In Context: 17 Border Crossings

Thaddeus Phillips' 17 Border Crossings comes to BAM on September 30. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #17BorderCrossings.

In Context: Tabac Rouge

Physical theater virtuoso James Thierrée's Tabac Rouge comes to BAM on September 30. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #TabacRouge.

BAM Blog Questionnaire: Tsai Ming-yuan of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

Rice's Tsai Ming-yuan. Photo: Liu Chen-hsiang

You've seen him in photos—in BAM's season brochures, website, in posters, or postcards. He is the face of Rice, a dance made by Lin Hwai-min for Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, which opens the 2015 Next Wave Festival on Wednesday, September 16. The dancer in the photo is Tsai Ming-yuan. Bare-chested and barefoot, in indigo pants, holding a bamboo stick curved like a new moon, he is part of the landscape, as strong and as flexible as the golden hued rice stalks behind him. Before you finally see him in person, let’s hear from him.

When did you join Cloud Gate? What are your responsibilities there? Is this your first visit to BAM?

I was one of the original members of Cloud Gate 2 when I joined in 1999. I became a Cloud Gate dancer in 2001. My prior performances at BAM include Water Moon (2003), Wild Cursive (2007), and Water Stains on the Wall (2011). Besides dancing, I also serve as a rehearsal assistant for the company.

What do you like about dancing?

To me, dancing is sharing—sharing the experience and joy of my life. I find that I see myself clearer through dance. This is particular true with Mr. Lin’s work, with its underlining philosophy. It is very challenging but also rewarding in the end.

Delicate, Controlled Manipulation: An Interview with Nufonia Must Fall's Puppeteers

Kid Koala's Nufonia Must Fall at the Noorderzon Festival in 2014.

A tone-deaf robot, fearful of his growing obsolescence, tries to woo an office worker with his love songs in prolific producer and turntablist Kid Koala’s bold adaptation of his tender, and entirely wordless, 2003 graphic novel Nufonia Must Fall—coming to the BAM Harvey Theater September 17—20. Collaborating with Oscar-nominated production designer K.K. Barrett, Kid Koala enlists a team of puppeteers to stage the circuit-bent amoré as camera crews edit the footage in real time, resulting in a live silent film. To better understand this unique performance event, we spoke with three of the show's puppeteers (Clea Minaker, Felix Boisvert, and Karina Bleau) about the various mechanisms underpinning such a hyper-hybrid work of art.

30 Years in 30 Days: A Celebration of the Black Rock Coalition

The Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, featuring Stew. Photo: Earl Douglas, Jr.

By Darrell M. McNeill

Thirty years ago, at the crest of another "Black Lives Matter" epoch—hip-hop going mainstream, The Cosby Show, Spike Lee, Michael Jackson, and the rise of African-Americans and "urban influence" in media and pop culture—a group of cultural warriors were born. In the mid-1980s, the music industry operated (and, bluntly, STILL operates) under a type of cultural Jim Crow, where white artists were/are largely free to pursue any musical genres they chose, while black artists were/are relegated to genres considered more "traditional" or "conventional" (meaning, in real world terms, more commercially viable), like gospel, rap, R&B, soul, jazz, funk, reggae, blues, etc. This flew in the face of documented history, particularly of modern pop and rock 'n' roll, where Black artists were either creating or at the aesthetic forefront of these genres.

In April of 1985, Vernon Reid, Konda Mason, Greg Tate, Craig Street, and a loose group of musicians, writers, actors, filmmakers, academicians, journalists, and fans—driven by these incongruities and inequities in music and the arts—gathered initially to dialogue and vent and figure out solutions. They began to coalesce around the idea that black artists have the inalienable right to the same creative freedom and compensation for success as their white counterparts. By September, a name was chartered, a manifesto was drafted, and the Black Rock Coalition (BRC) was founded.

In Context: Antigone

Director Ivo van Hove's Antigone, featuring Juliette Binoche and a new translation by Anne Carson, comes to BAM on September 24. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #Antigone.

In Context: TAPE

TAPE, choreographer Kenneth Kvarnström's duct tape-delineated po-mo mashup up of modern dance and baroque music, comes to BAM on September 23. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #Kvarnstrom.

In Context: Rice

Rice, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's lyrical tribute to Taiwan's essential crop, opens the 2015 Next Wave Festival on September 16. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #CloudGateDance.

In Context: Nufonia Must Fall

Nufonia Must Fall, the puppet-filled adaptation of DJ Kid Koala's titular graphic novel, comes to BAM on September 17. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #NufoniaMustFall.

In Context: COLLAPSE

COLLAPSE, LA band Timur and the Dime Museum's glam-rock requiem for Mother Earth, comes to BAM on September 17. Context is everything, so get even closer to the production with this curated selection of articles and videos related to the show. After you've attended the show, let us know what you thought below and by posting on social media using #TimurCOLLAPSE.