to lack of funds. Anyway, read the rest of the rather amusing story here.

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KISAENG BECOMES YOU and $20 UP FRONT

 

I’ve got to go to small, experimental dance performances more often. It really is where much of the groundbreaking work happens these days.

I recently went to see Kisaeng becomes you at Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea, with Claudia La Rocco’s WNYC performance club. Kisaeng is a collaboration between experimental dance-maker Dean Moss and Korean choreographer Yoon Jin Kim and it explores, through movement, multimedia, and spoken word the lives of the kisaeng, women courtesans in Korea from the 10th Century on, who were, kind of like Japanese Geisha, well-trained in poetry and the arts and existing for the entertainment of Korean aristocracy.

What was really novel here, I felt, was the choreographers’ use of audience members. Apparently, they asked three women and one man in the lobby before the performance if they would participate in the production, without telling them what their roles would be. There are five professional female performers depicting the kisaeng (and, by the way, all were costumed in contemporary clothing — pants and t-shirts, etc.). The dance opens with one of them piercing her skin with a needle, and embroidering her palm with thread — very difficult to watch. This was live-videoed and projected onto a large screen at the back of the stage so you couldn’t help but watch. At the same time, another dancer takes center stage and opens her mouth, Scream-like, bending her neck far backward so she’s looking up toward the ceiling, like frantically crying out, or yearning for more. Several other dancers follow her, and soon all five are making that same, rather haunting movement.

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