By Walter Rutledge
Fall is in full swing and is quickly ushering in the holiday arts season. This week we honor dance in Brooklyn, celebrate Jazz on Staten Island, and watch Denzel Washington save a western town. Here are a few of the many events taking place in the city that never sleeps guaranteed to get you Out and About.
GCC, Positive Pathways (+), a healthy-lifestyle movement has apparently taken hold in the Middle East, a trend examined in sculpture and video by this collective of Gulf region artists having its gallery debut at the Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery 534 W 26th St through November 26, 2016.
Rashid Johnson’s multimedia work has grown to encompass a wide range of everyday materials and objects while exploring diverse ways of expressing his experience as an African-American. His latest exhibition at Hauser & Wirth gallery in Chelsea through October 22 (his biggest in New York to date), its theme of escape and how that relates to the arc of black history .
The 32nd annual Bessie Awards, presented in association with the Brooklyn Academy of Music, will take place on Tuesday, October 18, 2016, at 7:30pm, at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House.
The Bessie Awards ceremony will feature a performance by Joya Powell, recipient of the 2016 Outstanding Emerging Choreographer Award, Donald McKayle’s Rainbow ’Round My Shoulder (2016 Bessie for Outstanding Revival), performed by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and produced by Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, and an all-star tap tribute to Brenda Bufalino.
The 38 nominees were selected by the Bessie Awards Selection Committee, an independent committee of 40 dance industry professionals. Produced in partnership with Dance/NYC, Bessie Award categories include Outstanding Production, Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Performer, Outstanding Music Composition or Sound Design, and Outstanding Visual Design. The list of nominations follows.
The 2016 Bessie Nominations and Recipients
Outstanding Production:
luciana achugar
An Epilogue for OTRO TEATRO: True Love
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Souleymane Badolo
Yimbégré: Replanting roots in the name of freedom
BAM Fishman Space
Camille A. Brown
Black Girl: Linguistic Play
The Joyce Theater
Jack Ferver and Marc Swanson
Chambre
The New Museum co-presented by FIAF
Pat Graney
Girl Gods
Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University
Maria Hassabi
PLASTIC
MoMA
Heather Kravas
dead, disappears
American Realness at Abrons Arts Center
Ralph Lemon
Scaffold Room
The Kitchen
Dada Masilo
Swan Lake
The Joyce Theater
Justin Peck
Heatscape
Miami City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Liz Santoro & Pierre Godard
For Claude Shannon
The Kitchen
Safi A. Thomas with H+ | The Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory
Sleeping Beauty
Flamboyán Theater
Outstanding Revival:
Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder
Choreographed by Donald McKayle
Performed by Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
Produced by Paul Taylor American Modern Dance
David H. Koch Theater
Outstanding Performer:
Ephrat Asherie
Sustained Achievement with Dorrance Dance, Doug Elkins, Bill Irwin, Gus Solomon jr., Rennie Harris, Cori Olinghouse, and many others
Nicolas Bruder
In Custodians of Beauty by Pavel Zuštiak
New York Live Arts
Omar Edwards
In FLY
New Victory Theater
Paul Hamilton
For his body of work including Ralph Lemon’s Scaffold Room and the work of Jane Comfort, Keeley Garfield, and others
Parisa Khobdeh
For her body of work with Paul Taylor Dance Company
Kazunori Kumagai
For his body of work including Live at the Blue Note Late Night Groove Series
Jennifer Lafferty
In Catacomb by Beth Gill
The Chocolate Factory
Molly Lieber
For her body of work with several artists including luciana achugar, Maria Hassabi, and Donna Uchizono
Aaron Mattocks
In Big Dance: Short Form by Big Dance Theater
The Kitchen
Gillian Murphy
Sustained Achievement with American Ballet Theatre
Aakash Odedra
In Rising
Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
Jamar Roberts
Sustained Achievement with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Outstanding Emerging Choreographer:
Joya Powell
Outstanding Music Composition/Sound Design:
Admanda Kobilka
For Clap Hands by Jen Rosenblit
Invisible Dog Art Center / New York Live Arts
Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste
For #negrophobia by Jaamil Olawale Kosoko | anonymous bodies
Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center
Dan Trueman, Sō Percussion, and Mobius Percussion
For There Might Be Others by Rebecca Lazier
New York Live Arts
Ustatshakirt Plus
