Another Dance Night in Cleveland

We saw an unbelievable dance company last night, once again thanks to DanceCleveland.


 photo by Uri Nevo from http://www.kcdc.co.il/en/photos/ifatall.html#galMenu

This was the Kibbutz Contemporary Dance Company  (KCDC) from, you guessed it, a kibbutz in Israel.

The dance was what I am dubbing a "long form" dance - a novella as opposed to the usual collection of short stories. It was an hour and a quarter long and was the entire program.

It is extraordinary how each dance company we see has their own lexicon of movements and their own personality. The variations in repertoire in today's modern dance world are infinite and an endless channel for creativity. This company was started by Holocaust Survivors and its legacy is continued by the child of survivors, Rami Be'er, who directs the company and plans every detail: sets, music, costumes, lighting. The result is a very cohesive whole.

The piece we saw "If At All" (אמבכלל) is described on their website as "A moving theatrical event in figurative and abstract circles, from the closed form to the open structure. Physical space in motion whose essence is a chain of events of diverse and ever-changing interpersonal relationships."

 I would describe it as "post-narrative" - there is a story-like feel but there is no clear story line - just emotion, action and power. The long form creates a hypnotic immersion experience that pulls the viewer into a lengthy descent into the world of the dancers. The dancers are technically amazing, full of power and fluidity— explosive action and lyrical retreat. Many relationships seem to unfold; circles, duets, solos, groups move to ever changing music. The piece transforms itself as it moves from dark to light, costumes and lighting and music changing throughout, yet part of a unified whole.
 

The video (which is excellent) gives a taste of the experience. Watching the video makes me want to go back and see it again—it is one of those pieces that would continue to work on repeated viewings.

In the Q and A afterward the director, and two of the dancers, spoke overtly of not over-determining the interpretation for the audience but keeping it open, so that the viewer brings their own interpretation to it.

DanceCleveland, as usual, adds their own additional fabulous features to the experience, like buttons and chocolate kisses on the tables afterward and little post-its on each program to fill out and to put up on the wall after the performance in which viewers list three take-aways or their general impression: survival, celebration, athleticism. There is also a twitter gallery in the balcony. The organization is a model for hybrid audience engagement!

Somehow KCDC created a story of survival, love and life through dance—and today it continues to echo within me.

Tommy's

 Veggie Burger-Not Your Grandmother's Burger

I love Tommy's. I have been going there since I was 14 years old, the first time my friend Jackie and I got on bikes and were old enough to go all the way to Coventry.

A few weeks ago I described a day spent with my daughter walking around Coventry on this blog. Tommy's was mentioned only in its absence from the itinerary. Today I went for lunch with my son, Aryeh.

The menu has been the same for all these years, with a few additions. I can walk in at any stage of my life and order a Lynne with bananas, a Dale, a Quincy, an MR 4, or a Jackson with Loui on the side and know what I am getting. Sandwiches are named after their orginators: "When the same people would make up sandwiches and order the same things every time, it was easier to just write thier names or initials down. That is how our menu was created. Each item is named after its creator. These lovely people represent the history of Coventry and now make their homes all over the world." (from Tommy's website.)

 Lynne with Bananas

I tell my kids the Becky is named after me. Becky: A wheat spinach pie stuffed with tofu salad and cheese. $8.95

 Black Raspberry Chip Yogurt Shake

Let's not even get started on the yogurt shakes. One Tommy's tradition (maybe it is just me) is to order the shake first and eat it with the meal. Nowhere else do you get dessert first.

Even the Fries are Great

In all the different places I have lived and in all my travels I have never seen a menu like this. Tofu and tempeh salad sandwiches, spinach pies in every shape, size and color. They know where to apply the baba ghanouj, the sesame seeds and the bananas. In short, it is hippy food at its finest. And has proved ageless-been around since I was 10 years old.

