Electronium: The Future Was Then opens tonight, the latest project for musician, entrepreneur, and author Questlove. We know he's got more things going on now than we can keep track of, but we had illustrator Nathan Gelgud take a look at his memoir Mo' Meta Blues to see how he got started. 
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Friday, October 25, 2013
Questlove: GIF the drummer some!
Electronium: The Future Was Then opens tonight, the latest project for musician, entrepreneur, and author Questlove. We know he's got more things going on now than we can keep track of, but we had illustrator Nathan Gelgud take a look at his memoir Mo' Meta Blues to see how he got started. 
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Talk to the Hand: Dr. Shep Sheepish on Puppets on Film
This weekend, BAMcinématek partners with the Jim Henson Foundation to present the return of the annual program Puppets on Film. We recently checked in with our resident expert in the illustrious fields of Puppetology and Puppet Studies, Dr. Shep Sheepish, to discuss the epistemology, puppetology, sockology, and general awesomeness of this year’s festival.
BAM: Thank you so much for meeting with us, Dr. Sheepish. You’re looking great, by the way.
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Oh, shucks.
BAM: Oh dear, I didn’t mean to make you blush!
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Oh, no I’m sorry! It happens so easily for me. It’s a little embaaaa-rrassing.
BAM: That’s really okay. It’s thrilling to have a real expert here in the BAM Rose Cinemas. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you’re looking forward to most in the lineup?
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Ah. Yes. Well, at the risk of jumping the proverbial fence, I’m inclined to say this might just be the best year ever for this festival. And I mean ever! Oh, my, I think I’m getting carried away….what I’m saying is that there is a great variety of programs.
BAM: Anything in particular that intrigues you professionally? I know that you're the best in your field, both literally and figuratively.
Dr. Shep Sheepish: The Little Shop of Horrors Sing-Along should prove very informative as a subject example of puppet/human relations turned a little … well, ram-bunctious. I’m quite shy and don’t usually like to sing in public, plus it’s past my bedtime, but this is such an exciting event that I will be attending.
By Jessica Goldschmidt and Tamar MacKay
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| A Portrait of Dr. Sheepish. Photo: Ben Cohen |
BAM: Thank you so much for meeting with us, Dr. Sheepish. You’re looking great, by the way.
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Oh, shucks.
BAM: Oh dear, I didn’t mean to make you blush!
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Oh, no I’m sorry! It happens so easily for me. It’s a little embaaaa-rrassing.
BAM: That’s really okay. It’s thrilling to have a real expert here in the BAM Rose Cinemas. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you’re looking forward to most in the lineup?
Dr. Shep Sheepish: Ah. Yes. Well, at the risk of jumping the proverbial fence, I’m inclined to say this might just be the best year ever for this festival. And I mean ever! Oh, my, I think I’m getting carried away….what I’m saying is that there is a great variety of programs.
BAM: Anything in particular that intrigues you professionally? I know that you're the best in your field, both literally and figuratively.
Dr. Shep Sheepish: The Little Shop of Horrors Sing-Along should prove very informative as a subject example of puppet/human relations turned a little … well, ram-bunctious. I’m quite shy and don’t usually like to sing in public, plus it’s past my bedtime, but this is such an exciting event that I will be attending.
Saturday, October 19, 2013
Brian Brooks—Wizard of Invention and Movement
by Susan Yung
Brian Brooks Moving Company brings a new piece, Run Don't Run, to the BAM Fisher on October 22. Here are a few examples of Brooks' previous works to give a sense of the 2013 Guggenheim fellow's imagination, range, endurance, and obsessiveness.
WHEEL—This performance in Santa Barbara, CA made a stage of the whole gorgeous city, and the dancers bicycled between locations over the course of a day.
Brian Brooks Moving Company brings a new piece, Run Don't Run, to the BAM Fisher on October 22. Here are a few examples of Brooks' previous works to give a sense of the 2013 Guggenheim fellow's imagination, range, endurance, and obsessiveness.
WHEEL—This performance in Santa Barbara, CA made a stage of the whole gorgeous city, and the dancers bicycled between locations over the course of a day.
