Dracula’s Biting Appeal

TR Warszawa and Teatr Narodowy's Nosferatu. Photo: Stefan Okolowicz

Excerpts from an essay by Clemens Ruthner

“This is the textbook of vampirism, but the journalist Bram Stoker has turned it into a typewriter ad,” wrote the Austrian Alfred Kubin, himself a master of uncanny art, in a letter full of contempt in 1915. He has not been the only critic since who tried to desecrate the tomb of the Anglo-Irish author. However, this has done little damage to the undead popularity of the literary work in question: Dracula (1897), apart from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818) probably the most successful undead monster of world literature; a novel that has never been out of print in its more than 110 years on the book market.

Its ingredients are simple and fairly tradtional: the Transylvanian nobleman Dracula first threatens the bourgeois British business traveler Jonathan Harker, and later the wife-to-be of the latter, Mina, until the vampire is eventually hunted down by male bonding. What is really new about this vampire villain from the depths of eastern Europe is that he does not only assault women, but covers all of Britain with a veritable undead D-day invasion: a (latently racist) horror scenario as a consequence of Darwin’s “survival of the fittest.” Whatever you may think about the political correctness of vampire tales, Dracula is pretty much written in the spirit of the English fin de siècle, insofar as the novel foreshadows the military confrontation with Germany and the multi-ethnic state of Austria-Hungary in World War One.

BAM Blog Questionnaire: Lindsey Jones and Sarah Stanley of Dance Heginbotham

by Lauren Morrow

Sarah Stanley on the tension grid (photo: Stephanie Berger)

Dance Heginbotham makes its BAM debut this week with Dark Theater. In this BBQ, I spoke with dancers Lindsey Jones and Sarah Stanley about working with John Heginbotham, their favorite Fort Greene eats, and what they’ll be wearing to the BAM Halloween Happy Hour at the BAM Fisher on Thur, Oct 31.

How has the Dark Theater experience been different from that of other works John has created for the company?

Lindsey Jones: Dark Theater is site-specific to the Fisher and uses the complete black box architecture as a stage for the work. The stage is in the center of the audience, below, and also above! There are so many contrasting layers to this piece, and John is allowing numerous sources and inspirations to manifest in Dark Theater.

Sarah Stanley: This is only my second project with John, but it feels like there is more fantasy in Dark Theater than his other work. He has created a very specific world in the BAM Fisher, really taking advantage of the flexibility of the space, and it is made all the more surreal by Maile Okamura's amazing costumes. 

Sarah, you dance on the tension grid in this show. What was your initial reaction when you were told this, and how do you feel about it now?

I was very excited about the grid when I heard about it.  I like climbing around on things, and it feels like a kind of playground sometimes. I have really enjoyed creeping around up there and interacting with the other dancers from a different plane, stretching the performance space.

Unchaining the Devil

by Susan Yung

Photo: JC Carbonne

Ballet Preljocaj, the name of Angelin Preljocaj’s company based in Aix-en-Provence, France, pinpoints his stylistic roots. Yet his movement, while maintaining the elegant lines of ballet and an inherent structural grace, is hardly limited to the ancient dance form. Thematically, as well, the French choreographer ranges widely, from classic story to pure form. From November 7 to 9, Preljocaj’s And then, one thousand years of peace will be performed at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. The work takes cues from the Book of Revelation (the Apocalypse of St. John) without becoming literal or linear. It shares DNA, but contrasts sharply with the company’s last BAM presentation in 2010, Empty Moves I & II, a pared-down evening of riveting movement experimentation.

Such variety can be an artistic catalyst. “I need to stimulate my creativity to go to the extreme limit of my style,” said Preljocaj in a recent interview. “Let’s say that I have a kind of laboratory work on one hand, for example, in the work of Empty Moves, to the music of John Cage—I also sometimes like to use all that I learn from this laboratory experience and use it for something more narrative. I think it’s like in the field of science. You have the fundamental research on the one hand, and on the other hand, the fundamental research is completely abstract—numbers, mathematics. Then later come things that can maybe help people, like technology and medicine.” The studio becomes a lab to make building blocks that fascinate on their own, or become the solid foundation on which to stack a story.

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.

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.

By Jessica Goldschmidt and Tamar MacKay

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.

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.

 

Wheel - Brian Brooks Moving Company (excerpt) from Channel B4 on Vimeo.

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.

BAM Blog Questionnaire: Raja Kelly, dancer with David Dorfman & Reggie Wilson

by Lauren Morrow

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.

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.

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.

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."