ARTSBEAT 5-15-13
- PostEagle
- May 14, 2013
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Balanchine Play at Lincoln Center
It’s 1948 and during a spring weekend in Westport, Connecticut a close-knit group of Russian émigrés, including choreographer George Balanchine, composer Igor Stravinsky, conductor Serge Koussevitsky, painter/set designer Sergey Sudeikin and composer Nikolai Nabokov, gathered to eat, drink and talk.
Commissioned by Lincoln Center Theater. the world premiere of the play Nikolai and the Others playwright Richard Nelson imagines the relationships between Balanchine and Stravinsky, their friends, lovers, wives and ex-wives, partners, supporters and dancers including Maria Tallchief and Nicholas Magallanes, at the time of their historic collaboration on the ballet Orpheus. The play is interspersed with moments of Balanchine’s original Orpheus choreography.
Later that year, Orpheus would be the spectacular inaugural production of the newly formed New York City Ballet. With this in mind, the play also explores the controversial ways American art and artistic institutions were funded at the outset of the Cold War — including the subtle hand of the State Department in the post-war cultural scene.
Through June 16th at The Lincoln Center Theater – 150 W 65th St. Manhattan.
Far From Heaven Translates To Stage
Cathy Whitaker seems to be the picture-perfect wife and mother in 1957 suburban Connecticut. But roiling beneath the surface, secret longings and forbidden desires cause her world to unravel, with incendiary consequences. With a lush score that is both jazz-inflected and hauntingly lyrical, Far From Heaven derived from the film, is a powerful story of romance, betrayal, and intolerance, as a woman grapples with her identity in a society on the verge of upheaval. Through June 30 at Playwrights Horizons Mainstage Theater, 416 W 42nd St., New York, NY.
Luminski Dance Work to Premiere
The Battery Dance Company and the Polish Cultural Institute New York present Past, Present & Future – Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost – a new work by Jacek Luminski and a revival of Jonathan Hollander’s Shell Games on May 21 – 23 at the 3LD Art + Technology Center – 80 Greenwich Street, New York, NY. For the first time in its history, Battery Dance Company has commissioned an outside choreographer, Jacek Luminski, to create a work to inaugurate their 37th Season in New York City. Throughout his career, Luminski has searched for a connection to the lost Jewish culture of Poland. Having trained as a non-Jewish dancer in the State Jewish Theater in Warsaw, Luminski’s creative process has been heavily influenced by Polish-Jewish folk traditions. The knowledge, dance steps, and stories gathered over the years from elderly survivors eventually led to the movement vocabulary and an oeuvre of his own
The Eighth Annual Chopin Festival
Songs and Arias by Chopin, Karlowicz, Niewiadomski, Moniuszko, Mozart, Bizet, and Saint-Saens will be included in the Chicago Chopin Society’s Gala Concert featuring Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Edyta Kulczak. The event will take place on Saturday May 18 at 6:00 pm at the Polish Museum of America – 984 N. Milwaukee Ave, Chicago, IL. For ticket reservations: 773-262-9699; ccs@chicagochopinsociety.com
An Evening of Culture
An evening with Agata Tuszyńska, Mary Ellen Tyrmand and an exhibition of Ryszard Horowitz’s photography will take place on May 16 at 7:00 pm at the Consulate General of Poland – 233 Madison Ave, New York.Tuszyńska is one of Poland’s most popular biographers and authors. As a 23 years old Tyrmand met her future husband, Leopold Tyrmand, a Polish novelist and editor. Born in Kraków, Horowitz’s entire family was sent to a series of concentration camps; he is one of the youngest known survivors of Auschwitz, and today is recognized as a pioneer of special effects photography predating digital imagining. The event will be moderated by David Goldfarb.
Aleksandra Nowak Art Classes
Painting with Oils, Acrylics, Watercolors and Pastels under direction of Artist Aleksandra K. Nowak will take place on Thursdays (6:30-9:00 pm) and Saturdays (9:00-11:00 am) at the Polish Cultural Foundation – 177 Broadway, Bldg #3, Room #1, Clark, NJ. Classes will include: sketching on canvas or paper with focus on perspective and proportions; color mixing and color theory; working from still life displays, live model and various references. You can join anytime. For information contact: 908-587-5280; aknowak@verizon.net
