Welcome to the Schimmel Center Blog!

Schimmel Center Blog Schimmel Center seeks to enrich and engage our audiences by bringing world-class talent to Lower Manhattan. Our programming features internationally-acclaimed talent in the areas of music, dance, cabaret, comedy and family programming

16 April 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Conjuring New Music With the Sorcerer of Congolese Rumba, Hip-Hop and Funk!

Honoring the tradition of bringing our audiences the best up and coming artists from around the globe, Pace Presents is proud to bring you a young musical artist who is promising a completely new brand of music unknown to your ear drums. Baloji is a young Belgian artist with Congolese roots. His nomenclature is well chosen as it is the Swahili word for “sorcerer.” Sorcery of music would be the perfect way to describe his unique talent for fusing the worlds of Congolese rumba and hip-hop and funk. With a sound so unique, you must hear it for yourself. The following video was made by NPR music and was filmed this past January at Global Fest at Webster Hall in Manhattan. Baloji sure knew how to spin his magic to enchant the crowds. It surely felt like they were under some sort of spell.

To purchase tickets, visit schimmel.pace.edu or call (866) 811-4111. Be sure to use the code “20Tix” for $20 tickets!
See you at the Schimmel!
Michael Scott-torbet
Pace PResets’ Blogger

April 17th at 7:30pm

FUTURISTIC AFRICA: Congolese Rumba, Hip-Hop and Funk: Baloji & L’Orchestre de la Katuba

All Tickets $35
Curated by LiveSounds.org

Baloji is a quirky Belgian rapper and crooner with Congolese roots whose nom de guerre means “sorcerer” in Swahili. His inventive mix of rap with vintage Congolese soukous, rumba and 60s soul grooves performed in a highly original way has garnered him a huge fan base. Critically acclaimed for his modern interpretation of Congolese music, Baloji is at the forefront of redefining African music in a savvy, modern way. He will be joined by his elegant band on guitar, bass, keyboards, percussion and a horn section.

10 April 2014 ~ 0 Comments

Feeling the beat of Charanga Cubana!

“Charanga” is a form of popular Cuban dance music that was made famous in dance halls during the 1940’s. The movement has its origins in French and Haitian culture mixing with Cuba’s “son” music. Perhaps the most quintessential charanga orchestra is the “Orquesta Aragón.” The “Orquestra” was founded in 1939 and was world renowned by the mid twentieth century. They are known for their,”high-class instrumentalists playing in tight ensemble style, and rhythmical innovations which kept their sound up to date.” Pace Presents is proud to have the “Orquesta Aragón” on hand to play some of their biggest hits on Sunday, April 13 at 7:30. I could tell you more but their music speaks volumes louder. Please enjoy the following videos of “Orquesta Aragón” in action and then secure your tickets to this thrilling event!

 

To purchase tickets, visit schimmel.pace.edu or call (866) 811-4111

 

See you at the Schimmel!

Pace Presents Blogger

Michael Scott-Torbet

April 13th at 7:30pm

CHARANGA CUBANA Orquesta Aragón

All Tickets $35
Curated by LiveSounds.orgOne of Cuba’s grandest and enduring, charanga bands, Orquesta Aragón, the “Duke Ellington and Count Basie Orchestra of Cuban music” is a national treasure on the island and have performed worldwide for over 60 years. Orquesta Aragón has been a cornerstone of Cuban culture for seven decades, playing danzón, son, cha-cha-chá, rumba and their own styles. Their Afro-Latin innovations shaped the evolution of Cuban music for decades and they have been credited for inspiring New York’s mambo scene in the 50s, making an indelible mark on African music in the 70s, and influencing a who’s who of NY’s Latin music icons like Fania All-Stars’ Johnny Pacheco and Mambo King Tito Puente. Since 1939 Aragón has kept its focus, spreading irresistible Cuban rhythms around the world.