When I had an apartment in the Coventry area my roomie Lauren and I came here regularly. In the years I lived outside of Cleveland coming to Tommy's was a fixed item on my itinerary. It was a part of the feeling of home and it was always grounding to be able to eat the same sandwich in the same place. Now my oldest son lives in the Coventry area and it is his hang-out, wait-staffed by his friends. To be a Clevelander, at least an east sider, one SHOULD know the difference between an MR 3 and an MR 4.

A Day at Coventry

No, not the English Village in the County of West Midlands, but our very own Coventry Village in Cleveland, OH. Coventry is the Haight Ashbury of Cleveland, the Greenwich Village of the Burbs. The still thriving Record Revolution is where I bought ALL my records as a teen-ager. At least it was—and the imprint is still there. Part of the fun.

I had to take my car in for service yesterday and I brought Fat Rabbit along since she is on summer vacation and in need of entertainment until she takes off for overnight camp next week. I thought we could leave the car and walk down to the nearby Coventry Road for breakfast and coffee.

Little did I know they would keep my car for over four hours, so we wound up doing a major tour of Coventry Village, which, as it turns out was no problem. Here was our itinerary, stop by stop:

1. The Inn on Coventry

Around since 1981 and probably with the very same waitresses, the Inn on Coventry is a breakfast/lunch staple. We had the Meatless Eggs Sausalito (veggie eggs benedict using artichoke hearts and mushrooms-yum) and their famous Lemon Ricotta Pancakes, which are unbelievably good. Decent coffee, warm and quirky service and great food. Car still not ready so...

 2. Big Fun

 "A cornucopia of delights, a cathedral of counter-culture, a warehouse of nerdabilia and nostalgia."
We were looking for a diablo yoyo for my 15 year old, who has set juggling and yoyo tricks as one of his (many) summer goals. We struck out, but it is a great place for all sorts of bizarre toys. We did find a package of Star Trek Card Bubblegum Trading Cards. I bet that is some dried out bubble gum! Problem with the airconditioning in the car so....

3.  Macs Backs-Books Bookstore

Around as long as I can remember, and conveniently adjacent to the ever popular Tommy's Restaurant (which we didn't get to this day) for browsing while waiting for a table. Reading is our shared favorite hobby, so, of course we stopped by Macs Backs to support-the-indie-bookstore where ever we go. Proprietor Suzanne DeGaetano was on hand to make some fabulous book recommendations for my daughter, and even managed to enroll her in a teen girls book club. Can't wait for first meeting this fall! Agh, rust on the carburetor...

4.  Passport to Peru

Did anybody say Hippies? Passport to Peru sells incense, Indian dresses, Birkenstocks and Naot footwear. Been around since my childhood in the 70's. You get the idea. However, the clothing is really fabulous and well priced and we did find the perfect sun-dress for Fat Rabbit which she has been wearing all day. Recommendation to rotate the tires...

5. Phoenix Coffee

New location on corner of Hampshire and nice vibe. Good coffee, excellent pastries and free wifi. Coffee shop. But wait...leak in the car's air conditioning still not found, injecting dye...

6. Blush Boutique

Not really much of a clothes shopper, but a few weeks ago they had a sale rack of really cute and inexpensive retro dresses by Combat outside so we peeked in. Very cute and different fashions, Espe and Vfish, including some great shoes. If that is your thing it is worth knowing about...Is the car ready yet?

7. Attenson's Antique Store

Did I mention that it was 92 degrees outside and very humid. We did a quick peek into the (air-conditioned) Antique Store. Almost bought a "cool belt" (that was what the label said) and a cute demitasse for Fat Rabbit. Looked at some cut crystal tumblers for my non-existent crystal collection.

8. Picadilly Artisan Frozen Yogurt

My favorite frozen dessert place.

First of all, it is all organic and has vegan selections, so everyone in the family can indulge.

Second, the decor and design is fabulous, utilizing reclaimed materials from crates, the old Grog Shop Door as a counter top (another Coventry historical site), and large industrial whisks as light fixtures. Works from Cleveland Institute of Art (my son's college) are on the walls.

Third, it is delicious, with all the mix-ins, bells and whistles. And great music.

Wait, a missed call from 20 minutes ago that the car is ready! And we didn't even make it to Tommy's for dinner...

