lustigdancetheatre (LDT) was established in 2010 by internationally recognized choreographer and director, Graham Lustig. LDT is a vibrant, dynamic contemporary ballet company based in New Brunswick, NJ. The ten dancers of LDT are known for their strength, grace, and powerful storytelling in works that range from jubilant and sometimes comical, to the serene and beautiful. LDT’s Spring Repertory performance at the Painted Bride will feature two of its newest additions to the repertory, Invisible Fields and Wingéd, and a re-staging of Appasionato. Lustig originally created Appasionato in 1992 for the Singapore Dance Theatre. The work, danced to Franz Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz, is being revived for the 2012 Princeton Festival in June to fit the Festival’s Faustian theme, but will enjoy this single showing beforehand. Invisible Fields, a fusion of traditional Irish dances like jigs and reels with ballet, will be accompanied live by members of the New Jersey based Celtic folk band, Trinity. Wingéd explores man’s fascination with flight and connection to all things winged, encapsulating images from angels to airline pilots.  The work was a choreographic collaboration between Lustig, Artistic Associate Bat Abbit, company dancers Laney Engelhard and Norbert de la Cruz, and guest artist Bradley Shelver.

CLICK HERE to purchase tickets (you will be redirected from the Painted Bride website to Brownpapertickets.com)

Friday, April 13, 2012
Doors open at 6pm (auction closes at 8pm)
Steve Bernstein performance @ 9pm

Don’t let superstition keep you away from this night of music, mystery and mischievousness!

Black Cat Brew is an evening honoring our Jazz on Vine music series and the artists that have played at the Bride. Jazz on Vine, Philadelphia’s longest running jazz series (39 years) was just awarded, for the second time, the ASCAP National Award for Adventurous Programming.

Taking place during National Jazz Month on Friday, April 13, 2012, Black Cat Brew will fill the Bride’s walls with live music and art, a Silent Auction & raffle, jazz karaoke hosted by Sugartown Productions, as well as dinner by 12^th St. Catering and drinks. Headlining the evening at 9pm is Steve Bernstein (Grammy nominated composer/Sex Mob trumpeter), leading a stellar nine-piece ensemble playing Sly & the Family Stone’s music.

All funds raised from this event will be used to benefit Painted Bride Art Center and its programmatic and educational activities.

Silent Auction items include tickets to Chris’ Jazz Café, Live Arts Festival, Keswick Theater, Live with Kelly in NYC & Headlong Dance Theater…. signed CDs, posters & music memorabilia by Odean Pope, Bobby Zankel, Hannibal, John Hollenbeck, Papo Vazquez & Adam Rudolph…..SIGNED photos of past Bride jazz artists by Paul Kopicki, veteran Bride photographer……and MUCH, MUCH MORE!

Ticket prices:
$100 – Black Cat Brew AND Steve Bernstein performance {BUY}
$75 – Black Cat Brew ONLY {BUY}
$25 – Steve Bernstein performance ONLY {BUY}

Black Cat Brew Artist Committee

Elio Villafranca

Adam Rudolph

John Hollenbeck

Hannibal

Greg Osby

Ben Schachter

Bobby Zankel

Jamie Baum

Vijay Ayer

Sunny Jain

Papo Vazquez

Jaleel Shaw

Odean Pope

SPONSORS:

Domenick & Associates, Harriet Rubenstein & Marty Brigham, and Jennifer Jordan.

“If you haven’t dance to a live Latin band, you haven’t danced salsa, embrace the heat!”
- Jesse Bermudez, Regional Latino cultural ambassador and Salsa Caliente co-producer

Philadelphia’s only BYOB cabaret concert and dance party series featuring two live Latin big bands returns for a second season at the Bride. Drawing from the buzz looming from last season’s wide appeal and diverse attendance, Salsa Caliente 2.0 continues its non-stop flight service from the fringes of Old City to the heart of Old San Juan alongside the hottest large music ensembles from the region such as Orquesta Herencia de Soneros and Papo Buda y Saboricua who performed last season. Plenty of room for dancers of all experience levels, each evening starts with FREE dance lessons from Flaco’s Dance Factory. Put some salsa on your sexy and come join the party!

Who is Jesse Bermudez? He is the Grammy-nominated producer/radio personality/arts education champion/music curator and co-producer of Salsa Caliente!, the new Latin dance concert series now in its second year at La Nova Pintada. And who knows more about live salsa bands than Bermudez? He is known for his instrumental role in Papo Vasquez’s 2008 Album, “Marooned/Aislado“, which garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Jazz Album. His Saturday brunch-time show, ‘Sonido Diferente’ on Mega 1310 AM, showcases regional Latino talent, as well as highlights the multi-layered soul of the Latin music genre, with urban, soul, & jazz-inflected selections, that aren’t heard in mainstream Latin radio. A long-time collaborator with the Bride, Jesse Bermudez partners with the Bride once again – this time to share the tropical heat that only live musicians can deliver to salsa dance floors.