18 March 2014 ~ 0 Comments

“Stretching the boundaries of hip-hop and classical dance!” Inside RUBBERBANDance Group and Choreographer Victor Quijada

This spring, the Michael Schimmel Center has been engaging audiences with a string of dance companies and artists that all have one thing in common. They all challenge the way we view dance. Brian Sanders’ JUNK taught us that we can find dance just about anywhere, even in every day disposed objects.  Israel Galvan showed us that flamenco does not have to be performed against a backdrop of classical guitar. Flamenco can find joy in the startling contrasts between silence and reverberation. Now a group from Montreal promises to challenge the way we look at both hip-hop and classical dance. With his own unique form of dance expression, choreographer Victor Quijada reconciles the spontaneous, gutsy dance form of hip-hop with the articulate maturity of ballet. Pace Presents is excited to welcome RUBBERBANDance Group to the Schimmel stage.

RUBBERBANDance Group

RUBBERBANDance Group

Victor Quijada found dance in the form of hip-hop, growing up in Los Angeles in the 1980’s. Due to his incredible dexterity as a dancer, his contemporaries dubbed him with the moniker, “Rubberband.” He immersed himself in a wide variety of dance forms and went on to perform with such celebrated companies as THARP!, Ballet Tech, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens. Quijada was left with an extensive physical vocabulary that transcended several genres of dance. At the turn of the millennium, Quijada was living in New York and was feeling quite fed up with it. “(New York) has too much happening and not enough happening at the same time; too much because everyone is here. Not enough because there aren’t enough resources in one city for everyone.” He envisioned a dance company where he could create works with a new “language of movement,” one that was uniquely his own. He realized quickly that New York wasn’t the place to do that.

In 2002, Qujjada found himself in Montreal, Quebec on the brink of a new artistic horizon.  “Montreal, as a city, is the perfect balance. Art is happening all over in their culture and they have an audience for it. The fact that they speak their own language, French, says that they have a culture that they own and that they acknowledge is different from the rest of Canada.” The dancer known to so many as “Rubberband,” would start his own “RUBBERBANDance” company. The group not only takes its name from Quijada’s nick name, it also makes reference to the qualities of a rubber band. “A rubber band not only stretches, it binds things together.” Quijada’s choreography stretches the boundaries of hip-hop and classical dance as well as it binds the two genres together. But don’t walk into his show expecting to see clearly defined ballet and hip hop moves. He would refer to his dance as “gene splitting.” The genes of the two parent dances are, in actuality, giving birth to a completely new kind of dance form.

This is the dance that was “born of (Quijada’s) vessle.” Although this new dance technique is unique to his expression, Quijada doesn’t expect his dancers to be his “clone.” All of his dancers come from different experiences and disciplines. Some of his dancers were trained at Julliard while others learned their trade on the road with the circus. They do all have one thing in common according to Quijada, “they are all dope!” All of them had to be retrained in his unique, “RUBBERBAND Method,” a method born of his unique dance experience. “I realized that Break was this bizzaro-world counterpart to ballet. Everything that was upright in ballet was inverted. Everything that was a straight line in ballet was a broken line in break.” The new method teaches dancers to be both upright like ballerinas and horizontal and inverted like b-boys.

On March 20 through the 22nd, RUBBERBANDance Group will perform “Empirical Quotient.” “Empirical Quotient,” is a brand new seventy minute piece that is very theatrical in nature. Six gifted dancers attempt to explore an array of human relationships while touching on themes of “dependence, rejection, empathy and acceptance.” Quijada is very proud of this piece and goes as far as to dub it his, “coming of age,” piece. “This work is what I have been working towards my entire career,” he said. Join us at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts as Victor Quijada shares with us his very own personal masterpiece and dare to stretch your own ideas of what dance can be.

See you at the Schimmel!

Michael Scott-Torbet

Pace Presents Blogger

 


 

RUBBERBANDance GROUP

March 20th, 7:30pm | March 21st, 7:30pm | March 22nd, 7:30pm
NEW YORK DEBUT
$40 | $35 | $25

Montréal-based RUBBERBANDance Group, is recognized internationally for its unique ability to fuse breakdancing, ballet and modern dance into a spectacular showcase. Founder, Victor Quijada reconciles his opposing dance worlds and their aesthetics: the spontaneity, fearlessness and risk-taking of his younger years in hip-hop culture and the refinement and choreographic maturity of the ballet and contemporary works heimmersed himself in as a professional dancer. Beating with the fresh pulse of street attitude and an acute understanding of theatrical staging, his work explores human relationships by harnessing the ardour of obsession, the shock of violence, and the delicate nature of tenderness, comedy, and tragedy with a great deal of honesty and courage. Don’t miss this incredible group!

