#dancereview

NEW YORK - White Wave 2024 SoloDuo Festival at Dixon PlaceTonight was the 8th annual SoloDuo Dance Festival at Dixon Place in Manhattan. In this intimate black box theater and stage, gifted artists from 33 dance companies performed in a series of choreographed dances for a full house. Dancers represented the United States, Japan, Korea, and Germany. Smutek Dance by Steven PisanoAs the name SoloDuo implies, viewers enjoyed performances by solo and partner artists before culminating in a final, powerful ensemble work.Tonight was a culmination of styles akin to visionary and revolutionary choreographers like Daniel Nagrin, Martha Graham, Twyla Tharp, Pina Bausch, and Crystal Pite. Dance styles, from ballet to modern, jazz, and ethnic, expressed emotions and music through powerful and fluid movements emphasizing individual interpretation and personal style. ArtBaoDance styles were eclectic, dynamic, diverse, inspiring, and captivating. Musical styles varied and informed the action on stage. Viewers experienced various emotional and psychological themes that frequently incorporated surreal and abstract elements. The solo performance with two white masks against black costuming provided a stunning and stark portrayal of surreal imagery.While motion sometimes reveled in silence, tonight’s music afforded sonic landscapes and tensions for artistic motion. We sensed Zen, religious connotations, the dialectics of cacophony, surreal imagery, and sparkling, pulsating, synthesized sounds. Musical references from classic musical literature, such as Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3, contrasted the modern palate of electronic offerings. Cho Seong-hee Aha Dance Theater by IriSynesthesia was the frequent cerebral result of intermingling sound, costume, movement, and lighting. Dancers achieved celebration and sensuality through agility with an occasional playful, captivating dash of Crystal Pite’s athleticism of Flight Pattern.There was amusement as well, as particularly depicted by a solo dancer performing to what might be described as amusing elevator music akin to the theme from the old Love Boat TV show. Draped in uproarious, flamboyant costuming, the performer went on to lip sync Judy Garland performing I Happen to Like New York. GRIDLOCK Dance by Bill GormanThe fantastic final company performance of “Eternal NOW Now” by the Young Soon Kim Dance Company was vital and powerful. The company fully utilized the opening, driving dissonant soundscapes. The piece surged into Zen passages, electric guitar improvisation, and an enigmatic segue into rockin’ guitar riffs. This work featured choreography by Young Soon Kim, original music by Marco Cappelli, costume design by Sarah Cubbage, and dramaturgy by James Leverett. TMA-Dance by Yi-Chun WuTonight was a fantastic celebration of dance, choreography, its disciples' strength, agility, and athletic prowess, and the artistic authority to move, inspire, create, and express. Witnessing young, gifted artists adroitly perform a varied, magnificent program was heartening and splendid.White Wave is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization dedicated to dance. Its mission is “a potent stimulus for change and expansion of the dance/arts world. " White Wave is “committed to creating a union between the natural rhythms of the planet and the primal essence of the human spirit.”White Wave SoloDuo Dance FestivalWHITE WAVE Dance Company150 Mac Dougal St.1Fl.Brooklyn, NY 11233Artistic DirectorYoung Soon [email protected] are EncouragedReaders may also enjoy reading 49 Years of Preserving Native American Culture, Kaatsbaan Ballet Intensive, Wine Tasting Fundraiser, Smashworks Social, Thunderbird Dancers, and the Fall for Dance Festival.https://youtu.be/2K2v-5q0uuo?si=vtA-xUQUkdGJ4EPN

Rating  4.7/5 An installment of The Art Bath Artist Salon Series miraculously appeared in my neighborhood in Manhattan at the Blue Building on East 46th Street between Second and Third Avenues. Indeed, the welcoming area quickly filled as smiling onlookers and participants arrived. Moreover, bespoke guests enveloped in sophisticated, party-vibed music funneled to ubiquitous, well-supplied liquid refreshment stations before roaming through the galleries. This was clearly a gathering of luminaries, literati, and sagacious curious local denizens yearning for celebratory, literary, musical, and artistic experiences. Hence, this event delivered.Multimedia ExtravanganzaThe Art Bath Artist Salon Series event formed a multimedia extravaganza. In fact, for context consider that the medium of Opera serves as the ultimate 19th-century multimedia with its blend of music, visual art, drama, and dance. Seated in an audience, patrons indeed see and hear stage productions with an orchestra, staging, drama, scenery, costumes, and a coterie of their favorite prima donnas.Gertrude SteinTonight's Salon program was 21st century-multimedia at its finest, but with the intimacy of the Parisian salons made famous by the likes of Gertrude Stein, Gustave Courbet, and Franz Liszt. That is, in this inviting artistic environment with its stimulating badinage, patrons experienced and marveled at film, sculpture, painting, dance, photography, and music created by world-class