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Joan Acocella's latest New Yorker column on British choreographer-of-the-moment Akram Khan is one of her best pieces of work, in my opinion. After grappling with the musical complexity and historical intricacies of kathak myself for the past month, I'm dazzled by how simply but masterfully she breaks the form down for a general audience. Speaking of 68-year-old kathak master Birju Maharaj, she writes:

" He showed us how to lay a three-count foot-stamping phrase over a four-count musical phrase, and how to fit fives into sixteens. Saswati Sen did a dance to a count of nine and a half, a feat few people would have dreamed of. She accomplished it by taking some of the beats at double speed, and that is something else about kathak: how fast it gets, with no sacrifice of clarity. The dancer may be spinning like a rotary blade, but, from second to second, the head and arms are making exactly this shape, then exactly that. You can’t believe it—that so many different things are coming out of one source. And that’s not to speak of the mime dances, usually based on Hindu mythology, that are done in alternation with the rhythm studies. In these routines, the kathak performer often plays several characters In a tale from the Ramayana, Sen was now virtuous wife, now the god who seduced her, now the enraged husband, and also the river flowing by. Kathak is probably at least eight hundred years old, and in that time it has developed extraordinary subtlety.

Occasionally, for this reason, it is confounding. "

She goes on to contend that Khan is overwhelmingly popular because, in combining "ethnic" dance with modern, he gives audiences something now rare in modern dance: a driving beat. I could have used a few examples of how modern dance purportedly eschewed musicality long prior to the Judson Church rebels (she's talking about Cunningham, I suppose, though I'd like to know how far she thinks the rift with musicality reaches back), but I'm intrigued by the assertion. Definitely read Acocella's full column, here.

October 28, 2006  ·  01:29 PM   ·  Dance   ·  Comments (0)

I have a computer again! And a review of Na Lei Hulu I Ka Wekiu's latest hula extravaganza in today's Chronicle. It's not what you might expect from hula. For instance:

"As for the excesses, they're mostly tongue in cheek. In the second act, there's actually an orgy, with a stilted copulation on the center bed and the full ensemble shaking away to what sounded like a half-Hawaiian version of the Right Said Fred song "I'm Too Sexy" (sample lyrics: "A world so deep, so liquid"). I don't think the dancers mind if you giggle. "

The copy editor on the review called me to ask if I literally meant an orgy had been depicted in a hula show, and I had to swear to her I did not make this up. If that intrigues you, read the full review here.

October 26, 2006  ·  12:00 PM   ·  Dance   ·  Comments (0)

My car was broken into Thursday night in the Mission, and my two-month-new computer stolen from the trunk. What's worse, they nabbed a notebook containing handwritten outlines, sketches, and even detailed scenes for my novel-in-progress. I've only just now managed to reconstruct most of that material from memory, and gotten up to speed with my work for the Chronicle and elsewhere, so this is going to have to be a quick, no-frills catch up.

I'll start with Savage Jazz, which is what I was watching when my laptop got snagged:

"Reginald Ray Savage is a flamboyant guy in his dapper suits and trailing scarves, but his choreographic ambitions are not so outre. He likes music: jazz music. And he likes to create solidly built, cleanly shaped -- you might even say old-fashioned -- dances to it. You won't find a lot of innovation or invention at a Savage Jazz Dance Company concert, but you will find hot dancing, and some sassy dancers well worth watching.

What's missing at this 14th home season -- which continues at ODC Theater tonight before moving to Savage Jazz's hometown of Oakland next weekend -- is live music. The Marcus Shelby Orchestra, usually such a spur to Savage's musically sensitive ensemble, is absent, and the evening seems generally impoverished, so much so that Savage even apologized pre-curtain for the scant running times. The first act, some pleasant retreads, is just 12 minutes; the second, a world-premiere suite of dances to music by Miles Davis, is 18; and the third, given over to a new choreographer in town, Alex Sanchez, is a mere 11.

But there's much to be said for leaving an audience wanting more, and given its scarce resources, the show packs an admirable punch. Tracy Chan, Alison Hurley and Christine Khalil slink through Duke Ellington's take on the "Nutcracker," "Sugar Rum Cherry." Antoine Hunter stretches leggy Hurley sensually to Gershwin. And the whole troupe gets to fling itself to the rafters (Chan busts out some especially whip-smart fouette turns) to Duke Ellington's rollicking "Fleurette Africaine." "

For the full Chronicle review, click here.

Also last week, I reviewed Jo Kreiter's "Live Billboard Project." The Chronicle gave it a harsher headline than I would have personally, but I think you can tell I was lukewarm:

"The Mission District is not a neighborhood that lacks for nightly spectacle, and yet even residents accustomed to the lively mix of Mexican American families, yuppie bar patrons and assorted street life are stopping to gawk at the corner of Mission and 24th streets these days. There, two stories above the busy, dirty sidewalk, a quartet of women swing through the air, hoisted by rope, bounding off a 20-by-30-foot billboard that offers no products, only the question: "Does Beauty Ravish You?"