Terminal Tower: Observation Deck

picture from Don Iannone at flickr.com

Over Memorial Day Weekend we "vacationed" at home. This included a neighborhood barbeque, a movie ("Chef" - highly recommended), first outdoor swim of the season, and a trip downtown to the Terminal Tower.

Though I grew up in Cleveland I had never been up to the 42nd floor Observation Deck, which is open on week-end afternoons for the shocking price of $5 a peep. We took 13 year old Fat Rabbit, who also had never been up the tower, though both boys had gone during 4th grade class field trips.

I have been through the Terminal Tower Mall on several occasions, usually rushing to a movie or an event, so I have never REALLY paid attention to the detail. It is a stunning building with a panoramic history of Cleveland. With our "vacation" heads on, we really noticed the beautiful foyer as we entered.

foyer as we saw it                           ceiling detail

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After wandering around a bit and appreciating how beautiful the building is, magnificent, really, we bought our tickets and rode two elevators up to the 42nd floor. The observation deck had been restored to its original decor:

The compass came in handy for orientation, though the position of the lake is always a big tip-off in Cleveland! Um, north.  It was a clear day and visibility was extraordinary.

Cuyahoga river snaking back on itself

 My thought was that if this were the Empire State Building on a clear day, we would have waited in line for hours and vied with crowds for a view. But here in Cleveland, we went straight up and had the whole observation deck to ourselves. And the views were no less stunning.

Dance Cleveland: The Jessica Lang Company

For our very last concert in this season's Dance Cleveland subscription series we went to see the Jessica Lang Company. The previous concert we saw in our series (which I did not blog about) was the final season of a company that is closing after 44 years. In contrast, this was a brand new company which began performing in 2011.

And what a contrast! The energy and dynamism, innovation and technique of this new company had the audience out of their seats. The young artistic director brought in many streams of inspiration from other media: architecture, interior design, new compositions, textiles and video. I loved the interplay of so many mediums and the way they formed a powerful, coherent interstitial experience.

 Lines Cubed (photo from http://www.jessicalangdance.com)

 The first piece, Lines Cubed, was an amazing architectural piece divided into movements by color: black, red, yellow, blue. The background is a direct quote from Mondrian's color block painting, and the dancers interact with movable sets by molo; softblock modular paper accordioned installations which can create vertical and horizontal walls. The dancers interact with these installations with geometric and architectural precision, sometimes dancing in free space, sometimes around the installations. Each movement has a different color and completely different mood, with differently cut costumes colored according to the title of the movement. The pop electronica music by John Metcalfe and Thomas Metcalf perfectly blended with the clockwork like dancing of the dancers. The audience stood up in admiration at the end of the piece. I was there with Irad and Yuval, and we felt uplifted and inspired—the work was imaginative and wholly original. It was a cross-genre pollination with every element representing the highest form of that art's expression.

Mendelssohn/Incomplete (photo from http://www.jessicalangdance.com)

Next was a single movement from a Mendelssohn piano trio. The set was minimal, the dancers wore dusky blue and grape, and the over all effect was lyrical and soothing.

Among the Stars (photo from http://www.jessicalangdance.com)

And the third dance in the first half was an astoundingly beautiful and moving couple's dance with music by Ryuichi Sakamoto ("Snowy Village & The Girl"). The dance is constructed around a long sheet of silk which begins as a train for the woman's dress, and then drops to the floor to form a river, a bridge, a cloak...as it is integrated into a breathtakingly beautiful dance set to dreamy piano and violin music.

During the intermission we had the usual DANCECleveland fun of posting our post-its on the wall with our "take-aways" (Mondrian, architectural, clockwork), eating chocolate kisses and picking up new DanceCleveland buttons.

