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RAGAMALA Sva (Vital Force)

This was a was a fabulous energetic performance by Ragamala Dance Company with live accompaniment of Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Saskia Rao de-Haas (Indian cello) , and after intermission with music by Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA (taiko drumming). The concert/performance began with Ardhanareeshwara Strotram , a world premiere, that showcased Aparna Ramaswamy (the principal dancer) is a solo dance performance that showcase her incredible ability. This work was danced to traditional recorded Indian music with vocals by Lalit Subramaniam. Aparna's dancing was at once graceful and forceful - with lots of foot stomping-, The hands and arms moved frequently, bringing narrative to the piece along with her expression which went from happy to flirtatious. At times she would come to a stop standing on one leg and forming a perfect shape that reminded me of a dancing Shiva sculpture. She was all made up and dressed in a yellow and gold tones costume. She wore ankle bells and her feet were covered with red hanna.
The second number was Yathra (Journey), another world premiere. This work included dancers Amanda Dlouhy, Jessica Fiala, Alison Kirwin, Tamara Nadel, Aparna Ramaswamy, Ashwini Ramaswamy and Renee Ramaswamy with live music by Shubhendra Rao (sitar) and Saskia Rao de-Haas (Indian cello). This work lacked the intensity and expertise of the first Solo piece. Part of the problem, in my mind, is that the company is good but there is some unevenness between most of the dancers and the two lead dancers. This second work, along with much of the rest of the program included a very cool projection against the black wall by artist Terry Rosenberg, that consisted of repetitive action painting. Mostly white lines that appeared as light, forming nest like forms on the wall.
After intermission, we saw Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA performing Hatou no Hibiki . This was definitely an electrifying piece that showcased Art Lee (the artistic director), Matt Steitle and Harumi Tamaoki. Wadaiko Ensemble TOKARA is a Taiko style drum group that incorporates other drumming techniques including African. This type of drumming incorporates a lot of measured moves and martial like postures.
The final number Sva (Vital Force) brought back the dancers who performed along with the taiko drummers.
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RAGAMALA Sva (Vital Force)

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Fri - April 25, 2008

TRISHA BROWN DANCE COMPANY AT NORTHROP

Trisha Brown Dance Company
Friday April 35, 2008

Trisha Brown Dance Company performed three long works (about 30 minutes each). FORAY FORET and PRESENT TENSE before intermission, then I love my robots. FORAY FORET begins with dancing in total silence. It feels as if there should be music, but soon you concentrate on the movement and the shapes form by the dancers. This is a small moving piece with lots of graceful movements. Then we hear music outside the auditorium. It sounds like the UofM marching band is practicing outside the space. The music is very faint, but loud enough to hear it, then it gets a bit louder and the it moves around. Almost as if the marching band was moving through the hallway all around the concert hall. This couldn't be a mistake. Could it? It has to be part of the piece. Linda and I notice people squirming. So yes, the work was done in collaboration with the University of Minnesota Alumni band (so much for reading the program before the concert). So was it effective? The work was very nice, I am not sure about the music. It was somewhat distracting. Not quite part of the dance. This work had costume and set design by Robert Rauschenberg. After a short pause we saw Present Tense set to music by John Cage and set and costumes by Elizabeth Murray. This was probably the work I liked the least. The set used a large back drop with a colorful pop motif. The costumes were also pretyy colorful. Nothing wrong, but it didn't necessarily hit the spot.
During intermission we renewed the season subscription for next year (lots of great things to come. Especially exited about Merce Cunningham's Once performing at a Quarry in St Cloud)
The second half included I love my robots, a quirky piece choreographed by Trisha Brown set to great music by Laurie Anderson. This was a much more modern work (it was created in 2007). The dance includes two long motorized poles (the robots) that move around the stage with the dancers

