Sugar Salon
Jan. 8, Baryshnikov Arts Center, 450 W. 37th St. (betw. Dyer & 10th Aves.), 646-731- 3200; 8:30, $20 There didn’t seem much more for Mikhail Baryshnikov to do after completing 11 pirouettes in White Knights but, always an innovator, he found something. He opened the Baryshnikov Arts Center to foster new work by promising dance folk. One such program, “Sugar Salon,” features the work of women choreographers.Tonight downtown dance journeywoman Heather Olson, Israeli choreographer Deganit Shemy and Brooklynite Anna Sperber perform new works alongside their mentor, the legendary Jane Comfort Bottom Line: Built by ladies but not lost in the political dance-swamp of feminism (where art goes to die), these dances showcase movement, not The Movement.
caUSE co-MOTION!
Jan. 11, Glasslands Gallery, 289 Kent Ave. (at S. 2nd St.), Brooklyn, no phone; 8, $TBA ca-USE co-MOTION! is one of the best pop-rocks bands around—like something Beat Happening would have listened to in its tour van. Unfortunately shows are few and far between. (Day jobs! Unwilling to sacrifice artistic integrity for widespread success!) But when the Slumberland Records band does play, lots of dancing and good music happens, plus some sweating too. And since the show is at Glasslands,Williamsburg’s premiere DIY venue, lots of beer shall floweth.
Bottom Line: Head straight from Lincoln Center (see below) to Williamsburg, straight from the most graceful dancing in the city to a garage-like gallery full of booze and lots of dancing and a little shouting.
Jan 9, 11:00 p.m., 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson Street, $13.00 Remember when it wasn’t OK to lust so openly after Jennifer Connolly because she was a minor? Those times were called the 1986 and the movie in which she took my heart and squeezed it until it squished like a water weenie was Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. Also of note: DAVID BOWIE! Tonight you can sing along to all the songs and a fair amount of the dialogue with a bunch of other cool-to-be-dork children of the 1980s. “Dance Magic,” anyone? Bottom Line: A winner for many reasons. Labyrinth on the big screen is one. Loud David Bowie–inspired plainsong is another. Beer is a third.
Richard Price at the Happy Ending Reading Series
Jan. 7, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8777; 7, $15 Amanda Stern’s long running reading/music series Happy Ending Reading Series is leaving its home for the last three years, Happy Ending Bar. Happily, the end result is still happy.The series reups at Joe’s Pub, a bit classier and a bit larger.The inaugural show features chronicler of the Lower East Side, Richard Price (Lush Life, Clockers) and music by Matthew Caws of the band Nada Surf. Bottom Line: Happy Ending is all grown up and moved out of its parents’ basement. Go see the adult version.
Coppelia and First Position Talk Jan. 11, Koch Theater at Lincoln Plaza, 20 Lincoln Plz. (at W. 63rd St.), 212-870-5570; 2:45, prices vary Twenty minutes before the curtain rises on Ballanchine’s comic ballet Coppelia, balletomanes gather in the fourth tier for a primer on what they’re about to see.The talks are given by volunteer docents and situate the ballet in a historical context. It actually helps.Then there is the ballet, one of my favorites. It tells the story of a village youth besotted by a life-size, realistic dancing doll. Bottom Line: One of the few full-length ballet NYCB is doing this season, Coppelia is perfect Sunday afternoon filler. And with the free talk beforehand, you’ll feel like you learned something too.
