ANIKAI Dance Theater
Texts from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, MacBeth, Titus Andronicus and Othello
Selected and compiled by Wendy Jehlen
Direction, concept: Wendy Jehlen
Choreographer: Wendy Jehlen with Pradhuman Nayak
ANIKAI Dance Theater premieres “The Knocking Within,” a new text-based work looking at insanity and a dysfunctional relationship through texts from three of Shakespeare’s tragedies – Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and Titus Andronicus.
The scenes will not play out in a linear manner, but rather will be woven into each other, so that the effect is of the disorientation of unmitigated mental illness and a relationship out of control, or is it the nightmares of two lovers?
Show Times:
Tues 1/17 @ 6:00pm
Fri 1/20 @ 8:30pm
Sun 1/22 @ 3:00pm
Answers by Wendy Jehlen
Artistic Director
ANIKAI Dance
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture? Wendy Jehlen:
We are from India and the US, by birth. However, this work, and all ANIKAI works, draws on influences and deep study of traditions from throughout the world. The subjects are also universal – dreaming, the space between waking and sleeping, relationship, love, fear. I believe that our work speaks to that culture of people who do not identify themselves with any one place, but rather with a global community. Continue Reading…
Libby Skala in A Time to Dance photo by Damon Calderwood
A Time to Dance
written and performed by Libby Skala
The story of a pioneering Austrian who transcends poverty, artistic repression and the rise of Hitler through the magic of dance.
Show Times:
Tuesday, 1/17 @ 6pm
Friday, 1/20 @ 9pm
Sunday, 1/22 @ 3pm
Answers by Libby Skala (Playwright, Director, Producer, Performer)
Karen Tortora-Lee’s Question
This is an international festival. What part of the world are you coming from … and will your show tantalize the NYC audience with a taste of your nation’s culture? Libby Skala: I’m first generation American, but my great aunt, in whose voice the play is written, came from Vienna, Austria. Through the narration of her life, the audience travels a fanciful journey through Vienna’s artistic, socio-economic and political environment during the early part of the 20th century, and then onto America where she built a new life.
Of all the things to be tempted with this holiday season, nothing is so tantalizing as Company XIV’s production of Snow White which lures audiences to 303 Bond Street with all the seduction of an evil queen extending a shiny, beautiful, apple in order to cast a magical spell. One thing is certain – there is definitely something bewitching the spectators who walk in innocently and emerge 90 minutes later – filled to overflowing with images of exquisiteness and spectacle. If that’s not magic, I don’t know what is.
The lights are hung, // The wires strung, // The sets are all painted and built The make-up’s applied // And I’ll say it outright: // The gold you will see is just gilt. The kingdom and forest is plastic and steel // But the dancing feet are real.
And so begins the narrator’s speech as Jeff Takacs (who, as with all of the Company XIV productions, is responsible for the adaptation of the work, and has written the script) welcomes the audience to Snow White, conceived, choreographed and directed by Austin McCormick. It’s the perfect way to begin a fairytale: with the truth — that all the dazzling bells and whistles which make this show shine are remarkable, but take it all away and you’d still have the amazing dancers, executing the superb steps created by McCormick. However, between the whirling and the witchery is where the wonder lives.
Break dancing, waving, popping, locking, and expanding the very definition of hip-hop style, the dancers in Decadancetheatre’s When the Sky Breaks 3D weave a radiant and essential story, moving beyond narrative dance and into an abstract world where environment is infused, challenged, and released through the body.
When the Sky Breaks 3D is directed by Jennifer Weber and choreographed and performed by The Deca Crew: Megan “Megz” Alfonso, Ann-sylvia Clark, Lucile “Frak” Graciano, Taeko Koji, Casandra “Defy” Rivera, and Adaku Utah.
The performance is set in an urban landscape with 3D visuals by Holly Daggers, reflecting city streets, buildings, and fences, transforming and morphing the physical environment by the elements and the rising and setting sun. DJ Boo keeps the beat and the energy high, creating a musical immersion into the world when the sky breaks.