Posted at 01:10 PM Read More

Sat - April 19, 2008

ZENON DANCE

Zenon Dance Company at the Southern

Zenon Dance Company
25th Anniversary
Sothern Theater

This performance of Zenon included two World premiers; Hard Bargain by Sean Curran, developed for the male dancers, and Where are These Days Again? choreographed and directed by Jeanine Durning. The performance began with Hard Bargain. This work set to a selection of Handel's opera arias showcased the male dancers Bryan Godbout, Eddie Oroyan (we just saw him perform with Shapiro and Smith), Stephan Schroeder and Gregory Waletski. This was a nice piece. The men wore all-brown medival style outfits made of tights and short-sleeve shirts that ended in a skirt. The mostly slow-tempo dancing included some duets with a few "manly moments" like slapping each other on the face. After that came The Secret Life of Walt and Kitty choreographed by Cathy Young with dancers Amy Elaine Behm Thomson and Gregory Waletsky. This sultry dance (she was wearing a tight red dress with a bare back) went from steamy to playfuly and back. It almost verged on ballroom dancing, not quite getting there. I thought it was pretty succesful. After that came Where are the days, again? choreographed by Jeanine Durning for the female dancers that included Amy Elaine Behm Thomson, Mary Ann Bradley, Christine Magginis and Tamara Ober. This was a very disturbing work that got as far away from pure dance as you can get. The work was more performance theater than dance. It showcased each woman in a solo segment that brought out one phsycological problem or another. I think everyone could tell that the audience did not appreciate it much. For my part, I tought it was too long and tedious.
During the short intermision we went to get coffee and cookies. Both were very poor quality. The cookie was basically uncooked, so I ended up throwing it away. They have to do something about their concession stand. No wine or beer? What's up?
The second part of the performance included Like an Octopus (1992) coreographed by Susana Tambutti. This was another work made for two dancers. Tamara Ober and Gregory Waletsky (again). This piece uses a long waist high table (think a narrow and elongated ping pong table) as an effective prop. The dancers move on the floor, around the table. They jump and slide on it. They roll and catch each other or tumble to the dance-floor. This was a pretty physical work and very nicely performed.
The program ended with Garden (2006) choreographed by Wynn Fricke with music by Johan Sebastian Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied cello" (performed by Yo-yo Ma. This work included all of the dancers for the first time. Amy Elaine Behm Thomson, Mary Ann Bradley, Christine Magginis and Tamara Ober, Bryan Godbout, Eddie Oroyan, Stephan Schroeder and Gregory Waletski. In Garden the dancers pick the tempo up. They come out again in very muted brown ensembles that work well with the piece. This work includes a number of nice duets and a wonderful solo part with Gregory Waletski .

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Wed - April 16, 2008

VOLTAGE FASHION 2008

Voltage Fashion Amplified 2008

Wednesday, April 16
Main Room	door 7:00 PM / 21+
The Current Presents.. Voltage: Fashion Amplified

Voltage Fashion is one of my favorite annual events. It is an all-out high-energy fashion-show-cool-music extravaganza. The show takes place at First Avenue, probably the most famous venue in the Twin Cities. The show sells out very quickly and gets very packed in there. Even though we had intended to get there early, we didn't. Not that it would have made much of a difference, because there was a long line to get in. At the beginning I thought that the lines were for people who hadn't purchased tickets in advance so I headed right for the entrance, only to find out that unless I had VIP tickets, we would have to go on the line like everyone else. Rats.

The lines moved quickly and soon we were inside. We made our way slowly to the catwalk. Fortunately we had a group of short Vietnamese women in front of us, so we could see fine. Linda went to get beer and when she came back we planted ourselves on that spot and didn't move once through the 3 hour long show. Voltage Fashion has a formula that they have been perfecting for a number of years. Basically they divide the show into segments. Each segment has a band and three designers. One designer gets assigned to dress the band, the other two show their desingns on the catwalk. Then it's on the next group. Before each segment they show video on a large screen of interviews with the designers and the bands. Each one gets to say something about his/her designs. Then the screen goes up and the band plays a couple of songs by themselves, after which the music continues and the models come out.

Linda and I brought cameras as usual and began to shoot along with hundreds of other photographers and video-makers. I must have shot 80 or 100 pictures and some video. Later on it was all about putting it on Flickr (Here is a slide show )

This year's Voltage Fashion included:

Runway
POMIJE & STANDARD ISSUE COLLECTION
ZIBRAZIBRA! outfitted by Ivan Idland

Runway
BELLE AND CALPURINA PEACH
THE HAVES HAVE IT outfitted by EM/MA

Runway
MAX LOHRBACH & GEORGE MOSKAL
BELLA KOSHKA outfitted by ann alyse clothing

Runway
AMANDA CHRISTINE & KATHERINE GERDES
WHITE LIGHT RIOT outfitted by Elizabeth Chesney

Runway
SWANK DOLLAR & RED SHOE CLOTHING CO.
MC/VL outfitted by Erin Smith

Runway
RUSSELL BOURRIENNE & LAURA FULK
BIRTHDAY SUITS outfitted by Dan Patrick

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Sat - April 12, 2008

Paul Shambroom at The Weiseman

We took the opportunity today to go to the Paul Shambroom exhibition at the Weisman Art Museum .