artists and performers. An audience mesmerized by percussionists Jahleel Hills, Jeremy Hills, and Michael Mendoza. Photo by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphyPercussion PyrotechnicsIn the first exhibition room, guests viewed the extraordinarily creative sculpture works of Brooklyn artist Marela Zacarías. Then, it wasn't long before the talented Jahleel Hills et al performed a feature of percussion pyrotechnics, which was met with great enthusiasm. Next, three splendid movies by Native American painter, filmmaker, and performance artist Kent Monkman were viewed before a brief pause and transition to an adjacent gallery.Flamenco DancerThe Sunken Garden featured the artwork of Nathan Dilworth with Anteroom artwork by James Whiteside. Accompanied by flamenco guitarist Juan Pedro Jimenez and percussionist Jeremy Smith, Flamenco dancer Nelida Tirado then ascended the stage. The audience was indeed mesmerized by the dance and music's nearly indescribable emotional intensity and passion. Tirado consequently conveyed many emotions, her duende, from elation to passion, sorrow, and anguish. Viewers were without a doubt rendered breathless by complex rhythms, fast footwork, dramatic poses, intense posturing, bold singing, formidable guitar, handclaps, and percussive sounds of the cajón. L-R Tenor Marco Jordao, pianist Bryan Wagorn and ballet dancer Jonathan Fahoury in The Clearlight Room. Photo by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphyDelicately Adorned with FlowersThe event continued in The Clearlight Room, beginning with a vocal performance by Tenor Marco Jordao of the New York Metropolitan Opera. At this time, he performed Robert Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Op. 48, accompanied by pianist Bryan Wagorn. All in all, this was not staged as a formal recital with a tuxedo-adorned singer stiffly couched in the piano's curved side. Rather, the space was delicately adorned with flowers, gentle blue light, and rolling fog. Pathos through MovementJordao strolled gently about the stage, singing as he exquisitely expressed loss, nostalgia, and the pain of unrequited love expressed through Heinrich Heine's verse and the timelessness of Schumann's musical musings. As Jordao sang, ballet dancer Jonathan Fahoury likewise performed his interpretation of the music's pathos through movement. In the final Ich grolle nicht, Jordao thus brought down the house in a poetic, poignant denouement. Here is Heine's verse:I bear no grudge, though my heart is breaking,O love forever lost! I bear no grudge.However you gleam in diamond splendor,No ray falls in the night of your heart.I've known that long. For I saw you in my dreams,And saw the night within your heart,And saw the serpent gnawing at your heart;I saw, my love, how pitiful you are.I bear no grudge. Dancer Jessica Sgambelluri performing with pianist Arturo O’Farrill. Photo by Santiago Felipe @santiagraphyArturo O'FarrillGrammy Award-winning jazz pianist Arturo O'Farrill came to the stage. Accompanied by his son, percussionist Zachary O'Farrill, and tubaist Marcus Rojas, we were treated to energy and distinctive sounds that were urbane and accessible. The trio performed traditional Latin jazz rhythms and contemporary jazz styles with improvisations characterized by precision and complexity. Rojas's astounding range of sounds was opulent, sophisticated, and vibrant. The effervescent, inspiring piano work of the incomparable O'Farrill reminded us of why he is internationally admired. Dancers Jessica Ssgambelluri and Frances performed a dazzling interpretive dance to O'Farrill's Kinetoscope for Tuba, Piano, and Percussion. It was a blazing, brilliant performance!After PartyIf all this wasn't enough, guests were invited to an After Party. Runtime, 3 hours or so.The next performance is on May 13. See below for ticket information.ART BATH Artist Salon SeriesElizabeth Yilmaz and Mara Driscoll, ProducersCésar Abreu, Associate ProducerJean Driscoll and Peter Calthorpe, Evening SponsorsFeaturingJahleel Hills, Jeremy Hills, and Michael Mendoza, PercussionistsJonathan Fahoury, Ballet DancerKent Monkman, Cree painter, Filmmaker, and Performance ArtistNelida Tirado , Flamenco DancerPedro Jiménez, Flamenco Guitar, and Jeremy Smith, PercussionJessica Sgambelluri & Frances Lorraine Samson , Modern DancersBryan Wagorn , Pianist Marco Jordão, TenorArturo O'Farrill, Latin-Jazz Pianist, Arranger, and Director Of The Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (Winner Of The 2023 Grammy Award For Best Latin Jazz Album)Exhibiting Visual ArtistsMarela Zacarías James WhitesideNathan DilworthArtisticLighting: Joe PetrowskiSound and Lighting Supplier and Advisor: Joel FitzpatrickSound Design: Matt MarenelliScenic Consultant: Anna DriftmierMusic Consultant: Bill DobrowStage Manager: Dwayne BrownDJ: Mike DeMaioThe Blue Building222 East 46th StreetNew York, NY 10017More information can be found at https://www.artbathnyc.comTickets are available at https://artbathnyc.ticketspice.com/art-bath-nyc-spring-2023Readers may also enjoy our reviews of The Singing Sphere, Daughter of the Wicked, Musica Sacra at St. John the Divine, and MasterVoices at Central Synagogue.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPRptAOE2QI