Booking Dance Festival NYC at Lincoln Center

The Booking Dance Festival NYC held in the Appel room looking out at Colombus Cir. It is a 5 hr extravaganza featuring 20 dance companies and 34 performances.  There is a plethora dance program.  My ticket cost $25; or $5 hr.  The seats are reserved and every seat offers a great view.  The snowfall Sunday highlighted the dances in a magical, warm glow.  I did not stay for 5 hours of dance (who would?)  I'll highlight my favorite works and tell you what didn't work.  My 2 favorite dance pieces were from the Louise Reichlin & Dancers/LA & the FJK Dance/NYC.  Reichlin's pastiche of ballet, gymnastics and modern dance was a marvel of musicality and mixed movement.  The piece ebbed from classical to modern seamlessly.  There was whimsy and beauty expertly performed by 3 separate groups.  Reichlin talented company represented a very diverse group.  A standout dancer was Kistina Pressler.  She was lithe, athletic and artistic.  FJK Dance featured 3 couples that blended varying styles of dance from tango, to ballroom to modern.  I liked their fringed costumes which shimmered on stage.   One other company to mention was the Scorpius Dance Theater but only for the piece with 4 dancers in stretchy material which covered their legs/feet.  They created an clever, amphibious aesthetic. The razzy award goes to the woman who read silly poetry while flopping around on a chair.  I hope the Booking Dance Festival change their ticketing policies.  Instead of one ticket for the entire 5 hr offering, break up the tickets into hour segments.  The coming/going of the audience is distracting & rude to the dancers.  Furthermore, it would ensure better attendance to the later programs as the majority of patrons choose to leave.  Still, this is an excellent way to see a multitude of mixed danced programs.

SKELETON CREW Part of the 3-Play Cycle "The Detroit Projects" by Dominique Morisseay

SKELETON CREW (SK) @ the Atlantic Theater is a bare bones, gut wrenching play.  It's a contemporary piece exposing worker's lives in a crumpling auto-assembly co. in the moribund Detroit area.  Dominique Morisseau is an Amer playwright (b. Detroit 1978.)  Her plays have earned numerous awards including the Kennedy Prize for Drama ('14.)   Her most recent play SKELETON CREW, is the 3rd & final theatrical piece of "The Detroit Series" which included DETROIT '67 & PARADISE BLUE.  I didn't catch either but I did see SUNSET BABY @ the Labyrinth.  SK is a raw play with 4 actors (& an incredible robotic dancer.) The dancer/choreographer, A Osakalumi (B'wy Fela) emphasized the industrialized/ dehumanizing work environment.  His dancing was mesmerizing & integral to the artistry of the production.  The entire aesthetic of SK is a powerhouse of combustible energy written with force & poetic beauty.  The single set staging is in the shabby employee locker room/ lounge where 3 auto workers & their supervisor construct verbal warfare while striking base human emotions & needs.  Reggie is the supervisor of 3 company employees (who were far superior actors.)  Faye (Lynda Gravatt, Bwy Cat on a…) is the union leader, Dez (Jason Dirden, B'wy "Raisin" & Fences) and Shanita (a riveting Nikiya Mathis.)  Faye is the wise & wizened leader.  She vicariously walks the line between management/worker while scraping pay check to pay check.  Dez carries ambition, charm & ammunition (in his backpack.)  Shanita is pregnant & on an emotional roller coaster.  The sexual banter between her & Dez (not the baby daddy) is bristling with intensity.  Faced with mounting fear of impending layoffs, desperation constantly builds.  "How can you do battle without being caught in the skirmish?"  Morisseay intelligent and engaging play is a muscular medium for social change.  Her writing, worthy of a Pulitzer, connects you like a cog into the assemblage of humanity.

