the urgent artist

The Results are IN!

APAP’s finally over and the results are in! Take a look at your one-sentence overviews of the manic week of performance:

The prize for most entries goes to Mary Love Hodges, a lady who clearly holds the key to the secret of time travel, as she sees more work on a regular basis than is humanly possible.  She also takes the cake for the winning entry with her sly review of Ann Liv Young’s “Ann Liv Does Sherry” at Abrons Arts Center on Sunday; Mary, the fame and the glory is YOURS!  Thanks to all that entered, we’re looking forward to making this a yearly tradition!  Read the winning entry and all the other amazing feats of brevity after the jump!

The Winningest Entry of all: Mary Love Hodges on Ann Liv Young:

Ann Liv Young.  Ann Liv Young Does Sherry.  Abrons Arts Center, Sunday. I wanted to sit in the splash zone, so while ALV courted– and insulted– presenters (“y’all are just gonna wanna book the hell outta me”), I was laughing too hard and squirming too much… what did you think, John Jasperse?

There’s not a bad entry in the whole bunch however – here are all the runners up:

Nora Chipaumire, Souleymane Badolo, and Obo Addy.  Again (in development).  Dance New Amsterdam, Thursday. Vibrance personified, love story told– what sensual force! – Mary Love Hodges

It is appropriate that Marjike Eliasberg & Jana Hicks’ company, The Next Stage Project, was conceived as an educational enterprise as, aside from an exceptional trio, the piece “FORWARD” seems to be an exercise in the age old question: how many competent bodies in motion can be packed onto a stage before an audience ceases to pay attention to the dance and begins to anticipate injury to life and limb. – Gorgas

Julian Barnett Project.  The Clean State.  Dance New Amsterdam, Thursday. Conceptual and accessible, Julian’s hands are a blur and his props are a hoot. – Mary Love Hodges

Tom Pearson and Zach Morris/ Third Rail Projects.  Anthem (in development).  Dance New Amsterdam Thursday. You should know that he’s in love with Tom, and this piece doesn’t know what it’s going to look like yet, but I like how it’s getting there. – Mary Love Hodges

Trajal Harrell.  Twenty Looks or Paris is Burning at The Jusdon Church (S). New Museum, Friday. Remember those “stretch-your-wardrobe” spreads with the 5 basics and 3 hot must-have accessories?  Like that, but better. – Mary Love Hodges

Of the two pieces presented by Diane McCarthy & Dancers, “Final Walk” is a well conceived rendering of what the final moments of life might feel like for six women and makes this observer keenly eager for the kind of transcendence (not to mention agility, strength, beauty and upper body strength) that waits in the wings between this world and the next. – Gorgas

Morgan Thorson and LOW.  Heaven.  PS122, Saturday. They wear white and sing in choir, but Heaven’s inhabitants seem haunted by the memory of life; no one smiles and the music is great. – Mary Love Hodges

Zoe/Juniper.  A Crack in Everything (in development).  Abrons Arts Center, Sunday. Groupings form and reform, checkerboarding the stage, while movement sentences unfold in fragments; Scoffield punctuates with broken bird ballerina wings (this is a work in progress). – Mary Love Hodges

Luciana Achugar.  Franny and Zooey.  Abrons Arts Center, Sunday. There was a fall, a cat, some wiggling boobies, and later my friend asked, “Why is Luciana’s ass… coming at me… for ten minutes?” – Mary Love Hodges

Layard Thompson.   cUp—pUck… (mash up).  Abrons Arts Center, Sunday. jjjjjust wu-ah-ah-tch mmee ouT faaaaaahb yOR cunnnsmrst, vick-AY!  Rrrrrrevenge-ah! – Mary Love Hodges

Jack Ferver.  A Movie Star Needs a Movie.  Abrons Arts Center, Sunday. I actually would have gladly watched MORE “look-at-me!” schtick, until suddenly it had gone on too long. – Mary Love Hodges

Ann Liv Young.  Ann Liv Young Does Sherry.  Abrons Arts Center, Friday.

