Alessandro Sciarroni
FOLKS-s
Will you still love me tomorrow?

Time Based Art Festival
Portland Institute of Contemporary Art
September 11, 2015

FOLK-s began with the house lights on and the stage dark. Although I could barely see the outline of the circle of dancers on the stage, I could clearly hear them. They were stomping and slapping out a short looping rhythm.  That rhythmic phrase, with small variations and occasional pauses, would repeat relentlessly for over two hours in a test of both audience and dancer stamina.

Deborah Hay has liberated contemporary dance on many levels, from her early days in New York to her international influence today. Not in the least from within the design of how she chooses to disseminate her choreography. In my opinion, her multiple inventions and innovations for transmitting her aesthetic through community building are in line with the women’s rights movement and the principles that guide a feminist organization.

"The imagination is always at the end of an era."  -Wallace Stevens

In dance, as the age of modern masters passes, questions about lineage and legacy pervade the field. Stephen Petronio’s Bloodlines project prompted this from critic Brian Sebert:

Review
Contemporary choreography meets medical technology:
Breath Catalogue by Megan Nicely/Dance and Kate Elswit
July 16 & 17, 2015
by Hope Mohr

Recently someone asked me to articulate why I don’t call my work “dance theater” even though my dances can feature text and actors. I answered: “Because my work is opaque. It resists narrative too much to be dance theater.” 

by Megan Wright

MoMA PS1’s Zero Tolerance is an exhibition of activist art from the twentieth century onward. Its scope is international, with pieces responding to oppression in places as diverse as Belgrade, Beijing, and Sao Paulo. Despite its range, the exhibit’s themes and techniques consistently question art’s relationship to activism.

by Megan Wright

Thank You For Coming: Attendance
Faye Driscoll
Co-presented by Danspace Project, Faye Driscoll Group and PS122′s COIL 2015 Festival

Titles can be deliberately enigmatic or a tacked-on afterthought. In the case of Faye Driscoll’s Thank You For Coming: Attendance, neither holds true. 

by Megan Wright

Age & Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:-/
Miguel Gutierrez (in collaboration with Mickey Mahar)
co-presented by American Realness and Gibney Dance

This work, the first part of an as-yet-unfinished trilogy, opened with a series of dense, precise unison duets that highlighted the two performers’ variations in affect. Miguel Gutierrez, 43, was warm and sexy, rocking golden hair and a pink flowered swimsuit; his collaborator Mickey Mahar, 24, was pale and less assured, but diligent to the point of doggedness. 

by Hope Mohr

Every year in early January, thousands of performing arts lovers converge on New York City to attend several simultaneous festivals and conferences including American Realness, COIL, Under the Radar, and APAP (Association of Performing Arts Presenters Conference).  This year marked HMD’s debut in NYC as part of APAP.  In addition to presenting work, I also caught several performances. Herewith, some short reviews.

by Hope Mohr

What does it mean to have a meaningful exchange between subject matter and choreographic thinking?  The question is relevant regardless of whether you make political, conceptual, or process-based art.

an edited transcript of a conversation between Abby Crain and Stephanie Skura, part of HMD’s 2014 Bridge Project

by Keith Hennessy

2014 Bridge Project Post-Show Discussion

by Hope Mohr

by Hope Mohr

by Hope Mohr

Movement Research’s Critical Correspondence, a conversation between Forti and Jennie Goldstein

by Hope Mohr

by Hope Mohr

by Hope Mohr