Monday, October 19th, 2015
Basil Twist’s “Sister’s Follies: Between Two Worlds,” commissioned for the 100th anniversary of the Abrons Playhouse, is a testament to how camp can save performance history from oblivion. Dance and theater works of yore are notoriously difficult to stage because they often look hopelessly old fashioned. But in “Sisters’ Follies,” Twist—a newly minted MacArthur Genius and a third generation puppeteer—casts Joey Arias, the celebrated drag queen chanteuse, and Julie Atlas Muz, the burlesque performance artist, to play the titular sisters: Alice and Irene Lewisohn, who founded the Playhouse in 1915. Muz and Arias are stars of satire, but they aren’t real-life divas (like the Lewisohn sister were). Under Twist’s direction, Muz and Arias often flip and dangle from wires, which divas don’t do. They prance and preen, belt and belittle each other in the jewel-box size theater, which is made spectacular through the efforts of 11 behind the scenes performers, who manipulate large and small puppets in costumes that range from camels to biblical figures. The Lewisohn’s Playhouse becomes Twist’s camp marionette theater.
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Abrons Playhouse, Alice Lewisohn, Charles Griffes, Daniel Brodie, Gabriel Aronson, Gypsy Rose Lee, Irene Lewisohn, Irving Berlin, Isadora Duncan, Joey Arias, Julie Atlas Muz, Martha Graham, Night Journey, Rachel Straus, Sisters Follies: Between Two Worlds, Tiller Girls, Wayne Barker, White Christmas
Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Off on Basil Twist Camps History in Sisters Follies
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
Ten years later, I saw Crystal Pite’s “Dark Matters.” Her choreography augured a new movement style, a “Matrix”-like sense of physical wonder. On January 24 at Baryshnikov Arts Center (BAC), Pite’s choreography enthralled the audience. At the end of “The You Show,” made in 2010 with her company Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM, Pite and her eight dancers received a standing ovation.
Read the rest of this article »
Tags: Baryshnikov Arts Center, Beethoven, Cindy Salgado, Crystal Pite, Dark Matters, Eric Beauchesne, George Balanchine, Hugo Weaving, I don't believe in outer space, Isadora Duncan, Jermaine Maurice Spivey, Jiří Pokorný, Judson Dance Theatre, Keanu Reeves, Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM, Marines, Martha Graham, Peter Chu, Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Robert Sondergaard, Sandra Marin Garcia, The Matrix, The You Show, Three Atmospheric Studies, William Forsythe
Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Off on Crystal Pite’s Futuristic Choreography