State of the Arts

State of the Arts: March 12, 2011 Archive

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Saturday news and reviews

Posted at 11:18 AM on March 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: News and reviews

Art

Ana Voog and the anacam: "At the core of all of us, we really just want to be seen"
Over the past 14 years, Voog has portrayed activities in her life--ranging from the mundane to the surreal, and including sexual experiences such as the conception and birth of her first child, over the Internet via images uploaded continually onto her website.
- Sheila Regan, TC Daily Planet


Dance

Change of Hue captivates with an ecstatic fusion of styles
Distinguished by thoroughly imaginative choreography, each of the three productions is performed with the hallmark poise, precision, and passion of Beyond Ballroom's exceedingly versatile dancers.
- Brad Richason, Examiner.com


Music

Sommerfest lineup announced
Two-week festival features familiar work.
- GRAYDON ROYCE, Star Tribune

some fun
Sommerfest will have musicians from around the world and a couple of non-orchestral concerts.
- Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press

VocalEssence sings new works, British and Mexican fare
VocalEssence may be the king of choirs in the Twin Cities, but it's sharing the love with several other local groups during its 2011-12 season.
- Rob Hubbard, Pioneer Press

Censors clear Bob Dylan for his China debut
China's Ministry of Culture said in a notice posted on its website Thursday that Dylan will be allowed to perform in Beijing between March 30 and April 12.
- Associated Press


Stage

Teatro del Pueblo and Pangea take on 'Oedipus el Rey'
Based on the work by Sophocles, this play is set in the California prison system and a Los Angeles barrio.
- Sheila Regan, City Pages

The many stages of Niles Crane
"Frasier" star David Hyde Pierce loved his sitcom years, but is glad to be doing mostly theater.
- ROHAN PRESTON, Star Tribune

Lines blur between master and puppets
In opening show of puppetry festival a virtuoso human is attacked by his angry puppet.
- Rohan Preston, Star Tribune

Paul Johnson celebrates Paul Sills in 'Back to Borneo'
In the play, the writer and performer examines key moments in his life through the prism of his work with Sills.
- Ed Huyck, City Pages

Gallagher collapses onstage in Rochester
The last half-second of a video below shows Gallagher falling down after using the old Sledge-O-Matic.
- Andrew Flanagan, City Pages

Manager says comedian Gallagher suffered heart attack in Rochester
Craig Marquado said Gallagher will remain hospitalized at least one more night. He said Gallagher's two performances scheduled for Friday night in Illinois have been postponed.
- Associated Press

Theatre Pro Rata's "Dido, Queen of Carthage" at Gremlin Theatre: Every god needs a BFF
Costumes are minimal yet effective, and a good lookin' cast helps you believe that Venus is indeed a goddess of eternal youth and beauty and that, in general, gods have it pretty sweet.
- Betsy Gabler, TC Daily Planet

Epp and Serrand launch new theater company

Posted at 12:32 PM on March 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs
Filed under: Funding, Theater

Two of the creative minds behind the Minneapolis company Theatre de la Jeune Lune (which closed in 2008) have united to form a new creative team under a new name.

Dominique Serrand and Steve Epp, who have collaborated on occasion since Jeune Lune's closing, have announced the creation of "The Moving Company."

Their first scheduled production is of a work called "Come Hell And High Water" which is set to run in May at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis.

An invitation went out today for a fundraising event for the new company at Franklin Art Works on Tuesday April 5.

Ragamala Dance earns rave review from NY Times

Posted at 1:03 PM on March 12, 2011 by Marianne Combs (2 Comments)
Filed under: Criticism, Dance

Ragamala2.jpg
Ragamala Dance

The Minneapolis-based Ragamala Dance is in New York Washington D.C. for the Maximum India Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center. They performed Wednesday night, and New York Times critic Alastair Macaulay was in the audience.

Macauley saw four different companies perform over the course of three evenings, but it's obvious he was particularly smitted with Ragamala, to which he devoted the majority of his review. You can read the full review here, but I've isolated the section dealing with Ragamala below.

No sooner had either Ragamala Dance (an American company of the Indian Diaspora) ... begun, than every moment seemed precise, specific, focused. From those sharply defined beginnings arose complexities both rapturous and profound. The Ragamala musical instruments were actually an excellent example of fusion: for "Gangashtakam," the instruments included the mrindangam and nattuvangam and violin -- though producing sounds that most Westerners seldom associate with the violin.

"Gangashtakam" -- concerning the flow and worship of the river Ganga (Ganges) -- is a solo for Aparna Ramaswamy. Quickly she demonstrates just how many parts of the body are used in bharatanatyam (individual fingers, different parts of the sole of the foot, the spine tipped in many ways, eyes, head, arms and legs), the volumetric fullness with which a single dancer can become thrillingly three-dimensional, and the wide supply of rhythms and dynamic contrasts that enrich this form.

Every change of focus registers keenly. The swaying pliancy of the torso becomes deeply sensuous. (No dance form flatters the curves of the female torso more than that of India.) A simple, bouncing walk toward the audience and back is delivered with a subtlety that made it far from simple in its effect. Gestures ranging from small to large indicate the growth of the river, and their fluency its current.

But it is when it comes to meaning that we see differences between Indian and Western dance theater yet greater than those between Indian and Western music. In this solo about the Ganges, Ms. Ramaswamy seems now to embody the river, now to indicate it, now to worship it; and the forms of expression alternated between detailed mime gestures to the kinds of pure dance that seem as abstract and as impersonal as a human being can ever achieve. The dancer seems continually to move between different kinds of being and of thought, and the Western observer is aware of many layers of mystery.

In the second Ragamala dance, "Yathra" ("Journey"), five women dance to music for sitar and Indian cello. The work traces the course of a day and, by implication, a life. Dance themes are iterated by successive performers with different inflections. When, in the autumnal twilight-of-life solo near the end, we recognize some of the same material that had been shown in the brighter earlier section, the effect is movingly meditative. This is an excellent company; Ms. Ramaswamy is an enchantingly beautiful dancer.

...As with Ms. Ramaswamy, some of the most transporting instances are ones of near-stillness, when the dancer seems to be inhaling the moment as if it were incense.

Ragamala Dance next performs in the Twin Cities at the O'Shaughnessy Auditorium March 25-27.

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