It's called "The Live Billboard Project," and it's the creation of Jo Kreiter, a former gymnast and acrobat who has previously sent dancers rappelling across a giant mural at 14th and Harrison streets. Such a feat is not so unusual in San Francisco, a dance scene in which Joanna Haigood has suspended performers from the Ferry Building clock tower, Project Bandaloop makes dances based on rock climbing, and Joe Goode, Kim Epifano and others regularly stage works amid the city bustle.

What sets Kreiter apart is her doggedly political bent. Her company, Flyaway Productions, now marking its 10th year, defines itself as a feminist enterprise, and Kreiter's earlier works have tackled everything from water scarcity to GMO crop engineering.

For this latest, she's returned to the age-old issue of "female objectification." "The Live Billboard Project" is meant to make passers-by cogitate on the exploitation of women in advertising. Think Naomi Wolf's "The Beauty Myth" repackaged as aerial dance. It's not easy to visualize -- and that's part of the problem. Kreiter never really makes her ideas manifest as moving image. "

The show's over, but I'd really like to hear what you thought. Click here for the full review.

I wrote up a little ditty on Yaelisa and Caminos Flamencos' October 20 and 21 shows at the Cowell Theater, but it looks like I'll have to post that later. Kinko's is closing and I am thus computerless.

October 16, 2006  ·  09:46 PM   ·  Dance   ·  Comments (0)

See me at Litquake

Litquake, San Francisco's mammoth 9-day literary festival, kicked off Friday night, continued with readings all weekend long, and kept rolling last night with a special Litquake edition of the Porchlight storytelling series in which Kathi Kamen Goldmark told of playing author escort to Hunter S. Thompson--think copious amounts of bourbon, a cranial injury while swimming with seals, and a bizarre book inscription thanking her for "fat boys."

I'm reading this Friday on the "Crime and Consequences" slate, and I hope you'll come out:

"Friday, October 13, 6:30 p.m.
Crime and Consequences is an evening of writers reading from various perspectives on crime. Told from the point of view of an ex–police chief, ex–bank robber, crime victim’s child, criminal’s child, and an historic reformed crook recounting his glory days, this event will be an intelligent look at malfeasance and its results. The Hemlock Tavern (1131 Polk Street). FREE.

Lineup includes: Robert Mailer Anderson, Bennett Cohen, Rachel Howard, Joe Loya, Margo Perin, and SFPD Chief Prentice Earl Sanders (Ret.)."

In the meantime, there's a "Politics of Food" panel tonight, a Word for Word theater production of a short story by Andrew Sean Greer, Kidquake with children's authors on Wednesday, and a lot more. Check out the whole schedule at www.litquake.org.

October 10, 2006  ·  01:45 PM   ·  Books   ·  Comments (0)

Good news for ballet in Oakland . . . My story in the Chronicle today:

"Ballet in Oakland is a long saga that revolves around a single man: Ronn Guidi. He founded the Oakland Ballet in 1965, led it to international notice with revivals of rare masterpieces, and watched along with a heartsick community in recent years as the ballet faltered after his retirement.

Now, as Oakland arts lovers are still smarting from the Oakland Ballet's closure, Guidi is back. "Ronn Guidi's 'Nutcracker' " will run four performances, Dec. 22-24, at the Paramount Theatre, with live music from the Oakland East Bay Symphony. The return of this 33-year tradition is also the first glimmer of possible regeneration for ballet in Oakland.

"So many people on the street were saying, 'You better come back with your 'Nutcracker' this year, we're waiting,' " said Guidi, who recently turned 70. "My batteries are recharged to make this happen. I'm in for the long haul."

Guidi has so far raised $110,000 toward a $200,000 budget, with a $25,000 donation from the Chevron Corporation. He plans to channel ticket profits toward future performances, and he already has his sights on a 2009 festival marking the 100th anniversary of the Ballets Russes, the artistically revolutionary Paris company whose landmark ballets he so lovingly revived."

Click here for the full story.

October 06, 2006  ·  10:08 AM   ·  Dance   ·  Comments (1)

My review of "Kathak at the Crossroads" is in today's Chronicle:

" "The 'one' is Krishna," Birju Maharaj told an entranced audience Friday at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater. "All the beats want to reach toward Krishna, to one, to home," said the 68-year-old master of Indian Kathak dance. "You are going everywhere, but you are coming back home."

By "one" he meant the downbeat, the start of a new rhythmic cycle and the mystical moment of wholeness in Kathak, which is as much about musicianship as movement. And over the next hour he took his audience on ever more surprising journeys there, toying with time so that you could almost hear it in three dimensions, testing silence to the point that you wondered how he could ever reconnect, and always, astonishingly, arriving home with perfect surety.

His rhythms were an education in recognizing order in seeming chaos, like hearing music in rainfall or suddenly seeing a stunning design in the night stars. They seemed to promise that everything in life will be revealed to have pattern and purpose, if you have patience to wait for the downbeat.

Maharaj was the banner attraction of Kathak at the Crossroads, a landmark international festival organized by San Francisco's own esteemed Kathak guru, Chitresh Das. His performance revealed why the ancient art form thrives, and why its future is worth worrying about. The three-day festival was a celebration, to be sure, with dozens of gurus and disciples flown in from India, and crowds of connoisseurs from the Bay Area's large Indian community in attendance."

Click here for the full review.

October 03, 2006  ·  01:15 PM   ·  Dance   ·  Comments (0)