Results tagged “dance”

Merce Cunningham, the influential American choreographer, died at age 90 yesterday. The NY Times' Alastair Macaulay writes Cunningham "was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater...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." And the Washington Post notes "he created a body of work that looks like none other -- plotless, spacious and often leisurely paced works, characterized by the clarity, calm and coolness of the dancing" with "an elegant and rigorous dance technique based on ballet's pulled-up stretchiness, the weightedness he absorbed from Martha Graham, with whom he danced before striking out on his own, and his own ways of twisting, folding and releasing the body." His bio on his dance company's website says besides being hailed as the "greatest living choreographer," "earlier in his career he was also one of the greatest American dancers" and "before he was a modern dancer, Merce was a hoofer." Cunningham also collaborated with his life partner, John Cage, until Cage's death in 1992.

By now you've probably heard the Phoenix song "Lisztomania," and you've probably seen the Brat Pack tribute video that hit the Internet soon after its release, but it's always worth another few hundred listens. Leave it to a bunch of Brooklynites to create a tribute to the tribute. How delightfully derivative! That's right, here, contained within the same 4 minutes and 16 seconds, you get hipsters, '80s nostalgia, graffiti, rooftops, the Manhattan skyline, the Water Taxi, and dancing dancing dancing.

A reader caught an impromptu one-man dance party on the R train Monday night. She tells us that "going from Manhattan to Brooklyn around 10pm...this guy jumped on the car with a boombox and wearing 80s workout gear. It was clearly some sort of stunt but he seemed to be operating on his own and kept bouncing into different subway cars at each stop."

The Garden of Earthly Delights, Hieronymus Bosch’s famous 16th-century triptych of innocence, licentiousness, and perdition, is the kind of astonishingly detailed masterpiece you can get lost in—each panel is packed with so much extraordinary activity that it's a challenge to take it all in as a whole. Which is part of the reason why choreographer Martha Clarke's dance-theater interpretation of the painting is so compelling; by channeling the spirit of the painting into live performance, the audience can immerse itself in the overall essence of Bosch's startling vision.

      

Seventy-three zombies came to life this morning to break the Guinness World Record for the most people simultaneously reenacting the dance from Michael Jackson's Thriller video. (The previous record was 62, set in Toronto in 2006.) The title was reclaimed by the U.S.A. today at 10:00 a.m. EST inside Madame Tussauds’ in Times Square, where the wax figure of Michael Jackson gazed proudly down upon dancing zombies who traveled from as far away as Ohio.

Angie Pontani and her "world famous sisters" are arguably the brightest stars in the city's booming burlesque scene; or at least the most recognizable to mainstream audiences who don't spend much time at the Slipper Room. Pontani is currently starring in a funny/sexy revue she co-wrote with incorrigible cut-up Murray Hill, who emcees the evening. Called This is Burlesque, the two-act extravaganza tap-dances along a fine line between unrepentantly ribald humor and classy, atavistic burlesque without losing its spontaneous charm. (Read the full review.) We recently spoke with Pontani about the show, her love of grilled cheese and her exercise regimen.

Jen Dunlap, a painter, and Celia Rowlson-Hall, a writer-director-choreographer, decided to combine their many talents for a one-of-a-kind art show. Wanna Come to My Place? will saturate Supreme Trading with their art, performance and everyday life tomorrow night. They even traveled all the way to Coney Island to create a video invite.

Could Bloomberg’s nanny state be loosening up? The Daily News has it that the mayor is considering relaxing the city’s Prohibition-era “Cabaret laws,” which make it illegal for three or more people to dance in a bar or restaurant unless the owner gets a costly and difficult-to-obtain permit. "We either want to eliminate the license or establish a different license so that it would be less onerous for people to engage in dancing," says an anonymous source in the Mayor's office.

The countdown is on, and even the pickiest of neighbors can't complain of noise at this evening's public rave. An "exchange student who only moved here from London a few months ago!" is behind the outdoor public and SILENT rave (yes, of course there's a Facebook page dedicated to it).

