THE GREAT TAMER: A DANCE/PERFORMANCE PIECE AT BAM, PART OF NEW WAVE FESTIVAL

THE GREAT TAMER:  A DANCE/PERFORMANCE ART PIECE AT BAM.

THE GREAT TAMER
CONCEIVED and DIRECTED
by
DIMITRIS PAPAIOANNOU

To Describe The Great Tamer in one sentence or two or even in a paragraph would be extremely

difficult because its such a complex, multilayered performance encompassing life and death and all

that happens in-between.  It's about mythology, mortality, physicality, spirituality and the fragility

of life.

On a vast slanting steel grey stage made of removable black and white sheets, this complex art/dance/

performance piece unfolds.

A man dressed in black walks on stage and slowly starts to take his clothes off. Then he lies down as

if he is on the roof of his house to get some sun.

Another man again dressed in black comes on stage and covers him

with a very lightweight white sheet.  Then the third man comes and picks up one of those removable

panels and with great ability shake it a bit and then let it drop.  That makes the sheet covering the

naked man floats away.  This activity is repeated a few times and is brilliantly done and is

mesmerizing to watch.

Many more realistic, surrealistic and metaphorical sequences occur.  The brilliant cast of dancers,

acrobats, gymnasts and performance artists keep going tirelessly with such agility that one marvels at

the excellence and the amazing power of human body in all it's forms, in it's suffering, in it's joy and

the spirit of adventure and surprise.  Most of the time the men and women are nude without a hint

of self consciousness.

The do the most difficult movements in extremely vulnerable positions takes a lot of expertise.

They open the panels and dig underneath as if they are preparing for a burial.

They open another panel and discover water, in which they bathe. They even find body parts, an arm

sticking out, or part of a leg and now and then our concept of their location changes.

Are they in a an ancient grave yard?  Are they in a field where soon vegetation will appear in the

form of sticky darts representing a corn field?  or flora of brilliant yellow colors representing spring

time when everything blooms and love of life smiles on everything.

The Great Tamer is very philosophical and that makes sense.  After all it's being created by a

brilliant Greek who also has incredible sense of humor and child like attitude and a sense of

innocence. Sometimes one feels as if grown up children are playing games and having fun.

Sometime it seems like as if the creator and the performers are making fun of everything serious

in life which bogs us down,  depicting the delicate moments of un-predictable and unbalanced life.

At one point a performer tries to balance himself on a world glob soon to be crashed on the floor

with other performers.

Performers built and then destroy everything and pick up the pieces and put them in the garbage bags

and throw them away. Everything seems meaningless and immensely serious and ominous at the

same exact moment.

The performers, men and women don't seem human in their physical power and agility but

superhuman and then they lose balance and fall apart right in-front of our eyes.

The whole show is an unending enjoyable metaphor.    Things are visible as well as hidden.

Meanings are obvious and complex beyond our comprehension.

The whole show is accompanied by Johann Strauss's stunningly beautiful, "Blue Danube"  waltz

on the sound track.

There are impressions of classic European art.    Chorus of actors add white collars and instantly

become doctors dissecting a nude human body, thus the representation of Rembrandt's, " Anatomy

lesson."  Then they feast on human intestine which they have pulled out during the dissection.

The show doesn't have one straight story line but it's rich with many images which excites

our imagination and we create our own stories and how many shows can make you so creative,

so imaginative and so aware of the fragility of life which has the promise of destruction and renewal

at the same time.  The last moment in the show has total disintegration of a skeleton mounted

on another panel reminding us of the delicacy of life and we should just be happy and thankful

of breathing.  This show makes us aware of, "Breath." The last breath,  before we are no more.

Not to be gloomy but this awareness is essential.

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF
artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
www. facebook.com

BACCHAE: PRELUDE TO A PURGE AT BAM

BACCHAE: PRELUDE TO A PURGE AT BAM AS PART OF NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL

Marlene Monteiro Freitas -Bacchae is a fun ensemble of trumpet players who also dance and dancers who dance, sing and speak. The performers are intense and have expressions of madness, wearing mask like make up to make them look even more grotesque but do not come much closer to Euripides' tragedy.  Having said that what they are doing here, abstract themes, abstract expressions and incredibly moving movements in their own way are superb.
Its any artist's right to take on classical works and make their own interpretations and incorporate their
own take into it and that way it's fascinating to have some themes and ideas still breathing in their new work.  There are some hints of Euripides Bacchae which still exits in this wonderful dance piece, such as a blind man being led and in a video where a woman give birth which evokes the birth of Dionysus, and the Percussions
and the trumpets have the effects of mayhem and madness and a feeling of revenge.
I loved the music and the way the performers moved and flowed effortlessly with it.

In this Bacchae all rules are broken.  It's free flowing fun and lack of inhibition.  This atmosphere
must be a lot of fun for children as it was proven with a constant laughter of some children in the audience.  The atmosphere is of a festive group of people who can manipulate any one for their own pleasure and creative energy and this troupe has enormous vitality to carry it through.  They run around, up and down, dance, sing and do enormously difficult twists and turns for two hours without an intermission.

For a long while I waited for some more moments of relevance to Euripides's Bacchae but then I gave up and started to enjoy what was presented to me in a twisted but in a joyful way and with that
justification I began to get involved fully like the performers were in this very innovative
and pleasurable dance piece.

