By Rachel Straus
• On October 18 the New York Dance and Performance Awards (otherwise known as the Bessies) reprised their ceremony, following a two-year hiatus. Among the 2009 award winners was Kyle Abraham for his full-length work The Radio Show. Musical America featured Abraham in June 2010 as the “New Artist of the Month:”
http://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?archived=0&storyID=22933&categoryID=2
• If you are in New York City later this week and want to see the painterly choreography of Chinese dance artist Mr. Wei and his ten-year-old group Shen Wei Dance Company, you can do so for free. The company will be performing excerpts from RE-(III) all around Manhattan. Here is the schedule:
Thursday, October 28:
10am, 12pm & 9pm Duffy Square in Times Square
11am 42nd Street Subway
3pm Around Grand Central Station
7pm Union Square
Friday, October 29:
11am Columbia University
12:30pm Wall Street
2:30pm Battery Park
4:30pm The Metropolitan Museum
7:30 DUMBO
For more information go to:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106720379394156&ref=mf
• Today I’m writing about the late, great choreographer Talley Beatty (c. 1918-1995). The story will be published in the February 2011 issue of Dance Teacher magazine. Beatty’s Tres Cantos (1975) will be revived by Ballet Hispanico and presented at the Joyce Theater (November 30-December 12). To get a sense of Beatty’s beauty check out Maya Deren’s 1945 A Study in Choreography for Camera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTX2LKDXn3o.
To understand his artistic impact on the Civil Rights era, check out his masterwork Mourner’s Bench, as performed by Jerome Stigler of the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKxytimwUT4