Dance

Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Dance, Experimental Music, Festivals, Seattle

The 2010 NW New Works Festival

We covered some great shows coming up this month in the Bay Area and NYC, now it’s Seattle’s turn. For the next two weekends (June 4-6 & 11-13) On the Boards will be hosting the 2010 NW New Works Festival which features “emerging and established artists from a variety of performance disciplines” and “highlights artists who are pushing themselves to take on new challenges.” Looking over the list of showcases it seems that the festival is primarily focused on new theater and dance, but there are a few music related sets in there if you look hard. The Mint Collective, Josephine’s Echopraxia, and Corrie Befort all appear to be cross-disciplinary/music/multimedia/collaborative productions.

On the Boards is also bringing back “PODFEST” as part of the festival.  From June 4-13, On the Boards will roll out 6 short videos (video podcasts featuring performance made for film), one each Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the festival. They can be viewed at ontheboards.org and in the lobbies prior to each festival showcase.

All the information about the festival, including youtube videos for all the artists, can be found here.

by James Holt
Concerts, Contemporary Classical, Dance, New York

Hoof it on down to the Bowery

I know, short-short notice for the NYC crowd … But there’s a pretty giddy concert to attend this (Wednesday) evening at 8:30 PM, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery (131 East 10th Street, Second Ave. and 10th Street / $10).  The International Street Cannibals — a happy cabal of composers, chamber players, filmmakers and painters, conceived by in 2005 by composer, cellist, conductor Dan Barrett, and steered by composer/guitarist Gene Pritsker — are presenting “Desperately Seeking Stravinsky”.  Now, Stravinsky was always amenable to the dance, and I don’t think there are many of his works that haven’t been choreographed, but I don’t think he or I ever considered what’s on this concert’s bill: a performance of L’Histoire du Soldat with tapdancer, and the piano suite from Petrouchka with breakdancer!  And our old composer pal Joseph Pehrson‘s Blacklight for cello and electronics (in the near-just-intonation tuning system of “blackjack”) will also be performed, and danced as well by Linda Past. So get footloose and flashdance your way down there tonight!

by Steve Layton