6 Things You Don’t Want to Miss at the 2014 BAM Next Wave Festival

Want to witness the largest experiment in live performance New York has ever seen? Then you definitely need to experience the festival, going on now until December 20^th. It’s jam-packed with treats for you from almost every level of art forms, and that can be a bit overwhelming. It’s not a problem though, as this list helps narrow your focus a bit more. Here are the things from each category that you absolutely don’t want to miss.

1. Carolina Chocolate Drops (Music) 

After their BAM debut in the 2014 Winter/Spring Season, the Carolina Chocolate Drops return for one night only – Sept 18^th! Known for fresh interpretation of old-time, fiddle, and banjo-based music, the Grammy Award-winning string band performs music from its two Nonesuch Records releases, Genuine Negro Jig (2010) and Leaving Eden (2012). Rhiannon Giddens, vocalist, violinist, and banjo player-whom Variety called a “breakout star…hold[ing] the capacity crowd spellbound”-previews material from her forthcoming Nonesuch album, produced by the legendary T Bone Burnett.

2. Six Characters in Search of an Author (Theatre) 

An identity crisis for the theater itself, Luigi Pirandello’s 1921 epitome of absurdism is a masterpiece of blurred dramatic lines, brought cleverly to life in this production from director Emmanuel Demarcy-Mota and Théâtre de la Ville, Paris.

A dysfunctional family of 6 interrupts the rehearsal of a play to make a curious claim: They are characters who’ve been abandoned by their author and are seeking a theater troupe to give them an artful sense of completion. On a spare set, portrayers and portrayed begin to overlap, as fiction and reality follow suit. The result is a beguiling tragedy that turns notions of authorship and agency on their heads while offering humanity critical insight into its own selectively scribed existence. This premieres in NY on Oct 29^th and runs through Nov 2^nd.

3. Kontakthof (Dance) 

Marking the 30th anniversary of its New York debut at BAM, Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to Brooklyn with one of its beloved founder’s seminal dance-theater works. A seductive tête-à-tête with all the awkward tension of a high school dance, Kontakthof (which translates as “courtyard of contact”) is Bauschian wit and sensuality writ large. Two dozen men and women, dressed to the nines, assemble in a dance hall and jockey for affection. Preening and parading around to popular songs from the 1930s, they caress, tease, and flirt with one another, acting out the universal agony and ecstasy of our courtship rituals. Runs Oct 23—Nov 2.

4. Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films (Film) 

The films of Andy Warhol are provocative milestones of underground cinema, flaunting convention simply by letting the gritty world be itself. They include a motionless eight-hour shot of the Empire State Building, a short of Lou Reed drinking a Coke, and erotic acts aplenty.

In Exposed: Songs for Unseen Warhol Films, curated by The Andy Warhol Museum, 15 never-before-seen, digitally restored selections from the 1960s are unveiled. Five artists representing a musical trajectory from the post-Velvet Underground 70s to today—Dean Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna), Tom Verlaine (Television), Martin Rev (Suicide), Eleanor Friedberger (The Fiery Furnaces), and Bradford Cox (Deerhunter, Atlas Sound)—perform live alongside Warhol’s celluloid oeuvre, featuring Marcel Duchamp, Edie Sedgwick, Donovan, Warhol himself, and others. Plays Nov 6—Nov 8 only.

5. On Truth [and Lies] in Homecoming (Talk) 

Phil Klay, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and author of Redeployment, and Nancy Sherman, philosopher, psychoanalyst, and author of The Untold War, join Simon Critchley to explore the notion of nostos, the Greek word for homecoming, to better understand the psychological truths faced by servicemen and women returning from war today. Held on Nov 9^th only.

6. Jessica Lang Dance (Class) 

This immersive master class teaches the basic techniques and language of choreographer Jessica Lang’s creative curriculum, LANGuage, which encourages choice and cultivates creative thinking. After a warm-up of improvisational and exploratory exercises, Lang and company members guide participants through material from the ensemble’s diverse repertory. Afterwards, students have the opportunity to ask questions about Lang’s choreography and process. Held Dec 4^th only.

http://www.bam.org/programs/2014/next-wave-festival