DANCECleveland makes a new button for each performance

The second half:

The Calling (photo from http://www.jessicalangdance.com)

Irad and I couldn't imagine how they could follow such a stellar first half at the same level, but they did it. The very first dance was stunning; a woman emerges out of an enormous white dress, bare backed with an ocean of skirt surrounding her, with her back to the audience, and performs the entire dance without moving from the spot, bending and swaying, at one point sinking into the dress as if she is sinking into the ground à la wicked witch "I'm melting" to the audible oohs of the entire audience. The musical setting  "o Maria, stella maris" performed by Trio Mediaeval, to a solo woman's a capella chanting, very straight tone and haunting. The dancer herself, Kana Kimura, a beautiful Japanese woman,  embodied the silent feminine grace of the dance perfectly. We realized she was the same dancer we had seen last year in the Metropolitan Opera production of Nixon and China.

This was followed by a video created by Lang with Shinchini Maruyama (the Japanese presence in the show—composer, videographer and dancer—was indirectly explained in the Q & A following the show when Lang mentioned that her husband is a Japanese dancer). It was set to Grieg piano music (4 movements from Lyric Pieces Op. 12, nos. 1, 4, were the ones we succeeded in picking out, since they weren't credited,)  and featured sequences of dancers shown at different film speeds, sometimes doubling themselves, yet perfectly coordinated to the music, and very playful. Though not as strong an experience as seeing the live dancers, we learned afterwards in the Q & A that this passive performance component was strategic in keeping the dancers fresh and allowing them time for costume changes, since there are only 9 dancers in the entire company and it is quite taxing on a small cast to sustain an evening's show.

i.n.k. (photo from http://www.jessicalangdance.com)

With the screen still up, the finale began—another collaboration with Maruyama, his video art KUSHO as backdrop, showing blobs of ink thrown up into the air. The dancers appear in inky black costumes and themselves perform different shapes and contortions, sometimes in relation to the backdrop of liquid ink shapes, and sometimes independently. All the while an original score by Jakub Ciupinski played, with lots of watery droplet sounds, making for a complete visual and auditory rorschach fest.

Excerpts from all the dances in the show are available on Lang's website. 

As usual there was a Q & A afterwards in which we learned some of the director's story of how she got there, the thrill of seeing her own name before the Dance Company, and how she finds her ideas, dancers and collaborations. I liked how she phrased catching the "wink of an idea" here or there, and how she lays her nets to catch her collaborators. (Which is basically how she described several of her collaborations, she doesn't seem to just ask people outright to collaborate.) All the dancers knew each other from Julliard or Twyla Tharp, and I was struck by her statement that she needed dancers who could take care of themselves and their bodies so she could stick to the business of being artistic director. (As if that is not always the case in a touring company.) We noticed that many of the dancers also have staff positions.

We are lucky to have a very perspicacious and talented curator in Pam Young, Executive Director of DANCECleveland. This company was such a great find, and to have caught on to them so early in their career takes a special knowledge of the dance world and a talent for the hunt. She always gives a light, joyful and short introduction to each performance and one can tell she loves her work and the world of dance. There are pieces to the program that we do not see, which is that each dance company does workshops and masterclasses with local students, as well as performing for us. 

My reflection as I left was that we are now getting to meet the new generation of great artists and thinkers who will influence the next 50 years of culture. Life will continue after we are gone with wonderful new talent and genius continuing to build and innovate on everything that has come before them and imagining a future that we are lucky enough to glimpse. As the poet Kahlil Gibran wrote about the next generation:

For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

Yet we did indeed visit the house of tomorrow, and it was a dream!

New Discovery: Rockefeller Greenhouse

My botanical drawing class moved from the Botanical Gardens to the Rockefeller Greenhouse this winter, a part of the Cleveland Public Parks and free and open to the public. Despite growing up here, this is yet another interesting corner of the city that is new to me. Last week was the first time I was able to make class since it moved, and in addition to working more on my still-developing botanical drawing technique, I discovered another unknown (to me) historical landmark in Cleveland.

Here is the view from outside:

and here is what you get inside:

 A truly welcome change from the monotonous palate of whites and greys we are living with this winter.

There were many orchids in bloom and I chose the most intensely colored orchid I could find as an antidote to my cabin fever.