“Forever young in body and mind, RUBBERBANDance brings exploration and community to the forefront in this spellbinding new work.” – Bachtrack

To Purchase tickets, visit schimmel.pace.edu or call (866) 811-4111

Artist Website: http://rubberbandance.com/

11 March 2014 ~ 0 Comments

The Dancer from Seville: An Inside Look at Israel Galván and “La Curva!”

He has been praised as the “Nijinsky of Flamenco.” He has also been cited as both a “rebel” and a “maverick.” Whatever he is, one thing is for sure, Israel Galván is the most exciting name on the contemporary Flamenco scene. From Spain to Austrailia, dance enthusiasts are buzzing about a new strong hold in dance called Galván. His brand of Flamenco is not for the purists. Rather, Galvan’s Flamenco belongs to an audience searching for something bold and enticing, something thrilling. Those thrill seekers should look no further than the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts this Thursday and Friday March 13th and 14th. Pace Presents is proud to bring the world renowned, flamenco superstar from Seville to the Schimmel stage.

Israel Galvan

Israel Galvan

Born in the land of Flamenco, it is only appropriate that this Andalusian dancer is the one to take the classic dance form into the present and beyond. Galván was brought up with the dance as both his parents were avid dancers. Through his whole life he saw the dance being performed against the backdrop of the classic Spanish guitar. The rhythms and steps came from him naturally. This was his culture. As the dancer matured, other influences came into his life by way of popular culture. It was the 1970’s and a huge blockbuster by an unknown screenwriter turned movie star had just been released, Rocky. The movie was a cultural phenomenon and it introduced the young Galván to the world of boxing. The ultimate man’s sport introduced him to a new glossary of movements. Uppercuts, right hooks and jabs all became a part of his physical vocabulary.

As Galván grew into an intellectual, he would explore even more physical realms. He trained in classical ballet and explored a mid-century Japanese movement called Butoh. Galván’s form of dance no longer belonged to Seville. It would become a global dance. In a brave departure from tradition, he consistently looks to discover new things about the dance of his ancestors. In “La Curva,” Galván no longer dances to the traditional chords of the Spanish guitar. Instead, the rhythmic dance steps are accompanied by piano, some percussion and sometimes by pure silence. His dance is one that is fascinated by not only rhythm but by reverberation. He explores vibration which, if I can quote my speech professor from undergrad, is “life itself.” Flamenco steps are blended with his vast, diverse physical vocabulary. His art is elevated to a new level.

In a recent article in The Guardian, they said the following of La Curva, “(it) is a joyous, witty collision of sound and image, made riveting by Galván himself. With his long legs and fiercly carved profile, he’s a master of traditional Flamenco; but his mercurial body also flickers through skidding cartoon comedy, ballerina delicacy and exotic stillness. He possesses an almost preternatural poise, yet some of his movements are so fast you can hear the whiplash displacement of air.”

Join us as we welcome a new legend to our stage and be a part of history as the dancer from Seville takes his ancestral dance and propels it into a new era.

See you at the Schimmel!

Michael Scott-Torbet

Pace Presents’ Blogger

LA CURVA Israel Galván
March 13th, 7:30pm | March 14th, 7:30pm
NEW YORK DEBUT
$55 | $40 | $35
Curated by Livesounds.org

This event is part of the NY Flamenco Festival.

