In some ways, APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters) makes the dance world go round. Without this annual meeting ground of presenters and small performing arts groups from all over the country, very few dance companies would get work. Yes, you can send your video to a potential presenter, but if they can see you perform live, they are more likely to know if your work is right for their audience.
APAP showcases are spread throughout NYC and they cover the gamut—muscular modern, chamber ballet, minimal conceptual, tap, urban dance, classical Indian and more. I attended only five of the hordes of showcases (40 groups were listed at the Ailey building alone in the last two days). It’s hard to keep track but even if you’re not a presenter, APAP provides a chance to catch up on your favorite artists’ current work and see groups new to you. It can be as thrilling to rediscover an old flame as to discover a new name.
Getting gigs through APAP means that the people who book you can see your offstage personality too. Cynthia Oliver showed BOOM! at the Live Artery series at New York Live Arts, and the crowd could see not only that she had created a gutsy, funny, harrowing duet, but also, in the brief talk afterward, that she speaks easily and eloquently about her work.
For me it was a chance to see out-of-town artists I hadn’t seen before, for instance San Francisco’s Keith Hennessy in his shamanistic Bear/Skin solo, as well as work by cherished New York artists that I can’t always keep up with. Tere O'Connor, Miguel Gutierrez (both part of American Realness) and John Jasperse (in Live Artery) always push the boundaries in ways that are stimulating.
Anyone who has a hankering for Israeli dance would have enjoyed Out of Israel, the showcase of five excerpts at the 92nd Street Y’s Harkness Dance Center. Zvi Gotheiner’s energized dancers threaded through his spirited Dabke. Idan Porges, a performer who blew me away in Barak Marshall's Rooster a few years ago, is now making his own work—very much his own. In Danielle Agami’s new piece, For Now, each dancer breaks out of a mask of diffidence to explode in their own way.
I was happy to see a new showcase titled Emerging Women of Color at the Ailey building, organized by dancer-turned-booker Francine Sheffield. I was impressed by strong work from Ananya Chatterjea’s fierce, Odissi-based women of Minneapolis and Christal Brown/Inspirit’s foray into the life of Muhammad Ali. I also discovered a new name, Danielle Russo, an NYU grad who paired two guys in a gripping battle between aggression and intimacy. Weird confrontations—chin to throat, crown of head to chest, violent crashing into confident strutting—locked these two in a sweaty, sexy world of their own.
There’s one more day to APAP and I am not done seeing things or taking workshops. Whether you’re on the giving or getting end, I hope you enjoy it.
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Jan 25, 2021
Still frrom Shobana Jeyasingh's Contagion, courtesy Sadler's Wells
This Free Online Festival Showcases the Crème de la Crème of the U.K. Dance Scene
As most theaters across the world remain closed, London's contemporary dance hub Sadler's Wells and cultural broadcaster BBC Arts have come together to produce a day-long digital dance festival on January 28.
Dancing Nation will showcase 15 new and beloved works by world-class, U.K.-based companies and choreographers over three hour-long, pre-recorded segments. Highlights will include Akram Khan and Natalia Osipova performing together for the first time in Mud of Sorrow: Touch, a new work inspired by Khan's 2006 duet with Sylvie Guillem; Matthew Bourne's New Adventures' seminal 1988 work Spitfire; and Shobana Jeyasingh's timely restaging of Contagion, which explores the spread of the virus that caused the Spanish flu pandemic in 1918.
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<p>Hip-hop festival Breakin' Convention will take the show off the main stage and into the theater's public spaces, transforming them with a unique dialogue between popping, voguing and flamenco dance styles. Additional rep comes from Candoco Dance Company, Oona Doherty, English National Ballet, Boy Blue, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Far From The Norm and Rambert, to name a few.</p><p>In addition to performances, <em>Dancing's Nation</em>'s programming will also feature exclusive interviews with participating artists, including a conversation with legendary ballet dancer and Birmingham Royal Ballet artistic director <a href="https://www.dancemagazine.com/carlos-acosta-2649041447.html" target="_self">Carlos Acosta</a>.</p>
<p>Part of BBC Arts' <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts" target="_blank">Culture in Quarantine</a> initiative, which seeks to support the creative sector during the pandemic, <em>Dancing Nation</em> will be streamed on BBC iPlayer for U.K. viewers, and <a href="https://www.sadlerswells.com/whats-on/2021/dancing-nation" target="_blank">on Sadler's Wells website</a> for international audiences, both options free of charge. Originally scheduled to be broadcast live on January 14, the program was pre-recorded and pushed back two weeks due to the recent UK lockdown.</p>The performances will be available to view for 30 days after the festival, while a 90-minute highlights program will be viewable for the next 12 months. A box set of the entire program will also be sold on the Sadler's Wells website.
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<p>"We're really looking forward to starting the New Year as we mean to go on, by partnering with incredible artists to bring you world-class performances in <em>Dancing Nation</em>," said Sadler's Wells' artistic director Alistair Spalding in a press statement. "The event is a… celebration of their talent to inspire us to look forward to 2021 with renewed optimism."</p>
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