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Ivy Baldwin Dance in Oxbow. Photo: Andy Romer |
Think of BAM’s 2014 Next Wave Festival’s 45 productions as you might Baskin-Robbins’ 31 flavors. There’s something for every taste, but it’s nearly impossible to imagine savoring everything, at least all at once. Here’s an approach to the festival that might help in parsing just what you want to see this Next Wave, and what flavors might be the most satisfying to you.
Let’s look at the 12 shows in the BAM Fisher’s Fishman Space, the newest venue, which has acquired a big fanbase for its infinite flexibility and intimate size. Three lauded choreographers present new works, each with a unique approach: Jodi Melnick’s Moment Marigold has music by Steven Reker; Ivy Baldwin’s Oxbow includes a sculptural set by Wade Kavanaugh and Stephen Nguyen; and The Wanderer by Jessica Lang uses Schubert’s lieder.
Théâtre de la Ville in Six Characters in Search of an Author. Photo: Pierre Richard |
Theater from Ireland at the Fisher includes riverrun by Olwen Fouéré voicing the river in Finnegans Wake, and Howie the Rookie by Mark O’Rowe, in which one actor tackles two roles. On the political end of the scale, in Salt of the Earth, PuppetCinema draws you in to its miniature puppet war drama via projected video, and a chapter in PFC Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning’s riveting story is revealed in The Source, a work of music-theater by Ted Hearne, Mark Doten, and Daniel Fish.
Now we turn to the Harvey Theater and the Howard Gilman Opera House. Of the four dance events, just the sleek, visceral Beijing Dance Theater is in the Harvey, with Wang Yuanyuan’s Wild Grass. In the big house, L.A. Dance Project makes its New York debut with rep by its director (and Paris Opera Ballet-bound leader) Benjamin Millepied, icon William Forsythe, and rising star Justin Peck. Perpetual favorite Batsheva Dance Company returns with Ohad Naharin’s Sadeh21. And Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch performs Kontakthof, a reprisal from the work’s first BAM performances in 1985.
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LA Dance Project in Reflections. Photo: Dave Morgan |
Theater offerings in the Harvey are rich, as usual. In Big Dance Theater’s Alan Smithee Directed This Play, expect genre-bending surprises. Lisa Dwan tackles the tour de force of three solo Beckett shorts in Not I, Footfalls, Rockaby. The acclaimed Dutch troupe Toneelgroep Amsterdam performs a stripped-down version of Tony Kushner’s Angels in America. Théâtre de la Ville brings an intimate production of Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author. En Garde Arts’ Basetrack takes a look at the personal side of, and toll on, troops in Afghanistan. And in the Opera House, Lemi Ponifasio focuses on tragic endgame of climate change on a tiny island in Micronesia in Birds With Skymirrors.
Rufus Wainwright’s enchanting music fills the Opera House in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, performed by the Berliner Ensemble and directed by Robert Wilson. And Philip Glass returns with nine of his best piano virtuoso friends to render his 20 etudes in style. Rounding out the big venue’s fare is Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films, including 15 of Andy Warhol’s 1960’s films accompanied by songs from musicians culled by Dean Wareham, including Tom Verlaine and Eleanor Friedberger.
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