3 Shows We're Hoping to Catch This Month
From an ongoing project manipulating motion capture technology to a Giselle with Spanish flair, here are three performances we’ve penciled into our calendars this month.
Hitting the Punchline
Ben Schultz and Lorenzo Pagano in Annie-B Parson’s I used to love you
Brigid Pierce, Courtesy Janet Stapleton
ONLINE
The Martha Graham Dance Company’s programming this month highlights an aspect of its founder’s personality that often goes overlooked: her sense of humor. Martha Matinee events on Dec. 2 and 5 pair archival footage of Graham’s Punch and the Judy, starring Graham, Erick Hawkins and Merce Cunningham, with the 2017 Annie-B Parson work it inspired, I used to love you. On Dec. 8, the company presents its holiday program, subtitled “She Had a Sense of Humor.” Planned programming includes a livestreamed rehearsal of the 1932 solo Satyric Festival Song, photos and videos of Danny Kaye, Robin Williams, Sally Rand and others, and footage of a 1990 performance of Graham’s final work, Maple Leaf Rag. Martha Matinees will be free to stream on YouTube for one month following release, while other events are available to Patreon supporters. marthagraham.org.
Spanish Romanticism
MADRID
Compañía Nacional de Danza plans to premiere a new Giselle with a distinctly Spanish sensibility this month. Taking inspiration from the poetry of Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, artistic director Joaquín de Luz shifts the action to the Moncayo mountains, transforming Albrecht into a foreign traveler and adding elements from bolero and other Spanish traditions. Dec. 9–22. cndanza.mcu.es.
Programming Black Liberation
An avatar rendered in Unreal Engine for Antidote
Courtesy The Cooperation
ONLINE
Choreographer Marguerite Hemmings and technologist LaJuné McMillan question how digital and embodied technologies—think virtual and augmented reality—can become tools of Black liberation in their ongoing collaborative effort, working title Antidote. Abrons Arts Center and Pioneer Works co-present the first phase of the project, a video work developed from their research using motion-capture technology, Dec. 11. Phase two will be a live performance at Abrons, currently slated for 2021. abronsartscenter.org.
