Just a reminder, single tickets for the BAM Next Wave Festival go on sale to the general public starting today (September 8).

BAM 2009 Next Wave Festival
Next Wave Single Tickets
On sale to the public starting Tue, Sep 8

Many of this year’s Next Wave productions are sure to sell out so buy early. This season’s artists include Juliette Binoche, William Forsythe, Isabelle Huppert, Robert Wilson, the Dessner brothers (of The National), and DJ Spooky. Single tickets go on sale to the general public on September 8. See video previews at BAM.org.

A sad day in the world of dance…

Merce Cunningham, the American choreographer who was among a handful of 20th-century figures to make dance a major art and a major form of theater, died Sunday night. He was 90 and lived in Manhattan. [NYTimes.com]

In April 2009, BAM premeried a new evening-length work by Merce Cunningham created in collaboration with and performed live by Sonic Youth and former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Some folks may also recall that Radiohead and Sigur Ros played a benefit at BAM for the 50th Anniversary Season of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company back in 2003.

In June of 2009, Mr. Cunningham made public the plans for the future of his company in the eventuality of his death.

Merce Cunningham, the nonagenarian choreographer, is planning for a world without him. He has decided that when he dies, or when the right time comes, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company will embark on a final two-year international tour and then shut down, the Cunningham Dance Foundation, which supports the company, announced on Tuesday.

By other provisions of the plan, the Merce Cunningham Trust will take control of Mr. Cunningham’s dances for licensing purposes; the dancers will each receive a year’s salary as severance and extra money to help find new careers; staff members and the musicians who play for his performances will also receive payments.
…
The final two-year tour will offer a “triumphant conclusion to the creation phase of Merce’s work,” a document outlining the plan says.

Mr. Cunningham has stipulated that tickets to New York performances should cost $10.

The always eclectic BAM Next Wave Festival revealed its 2009 schedule today and while there are no huge indie rock concerts at the Opera House this time, there is still plenty of interesting stuff happening this year, including pieces by Meredith Monk, DJ Spooky, Sō Percussion, and a world premiere of “The Long Count” by Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, and Matthew Ritchie featuring guest vocalists Kim and Kelley Deal (The Breeders), Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond), and Matt Berninger (The National) . Here’s a little more information on the “The Long Count”:

The Long Count

In an inspired collision of creative worlds, three inexhaustibly original artists—brothers Bryce Dessner and Aaron Dessner of indie rock royalty The National and omnivorous visual art phenomenon Matthew Ritchie—combine talents to create a song-filled myth about the beginning of time. A feast of images, instrumentals, and songs thick with primordial mystery, The Long Count pairs Ritchie’s protean forms with a twelve-piece orchestra and the Dessners’ gothic mix of electric and orchestral sounds.

Note: Subscriptions go on sale to Friends of BAM on Mon, Jun 15. Public sale starts Mon, Jun 22.

View the complete BAM Next Wave Schedule over here.

*BAM Spring Gala

BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Running time: 90min with intermission
Subscription tickets: $20, 36, 52, 60
(Full price: $25, 45, 65, 75)

Tickets for Merce Cunningham at 90 go on Private Sale today for Friends of BAM. Single tickets go on sale to the public on January 21.

In celebration of his birthday, Merce Cunningham Dance Company returns to BAM with the world premiere of a dazzling evening-length work created in collaboration with and performed live by underground rock legends Sonic Youth, former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones, and mixed-media sound composer Takehisa Kosugi. With an intriguing multi-tiered décor by world-renowned architect Benedetta Tagliabue, lighting by Tony and Obie-winning designer Brian MacDevitt, and costumes by Romeo Gigli, this new masterpiece is testament to the boundless imagination of a man who, on the cusp of his ninth decade, still keeps us on our toes.

Some folks may recall that Radiohead and Sigur Ros played a benefit at BAM for the 50th Anniversary Season of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company back in 2003.

For a limited time, tickets to some of our hottest NYC shows will be available for a special low price. Offer begins Thurs, Nov 20 at 10am, while supplies last.

Click the venue links below to find the participating shows!
(all shows listed below)

Blender Theater at Gramercy
The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza
Roseland Ballroom
Hammerstein Ballroom

The pickings are pretty slim, but I’ve highlighted a few interesting things below.