Posted at 10:22 PM Read More

Restaurant Indio

Linda and I tried Indio, a new Mexican Restaurant in Minneapolis. Indio tries to be like Masa, but at least on this ocassion, it didn’t make it. The Margaritas were made with regular mix. The food was better than average, but not great. The appetizers took forever to arrive. We ordered a mushroom Tlayuda and a Guacamole. The tlayuda, a Mexican thick tortilla with a vegetarian topping was the better of the two. The Guacamole was nothing more than chinks of not-quite-ripe avocado and tomato. The chips were very average. Then we ordered the Pescado Maya and the Olmeca. The Olmeca, is described as Seared Ling Cod served with a roasted red pepper flauta, in a huitlacoche sauce, sautéed spinach and a chayote jicama slaw. The fish wasn’t that bad, the sauce made out of huitacloche, a fungus that grows on corn was also good. Unfourtunatelly the color of the sauce is not very appetizing, so they would need to work on presentation. The Pescado Maya, Achiote marinated Corvina served with parsley rice, jicama tomato salad, Morita chile sauce, garnished with pineapple salsa was too sweet and the rice was cold and uneadible.

menu
Margaritas Clasicas
Negra Modelo
XX Lager
Huasteco
Tlayuda
Olmeca
Pescado Maya

Posted at 08:15 PM Read More

MARC BAUMUTHI JOSEPH - THE BREAKS - AT THE WALKER

Marc Baumuthi Joseph - The Breaks, at the Walker , starts with Soulati (Tommy Shepherd) walking up and down the stairs in the very full McGuire Theater asking questions from the audience. We are sitting on the second row. We have just walked down and taken our seats.. We hear the questions and answers from the audience. He asks the same four or five questions again and again. "What would you ask Jay-Z?". "Give me a demographic" "Is Thomas Jefferson relevant to today's political race?" and something like "If Jazz was the broom that swept African Americans into the nation. What is Hip Hop?" . This interaction with the audience went on for a while. It basically caused you to think about what you would say if he came around to ask you, and then if someone used the answer you had prepared, you had to quickly think of something else.. This introductory segment to Marc Baumuthi's performance turned out to become part of the story, as all of these questions were used in the performance.
Marc Baumuthi's The Breaks was personal (autobiographical?) timely, exhilarating, thoughtful, passionate, angry..He touched on race and hip hop. He told many personal stories that took place in different countries. He intermixed the story telling with great dance moves, and all along in the background DJ Excess and Tommy Shepherd aka Soulati produced a continous track of music, visuals and sounds. The performance included video and graphics. One of my favorite stories is when Marc Baumuthi recounts how he went to some African country. Maybe it was the Senegal. In any case, he stayed with a White woman from Texas, a social worker who had spent a number of years in Africa. Someone who spoke a number of dialects and knew the people well. One day he accompanied her on a trip to visit a number of small villages where she would talk to women and to the elders about female circumcision. At one point he strikes a conversation with a Senegalese who tells him that the Texan woman is an African American, whereas Marc Baumunthi is a Black American....
The show ended with tremendous applause from the audience. Afterwards we stopped at 20-21 for a couple of drinks and the Calamari Salad. By far, the best calamari salad in town.

