Maggie is a twat – the talk show TEASER from The Mob on Vimeo.

Word from my pal Alexandra Rosenberg from up at the Chocolate Factory (and other artsy things) has it that this Danish performance duo, The Mob, are the real deal, and watching the trailer for their newest show, I have to admit I’m deeply intrigued. If only I was headed to Europe next month! The collaboration of choreographer-dancers Emma-Cecilia Ajanki and Julia Giertz, The Mob explores performance as a “relational art” and use different disciplines and approaches to create performance events. Their latest, Maggie is a Twat: The Talk Show, roasts the Iron Lady Maggie Thatcher. It opens Feb. 5 at Dansehallerne in Copenhagen.

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This showed up in my Facebook feed.
(thumbnail photo by Frederick Hecker)

Shot in Fire Island, New York, this film captures the secrets of eternal youth as Maia Helles, a Russian ballet dancer turns 95 but still remains resolutely independent, healthy and as fit as a forty year old. Made by Julia Warr, artist and film maker (juliawarr.com) met Maia on a plane 4 years ago and became utterly convinced by the benefits of her daily exercise routine, which Maia perfected, together with her Mother, over 60 years ago, long before exercise classes were ever invented. (2011)

My friend Maia from julia warr on Vimeo.

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The Store Demo; clip length 2:00 from ysdt on Vimeo.

Don’t know much about this but could be interesting:

New York City based Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre presents The Store, an evening length dance theater performance that tells a story of love, loss and the struggle for self on January 19-21, at 7:30pm and January 22 at 2pm, at Joyce SoHo. Brought together through a single unforeseen event in a neighborhood deli, The Store explores the interconnectedness of individuals and strangers as they struggle to realize their dreams and cope with tragedy in New York City.

The Store offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of six individuals told through a series of stream-of-consciousness narratives. Interwoven with multimedia vignettes of dance, video, text and music, this rich performance tells a uniquely human story. Featuring an all-new cast including guest artists Christopher Rudd (Cirque de Soleil, Dance Theatre of Harlem, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal), Yusha Marie Sorzano (Alvin Ailey Dance Theatre, Morphoses) and Nathan Trice (Nathan Trice/Rituals). Original sound design by Berberock and costumes by Daphne Correll.

Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre Presents The Store
January 19-21 at 7:30pm; January 22 at 2pm
Joyce SoHo
155 Mercer Street
R train to Prince, B/D/F/M trains to Broadway Lafayette, 6 train to Bleecker Street
Tickets: $18, Student/Senior $15

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NEWPLAY TV is livestreaming select parts of the Under The Radar Festival, including the panel this Sunday at 1PM. Check out the line-up (and archives) here. Or just watch below.

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Hideki Noda Interview from Jeremy Barker on Vimeo.

Many thanks to our friends at the Japan Society for facilitating and producing this video interview–conducted by Mark Russell (see our interview with him here)–for us, with legendary Japanese theater artist Hideki Noda. Originally a co-production between the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater and London’s Soho Theater, Noda’s 2006 work, The Bee, is one of two shows the Japan Society is helping bring to New York this January as part of Under the Radar (the other is by Toshiki Okada and chelfitsch).

My knowledge of Japanese theater history is, sadly, limited, but from what I understand, Mr. Noda was a leading light of the last wave of what’s known as Shôgekijô, or “Small Theater.” Somewhat akin to the Off-Broadway (or even Off-off-Broadway) movement, Small Theater was the term applied to the alternative experimental companies that began emerging in the 1960s. These companies were responding to the dominant realist approach favored by the Japanese regional theater establishment. Noda emerged as one of the foremost Japanese directors (though he also wears hats as writer and performer) during the 1980s, bringing the alternative into the mainstream with a company he founded while still in college, before abruptly disbanding it at the height of its popularity to spend a while learning new techniques in London.

On the face of it, The Bee is a fairly straightforward story about the fine line between victim and victimizer. A man comes home one day for his kid’s birthday to find a violent madman holding his family hostage. In retaliation, he in turn takes the hostage-taker’s family hostage, and quickly proves himself capable of equal, if not greater, acts of violence. Written by Noda in English and further developed by Irish playwright Colin Teevan, the show features the noted British actress Kathryn Hunter in a gender-bending lead role (along with Noda himself). Hunter was recently seen in New York in Peter Brook’s collection of Beckett shorts Fragments, along with fellow Complicite members Jos Houben and Marcello Magni (the latter of whom will be appearing in The Bee when it plays Hong Kong and Tokyo in 2012). For a little more perspective, we invite you to check out our interview with Houben about Fragments and Complicite.

For a broader interview with Noda, you can see this one in the English language Japan Times. I’ve also discovered this site, from the Japan Foundation, which is an excellent resource on Japanese performing arts; sadly, they don’t have interviews with Noda, but they do have coverage of most of his work as well as features on many of his collaborators. The Bee plays Jan. 5-15 at the Japan Society; tickets $25.

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Rude Mechs | The Method Gun from OntheBoards.tv on Vimeo.