Italian Dir Paolo Sorrentino's YOUTH with Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel

Italian dir Sorrentino won an Oscar for best foreign film with The Great Beauty (2013.)  YOUTH directed & written by Sorrentino is an English speaking film set in a resort in the Swiss Alps starring an A list cast.  Caine is a retired composer/conductor beseeched to perform for the Queen.  Rachel Weitz is his distraught daughter. Keitel plays Caine's lifelong friend, a successful movie director (and Weitz's father-in-law.) While at this idyllic, isolated haven, Keitel is working on a new picture to star Paul Dano and Jane Fonda (in a small role in this film.)  Of course, there are no small parts, only small actors.  And, life is not a dress rehearsal, don't postpone joy.  Both Caine & Keitel play off each other with wit & charm. This exquisitely shot film is lush with meditative beauty, sensuality, joy, humor, sorrow, fame, legacies, music and endless emotions.  The film is a pastiche of heaven, hell & purgatory. Weitz and Dano are pitch perfect in their roles; Weitz the beautiful, bereft wife and Dano the frustrated actor.  There are minions of characters and they all add richness to the exotic fabric of the film.  Keitel tells Caine "we're all just extras" and "all we have are our emotions."  Dano refuses to take the role of Hitler; "we can all choose horror or pleasure and I choose pleasure."  Weitz accuses her father of being apathetic.  Weitz is proved wrong in her assessment.  Caine is the antithesis of indifference.  I was totally smitten with this artistic & stirring movie.  YOUTH deserves admiration and multiple Oscar nominations.  I left the theater levitating.  The only thing needed were more cowbells.  Oh blah dee - this is a must see!

The Hungarian Film SON of SAUL-A Soul's Journey in Auschwitz

Hungarian director Laslo Nemes' 1st feature film SON of SAUL won the Grand Prix in the 2015 Film Festival.  The Germ/Hungarian/ langue movie with English subtitles is a relentless exposure to the heinous, systematic mass murders of WWII seen through the eyes of a Jewish prisoner, Saul.  Saul is a  "Sonder-Kommando:" Jewish prisoner that abetted Nazis leading people to their deaths and transferring  corpses to the crematorium.  They clean the gas chambers & scavange belongings for valuables.  In exchange, "Son-Kommandos" are kept alive (temporarily) & provided better rations/conditions.  This is by far the most excruciating film I have ever experienced.  The movie makes you endure the unbearable (unless you elect to leave or choose not to witness the atrocities of WWII.)  Saul herds men/women into shedding their clothes & into the "showers" knowing he is leading them into the gas chambers.  There are multitudes of strewn, unclothed bodies.  We are spared seeing faces of the dead except for a young boy miraculously found breathing when they enter to remove the dead.  The nazi commandant suffocates the boy & orders his autopsy.  Saul takes extreme risks putting himself & fellow  "Kommandos" in peril by seeking a Jewish burial for this boy he claims as his son.  Perhaps Saul is no longer capable of participating in the mass murders of his fellow Jews and is seeking some redemption.  This is not a movie to recommend or condemn.  It is a momentous testament to the atrocities inflicted on mankind.  Nonetheless, there are no innocent bystanders.  

The King and I at Linc Ctr-Shall You See It? Absolutely!

Rodgers & Hammerstein's (R&H) beloved musical 1st premiered on B'wy in 1951.  Yul Brynner & Deborah Karr starred in the unforgettable 1956 film.  I've enjoyed the film several times and looked forward to the memorable classics "Getting to Know You," "Shall We Dance," and "I Whistle a Happy Tune," performed with a live orchestra and sung by the queen of B'wy musicals, Kelly O'Hara (South Pacific, Tony Award.)  I was reminded of the genius of (R&H's) music & lyrics.  The show is timeless for its artistry.  What I had forgotten, were the prominent, strong anti-slavery messages.  Anna (Kelly O'Hara) is a British schoolteacher who moves to Siam to tutor the many children from the many wives to the King of Siam in the 1860's.  The musical takes a light hearted approach to a boorish ruler who unwittingly subjugates his people, multiple wives and women.  However, the King is no Simon Legree.  He admires Pres Lincoln & becomes more open minded as he gets to know Anna and broadens his horizons. The women/children of Siam put on a beautiful choreographed depiction of "Uncle Tom's Cabin," to demonstrate to foreign dignitaries the King is not a barbarian.  Harriet Beecher Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin," lays the groundwork for the anti-slavery thrust of The KING and I. I had forgotten the poignant and haunting song "I Have Dreamed" from the musical.  Perhaps, this song inspired Martin Luther King famous civil liberties speech "I Have Dream," (1963.)   I left the show whistling a happy tune.  I also left with a deeper appreciate for its social/political importance.        