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF
artsinternational.blogspot.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
binashariff@gmail.com
www.facebook.com

MAKE BELIEVE ON BROADWAY 2019

MAKE BELIEVE on BROADWAY 2019
    
ONLY MAKE BELIEVE is a non profit organization that creates and performs interactive
theatre for children in hospital, care facilities and special education programs throughout New York and Washington. Dena Hammerstein started it in the memory of her late husband James Hammerstein.

Dena started this program in 1999.  On November 4 the organization celebrated the 20th year at a gala award ceremony on Broadway with star studded  participants, actors such as Sir Ian Mckellen,
David G. Leitch, Allan Cumming, Ambassador theatre Group and many many other talented musicians, acrobats and singers from Broadway shows.

 Beside the event's entertainment value this event was the most Important evening on Broadway I have ever attended.  To be honest I had no Idea of Only make believe program and boy am I ashamed and thrilled as well to be part of one of the most moving and human event which has been helping children with chronic illnesses and disabilities and introducing them to theater where actors and singers come to them and help them to experience joy and happiness beside their misfortune.  I think Dena Hammerstein deserves all the awards and thanks for doing such an essential
deed and many other people who are in charge of all the units in those facilities which takes care of those lovely children all over the city and in Washington.

There were so many wonderful speeches, uplifting comments and songs from different Broadway shows, such as, book of Mormon and the band was amazing.  But the most moving  for me was the documentary of children in a hospital unit enjoying the various acts performed by the actors.
What a great concept to bring theater to the sick children and children are not analytical and  theater critics, they are just innocent children who cherish those moments of fun, excitement and costumes and the colors and the music.  All that makes them dream of a better morning, I am sure of that.
So in this short life the ones who are able and fortunate enough to help the sick and disabled are blessed as well.  Just to have an image how to help the children in a hospital unit where the sick might at times lose hope, to bring hope of another beautiful day in their lives.  I am so impressed and thankful to Dena and every one else involved to create this organization and to be invited.

Besides many other high lights of the evening, to see Sir Ian Mckellen in person was just a moment of great thrill.  He is one of the most incredible actor alive.  I try to see everything he does but it's not possible but whatever I have seen, I have never been able to take it out of my mind and my heart.
Wild Honey by Chekhov,  at the National Theater of London, No man's land by Pinter, Waiting for Godot by Beckett, on Broadway to name a very few. But he has done thousands of shows in his long lasting career and he was going to perform his one man show which he cancelled in London for one night at the Hudson Theater in NY and donating the money to Only Make Believe.  Amazing generosity of spirit.  Another high light was the two acrobats, one of them disabled perform with
perfection and energy and spirit.  Amazing performers as well.

I ma so thrilled to be Introduced to this incredibly Important event and I wish not to miss any  in the future

On a very personal note, this evening brought back lots of memories for me especially about children.
I have to confess that I am also an MD from Pakistan and I did my one year residency in Pediatric
hospital in Lahore Pakistan. I loved those children and would spend hours upon hours with them
in the hospital ward even when I was off duty. When I saw the film of those children enjoying
the theater which was brought to them it made me sad and happy at the same time.  Sad because I didn't practice medicine in America but happy that I am involved in all aspects of creative theater. At times I have felt guilty in the past for abandoning those children but the night of Nov 4 at the Schoenfeld Theatre I felt as if I was contributing to Only Make Believe myself by being in the theater and one day maybe I will go to those hospitals and tell the children some joyful stories.

WRITTEN
BY
BINA SHARIF
artsinternational.blogspot.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
email: binashariff@gmail.com
www.facebook.com

"INOAH" . DANCE: AT BAM, PART OF NEW WAVE FESTIVAL

"INOAH" A DANCE PIECE AT BAM, PART OF NEW WAVE FESTIVAL

"I*NOAH" at BAM
 Grupo de Rua's  had its debut at Bam on Thursday

The choreographer of this dance performance is Bruno Beltrao and the lighting designer is Renato
Machado. When the show opens on this vast stage it's so darkly lit that it's hard to concentrate on two figures clad in black highlighting the blackness and darkness of this piece.

There is nice little focussed light on these two dancers who stand still for a while and then starts to move.  They twist and turn their arms and their bodies in a mesmerizing way. They don't seem like dancing but moving in space while still standing still. If they were little less darkly lit it would be
easier to watch them but our eyes take a long moment to adjust to the darkness which surrounds the whole stage.

But I guess the bleakness of the atmosphere is relevant to the piece.  It seems like the story of street
 dance mixed with the hip-hop in urban atmosphere.  The dancers have incredible ability to slide on
, suddenly stopping and  going off stage as if they are gliding effortlessly on ice.  They are  all men and  their bodies are very taught and muscular evoking man power.  The background sounds, the sounding score is a kind of monotonous rumble.  The score is by Felipe Storino. The movements of this dance are very hip-hop style, sliding and tumbling, suddenly stopping and leaving and other performers entering sliding on heads, twist and turn and then suddenly come to a halt, performers frozen in strange positions.  Some time they stay like that for a very long time.  This show is brilliant,
created by a great talent but needs a lot of dedication on the part of the audience to watch. The movements of  dancers are so varied and seem painful as if they are suffering from some torturous regime.  It does capture fully the urban atmosphere and culture where there is always an immediate danger of a fight breaking up amongst the inhabitants.  This show represents amazing talent though the show is confusing at times.  More of a movement and performance piece than a regular dance with a coherent story.  I did enjoy the power of dancers over their bodies and their incredible skill and energy.

REVIEWED
BY
BINA SHARIF
artsinternational.blogspot.com
binashariff@gmail.com
Cell: 212-260-6207
www.facebook.com