Celebrate New York City, River to River
Will you be in New York City this month? Whether you live here or you’re visiting, the River-to-River festival will transport you to picturesque parts of the city where you can see a zesty array of downtown stars. The festival, with events in Manhattan and Governors Island, takes place in June this year instead of July.
All performances are free. Here are some of the highlights:
As part of Twyla Tharp’s 50th anniversary year, 100 community members will join dancers from Tharp’s current company in The One Hundreds. This piece got its name from the number of 11-second phrases that are performed one after another in silence. Each 11 seconds are chock full of fun, inventive movement. Catch it at Rockefeller Park, downtown on the banks of the Hudson River, on June 20.
Trisha Brown: In Plain Site will offer an afternoon of Brown’s early works through Lower Manhattan’s Wagner Park. This may include Sticks, Spanish Dance, Spirals or Eights—all of which reveal Brown’s brilliance at simple structures in the 1970s. College dance majors have read about seminal works in dance history courses, but this is a chance to see them live, June 21.
Other highlights of the River to River Festival, which is a project of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council:
• Michele Boulé in White at Peck Slip Plaza
• Souleymane Badolo’s Dance My Life on Pier 15 on the East River
• Rachel Tess and Benoît Lachambre in These are bodies, These are motions, This is the place, on Governors Island
• Wally Cardona with Jennifer Lacey in The Set Up: Saya Lei (Cardona talks about The Set Up in this engaging “Choreography in Focus”)
• Eiko Otake in her beautifully devastating Body in a Station series at Fulton Center in the financial district
Get to know New York’s rivers as you get to know the work of some of the city’s top dance artists. For full calendar of all R2R events, including dance and the other arts, click here.
Above: Michelle Boulé in
White. Photo by Ian Douglas.