The Film ANOMALISA is an Animated Anomaly

ANOMALISA deviates from what's expected and that's exactly what makes this an exceptional film.  Directed by Charlie Kaufman (ADAPTATION) & Duke Johnson (MARRYING GOD) have made an animated movie for adults about the mundane & insane life of adults.  From beginning to end, you're held captive by this feature film which is unlike other films even when the story fails to gain loft.  High praise goes to the creative animators for their artistry which creates a bewitching facade for a mundane tale of a philandering middle-age man.  Charlie Stone is the central character in a cast of cartoonish faces that are creepy in their similarity and alarming in their identical sounding voices (Jennifer Jason Leigh.)  Stone possesses the only unique voice with a British accent.  He is an author of motivational employee books that drive every business' performance up 90%.  Charlie is on a speaking tour in Cincinatti; sin city.  He appears as a benign, weary traveler.  Looks are deceiving and the stylish look of this movie is devilishy disturbing.  The movie becomes more bizarre as Charlie hits on women in the hotel bar.  The film creates a pervasive feeling of being in purgatory tettering on the border of Hell.  ANOMALISA is Dante's Inferno unleashed.  I would tell you to see this.  It open a Pandora's Box of  discussion.

The REVENANT Stars Leo DiCaprio-He Should Get an Oscar

The REVENANT is an epic story of survival and revenge set in the harsh, wintry western frontier in the 1820's.  The untamed frontier & brutal winter landscape are finely featured.  The cinematography is breathtaking. I was swept into the freezing waterfalls.  I felt the bitter cold & filth on screen.  Nature is a force to be reckoned with but man's harshest enemy is not the elements but man himself.  Revenant is the story of Glass (DiCaprio,) who seemingly returns from the dead.  Glass lived among the Pawnee tribe.  He & his son survived a horrific massacre against their tribe.  Glass becomes a hired guide for his exceptional survival & navigating skills.  His strengths are no match for a mother grizzly who nearly mauls Glass to death, rendering him lame & near death.  (Glass' tangle with the grizzly is unbearable yet riveting.  The regiment captain (Irish actor Domhall Gleeson, BROOKLYN) realizes he needs to leave Glass behind & pays a sinister soldier to stand vigil along with Glass' son & another young recruit.  Mexican director, Alejandro Inarritu (BIRDMAN) delivers an incredibly powerful story of survival, violence and revenge.  The dir. captures the savagery in the lawless, unchartered regions in all its gore & glory between numerous warring factions.  The REVENANT is a rare epic movie that elevates movie making to a higher plane.  The puny faults I found lied with the distracting score and the absence of breath vapors in such frigid conditions.   "Hold onto every breath."