Friday, October 18, 2013
Five Easy Reasons to Love Karen Black
by Jessica Goldschmidt
Some go for Shelley Duvall. Some say Mia Farrow. But goddamit if Karen Black isn’t our favorite creepy-pretty gal ever to grace a 1970s-era movie screen.
A serious actor tragically relegated to B-movie horror flicks, our girl K.B. made her name as a self-described “freak” in the counterculture classic Easy Rider, bringing a surprising vulnerability to her role as an acid-dropping prostitute. After that she became a sort of 70s It-Girl, winning an Oscar nomination for her heartbreakingly dim Rayette in Five Easy Pieces, and working with Hitchcock, Altman, and other greats.
Our Lady of the Voluptuous Hair died this past August. So we salute her here with, in no particular order, Five Easy Reasons We Love Karen Black.
Some go for Shelley Duvall. Some say Mia Farrow. But goddamit if Karen Black isn’t our favorite creepy-pretty gal ever to grace a 1970s-era movie screen.
A serious actor tragically relegated to B-movie horror flicks, our girl K.B. made her name as a self-described “freak” in the counterculture classic Easy Rider, bringing a surprising vulnerability to her role as an acid-dropping prostitute. After that she became a sort of 70s It-Girl, winning an Oscar nomination for her heartbreakingly dim Rayette in Five Easy Pieces, and working with Hitchcock, Altman, and other greats.
Our Lady of the Voluptuous Hair died this past August. So we salute her here with, in no particular order, Five Easy Reasons We Love Karen Black.
BAM Blog Questionnaire: Raja Kelly, dancer with David Dorfman & Reggie Wilson
by Lauren Morrow
For this week's BBQ, we talk with Raja Kelly, who dances with David Dorfman Dance (Come, and Back Again) & Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group (Moses(es)), both featured in the 2013 Next Wave Festival. In addition to this busy performance schedule, the Connecticut College graduate formed feath3r theory to perform his own work.
Which artist do you steal from most often?
My two favorite artists in the world are Andy Warhol and Anne Sexton; while I would never steal from either of them, I find myself referring to or quoting them quite often.
Any advice you've gotten and ignored?
I never ignore advice.
What's the biggest risk you've taken?
Deciding to dance was the biggest risk I ever took, (cliché maybe, but it's true). I studied acting as a child and young adult and thought I'd be an actor as a professional. When I applied to college I applied to three dance schools and three theater schools, and chose dance—giving myself no other choice.
What food are you looking forward to eating while in Brooklyn?
I really love BK Thai. When I am in town I try to eat as much Thai food as possible, the best vegan and gluten free food ever!
What ritual or superstition do you have on performance days?
I have to listen to one Top 40 song (Currently HAIM's "Don't Save Me"), an entire Fiona Apple album, and Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor before each performance.
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| Kendra Portier, Raja Kelly, and Karl Rogers in Come, and Back Again. Photo: Ian Douglas |
For this week's BBQ, we talk with Raja Kelly, who dances with David Dorfman Dance (Come, and Back Again) & Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group (Moses(es)), both featured in the 2013 Next Wave Festival. In addition to this busy performance schedule, the Connecticut College graduate formed feath3r theory to perform his own work.
Which artist do you steal from most often?
My two favorite artists in the world are Andy Warhol and Anne Sexton; while I would never steal from either of them, I find myself referring to or quoting them quite often.
I never ignore advice.
What's the biggest risk you've taken?
Deciding to dance was the biggest risk I ever took, (cliché maybe, but it's true). I studied acting as a child and young adult and thought I'd be an actor as a professional. When I applied to college I applied to three dance schools and three theater schools, and chose dance—giving myself no other choice.
What food are you looking forward to eating while in Brooklyn?
I really love BK Thai. When I am in town I try to eat as much Thai food as possible, the best vegan and gluten free food ever!
I have to listen to one Top 40 song (Currently HAIM's "Don't Save Me"), an entire Fiona Apple album, and Chopin's Ballade No. 1 in G Minor before each performance.
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Producer’s Note: Claudia Acuña, Numinous, and a note about Fred Ho
By Darrell McNeill
BAMcafé Live Week Four: We hosted our two best attended shows of the season last weekend. It started with in-demand contemporary R&B singer/songwriter Gordon Chambers, whose lush sounds had the room standing, and wound down with the willowy vocals of Magos Herrera celebrating the richness of the Latin jazz traditions of Central and South America.