Posted at 01:10 PM Read More

Sat - April 5, 2008

SHAPIRO & SMITH DANCE COMPANY

Tonight we went to see a performance by Shapiro & Smith Dance Company at the Southern Theater. The program included Flower, Accidentally Walking Through Nothing, What Dark/Falling Into Light, and then after intermission, Minatures and a video called Danny's Film. Flower consisted of a solo work choreographed and danced by Joanie Smith, one of the company founders. This shor introductory work consisted of Ms Smith performing with a red rose. She tries to get to it, but can't. She is in a sitting position and the rose is just out of reach, even if she bends or stretches. At the end of this work Joanie Smith talked about the night's program. She said that this was a mentor program, where a choreographer had been invited to produce a few pieces and to collaborate with the company's dancers, and tonight we would be seeing the fruit of that collaboration with Accidentally Walking Through Nothing and coreography by Maggie Bergeron. This work showcased Sarah Baumert, Eddie Oroyan, and Laura Selle Virtucio. This work was ligh and fast. The dancers used the whole stage, moving quickly. They would move in a large circle and then come together to meet. Sometimes one of them would jump to be caught by another dancer. Interestingly, the male dance jumped once or twice to be caught by the female dancers.. The dancers would also slide or roll on the floor.
After that came What Dark/Falling Into Light a work that had been premiered on March 13, 1996 at the Dance Theater Workshop, in New York. Coreography by Hapiro & Smith, this longer piece utilized most of the company. This was my favorite work.
It starts with a dark stage and a voice recording (text by David Greenspan). The voice has a rythmical quality to it. It speaks of a question, what is a question, how can it be a question, etc. A few dancers come out. Then the whole group. They wear black leotars. There are three men and four women. Linda and I are sitting on the first row. This is just about the closest I've ever been. It is a strange experience. I am so close I need to look at one dancer or another. I am not at a distance where I can see the whole group. At times one dancer or another performs a solo, then it retreats into the group and another dancer performs a solo. The dancing is very phisical. The dancers throw themselves on the dance floor. They fall hard and hit hard. The voice lasts for a short time, then it goes away and they dance to music. Two dancers perform a very physical and explosive part where they run at full speed from opposite sites on the stage towards each other. When they meet, they collide in an embrace, then fall to the floor and roll. This couple may be the two principal dancers. It is hard to say, because all dancers are very good. At one point, we notice that the woman is bleeding by her elbow. We are sitting on the first row, so when they dance by us they are close, very close. We can see the blood drip and accumulate on her elbow, yet she has to dance like that for a while. Later on, where other dancers take center stage, she is able to leave for a while and return with a large bandate, which doesn't last long. Soon is back to the bleeding elbow. Midway through the piece there is a very nice segment with most dancers laying on their backs on stage and one dancer (Eddie Oroyan) falling on them, rolling on them, and getting pushed up and held or thrown away, only to come back to fall on the group. For the final segment of this work, the lights are dimmed, the stage falls into total darkness, and when lights come up the dancers are only wearing skin colored underwear. The women are topless, and the effect from far away must be of nudity. They dance like this for a long time. Again, it is very phisical. dancers run and jump, only to fall on the floor. Some times they come together and dance in a tight group, most of the time they dance in duos or threes.
Then comes intermission

. Shapiro & Smith Dance Company at the Southern

Posted at 01:44 PM Read More

Sun - March 23, 2008

IN BRUGES

Tonight we went to see this great film called In Bruges.

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Fri - March 21, 2008

Richard Prince Opening at the Walker

Usually the Walker's After Hours/Preview parties are very crowded. Not this time around. The opening for Richard Prince: Spiritual America almost felt empty in comparison to other times, and since I like it crowded and happening, this was not it. Also, we didn't see anyone we knew. On the other hand, it allowed us to spend a longer time in the exhibition (we also saw the concurrent Urban Landscapes exhibition). So after our free Target drinks. We had the mandarin infused vodka tonics. We headed for the exhibition.

The Richard Prince exhibition occupies a number of galleries. Although this exhibition started as a full fledged retrospective of Richard Prince 's work at the Guggenheim in New York, it got somewhat distilled down for the Minneapolis venue. Still, we saw lots of work. The exhibition started with a number of rooms devoted to his earlier photography work, all of which consists of re-photographing pictures from magazines and signs. In a sense it is appropriating images, although he almost never uses the whole image, but rather crops the original picture. These rooms included pictures of the Marlboro Man (edited images from Marlboro cigarette adds), a series of women and bikes(he took pictures from biker magazines, where girlfriends and wives are shown next to their husbands large motorcycles). I think this is called Cowboys and Girlfriends. These rooms also included books from his collection. Most of these appear to be first editions from the USA and England, where they have different covers. On other galleries there were the large Nurse paintings. With names like Debutante Nurse, Nurse on Green Meadow, Dude Ranch Nurse, Aloha Nurse, and Surgical Nurse. The Nurse paintings are large in scale and very painterly. Typically, the nurse is depicted along with a stenciled title on the canvas.

Then there were the car hoods and car sculptures. The large hoods, hanging on walls, painted in single subdued monochromatic colors, reminded me of Rothkos. The last gallery had large canvases with stenciled phrases on them, and some newer work that was reminicent of DeKooning or late Picasso.

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Sun - March 16, 2008

Piper's Crow at the Cedar Cultural Center

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Fri - March 14, 2008

LA DOLCE VITA - Ballet of The Dolls

Tonight we went on a whim to Ballet of the Dolls Italian Cabaret:La Dolce Vita!

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Sun - March 9, 2008

Zelo for Carin's Birthday

This Sunday we took Linda's mother to Zelo for her birthday. We had been concerned that the restaurant would be empty on a Sunday night, but although it wasn't full, it was pretty busy.

Menu
Saintsbury Pinot Noir
Calamari
Oysters
Bruschetta Trio
Small Caesars
Chicken Risotto (Carin)
Grilled Ahi Tuna (edq)
Pesto Sea Bass (lb)
Mocha Pot de Creme
Creme Brulee

Posted at 08:25 PM Read More