Britrish Film 45 YEARS Starring Charlotte Rampling

British actress Charlotte Rampling (b. 1946) is a well recognized face from screen and print.  She is a fine actress who doesn't mind allowing the lines of aging to show.  In this dawdling film Rampling plays Kate married to Jeff (Tom Courtenay.)  The comfortable couple are about to have their 45th wedding anniversary.  They live somewhere in the solitude of the country.  They've retired and grown staid.  Kate notes how they've "forgotten the things in life that make you happy."  Their banal, bucolic companionship takes a seismic shift after Jeff receives a letter informing him that the body of the woman whom he "would have married" if she hadn't died in a horrific accident when they were in their early 20's.  Tom is sure he's mentioned to Kate about Katrina even though this was before they had met.  However, he failed to delve into any meaningful detail about this relationship.  This movie moves at a snails pace.  The days are enumerated to provide some sense of momentum towards their big celebration.  The acting by Rampling & Courtenay is something to cheer & celebrate.  They give heartfelt credible performances of a couple seemingly in tune with one another, until they're not.  The burning question is how well can a person really know another.  Or, how willing is a person to really share themselves with another person.  The musical score is notably Amer pop from the 60's, a time when Kate/Jeff were young & 1st in love. Tom toasts his wife by saying "The choices made when young are very important."  This thoughtful film is not geared for a young demographic but should be well received & appreciated by a mature audience.

NYPhil Rehearsal Performs Sibelius and Strauss

Today's open rehearsal was conducted by Alan Gilbert.  A major part of the enjoyment to the rehearsals is to witness the intimate collaboration between maestro Gilbert and his orchestra members.  The concert began with the announcement of the passing of a member of the their orchestral family for whom the performance was dedicated.  The first piece on the program was the Sibelius' (b. Finaldn 1865-19270 En saga, Tone Poem for a large orchestra.  The rich, jubilant meldoies reverberated with double winds: flutes, piccolos, oboes, clarinets, bassoons.  In addition there were 3 trumpets, 4 horns, 3 tombones, tuba, cymbals, bass drum, triangle & strings.  The plucking of the violin stromgs provided a  brighter element.  I felt a sorrowful response in contrast to the lighthearted movements.  STRAUS' (b. Germany1864-1949) Op. 27, #1 & 2 is a more somber piece featuring soprano Heidi Melton (in her NYPhil debut) and Erick Owens singing the bass-baritone Opus 33, #4.  The admission ($20) makes a plethora of musical performances enticing for works I wouldn't ordinarily seek.  The sombre German piece  included a harpist which echoed with a bright accent to  the vocals.  I appreciated being privy to watching Gilbert confer privately to Melton with his hand on her shoulder and noting her friendly, receptive response.  Owens and Gilbert exhcanged some laughter during pausal notations.  The expanisve repertoire and the intimate interactions between conductor, soloists and orchestra are an enlightening aspect with all rehearsals.

Maurice Hines TAPPIN' thru LIFE-More Yappin than Tappin but It's All Good

I was charmed by this musical autobiographical singing/dancing/multi-media recap of Maurice Hines' rise to shine on stage; along with his brother Gregory.  Maurice the big brother may have been cast in his brother's shadow in later years.  Gregory was a cross over star on stage & screen, earning a Tony and dancing on film with Barishnikov (White Knights.)  Sadly, Gregory "transitioned" in ('03) at the age of 57.  However, this is a jubilant show filled with family photos, an all "diva" jazz band, singing and 2 sets of young siblings who demonstrated remarkable tappin' skills.  The jealous jabbing at the 2 young Manzari brothers by Maurice was intended to tip the hat to tap's thriving LEGacy.  The Manzari brothers did their own choreography and I would follow them to watch their fancy footwork.  Maurice did his own choreography - what little there was,  and sang too much. But, hey, Maurice is 72 and while he didn't entertain with a lot of razzle dazzle dance, entertain he did.  We took a stroll down memory lane.  This included the shame of segregation in the 50's; a cruel awakening to the Hines brothers.  The young brothers were a major act in Vegas but not permitted to stay in the hotels where they were performing.  Invited to swim as a guest by the legendary Talulah Bankhead at her hotel's pool, Maurice said Gregory noticed everyone leaving when they entered.  And, afterwards, they watched as the pool was drained.  In spite of our ignominious racial bigotry, this delightful 90 minute show is overflowing with warmth, familial bonds and the love for tap dancing.  I would have loved more dancing.  Still, I fervently recommend this show.  It is both a testament to tap, talent and the effervescent joy that comes through music & dance.