Participating Shows
11/23/08 H20 w/ Bane, Cruel Hand Energy Blender Theater
11/24/08 Lordi w/ Lizzy Borden, Goes Cube and Fixer The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
11/25/08 Hawthorne Heights w/ Emery and more Blender Theater
11/26/08 The Medic Droid w/ Hyper Crush and more Blender Theater
11/26/08 OneRepublic w/ The Spill Canvas and more Hammerstein Ballroom
11/28/08 Angel Salazar Blender Theater
11/28/08 Mr. Brownstone, Satanicide & Good Save Queens The Fillmore at Irving Plaza ($12.50 each w/ 4 pack)
12/04/08 ohGr w/ American Memory Blender Theater
12/04/08 Suicidal Tendencies w/ Madball and more The Fillmore at Irving Plaza ($13.25 each)
12/06/08 The Dan Band w/ Anything for Loaf The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
12/07/08 Jeremy Enigk w/ Person L Blender Theater ($9.00 each)
12/07/08 MUCC The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
12/11/08 Bring Me The Horizon w/ Misery Signals Blender Theater
12/12/08 Butthole Surfers w/ Black Dice The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
12/13/08 Sister Hazel w/ Benjy Davis Project and more The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
12/14/08 Life of Agony w/ Spoiler NYC and more Blender Theater
12/16/08 King’s X w/ 24/7 Spyz Blender Theater
12/18/08 The Energy Blender Theater
12/20/08 Ralph Tresvant: The Voice of New Edition Blender Theater
12/21/08 Brendan James w/ April Smith Blender Theater
12/27/08 New York Dolls w/ The Dirty Pearls The Fillmore at Irving Plaza ($19.25 each)
01/11/09 Bettye LaVette/John Hammond Blender Theater ($16.25 each)
01/16/09 Wheatus Blender Theater
01/20/09 Reel Big Fish w/ Streetlight Manifesto and more Roseland Ballroom
01/22/09 Funeral For A Friend w/ The Sleeping The Fillmore at Irving Plaza
02/07/09 School of Rock Blender Theater
02/08/09 Wednesday 13 Blender Theater
03/01/09 40 oz to Freedom: A Tribute to Sublime Blender Theater

Every once in a while, a story in the New York Times makes me question my own self-proclaimed, “Pop Culture Specialist” status. Today’s article on dancing YouTube star Matt Harding, made me feel shame.

The title is not misleading. “Dancing” shows a guy dancing: a big, doughy-looking fellow in shorts and hiking boots performing an arm-swinging, knee-pumping step that could charitably be called goofy. It’s the kind of semi-ironic dance that boys do by themselves at junior high mixers when they’re too embarrassed to partner with actual girls.

The dancer is Matt Harding, the 31-year-old creator of the video, and with some New Agey-sounding music playing in the background, he turns up, grinning and bouncing, in 69 different locations, including India, Kuwait, Bhutan, Tonga, Timbuktu and the Nellis Airspace in Nevada, where he performs the dance in zero gravity. [NYTimes.com]

Sure, this guy’s good, but he’s no Gabe.

Here is what the music portion of the BAM Next Wave Festival looks like:

New Voices from Spain
Huecco (BAM Howard Gilman Opera House)
Rosalía (BAMcafé)
Oct 11

ETHEL’s TruckStop: The Beginning
Directed by and created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen
Oct 14-18

Darwin’s Meditation for The People of Lincoln
Conceived and composed by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR)
Oct 29-Nov 1

Arjuna’s Dilemma
Music-Theatre Group
Music by Douglas J. Cuomo
Nov 5-8

Red Hot + Rio 2
The Next Generation of Samba Soul
Dec 4 & 5

Check out the full 2008 Next Wave schedule here.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Friends of BAM and Subscribers: Jun 16
General public: Jun 23
More Info

SINGLE TICKETS
Friends of BAM and Subscribers: Aug 21
General public: Sep 2

Various dance and music groups will celebrate the spirit of the Brooklyn Bridge through performances at Empire-Fulton Ferry State Park. Free. Be sure to check out all the events going on throughout the weekend at www.nycvisit.com/bb125.