“The subtleties of Ann Liv’s character work grind up against her aggressive sexuality and hold their own; she’s the  equivalent of the girl in high school you couldn’t figure out if you wanted to be or fuck, and you go back and forth between wondering what you could do to make her notice you and fearing attracting her wrath.” – Sarah A.O. Rosner

“From the Margins, This, Unmentioned” by Browen MacArthur presents itself as being about the search for one’s identity; though this gets lost in a sea of hyper-technical dancing and, aside from having the best costumes of the night (I’m looking at you, black eighties dress with the feathered shoulders), is ironically rendered identity-less itself. – Gorgas

Wally Cardona and Rahel Vonmoos.  A Light Conversation.  Joyce Soho, Monday. It seemed to me an ideal partnering of movement and text, as the discussion of existentialism did not overshadow the piece, but rather illuminated the layers of multiplicity and focus extant in the choreographic structure, rendering the work transcendent (to be read aloud with a British scholar accent, and perhaps again in skeptical American baritone). – Mary Love Hodges

Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People.  Last Meadow. Abrons Arts Center, Friday. The piece’s slowly lurching static and sound score part to revel a dark genius of images:  the way films imprint on memory, the unbearable sound of dress shoes and sex, the freedom of utter exhaustion.  – Sarah A.O. Rosner

Faye Driscoll Group.  There is so much Mad in Me (in development).  Dance Theater Workshop, Friday. Driscoll wields a wildly engaging group of performers as she blurs the lines between war, sex, abuse, and America’s Next Top Model; it’s literally off the walls. – Sarah A.O. Rosner

Jeremy Wade.  There is no end to more. Japan Society, Monday. The explosive stream of consiousness about anti-capitalism and puberty confusion left me smiling, but wishing the movement component could have exploded more.  Of course Brian McCormick loved this piece. – Sarah A.O. Rosner

Maria Hassabi.  SoloShow.  Presented offsite by PS122, Tuesday. body.lines.pose.move.still. shape.twist.body.repeat.drape.headless.smear: this version is not open to review, but do not miss future engagements. – Mary Love Hodges

Alexandra Beller/Dances.  what comes after happy (excerpts).  Dance New Amsterdam, Thursday. I doubt this arrangement did Beller’s work justice, but amid the surface scratching, some moments hit uncomfortably close to the nerve. – Mary Love HodgesLDP (Laboratory Dance Project).  No Comment.  Japan Society, Saturday. From heart-slapping to head-banging, Shin Chang Ho’s male-bonding choreography sustained; it works as light (high-energy entertainment and air-clinging backflips) and weight (artistically satisfying and tribally grounded) through to the end.  – Mary Love Hodges

Company Derashinera.  Another Story (mash up).  Japan Society, Saturday. Trained mimes move with exquisite clarity, master the subtle timing of the eyebrow, and mine laughter from repetition. – Mary Love Hodges

The Argentinia of “Illusiones de Percantas and Che, Tango” by Anabella Lenzu is a place where dance and theatre collide with half-formed caricatures of Latina women and meets with varying degrees of success, with one instance of truly effective ethos-building in the form of a solo of a mad woman in white accompanied by the derisive laughter of her fellow dancers, though the wish is that each character would get the same kind of tender rendering that this mad solo is afforded.

Proficient movers alight the stage in swirling flocks as “Surrender… to moving forward” by Laurie De Vito & Dancers brings to the eye the many nuances and mad dashes of Phillip Glass’ music, breaking in and out of unison, until the space is thick with kinetic possibilities. – Gorgas

And last, but certainly not least:

“Pina Jackson in Mercemoriam” is a brilliant offering of lively dance theater that explores the sequential deaths of three giants of the dance world, Pina Bausch, Mere Cunningham, and Michael Jackson, melding their work together until I am left with only one thought; Dear Foofwa d’Imobilite: marry me. – Gorgas

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Tags: APAP, challenge, review