 

27 February 2014 ~ 0 Comments

One Man’s Trash is Another Man’s……….. Dance: Inside Brian Sander’s JUNK

“It was one of those days when it’s a minute away from snowing, and there’s this electricity in the air, you can almost hear it. And this bag was just, dancing with me, like a little kid beggin’ me to play with it – for fifteen minutes. And that’s the day I realized that there was this entire life behind things, and this incredibly benevolent force that wanted me to know that there was no reason to be afraid, ever……. – I need to remember. Sometimes, there’s so much beauty in the world – I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart is just going to cave in.” – American Beauty (1999)

If the 1999 Academy Award winning best picture, American Beauty taught me anything, it illustrated so beautifully that life, beauty and movement can be found all around us.  In the film, Wes Bentley’s character was able to find beauty and movement in even the most mundane thing, a plastic bag blowing in the wind. On March 6th, audiences at the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts will once again be reminded of the same construct.  Brian Sanders’ dance company, JUNK will be making their New York debut with their piece, “Patio Plastico Plus.” The mission for the JUNK company is “creating inventive, off-the-wall choreography with found objects and other discarded debris.” Suddenly the company’s name becomes so clear. Mr. Sanders is indeed looking to junk, for his inspiration. “I like to find the dance inside these pieces of junk; something unique and unexpected that gives us [the audience] a new and inspiring look on life,” says Sanders. What Sam Mendes did for the plastic bag, Brian Sanders does for a whole slew of every day mundane objects.

An exhilerating moment from "Patio Plastico Plus"

An exhilerating moment from “Patio Plastico Plus”

If we were to put a label on Mr. Sanders’ style, we would define it as, “found object theatre”. “Found object theatre,” has a history as long and varied as drama and dance itself. In his 1941 book, The Dramatic Imagination, Robert Edmond Jones described his theory of the first dance ritual. According to Jones, a prototypical man whom he calls “Og,” reenacted a hunt for his tribe by taking the skin of his prey and playing the part of a lion that had been killed for the tribe. By employing the use of the lion’s hide, “Og” became the first person to create theatrical ritual around a found object.  It is no surprise that found object presentation has been a main stay throughout history, one only needs one object to be inspired.

In “Patio Plastico Plus,” Mr. Sanders creates seven unique pieces around singular items such as window panes, pogo sticks and trash cans. Each piece of “junk” provides a shape and texture that leads to its own distinct movement. From each movement, a story emerges which, in turn, brings a new life to the stage.  The result is not only a breath taking dance concert, but a piece of theatre in its richest and truest definition. Through Sanders’ choreography, dancers will challenge the viewer to look at the objects in ways they never thought possible. Objects are turned upside down and sideways and used in ways, unimaginable.  Come experience “Philly’s most imaginative perpetrator of dare-devilish physical theater,” and see for yourself why one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

 

See You at the Schimmel

Pace Presents’ Blogger

Brian Sanders’ JUNK: Patio Plastico Plus

March 6th, 7:30pm | March 7th, 7:30pm | March 8th, 7:30pm

NEW YORK DEBUT $40 | $35 | $25
Experimental dance-theatre company JUNK, formed by MOMIX alumnus, Brian Sanders, is known for their ingenious use of found objects and clever inventions that bridge the gap between dance and physical theatre. Sanders’ choreography blends traditional dance theatre with an inventiveness and physicality that gives reason for critics to hail JUNK as “Philly’s most imaginative perpetrator of dare-devilish physical theatre” and declare Sanders as “the city’s most exciting choreographer.” Patio Plastico Plus maintains JUNK’s choreographic style, as much of the choreography uses found objects – from trash cans and pogo sticks to broken ladders and windowpanes. The dancers perform with these props and set pieces in unforeseen ways of clever invention.

This project is partially supported by a grant from Pennsylvania Performing Arts on Tour, a program developed and funded by The Heinz Endowments; the William Penn Foundation; the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency; and The Pew Charitable Trusts; and administered by Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

To purchase tickets, visit https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/926430 or call (866) 811-4111

Brian Sanders’ JUNK 5 Minute Promotional Video from Brian Sanders JUNK on Vimeo.

A STEAm project with Brian Sander's JUNK has been made possible with a grant from Time Warner Cable.

A STEAM project with Brian Sander’s JUNK has been made possible with a grant from Time Warner Cable.