Martha Graham News

City Parks Foundation has just recently launched the 2013 season of SummerStage presented by AT&T, New York's largest free performing arts festival, bringing over 100 free performances to seventeen parks throughout the five boroughs. With performances ranging from Soul, Hip-Hop, Latin and Opera music to dance, comedy and theater, SummerStage fills a vital niche in New York City's summer arts festival landscape. Since its inception twenty-eight years ago, more than six million people from New York City and around the world have enjoyed SummerStage. The festival runs from June 4th until August 29th.

MDT welcomes Charles Askegard home to the Twin Cities in the position of Associate Artistic Director. Recently retired from a celebrated career with New York City Ballet, Mr. Askegard will bring the breadth of his experience to the organization where he began his dance training.

In the summer, synesthesia abounds. Sunblock smells like the surf on skin, blueberries taste like a blanket in the grass, and the solo of a saxophone sounds like a breeze on a sweltering night. In this sense the photographs of Herman Leonard are double-inscriptions, both acute visualities of jazz's luminary musicians and emotive mimeses of sensation, sound, and atmosphere. With its summer exhibition Hot Summer, Cool Jazz: The Photographs of Herman Leonard, Robert Mann Gallery presents a euphonic ensemble of the artist's seminal images that capture, in dulcet tones and reverberating contrapositions, the coolest cast of characters around.

Repertory Dance Theatre has announced the addition of four new dancers for the upcoming 2013-2014 season. As the oldest, and most successful company of its kind, Repertory Dance Theatre (RDT) opens its 48th season with four new and talented faces. Justin Bass, Efren Corado, Ursula Perry, and Alyssa Thompson join the ranks of RDT company members, as almost 90 dancers have before.

In the summer, synesthesia abounds. Sunblock smells like the surf on skin, blueberries taste like a blanket in the grass, and the solo of a saxophone sounds like a breeze on a sweltering night. In this sense the photographs of Herman Leonard are double-inscriptions, both acute visualities of jazz's luminary musicians and emotive mimeses of sensation, sound, and atmosphere. With its summer exhibition Hot Summer, Cool Jazz: The Photographs of Herman Leonard, Robert Mann Gallery presents a euphonic ensemble of the artist's seminal images that capture, in dulcet tones and reverberating contrapositions, the coolest cast of characters around.

San Jose Rep announced today the cast for its sassy and sentimental summer hit Love, Loss, and What I Wore: Dawn Wells (Mary Ann from Gilligan's Island), Zuzanna Szadkowski ('Gossip Girl'), Tony-nominated Dee Hoty (Mamma Mia and TV's 'Smash'), Sandra Tsing Loh (off-Broadway Aliens in America and NPR's 'The Loh Down on Science') and Ashley Austin Morris ('Ugly Betty' and 'The Electric Company'). The off-Broadway hit makes its Bay Area premiere July 19 - July 28, 2013.

What did Arturo Toscanini, Woodrow Wilson, Martha Graham, and Albert Einstein have in common? They all appeared at Carnegie Hall. Now, as part of the Hall's ongoing Digital Archives Project, the public can uncover this information and discover a whole lot more, thanks to a new online performance history search feature recently added to the 'History' section of Carnegie Hall's website. This new addition makes a large portion of the Hall's performance history database directly available to the public for the first time.

Due to illness, Sonny Rollins has been forced to cancel his Celebrity Series of Boston performance on Saturday, September 28, 2013, at 8pm at the Boston Opera House. The event was also to serve as the highlight performance of the Berklee BeanTown Jazz Festival. Rollins says, 'Due to a recent illness I am unable to perform my upcoming concert in Boston. I am disappointed but I hope to recover soon and I want to thank my many fans who are so loyal to me.'

Graham II, the dance troupe for the Martha Graham School of Dance, celebrated their New York Season at Graham Studio Theater from June 14th to the 16th. The open floor performance space worked perfectly for the dancers; the guests appreciated the close viewing opportunity.