The basic premise is thousands of people turn up in a public place, plug in their own iPods, listen to their own music and dance and rave for hours!

Will 2008 be the year frustrated artists stop whining about the Whitney Biennial for being too cliquey, too scattershot, too short on women, minorities, and criminally overlooked artists like the ones doing all the griping? Hardly, but this year’s themeless Biennial, which opened last night, goes a long way toward appeasing the disgruntled hipster artist crowd with a big, rowdy slate of installations and events at the Park Avenue Armory through March 26th.

Today marks the third annual Informal Presentation on the Art of Dance, a dance event put on by the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Dancing Through Barriers Ensemble. The two troupes converge each year in a most unconventional space: The State Supreme Court of Manhattan!

The people who brought you the Bike Box video now visit the more pedestrian Barnes Dance. Named after NYC traffic commissioner Henry Barnes, the "dance" allows pedestrians to cross intersections in all directions safely while all lights are red for about 17 seconds.

When we decided to check in on the status of the proposed bill to regulate New York’s exotic dancers, it was partially in the interest of pleasuring ourselves with some droll double entendres. But it seems you’ve got to get up pretty early in the morning to beat Daily News Bronx Borough Chief Bob Kappstatter to the pun:

A bill that would license exotic dancers has been bumping and grinding its way ever so slowly through the legislative hopper in Albany - but the "sin-tax" in the measure may leave legislators poles apart.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a power outage on Beach Channel Dr. in Queens, a shooting on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn, and a car in the water at Rockaway and Brookville Blvds. in Queens.
• If you think you're buying a super-cheap iPod at a Mom and Pop electronics store, you're probably buying a fake.
• Some Queens residents will be relieved to know that LIRR trains will no longer blast their horns for 15 to 20 seconds as they approach the crossing at the Little Neck Parkway. About 80 trains pass there every day.

This summer we saw the man behind Davey's Dance Blog entertain passers-by on the Brooklyn Bridge with his impromptu moves. Today, here's something a little more seasonal.

Charles Mee is renowned for his distinctive approach to playwriting, which synthesizes disparate pre-existing texts into startlingly new theatrical creations bursting with music, dance, video and other inspired surprises. The superb Signature Theatre is now in the midst of their season devoted to his plays; the first production, Iphigenia 2.0, was a devastating depiction of America’s Iraq catastrophe as seen through the prism of classic Greek tragedy. The current show, Queens Boulevard, is a funny, boisterous musical that swerves from hyper Indian ragas to contemporary dancehall tracks by M.I.A., telling the tale of a hapless bridegroom and a chain of absurd events that keep him bouncing around Queens on his wedding night. (It’s been extended through January 6th; tickets.)

Two years ago the famed Saturday Night Fever dance floor was sold at auction for $188,000 when the Brooklyn club where the movie was filmed, Odyssey 2001 (later called Spectrum), was closed. Just yesterday the legendary movie turned 30 and amNewYork got nostalgic looking back at the Bay Ridge kid, Tony Manero, who sought refuge on that dance floor.

Thirty years ago this weekend, a tough young kid from Bay Ridge strutted across America's movie screens and struck his finger in the air to announce a new moment in the country's culture. Disco had been bubbling in the underground for a few years before the film came out, opening the sub-culture to a mass audience.

Continue reading "Disco is Dead, But Saturday Night Fever is Stayin' Alive"

Who needs a strip club when you can just ride the New York City subways? In March, four limber women took to the subway in a quest to win $10,000 from DareJunkies.com. The website offered the prize to the best public pole dance. The video features Laura Lee Anderson, Jessica Wu, Marissa Lupp, Isis Masoud, and regular subway riders as the four grind their way to the $10,000 prize. The scantily clad women were...