The latest addition to OtB.tv–a site founded by Seattle’s On the Boards to offer high-quality videos of contemporary performance for streaming or download–just posted their latest: Austin’s Rude Mechs, who’ve had a hell of a year touring The Method Gun. While I know there were a few dissenting voices when it played DTW in March, everyone here at Culturebot was pretty blown away, and it recently made New York magazine’s best-of-Off-Broadway list, where they dubbed it “a nothing-short-of-magical mousetrap” that “purported to tell the story of an acting guru named Stella Burden and her cultlike teaching techniques, but really massaged the old American ache for purity in theory and practice—and made the stakes of an elaborate theater-game feel like life and death.” In short, it was awesome.

OtB filmed its appearance this last fall in Portland, Oregon, where it played the TBA Festival. OtB.tv uses multiple high-quality digital video cameras and quality editing to present video documentations that’s several steps above what most of us are used to. It’s $5 to watch or $15 to download and own; other subscription options are available.

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1994:

2011:

The aesthetics of the these music videos are, let’s face it, identical. And musically they’re in a very similar space, expanding rock stylings into the pop realm. But what these two pieces are saying about gender, relationships, sexuality, the body…truly an epic contrast.

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The New Yorker‘s music critic Alex Ross took the above video as he left the Lincoln Center last night. As he explains in the note accompanying it on YouTube:

From an Occupy Wall Street protest at Lincoln Center, on Dec. 1, 2011. A performance of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera has just ended, and in the first three minutes of the video protesters try to get operagoers to ignore the police, walk down the steps, and join the demonstration. Then, after 3:00, Glass recites the closing lines of his opera, which come from the Bhagavad-Gita: “When righteousness withers away and evil rules the land, we come into being, age after age, and take visible shape, and move, a man among men, for the protection of good, thrusting back evil and setting virtue on her seat again.”

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Little Lord's "Babes in Toyland"

Well, December is upon us, and the last burst of energy in everyone’s fall seasons is playing out–it feels like–this week. There’s a lot to see (more than we’re going to get to), all worthy of attention. Here’s a brief list of openings we won’t be making or short-run shows we want to make sure you hear about before it’s too late.

Peter Jacobs/The Assistant Theater, SAND at the Chocolate Factory (through Dec. 10; tickets $15). It’s been way too long since I’ve been up to Long Island City to visit the good folks at the Chocolate Factory. This week, the new theatrical presentation by long-time New York director-performer Peter Jacobs opened. A sci-fi influenced drama, the work promises to be visually stunning and intellectually engaging as Sand leads audiences through worlds of unreality and referential meaning.

Susan Eve Haar, Sex in a Coma at HERE Arts Center (through Dec. 11; tickets $18). This is one I actually hope to get to see next week, but it’s opening for a two-week run this Thurs., Dec. 1. Playwright Susan Eve Haar has woven a strange, torn-from-the-headlines story into an exploration of science and identity. Inspired by the story of a guy who raped a comatose woman, Haar offers up a much more complex Romeo and Juliet-esque portrait of love, obsession, and identity, extrapolating from cutting edge science the idea of what self is like in a comatose state. Sound intriguing? Well it’s directed by and was developed with legendary director Lee Breuer.

Shen Wei Dance Arts, Undivided Divided (& other works) at the Park Avenue Armory (through Dec. 4; tickets $35). It’s undeniable that the sheer scale of the Park Avenue Armory is both a daunting challenge and a fantastic opportunity. But  choreographer Shen Wei knows something about scale, having choreographed part of the now legendary opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympics. The result of a year-long creative residency, in Undivided Divided Wei’s company will taking over the entire space of the armory to offer a performance that appears both deeply personal and grandiose in scale. In addition to the new work, Wei will be presenting both his version of Rite of Spring (2003) and Folding (2000), a pair of works that helped establish his reputation. It’s also worth pointing out that a mere two weeks later, Elizabeth Streb is presenting a new work at the Armory, so get your tickets soon.

Little Lord‘s Babes in Toyland at the Brick (through Dec. 10; tickets $18). The cheeky ensemble behind Jewqueen and (oh my god i am so) THIRST(y), Little Lord’s Babes in Toyland is billed as a “recession spectacle,” a low-tech, made-by-hand affair that makes the most of our current era of austerity. And yes, it has a certain holiday synergy about it. Produced by Culturebot contributor Jane Jung, it promises to be a fun evening in the madcap absurdist vein of Charles Ludlam.

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Back in 2003 I was fortunate enough to be working for Mark Russell at PS122 and got invited to accompany him to Austin, Texas for the Fresh Terrain Festival, which was kind of a beta-test for what would become Under The Radar. Fresh Terrain was my first exposure to a really great European-style arts festival and the line-up was exceptional. I’ll always be grateful to Mark for giving me that exposure and opportunity – not only that but he was incredibly generous in talking to me about the work afterwards. One of the works I got to see at that time was Diana Szeinblum’s Secreto y Malibu – to this day one of the most stunning performances I’ve ever witnessed. In 2008 I was fortunate enough to see Ms. Szeinblum’s Alaska at DTW. If you haven’t seen her work, now you can, in HD, at BAM on Mon, Dec 5 at 7pm.

The promo copy says:

Named after a place that everyone knows but no one has been, Alaska is a sensual dance-theater portrayal of memory. Choreographer Diana Szeinblum uses dark humor, extreme physicality, original music and a minimal set to create a beautiful spectacle that gravitates between uneasy stillness and violent frenzy.

Don’t miss it - Mon, Dec 5 at 7pm  BAM Rose Cinemas, (30 Lafayette Ave) $20; $18 for BAM members.

Here’s a teaser:

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