Jersey City Children's Theater and Nimbus Dance Works collaborate on a new summer performing arts program, JC Summer Arts, geared toward providing high quality instruction in dance, theater, and music, in a fun, creative and educationally enriching environment. The program draws on the expertise of Jersey City Children's Theater and Nimbus Dance Works in their respective fields in designing a program that immerses students in the performing arts. JC Summer Arts consists of a morning program, Bard Party: Shakespeare, Dance and Song (9:30-12:30am) for younger students ages 4-9 years, and for older youth (ages 10-17), Summer Dance and Acting Intensive. Where school year programs are often limited to one class per week, JC Summer Arts will lead to significant growth and development of skills only possible through this kind of immersive experience.

Jersey City Children's Theater and Nimbus Dance Works collaborate on a new summer performing arts program, JC Summer Arts, geared toward providing high quality instruction in dance, theater, and music, in a fun, creative and educationally enriching environment. The program draws on the expertise of Jersey City Children's Theater and Nimbus Dance Works in their respective fields in designing a program that immerses students in the performing arts. JC Summer Arts consists of a morning program, Bard Party: Shakespeare, Dance and Song (9:30-12:30am) for younger students ages 4-9 years, and for older youth (ages 10-17), Summer Dance and Acting Intensive. Where school year programs are often limited to one class per week, JC Summer Arts will lead to significant growth and development of skills only possible through this kind of immersive experience.

In the summer, synesthesia abounds. Sunblock smells like the surf on skin, blueberries taste like a blanket in the grass, and the solo of a saxophone sounds like a breeze on a sweltering night. In this sense the photographs of Herman Leonard are double-inscriptions, both acute visualities of jazz's luminary musicians and emotive mimeses of sensation, sound, and atmosphere. With its summer exhibition HOT SUMMER, COOL JAZZ: THE PHOTOGRAPHS OF HERMAN LEONARD, Robert Mann Gallery presents a euphonic ensemble of the artist's seminal images that capture, in dulcet tones and reverberating contrapositions, the coolest cast of characters around.

Juilliard Dance, under the direction of Lawrence Rhodes, opens its 2013-2014 season with New Dances PLUS: Edition 2013, Wednesday, December 11 through Sunday, December 15, 2013 in Juilliard's Peter Jay Sharp Theater and features Juilliard alumna Pina Bausch's Wind von West (Wind from the West) performed by the Senior Class, plus three world premiere commissions created for each of the classes of Juilliard's Dance Division. Next season's innovative choreographers are Juilliard alumnus Takehiro Ueyama (1st Year Dancers); Brian Brooks (2nd Year Dancers); and Juilliard alumnus Darrell Grand Moultrie (3rdYear Dancers).

360° Dance Company presents PREVIEW, a Benefit Party tonight, June 13, 2013 at 7pm. The evening will include complimentary Summer Sangria and Mediterranean Appetizers as well as an intimate look at the company's newest repertory. The benefit will take place at The Alvin Ailey Studios, Joan Weil Center for Dance, 405 W. 55th Street, 5th floor, NYC.

SummerStage's 2013 season features the debut of Forewords at Central Park, a new series of spoken word discussions with performing artists including Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent of The Zombies with Jonathan Demme onJune 15 and DJ Kool Herc with Cindy Campbell and hip-hop historian Jeff Chang on August 10. Comedy Central presents three great stand-up showcases this year, including a Central Park show on June 26 including performances from Jeff Ross, John Mulaney, Gabriel Iglesias and Amy Schumer. Influential New York poet Sekou Sundiata receives tribute on July 3 from three great artists: Toshi Reagon, Sandra St. Victor and Nona Hendryx.

Winner of Best Documentary at both the San Francisco Dance Film Festival and the Dance Camera West Festival in Los Angeles, Dancing at Jacob's Pillow: Never Stand Still will have its television premiere on THIRTEEN's Great Performances Friday, July 26 at 9 p.m. on PBS

RIOULT Dance NY, a leading American modern dance company with a classic sensibility, announces its eight-performance New York Season tonight, June 4-9, 2013 at The Joyce Theater.