7 Days in dance

Volume 5, Number 15 | April 13 – 19, 2006

7 Days in Dance

Now Showing:

CHILDREN OF UGANDA The award-winning “Children of Uganda” will make their Joyce Theater debut with a one-week season, as part of the troupe’s 10th Anniversary North American tour. With pulsing rhythms, quicksilver movements, powerful drums, and songs of joy and hope, 22 children from Uganda orphaned by HIV/AIDS and conflict, ages eight to eighteen, will celebrate Uganda and East Africa’s vibrant culture and the transformative power of art with this magical and one-of-a-kind performance. The “Children of Uganda” tour the world’s stages as ambassadors for Uganda’s 2.4 million AIDS and war related orphans, promoting global awareness and raising funds for fellow orphans in their homeland. The group is led by Peter Kasule who performed with the group on its first tour of America in 1996. Through its performances and hands-on activities the troupe’s 2006 tour is projected to raise $1.5 million to support orphans in Uganda while increasing global awareness of AIDS and its devastating impact on children. Through Apr. 16 at 7 p.m. at yhe Joyce Theater, 175 Eighth Avenue at 19th St. $25, children $15 at 212-242-0800 or joyce.org.

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DAVID PARKER AND THE BANG GROUP Known for his innovative rhythm-based dance theater creations, Parker draws his inspiration from tap dance, vaudeville, silent film comedy and modern dance, and integrates these diverse elements with impeccable choreographic structures and a splendid, wholesome sense of humor and queerness. The 10th Anniversary Celebration will include two premieres, “Backward and in Heels,” a new work for six dancers set to a score that ranges from “The Sound of Music” and a hand bell choir version of Hava Nagila to Schubert’s Ave Maria, and pays tribute to the lush tradition of popular American vaudeville which has long inspired Parker’s work; and the New York premiere of “Surprising Symphony,” a comic performance piece created by Kay Cummings, featuring Jeffrey Kazin and David Parker. The program will also feature “We’re Not Married,” Parker’s first breakthrough work, choreographed in 1990. An enigmatic and elegiac a capella tap dance for a man and a woman who make their own music with, for and in spite of one another, the duet will be danced at these performances by Kazin and Sloan. The evening will also include a preview of a new work-in-progress currently entitled “Steeplechase.” Leonard Nimoy Thalia at Symphony Space, Broadway at 95th Street. $21, $16 for members at 212-864-5400, Tue.-Sun. 11 a.m.-7 p.m. or at symphonyspace.com. Through Apr. 15 at 8:30 p.m.

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Upcoming:

TINY OPEN SKY An unidentified science experiment collides with paranoid philosophy in “Tiny Open Sky,” by BAX Artist in Residence Allison Farrow. Farrow tackles the compelling and somewhat paranoid vision of Paul Virilio, a Christian anarchist and critic of technology best known for his philosophical writings on war and cinema. Working with text, dance, video design, and non-traditional use of electronics, Farrow creates a riveting live performance installation with a unique visceral presence. Performing as body doubles for each other, Farrow and Arturo Vidich both portray Virilio as the creator, test subject, and victim of an unidentified scientific experiment. A single consciousness is split into two locations, evoking strategies used in both film editing and military operations. This unstable fiction is layered with references to all-American race car driver Craig Breedlove, who broke the sound barrier, and the German film icon Marlene Dietrich, with choreographic source material taken from “The Blue Angel” (1930), “Morocco” (1930), “Blonde Venus” (1932), “Shanghai Express,” (1932) and “Destry Rides Again” (1939). Brooklyn Arts Exchange, 421 Fifth Ave. near Eighth St. in Park Slope. Apr. 21-22 at 8 p.m. $15, $10 members, $8 low-income at 718-832-0018 or bax.org.

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