A weekly, highly personal and subjective list of performances and artists we want you to know about:
Martha says:
In conversation and notes, David Thomson refers to his new work as “Beast.” The short-form speaks to both the darkness and wildness of “he his own mythical beast,” premiering at the COIL Festival. The work, almost two years in the making, was inspired by the black Venus and by the savagery in our lives. In a scene the performers have called “the session” since early workings together, the cast plays with issues of race, gender, and violence as pale Jodi Bender drags and overpowers a cowering Paul Hamilton, her much stronger black partner, in a harrowing scene of twisted connection and subjugation. When probing questions of identity, Thomson plays with his own stories, solos, shared memories. The dramatic movement and text explorations developed with his talented, driven cast make for a dark tapestry of myth and mystery. Opens Wednesday, January 31 at 7:30 pm.
Mina Nishimura is everywhere these days. In the last month, she appeared in Part 2 of the ethereal “Darkness Odyssey” created by her husband Kota Yamazaki. Last week she was in Dean Moss’s “Petra.” Now comes her own work, as she premieres “Bladder Inn (and X, Y, Z, W)” this week at Danspace Project. Nishimura is a delicate artist; her movement is more akin to floating than dance steps. In her current project, she surveys “internal landscapes” as she sets our bodies and what’s within us in dialogue with the external world. She and her dancers will have the external world of St. Mark’s Church to interact with. Opens Thursday, February 1 at 8 pm.
Cover: David Thomson. Photo © Peter Born.
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