Week Five of BAMcafé Live brings two more acclaimed artists to the Lepercq stage. On Friday, October 18, award-winning jazz chanteuse Claudia Acuña draws from a rich, star-studded discography dating back to her 2000 Verve debut, Wind from the South. Born in Santiago, Chile, Acuña moved to New York in 1995 to pursue a career singing the jazz and standards she loved growing up, but infused with her rich culture. Over the years, Acuña has held court with such notables as George Benson, Billy Childs, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Arturo O’Farrill and many others, yet has never strayed too far from her roots.
BAMcafé Live Week Four: We hosted our two best attended shows of the season last weekend. It started with in-demand contemporary R&B singer/songwriter Gordon Chambers, whose lush sounds had the room standing, and wound down with the willowy vocals of Magos Herrera celebrating the richness of the Latin jazz traditions of Central and South America.
Week Five of BAMcafé Live brings two more acclaimed artists to the Lepercq stage. On Friday, October 18, award-winning jazz chanteuse Claudia Acuña draws from a rich, star-studded discography dating back to her 2000 Verve debut, Wind from the South. Born in Santiago, Chile, Acuña moved to New York in 1995 to pursue a career singing the jazz and standards she loved growing up, but infused with her rich culture. Over the years, Acuña has held court with such notables as George Benson, Billy Childs, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Christian McBride, Danilo Perez, Arturo O’Farrill and many others, yet has never strayed too far from her roots.
Wednesday, October 16, 2013
The Internet Danst Rosas: Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker for the YouTube Generation
by Claire Frisbie
"We look at each other, and we nod to each other, as if we agree to dance together. We come back to the center. We turn to the other person, and we also nod.” —ATDK on YouTube
So begins movement two of iconic Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s seminal piece Rosas Danst Rosas. Created in 1983, this repetitive, minimalist choreography established 23-year-old De Keersmaeker as a promising, important artist, and put her on the map for audiences worldwide. Set to a hypnotic, percussive score by Belgian composer Thierry De Mey, Rosas Danst Rosas was admired for its seemingly mundane gestures arranged in complex combinations. It was celebrated as a feminist piece, but also deemed difficult, overly repeating, and dark.
De Keersmaeker made her US debut at BAM as part of the 1986 Next Wave Festival with Rosas Danst Rosas—which translates to “Roses dances roses”—and name-checks De Keersmaeker’s company, Rosas. The New York Times review described the chair sequence as “a ritual expressing the agony of waiting. Each dancer kept crossing her legs, turning her head expectantly, holding her head despairingly in her hands, sagging forward and twitching back to attention."
"We look at each other, and we nod to each other, as if we agree to dance together. We come back to the center. We turn to the other person, and we also nod.” —ATDK on YouTube
So begins movement two of iconic Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s seminal piece Rosas Danst Rosas. Created in 1983, this repetitive, minimalist choreography established 23-year-old De Keersmaeker as a promising, important artist, and put her on the map for audiences worldwide. Set to a hypnotic, percussive score by Belgian composer Thierry De Mey, Rosas Danst Rosas was admired for its seemingly mundane gestures arranged in complex combinations. It was celebrated as a feminist piece, but also deemed difficult, overly repeating, and dark.
Everything You Wanted to Know About Contemporary Circus, and More
by David Hsieh
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| Hans was Heiri. Photo: Mario Del Curto |
Its influence can be seen from movies to Broadway shows to Céline Dion concerts to performing arts with a capital “A”. It has even made its more tradition bound older brother a bit jittery by adopting some of its stock-in-trade. But what is “contemporary circus”?
According to the national director of the advocacy group Circus Now, Duncan Wall, who will conduct a talk on contemporary circus at BAM on Oct 24, contemporary circus is the name given to the evolutions in the circus arts over the last 40 years. Beginning in 1970, the codes of the circus cracked, allowing for a greater infusion of creativity and the inclusion of other art forms, especially theater and dance. “Today, contemporary circus is an international movement, with tens of thousands of companies and schools around the world,” said Duncan.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
BAM Blog Questionnaire: Choreographer David Dorfman
by Lauren Morrow
David Dorfman Dance returns to BAM this week with Come, and Back Again, a new work that explores how hope and humility help to manage the messiness of daily life. Dorfman, who is also the chair of the Connecticut College dance department, took some time to answer the BAM Blog Questionnaire.