For Dream’d in a Dream by Seán Curran
BAM Harvey Theater
Outstanding Visual Design:
Holly Batt
For the visual and set design of Girl Gods by Pat Graney
Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University
Design Team: F. Randy deCelle, Ralph Lemon, Roderick Murray, Naoko Nagata, R. Eric Stone, Mike Taylor, and Philip White
For the visual design of Scaffold Room by Ralph Lemon
The Kitchen
DD Dorvillier and Thomas Dunn
For the lighting and visual design of Extra Shapes by DD Dorvillier
The Kitchen
Eamonn Farrell
For the new media scenography of Forgiveness by Emily Berry | B3W Performance Group
BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center
2016 NY Dance and Performance Award for Lifetime Achievement in Dance:
Brenda Bufalino
Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance Organization:
The Jerome Robbins Dance Division of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Outstanding Service to the Field of Dance Individual:
Alex Smith, Executive Chairman of the Thelma Hill Performing Arts Center
The irresistible message of Mira Nair’s big-hearted Disney feel-good film Queen of Katwe is that when kids grow up in poverty, the world misses out on some of its best and brightest talents. Set in one of Uganda’s poorest slums, Katwe (pronounced Kah-tway), this English-language film is based on the story of real-life chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi, who overcame two impossible hurdles—being poor and being a girl—to become a teenage champion.
Queen of Katwe
The Magnificent Seven is a heavy-on-the-action remake of the classic 1960 Western with a starry cast led by Denzel Washington. This is a tale about a black hero and his six men who clean up a besieged town from rapacious businessmen, it feels like an unambiguously fond farewell to the Obama years. Regardless the film holds its own against the original.
The Magnificent Seven
Staten Island JAZZ Festival 29 will take place on Saturday, October 15, 2016 from 2PM until 7PM at the historic Music Hall at Snug Harbor Cultural Center Botanical Garden. This is the 29th consecutive celebration featuring all aspects of the jazz experience including music, dance, song, art and spoken word.
This year’s featured performers include Hamiet Bluiett, Winard Harper, Danny Mixon, Kiane Zawadi, Leopoldo Fleming Afro-Caribbean Jazz Ensemble, Betty Shirley, and Rod Rodgers Dance Company. There will also be a special tribute to Staten Island local jazz artist Vinnie Ruggieri. Ruggieri, a longtime friend of UTA and performer at the festival, will be honored posthumously.
In addition to performances the festival will offer free morning workshops in improvisational music (vocal and instrumental), dance, and collage art, based on the work of renowned African-American artist, Romare Bearden from 10:30am to 1:30pm. Pre-festival activities will culminate with a panel discussion titled “The History and Future of Jazz.” For tickets and/or more information visit utasi.org/Eventsjazz2016.html.
Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios—Cabinet of Curiosities is a procession of wonders: the Canadian circus giant’s sharpest, sexiest, most stylish production in years. In a departure from the otherwordly themes for which Cirque is best known, writer-director Michel Laprise embraces a steampunk aesthetic: metal and leather, chunky robots, glowing filaments under glass, a singer with a phonograph horn on her head.
Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios—Cabinet of Curiosities
Fit for a Queen inspired by the life of Hatshepsut, the only woman who ruled as a pharaoh in ancient Egypt. The most dangerous opponent to Hatshepsut’s kingship turns out to be her own daughter. Full of intrigue, farce, and sexual politics, Fit for a Queen illuminates the largely unknown history of a compelling African woman who took power over the most advanced civilization the ancient world had yet known. the production run through October 30 at 3LD Art & Technology Center, 80 Greenwich Street, NYC 10006
Bloody Mary Battle: Get ready for a spicy good time when the Bloody Mary Battle kicks off Saturday, November 12, 2016 at Villain. Over 15 specially curated, best of the best, bars & restaurants send their mixologists in to compete for the title of Best Bloody Mary in NYC. Tickets start at $35 general admission and VIP admission $45
The Gazillion Bubble Show, 340 West 50th Street, will amaze your whole family with mind-blowing bubble magic. Step into an interactive bubble world and be dazzled by spellbinding lasers, spectacular lighting effects, and jaw-dropping masterpieces of bubble artistry. It will make you smile, laugh, and feel like a kid all over again!
We look forward to seeing you Out and About