Meet Anna. In Anna & The Annadroids: Memoirs of a Robot Girl- an interesting combination of modern dance, techno music, social commentary, science fiction, multimedia, and a bit of burlesque – Anna is an android who is made of ”pure synthetic organic flesh”. So instead of being made only of metal with a “mind full of microchips” she’s got a heart filled with “…love…passion…confusion…pure sexuality”. The dancing and aerial acrobatics of Anna Sullivan (Anna), are accompanied with ambient, driving techno beats created by various artists which she performs while wearing beautiful costumes created by Elizabeth Harzoff. The acrobatics seem to correspond to times of dreams (whether regular or daydreams) as something seems to be making her concentrate on something other than reality.
Yes, we may have Fringe on the brain, but that doesn’t mean that other things aren’t going on this weekend. And, quite fittingly one of those other things is something called The OTHERS Project. Paul Bedard, co artistic director for Theater in Asylum, took a moment to chat with me about a very exciting evening of theater, music, dance, poetry and drinks that will be going on this Sunday night. Read on as Paul explains their particular definition of “asylum”, how they’re using their themes, and what their version of Frankenstein will look like …
I’m glad when they arrive and I’m glad when they leave. I’m glad when I hear their heels approaching my door and I’m glad when those heels walk away. I’m glad to fuck. I’m glad to care. And I’m glad when it’s over. And since it’s always either starting or finishing I’m glad most of the time.
– Charles Bukowski
It’s obvious that Austin McCormick’s grasp of creating a theatre experience reaches far beyond what merely happens on stage. The more I attend performances in the Company XIV space at 303 Bond Street in Brooklyn the more I am treated to McCormick’s all-encompassing way of choreographing not only movement but sensation. From the way the space transforms each time into a whole new configuration to the heady red wine that greets you (or bubbly sparking water for those who don’t partake) to the strange set that seems almost unfinished in spots, you know it’s all carefully constructed – nothing haphazard or random ever occurs here – and once the lights go out and the projections appear it all makes sense. More than sense – it all makes magic.
Just when you think that an Austin McCormick experience can’t get any more divine, any more sensual, or any more stunningly wicked, he whips up another tray of tempting treats which enthrall and delight you into a dumbfounded trance. Ahhh, Austin. You know what you and Company XIV have done to me. You’ve spoiled me for every other dance company in New York City. So yes, while others are flocking to (yawn) New York City Ballet to take in another predictable performance of George Balanchine’s “The Nutcracker” or pandering to Tinseltown’s “let’s get another take” and “we’ll fix that in the editing room” Black Swan – those who want the opportunity to have an amazing, mesmerizing, transcendent night of decadence, dance and debauchery will come to 303 Bond and let their senses be delighted.
Okay, so – yeah . . . maybe Alter Ego is actually not usually appropriate for children. But you can be there, thinking of them! Because this Sunday – December 19th Alter Ego is having a very special Toys for Tots benefit performance party – at Fontana’swhich is exactly the place you wanna be thinking of wee Tots as you knock back your fifth tequila of the night and watch exotic belly dancing, alternative underground comedy, twisted freak folk music, avant garde antics, sultry modern dance, break-dancing straight from the streets, bawdy burlesque and Santa Elvis!
Entrance is free HOWEVER you MUST bring an *unwrapped* gift for a child. Cash donations are also accepted but not as fun.
Doors open at 7:30pm. Show starts downstairs at 8pm. Holiday fun party is upstairs in the main bar directly after the show until the wee wee hours!
“How delightful are the pleasures of the imagination! In those delectable moments, the whole world is ours; not a single creature resists us, we devastate the world, the means to every crime is ours, and we employ them all, we multiply the horror a hundredfold.”
– Marquis de Sade
The Company XIV ensemble Dénouement—A Murderous Masquerade (Photographer: Corey Tatarczuk)
Company XIV has joined up with Brave New World Repertory Theatre to create a show that, in three acts, covers all the grown-up Halloween thoughts that haunt the recesses of the minds of those too old to go door to door asking for candy on the appointed day.
To step into the space of Company XIV is to surrender yourself to the world that Austin McCormick and his cohorts create. First act – Dénouement —A Murderous Masquerade – is at once devilish, devious, and delirious – it will beguile you, possess you, and then -once it’s had its way with you- will leave you emotionally drained, begging for more.
