Riddle: What do you get when you cast Parts & Labor’s Sarah Lipstate, GHQ’s Steve Gunn, Paul Duncan, Tom Gerke, and both members of Talibam! in a dance performance?
Hint: The answer does NOT involve a live appearance by the above parties in tutus and fitted bodices.
Answer: Think Punk!, an evening of music and dance by world-renowned choreographer Karole Armitage, whose dismantling of classical technique and ties to the New York No Wave scene earned her a reputation as “the punk ballerina” in the early ’80s.
On show at The Kitchen next month, Think Punk! casts a younger generation of New York noisemakers in a remake of Drastic Classicism, a hybrid of choreographed movement and rock ‘n’ roll à la Mudd Club, born out of a 1981 collaboration between Armitage and composer Rhys Chatham. Additional selections include The Watteau Duets (1985), a leather-clad deconstruction of the ballet pas de deux set to music by David Linton; Wild Thing (1987), featuring music by Jimi Hendrix and décor by artist Jeff Koons; and Mashup (2009), whose score ambitiously crosses Mozart’s “Sinfonia Concertante” and X-Ray Spex’s “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”
Picture Robert Longo’s “Men in the Cities” series come to life.
03.04.09 - 03.07.09 – New York, NY – The Kitchen
03.11.09 - 03.14.09 – New York, NY – The Kitchen