It's all in an Upper West Side day for the Material Girl! The tabloids have reported that Madonna is suing her co-op, claiming the board blocked her attempt to buy a neighbor's apartment. Madonna has a 6,000 square foot apartment at Harperley Hall at 41 Central Park West - a duplex with hair salon and gym. The summons filed in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses the board and Midboro Management of "breach of contract...and orders...

EVENT: Into anime? It's your lucky weekend, the New York Anime Festival is in town! There will be previews, screenings and panels galore. Check out their website for more details. All Weekend // Jacob Javits Convention Center [655 W 34th St] // $30 day pass, $55 weekend pass SHOP: FIT and the Design Mavens come together for a 3 day shopstravaganza. Tons of designers we're not cool enough to have ever heard of will be...

After months and months of delays, the BAM Cultural District may be moving forward. The NY Times is reporting that city officials have chosen Harlem-based developer and Brooklyn resident Carlton Brown to create what the Times' Terry Pristin calls the "cultural district's centerpiece." This is the first Brooklyn project for Brown, who developed the Kalahari and 1400 on Fifth in Harlem and the Solaire, the city's first residential green building, in Battery Park City. The...

In Charles Mee’s Queens Boulevard (the musical) the titular traffic artery is no longer the “boulevard of blood” notorious for hit-and-run collisions. In fact, there isn’t a drop of blood in Mee’s colorful fairytale, which takes as inspiration the centuries old dance-drama style of Hindu theater called kathakali, among other things. In Mee’s eyes, Queens Boulevard is the symbolic common thread connecting New York’s myriad ethnicities and cultures, with Queens as the proverbial melting pot...

The tree is lit, and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular is another tradition back for a 75th season. The well-seasoned Rockettes steal the show from Santa every year, and have quite a history -- they were originally called The Roxyettes and originated in...Missouri:The group was started by Russell Markert in 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri as the "Missouri Rockets". In 1927, Samuel Roxy Rothafel discovered them and brought them to New York City. They...

CRAFTY: The holiday season is upon us, which means getting that perfect gift for whoever's egg nog you'll be gathered around this year. Why not try a little D.I.Y.? Every other Monday the Church of Craft meets up and will "provide contact, craft support, advice, knowhowto, instructions, directions, tips, tricks, inspiration, and the blinding love of craft to all who seek it." 7 to 9pm // Rapture Cafe [200 Avenue A] // Free EVENT: Have...

Thanksgiving officially marks the start of the holiday movie season, and this weekend, one film seems poised to make a run for the box office crown. Enchanted, the Disney film that mixes animation and live-action to spoof its classic fairy tales, received some pretty stellar reviews. It's 92% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and most reviews are calling this the star-making performance of Amy Adams, who was nominated for a supporting actress Oscar for Junebug...

HEADS UP!: We love Daniel Kitson, it's been documented, so we wanted to give you a heads up that our favorite British comedian is coming back to the States! He has three shows in December at Union Hall (the 2nd, 3rd and 4th), and tickets are ON SALE NOW for two of those dates. It'll be the best $8+fees that you ever spent. ART: The Brothers Grimm fairytale Hansel and Gretel has taken over the...

While the maple syrup smell remains a two-year-old mystery to us, 30 Rock entered the fray with a hypothesis. On last night's episode, Liz Lemon, who smells waffles from her Upper West Side apartment, calls Tracy Jordan to remind him to practice his Re-Run dance for the What's Happening! sketch. But Tracy, in his NJ home, says that the smell of waffles is distracting him. Then Liz gets another call - it's Jack Donaghy,...

EVENT: White Castle is sponsoring an "over the top" (heh) event today at Port Authority...it's the 30th Annual White Castle Empire State Golden Arm Tournament of Champions. Over 100 ladies and gents will face off to become the arm wrestling champ! The event starts at 12:30 and the finals begin at 3:30pm. More info here. 12:30 and 3:30pm // Port Authority Bus Terminal [North Wing/Main Concourse at 625 8th Ave] // Free MUSIC: The Scotland...