My orchid and I got to know each other quite well over the next couple of hours, which is one of the things I treasure about botanical drawing. Spending time on capturing the detail is a satisfying process of exploration—the more I look, the more there is to notice. Even the simplest plant has endless shades of color and details.

Finished for the day.

DANCECleveland: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet

Our second show in this year's DanceCleveland subscription had my husband Irad, his business partner Yuval, and me chipping our way out of our home glacier and sliding and skidding between snowdrifts to the Ohio Theater downtown.

It was well worth the effort. Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet has a unique situation amongst contemporary dance companies: Generously funded by Walmart heiress Nancy Laurie, the company owns its own studio building in Manhattan, is able to pay its dancers 52 weeks a year (unheard of in the dance world), and bring in resident choreographers to develop pieces with the dancers for 5-9 weeks at a time, often including the input of individual dancers into the final project.

The experience of coming in from a weekend of huddling in hibernation at home to the high energy urban excitment of Cedar Lake was really to leave one world and enter another. The first dance, Indigo Rose, introduced us to the elegant athleticism of the company. Four different selections of music, ranging from avant garde to Couperin, amazing costumes, high tech lighting, shadow dancing with a billowing scrim, multi media projections. And the dancers! So young and vital, multi-ethnic and acrobatic—like watching pan-global acrobats. I felt like I had come to the Blade Runner of Dance Companies.



The second dance, 10 Duets on the Theme of Rescue, as usual for the middle act, was slower, and intensely emotional. Couple after couple enacting scenes of intimacy and drama.



And the third dance was a masterpiece of acrobaticism and group movement, like watching a huge sea amoeba composed of beautiful bodies. It is intense, humorous, anxious and passionate and is thematically based on New York City.



I have come to love DANCECleveland and every time I go my appreciation deepens. I went home and read their history, which goes back to 1954 and is quite remarkable. Apparently, appearing in the DANCECleveland series is an important stop for a contemporary dance company. In addition to being one of the only stand-alone dance presenters in the country, they add many creative features to each presentation: workshops and classes by each company with local students the days before a performance, a 45 minute talk before each performance, Q and A afterwards, and little post-it notes on each program to be filled out by the audience with their impressions and takeaways. The post-its go up on a board during intermission and one can see what other people experience. The act of reflecting on what was just seen deepens my relationship to it and sets my impressions and recollections —I may borrow this trick for presenting sessions in my own organization.

We stayed for the Q and A and had a fascinating glimpse into the process of the company and some of their vocabulary: flexible spines, athleticism, heads as a fifth appendage...They also mentioned that they have a nice blog of their travels that I did look at when I got home. Additionally we lingered afterward and had a wonderful conversation with Pam Young, their executive director, who does an amazing job of curating this series. We all agreed that this is a golden age of contemporary dance and we are lucky enough to have 5-7 cream of the crop companies brought to our doorstep every year.

Feeling energized and inspired, we went a few blocks down Euclid to Noodlecat where we sat at counters in the pub area and feasted on saki and sapporo and okonomi yaki, and steamed buns and noodles, laying in enough blubber to get us through the next few days of the cold snap, and thanks to DANCECleveland, feeling connected to a world of artistic excellence, technological innovation and ever evolving new aesthetics, to which with the help of all that Saki, we left all fired up to see what next we can experience, and even create ourselves. A good night out in Arctic Cleveberg.

Exhibit Review: James Nares' "STREET"— A Night out at the Reinberger Galleries

The Cleveland Institute of Art's (CIA) Reinberger Gallery has seasonal exhibitions that we've come to enjoy over the last few years, especially since our oldest son began studying there. What particularly motivated us to go down to the exhibit opening was that James Nares, whose film STREET is featured, is the partner of a friend of ours, a lovely woman we've gotten to know over the past two summers in Vermont.  It always gives one a stronger connection to and interest in an exhibition if there is a personal connection to the artist.

STREET was beautiful and well worth the visit—mesmerizing and evocative. (Thankfully—because otherwise what do you tell your friend!?) We lived in NYC for 6 years and we still think of it as an alternate home so it was enjoyable to have that kind of immersive return and see it in such a broad yet focused way. Also technically very impressive! 