How has the choreographic experience of Come, and Back Again been different from other processes?
Well, the biggest thing is that we began with Patti Smith’s music and made numerous sketches to her fine work. Then we switched to Smoke—almost like a choreographic exercise I'd give my advanced comp class at Connecticut College. But besides the music factor, we’ve returned to a smaller group—a quartet, for the first time in a decade, and that’s been intimate and fulfilling. And it’s the first time in longer than a decade that we’ve had a live band by our side throughout the process and performance—completely delightful! CABA, although sensitive and inspired by music every step of the way, has really been a return to a more personal way of working on a dance, mining what issues are coming up for me and for the company as the center of the evening. With CABA we’ve moved from larger social issues to more intimate, personal issues.
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| David Dorfman; photo by Adam Campos |
How has the choreographic experience of Come, and Back Again been different from other processes?
Well, the biggest thing is that we began with Patti Smith’s music and made numerous sketches to her fine work. Then we switched to Smoke—almost like a choreographic exercise I'd give my advanced comp class at Connecticut College. But besides the music factor, we’ve returned to a smaller group—a quartet, for the first time in a decade, and that’s been intimate and fulfilling. And it’s the first time in longer than a decade that we’ve had a live band by our side throughout the process and performance—completely delightful! CABA, although sensitive and inspired by music every step of the way, has really been a return to a more personal way of working on a dance, mining what issues are coming up for me and for the company as the center of the evening. With CABA we’ve moved from larger social issues to more intimate, personal issues.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Spin Doctors
by Susan Yung
Zimmermann & de Perrot dream up ridiculous situations that act as comedic crucibles in which quirky performers communicate through action. In Hans was Heiri, at the BAM Harvey from Oct 23—26, a four-room apartment building suddenly starts tumbling like a dryer. What to do? If you’re one of five who perform with Swiss directors Martin Zimmermann (choreographer) and Dimitri de Perrot (composer), you go with the flow, wholeheartedly embracing the chaos and conjuring felicitous art. As you fall through doorways into adjoining units, you become chummy with your neighbors—an intriguing rubber-limbed bunch that, stripped to underwear, attempts a yoga class in the tumbling edifice.
The artists discussed the importance of the set in the development and rehearsal process. “Since we work without language, the stage settings are a key element in the stories we want to tell,” said Zimmermann & de Perrot recently by email. “First we have to create a world into which we then introduce our dancers and actors. They interact directly and physically with this world, they need to confront it again and again until they grow accustomed to it and internalize it.” This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in a scene featuring Mélissa Von Vépy, an elegant woman in floral leggings and pumps who hangs from a corner rod as the building rotates, causing her to dangle dangerously, like ballet’s Don Quixote caught on the bladetip of a windmill.
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| Photo: Mario del Curto |
Zimmermann & de Perrot dream up ridiculous situations that act as comedic crucibles in which quirky performers communicate through action. In Hans was Heiri, at the BAM Harvey from Oct 23—26, a four-room apartment building suddenly starts tumbling like a dryer. What to do? If you’re one of five who perform with Swiss directors Martin Zimmermann (choreographer) and Dimitri de Perrot (composer), you go with the flow, wholeheartedly embracing the chaos and conjuring felicitous art. As you fall through doorways into adjoining units, you become chummy with your neighbors—an intriguing rubber-limbed bunch that, stripped to underwear, attempts a yoga class in the tumbling edifice.
The artists discussed the importance of the set in the development and rehearsal process. “Since we work without language, the stage settings are a key element in the stories we want to tell,” said Zimmermann & de Perrot recently by email. “First we have to create a world into which we then introduce our dancers and actors. They interact directly and physically with this world, they need to confront it again and again until they grow accustomed to it and internalize it.” This is perhaps nowhere more evident than in a scene featuring Mélissa Von Vépy, an elegant woman in floral leggings and pumps who hangs from a corner rod as the building rotates, causing her to dangle dangerously, like ballet’s Don Quixote caught on the bladetip of a windmill.
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