paul in the park
paul taylor performance free this evening!

I am super excited about tonight's free performances. In anticipation, I have watched an early filmed version of Esplanade on Youtube, probably 10 times already. Here is my favorite section from the dance, the very last section which is the most kinetic and also the most urgent. Much of my dance work owes a lot to this dance. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHkciz_yYYI&feature=related

Things I will be thinking about during tonight's performance: How the performance of Esplanade has evolved over the generations of dancers who have danced it... how has the virtuosity of the technique expanded and what has been lost/gained. Also, I will be thinking of its splendid beauty.

And just to refresh, tonight's performances begin at 7.30pm with Paul Taylor 2, the apprentice company. They will perform 3 Epitaphs followed by Esplanade. The senior company will then perform Airs, Syzygy, and Company B. Performances take place at Damrosch Park as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. For those of you who don't know where that is (I didn't until I looked it up,) it is located at 70 Lincoln Center Plaza & W 62nd St, New York, 10023. Telephone: (212) 875-5456

Take the 1 train to W 66th and walk down, the Bandshell is nestled between Amsterdam Ave and W 62nd. 

Paul Taylor 2 will continue to celebrate his 80th birthday dance season with another free performance, August 13th with Naganuma Dance Company at the East River Amphitheater. Performance starts at 7. The bill will include Airs and Company B.

***

I will see this performance tonight as a parting gift from nyc to me before I leave for Martha's Vineyard. My trip will include a long bus ride followed by a steamship ferry. I leave August 7th and will not be back again until September 30th. During my stay, I will update my blog frequently-- covering the dance classes, performances, lectures, and beauty of the island. I hope to take pictures and films, draw, and send postcards to my dearest friends and family.

Here's to safe travels, beautiful summer vacations, and free dance in the park :)

peace and love dear readers,

melissa

when grocery shopping becomes rocket science
and why the middle class should protest whole foods

I am just perusing the internet when I come across an article on SILive, the Staten Island Advance's online mag. Trader Joes, an organic, reasonably priced, bulk grocery store may or may not be setting some roots on Staten Island in the near future. That's awesome. No really, I love buying organic, holistic foods at unusually low costs. I shopped there quite frequently when I was living in Brooklyn.

What really grabbed my attention though was a statement regarding other gourmet grocery stores that were courting the island. Apparently, if you want a Whole Foods in your neighborhood, you need a college degree. Yep, that's right folks. If you want access to privileged tomatoes and soy milk, you need to have worn the ole' cap and gown.

"Whole Foods, he said, requires 42 percent of the population around its stores to hold a bachelor’s degree — a criterion the Island doesn’t meet." Slepian, Do Say it's So: Trader Joes, SILive.com)

It's like that song: I'm all lost in the supermarket, I can no longer shop happily...

Someone on the message board argued that's because people with degrees tend to have higher paying jobs and are therefore less likely to be on public assistance.

This gives a new definition to the term, "smart foods". My immediate reaction when I read this was that the people behind Whole Foods, the CEO's and big shots in an office somewhere, are primarily white and that doesn't automatically mean they are smart. Staten Island, for instance, does not meet their requirements for high education minimums. However, there are tons of families-- middle class and affluent, that would patronize their stores, hence bringing up their revenue and spreading their products even further. It is true that people from towns and neighborhoods in a place like Staten Island tend to be loyal customers, so their sales would be fairly consistent.

Now, I think that people with higher education degrees would be less inclined to shop at a place like Whole Foods where you can get anything you can get at Trader Joes or the organic section at Pathmark or Shoprite, at double (sometimes triple) the price. Do the math. While the company may argue that their products are of higher quality, I think it is a no brainer that they appeal to neighborhoods where mindless folk will splurge to buy Thai Jasmine rice from the rarest rice farms in the world, when you can just as easily buy Goyas Jasmine Thai rice from Key Foods at a fraction of the cost. I know this because we once went looking for rice in Whole Foods and were astounded (well, not really) that they did not have rice in bulk and did not have reasonable prices.

I think this is an elitist requirement to open any store and I am all for higher education. Yet, I am not very surprised. I thought supermarkets were there to provide people with the foundations of healthy, well stocked kitchens and homes without much discrimination. I have a degree (two, in fact) and do not have a high paying job. And it is a fact that I prefer organic, natural foods and household products. So, I welcome Trader Joes, a place where you can get those things at very decent prices. Poo poo to Whole Foods, we'll leave you for the unknowing tourists at Union Square. 

-m

remembering merce

The sun shined brightly as I arrived at Battery City Park around 7.00pm for the River to River presentation of the dancer's celebration of Merce Cunningham's life. It is one year since he has passed and the dance community honored him by presenting dances from Susan Marshall, Lucinda Childs, Bill T. Jones and others. Though I arrived late, I was able to catch a few dance.

I arrived in the middle of Lucinda Childs' piece, Dance, which I have seen excerpted before. It was beautifully tedious, the dancers in white pants and shoes and grey t-shirts. They were absolutely committed to the petite allegro-like movements, the fast paced constant motion despite the intensity of the mid-summer heat and sun. I was glad I got there when I did. Lucinda is a quiet choreographer, to me. She is not like Paul Taylor or Twyla, who rely on their companies and names, signatures of their notoriety. However, her work is transfixing, it is like an endorphin rush. I love the pure movement commitment of the choreography. This is a piece I would perform in, in a heartbeat!!

The other two pieces I saw contrasted very much. One piece, in which an artist (I do not know her name), performed like a  slapstick banshee. Dressed in black, the curvy dancer frenzied through faces, screams, and popular dance moves in mockery and hysteria. I did not appreciate her aesthetic, it was plain, executed in mediocre fashion and lost my interest nearly immediately. I hate to be so harsh, but I wonder how this work made it to the River-to-River Festival.

The last performance was Bill T. Jones. Oh, Bill T. Any choreographer that has Jennifer Nugent working for him, is alright in my books. She was absolutely stunning in this very simple and slow gestural meditation. Recently, the New York Times got down on him about lacking content and choreographic ingenuity but this piece was so beautiful. It was like a poem to an old friend. Bill T. did a solo at the end which was simple and mesmerizing all at once.  That may be because of his history, his age, the fact that the concert was a tribute to Merce, but this dance was the one that stood out as a subtle tribute. I felt Merce during this dance.

How wonderful to have a dance like a prayer, a ritual. A beautiful homage to a man whose spirit was in his feet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8Z3yRkvzyM

This is the link to a youtube vid of Lucinda's Dance