And of course we did that thing which I'm sure anyone who has spent time in NY has done - Oh, that's the Path corner, oh, that's right by X's apartment, Oh, isn't that where there used to be that bodega where I picked up flowers on the way home? But the real stars are the thousands of faces. Everyone looks so beautiful and interesting in the HD slow-mo—I imagine that reflects the artist's own loving feelings about humanity.

Here is the explanatory blurb from the CIA webiste: British-born artist James Nares spent one week in September 2011 filming 16 hours of footage from a moving car traveling the streets of Manhattan. He used the kind of high-definition camera usually reserved for capturing speeding bullets ripping through apples, then edited the footage down to one hour of super-slow-motion street activity put to music. The result is a trippy, dreamlike experience that played at The Metropolitan Museum of Art this past spring and will air on a loop in CIA’s Black Box Projection Room.

And we did get to say hello to James!

Other things you will see at the  exhibit are recent works by Richard Anuszkiewicz, that play with our perceptions of color and seem to swim before the eyes in huge vivid paintings that come off the walls.

 

 Photo from CIA site, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Mardi Gras. Image courtesy of Loretta Howard Gallery, New York, NY.

 

  

Also there, Intricately detailed print work by Suzanne Treister, in a show called Hexen 2.0 and looks at the history of scientific research. I like the use of Tarot Cards as the organizing principle.

From CIA site: Suzanne Treister, Queen of Chalices- Ada Lovelace. Image courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W Gallery, NYC.

And a third and also very different exhibition of paintings by Arpita Singh, called Men in Turmoil. Less visually appealing to me than the other artists.

 From CIA Site: Arpita Singh, Women in Blue Men in Black. Image Courtesy Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, India and DC Moore Gallery, New York.

The great thing about going to Reinberger exhibitions is that they are a manageable amount of gallery space to get through in one evening, and still have time for dinner in Little Italy!

Concert Review: Cleveland Orchestra— Fauré, Britten, Franck

One of the benefits of spending these years in Cleveland is going to the Cleveland Orchestra, one of my two favorite orchestras in the world. (The other one is the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.)

orchestra takes the stage

This weekend we went to hear:
Suite from Pelléas et Mélisande, Opus 80 by Gabriel Fauré
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings, Opus 31 by Benjamin Britten and
Symphony in D minor, by César Franck 

Marek Janowski, conductor
Matthew Polenzani, tenor
Richard King, horn

I loved the Fauré. The Cleveland Orchestra has the maturity to handle just about anything, and it really shows in the subtleties of this wistful, romantic, modally colored piece. The charming Sicilienne in particular was perfection itself, and I would gladly hear it over and over again.

The Britten, which is the piece I was excited about, was disappointing. The orchestra was superb and the music is absolutely fantastic. But the whole thing hinges on the soloists, and though the horn player was outstanding (what a wonderful instrument!) the tenor was a deal breaker. Though he was an excellent musician—his phrasing and diction were exquisite—the voice itself was stripped of all chest in the sound, and had a very fast bleating vibrato. I personally don't like that feminized sound in a male voice. Even a tenor should have a good warm baritone in the bottom that threads throughout the voice. And I believe Britten wrote the piece to balance the horn with a deeper male sound. Without the grounded male voice the sonorities were lost.

I would like to mention that, aside from Irad, I may be alone in this evaluation as the piece received a standing ovation. Truly, the horn player alone merited the cheers!

The Franck symphony was expertly performed but not my favorite music. Yes, it shows what can be done with a large symphony, but it is a lot of strings and brass, a lot of sound—as in look what a full symphony orchestra can do! —and very artful weaving of repeated themes throughout—but it reads bombastic to my ears. But people love it!

Best of all is sitting in the beautiful hall. It is like being cradled in an envelope of golden warmth. The art deco highlights, the marble staircases - just gorgeous. And the sound is better than any symphony hall I've sat in, with the exception of Carnegie Hall.

gold leaf ceiling