A weekly, highly personal and subjective list of performances and artists we want you to know about:
Martha says:
How better to end the summer than a night under the stars? Eclectic, compelling performance artist Emily Johnson/Catalyst will mount her all-night participatory work, “Then a Cunning Voice and A Night We Spend Gazing at Stars” presented by the still wandering PS122. Johnson will engage the audience through the night with ideas, stories, performance — and food. Performer/collaborators include Tania Isaac and 12-year old Georgia Lucas. Textile artist Maggie Thompson incorporates 4000 square feet of quilts in the audience’s welcome onto the Island. In answer to Johnson’s questions about what people want for their own well-being and that of their loved ones and world, part of the shared experience is sheer endurance (shades of Taylor Mac?). Johnson – with writer/director Ain Gordon — mobilizes the audience in the wilds of Randall Island Park to experience the space, the sky, the stars, and each other. Starts at dusk on Saturday, August 19 (and runs until after sunrise).
Leigh says:
If you have a yen for outdoor dance, but aren’t up for an all-nighter, try Dance at Socrates. Queens’ Socrates Park is a waterfront park and sculpture garden reclaimed from landfill; it’s played host to a summer dance series for five years. On Saturday, August 19 at 4 pm, you can see the work of Nico Brown and one of the series’ instigators, Julia Gleich.
Julia’s work is a lot like Julia: tart, thoughtful, and unwilling to accept the status quo. Here’s her take on working at Socrates: “Making work without walls leaves a choreographer exposed to rain, wind, dust and sun. Some choreographers have described experiencing the “golden hour” when the sun shines through the trees and the park turns gold. Others respond to the sense of space without limit. I love that we give choreographers space to do pretty much anything they want… really, anything. And then we show some of this anything on Saturday afternoons with invited companies who want to show their new choreography without the pressures of a proscenium stage.”
Cover: Julia Gleich
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