Sunday May 25, 2008
1:00pm: Deedle Deedle Dees
1:30pm: Brooklyn Ballet
2:00pm: Silver-Brown Dance Company
2:30pm: Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre
3:00pm: Errol Grimes Dance Group
3:30pm: Brighton Ballet Theatre

Now in our 7th year, BRICstudio’s 2008 Season shatters the boundaries of the creative process by connecting you to cutting edge dance, music and theater by artists from Brooklyn to the Mississippi Delta. See new work, learn about the development process, and offer feedback during BRIClab. Discover local choreographers at Danspace Project. Witness one-of-a-kind collaborations straddling genre and geography with 651 Arts. BRICstudio’08 is your invitation to new and emerging performance in Brooklyn. [briconline.org]

Tickets: $10 Students, $12 Adults or buy a labPASS for only $50!
(PASSes include access to 1 work-in-progress presentation and 1 eLABorate conversation for each BRIClab artist.)
Purchase tickets here, or call 866-811-4111.

Usually, there is some overlap between the BRICStudio season and the Celebrate Brooklyn! lineup, and this year is no exception. On May 8 and May 11 you can catch workshop presentations of Hall Willner’s Bill Withers Project which will have its premiere at Celebrate Brooklyn! Saturday, August 9.

Our good friends at The Music Slut are throwing a big party tonight (04/18) at Club 205. Here are the juicy details:

9pm Marxwall
10pm Alan Astor
DJ Brad Walsh

It’s an electronic dance extravaganza!

And to celebrate these amazing groups being, well, amazing, we are giving away pairs of tickets to see The Long Blondes, The Teenagers and The Cave Singers at the party in addition to gift bags filled with all sorts of goodies!

205 Club
205 Chrystie St @ Stanton
Cost: $5, 21+

Hey, I’d go if I was in the same time zone.

The Company’s Joyce program features the full-length premiere of This is the Story of a Girl in a World, a group of five related works set to songs and music by the extraordinary Antony, Lou Reed and Nico Muhly; the world premiere of Beauty and the Brut set to a commissioned score by art-rock band Fischerspooner; an encore performance of BLOOM (2006), set to a commissioned score by Rufus Wainwright, with the live accompaniment of the Young People’s Chorus of New York City, under the direction of Francisco Nunez. Lighting design for all works is by Petronio’s longtime collaborator Ken Tabachnick and costumes for the evening include designs by fashion innovators Ben Cho, Michael Angel, Tara Subkoff,
Tony Cohen, and Rachel Roy.

Performances will take place at The Joyce Theater, April 1-6, 2008 (Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30pm, Thursday through Saturday at 8pm, and Sunday at 2pm and 7:30pm). A post-performance discussion is scheduled for Wednesday, April 2. The Joyce Theater is located at 175 Eighth Avenue (at 19th Street) in New York City. Tickets are $40, and in celebration of The Joyce’s 25th Anniversary Season, tickets to the Sunday evening performance are $25. Tickets can be purchased by calling JOYCECHARGE at (212) 242 0800 or online at www.joyce.org.

[Press Release Continued After The Jump]

The seductive voice of Antony Hegarty (Antony and The Johnsons) is the common thread in This is the Story of a Girl in a World – a group of five distinct yet interrelated works that explore blurred gender constructs. This is the Story…includes last season’s powerful For Today I am a Boy and the tender Bird Gerhl, as well as three new works – Candy Says, set to a new recording of Lou Reed’s classic song performed by Reed and Antony, in homage to Warhol superstar Candy Darling; Girl in a World, set to Nico Muhly’s complex and layered composition Keep in Touch (with vocals by Antony), and a singular passage danced in silence, inspired by photos of female icons who have used their bodies as their canvas, from major shakers of modern dance to luminaries of
performance art and burlesque.

The premiere of Beauty and the Brut is set to a commissioned score by New York Indie-rock duo Fischerspooner (Warren Fischer and Casey Spooner). This is a full Company work that focuses on the irrational attraction of opposites and odd, unlikely pairings that slide between the jaggedly raw and sensuously sleek.

The evening will be completed by an encore performance of BLOOM, a dance of transformation and awakening, set to a commissioned, recorded score by Rufus Wainwright singing the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman with live accompaniment of the Young People’s Chorus of New York- an award-winning and inspirational group of 44 singers, ages 12-17, under the direction of Founder and Artistic Director Francisco Nunez. [StephenPetronio.com]