Special to the AmNews
Include dance in your holiday plans. At BAM Fisher, the Burkina Faso-born, Brooklyn-based choreographer and dancer Souleymane Badolo closes out the 2015 Next Wave Festival (Dec. 2 to 5), with the world premiere of “Yimbegre.” With live accompaniment by Burkinabe master drummer Mamoudou Konat and dancing with Sylvestre Koffitse Akakapo-Adzaku, Badolo, a 2015 Harkness Foundation artist in residence, continues his exploration of the tension between tradition and artistic freedom.
In “Yimbegre,” which in the Moore language means “beginning,” the U.S. resident now asks “complex questions born out of [his Africa to U.S.] experience [and] inform[s] this deeply personal world premiere work which addresses multiple divides: generational, geographic, aesthetic … While Badolo incorporates traditional Burkinabe dance, voice and spiritual practice … ‘Yimbegre’ … simultaneously acknowledges and addresses the tension between tradition and contemporary ideas, and the way this tension can constrain artists striving for personal and political freedom,” notes the press release. For more information, visit www.bam.org.
Dec. 2 to 5: To close the ongoing series “DoublePlus” at Gibney Dance: Agnes Varis Performing Arts Center, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar curates “Marguerite Hemmings + Katrina Reid: A Split-Bill Evening.” “Hemmings explores an aggressive practice of freedom and Katrina Reid embodies the tenacious spirit,” according to the press release. For more information, visit www.gibneydance.org.
Dec. 2 to Jan. 3: The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater returns for their annual monthlong season at New York City Center for the 45th consecutive year under Artistic Director Robert Battle with premieres, new productions and repertory favorites. For more information, visit www.alvinailey.org.
Dec. 7: The 58th annual Dance Magazine Awards, to be held at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, will honor flamenco artist Soledad Barrio, American Ballet Theatre principal Marcelo Gomes, former ballerina and current Artistic Director of National Ballet of Canada Karen Kain, dance archivist, writer and historian David Vaughan and founding Artistic Director of Urban Bush Women Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. For more information, visit www.dancemagazine.com.
Dec. 8: For one night only at Dixon Place, the ongoing series “Crossing Boundaries” returns. Marcia Monroe curates this year’s lineup: Elise Knudson and Minna Karttunen, Emily Berry, Carol Mendes, Parijat Desa and Rachel Oliver. For more information, visit www.dixonplace.org.
Dec. 9 to 12: Bill T. Jones and Dianne McIntyre will close out the New York Live Arts music series with newly commissioned solos for yMusic’s “Come Around Part IV.” For more information, visit www.newyorklivearts.org.
Dec. 11 to 12: For Harlem Stage’s “Dearly Beloved: The Music of Prince,” they will assemble a “cast of rising stars in the worlds of R&B, funk, soul, jazz and classical” to pay tribute to the musical legacy of Prince, according to the press release. The lineup includes tap dancer-choreographer Jason Samuels Smith, vocalists Goapele, Frank McComb and Christie Dashiell, poet-emcee-vocalist W. Ellington Felton and additional surprise guests. For more information, visit www.harlemstage.org.
Dec. 9-12: At BAM, under Artistic Director Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, the Brooklyn-based Urban Bush Women celebrate its 30th anniversary in an evening-length work, “Walking With ’Trane,” inspired by the life and work of legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane and inspired by Coltrane’s seminal album “A Love Supreme.” “Walking with ’Trane” is created by the collaborative team of Zollar and Samantha Speis, with dramaturg Talvin Wilks and accompanist George Caldwell. For more information, visit www.bam.org.