Last season’s artistic line-up notes:

An African influenced Latin rhythm section driven by congas, timbales, bass and piano seamlessly interwoven with the soaring sweet harmonies of a jazz improvisation produced by tenor sax, trumpet, and trombone – this is the structure and styling of Latin Jazz – one Café Con Pan Latin Jazz Band has truly mastered since its 2005 inception. Bandleader Rick Rodriquez is far from being a stranger to the region’s “cuchifrito” circuit and has shared the stage with both Latin and R&B greats including Isidro Infante and Puchi Colon as well as Lou Rawls and Phillis Hyman. Equipped with a hand-picked all-star roster of musicians, Rodriquez’s big band has been satisfying both the listening and dancing pleasures of salsa fans throughout the tri-state area.

Student and Senior tickets are only available in person or over the phone with valid ID. Please call 215-925-9914

Reforesting: An Homage to Gil Ott
February 3 – March 17, 2012

First Friday Receptions: February 3, & March 2, 5-7pm

Check out our Facebook photo album of the artists in action HERE.
To listen to the poetry of Julia Blumenreich CLICK HERE.

Reforesting: An Homage to Gil Ott is a collaboration between poet Julia Blumenreich and visual artist Wendy Osterweil.  A multi-layered art installation includes a forest of silkscreened “spirit trees,” papercuts that conjure light and shadow in a forest environment, a wall of sycamore tree bark, “tea skin” composed of stitched and embroidered teabag papers, and an ethereal boat signifying passage to the next world.  Reforesting represents a dialogue between Wendy and Julia, in response to Julia’s suite of 16 poems that investigate grief and loss.  Gil Ott (1950-2004), a poet with over a dozen published books and a community arts activist, is the late husband of Julia.

Gil Ott worked at the Painted Bride Art Center for over 15 years and left a significant legacy.  He was the driving force behind the Bride’s development of community-based programs, and he pioneered artistic practices that articulated the Bride’s work with communities.

His tall stature always reminded Julia of tree silhouettes.  Through poetic images based on natural, historical, and mythological facts about trees, her poems evoke Gil’s final 10-month hospital battle and reforest the space his loss left in her life.

Julia and Wendy developed their artistic collaboration during the years since Gil’s death, finding mutual resonance in nature imagery.  A group of women artists – Alia Tahvildaran, Nancy Agati, Julia Blumenreich, Jenni Desnouee, Marie Elcin, Carolyn Hesse, Tonia Hsieh, Charlene Melhorn, Willa Ott, Debby Pollak and Sarah Dekker, also created artwork for Reforesting.

Reforesting: An Homage to Gil Ott Poetry Event
February 26, 3-4:30 pm
Book release party for Gil Ott’s, Arrive on Wave: Collected Poems and Fiction of Gil Ott
Poetry reading of Gil’s and Julia’s poetry
Readers include: Julia Blumenreich, C.A. Conrad, Eli Goldblatt and others.

Sun Jan 22 (4pm and 7pm): DanceHouse (a mixed bill of local choreographers)

Tickets: $15 for general admission | $10 for Dancepass holders, students, and seniors.

nEW Festival is a Philadelphia-based dance festival that offers a performance opportunities for emerging choreographers, a community for the exhange of ideas and future artistic alliances, and movement-centric master classes. nEW is led by a collaborative team of artists who are devoted to exploring innovative methods of dance curation, presentation, and training.  nEW Festival 2012 received generous support from Philadelphia Cultural Fund, Dance USA/Philadelphia’s New Stages for Dance Initiative, The Silo Guest Artist Residency program, and University of the Arts.  nEW Festival is a program of Melanie Stewart Dance Theatre.

Founded by Shinichi Iova-Koga in 1998, inkBoat is a performance collective working in fractured, filmic, delicate and decayed environments, inkBoat’s performances evoke both the traditional and the experimental, drawing heavily from movements (political, artistic, personal) of challenge. Each performance is a dialogue between the apparent and hidden worlds.

“The Crazy Cloud Collection” results from the intersection of Ko Murobushi, recognized in Japan as a leading inheritor of Hijikata’s original vision of Butoh, and Shinichi Iova-Koga, whose aesthetic balances between the known and unknown, improvising image within and without the body. Together, these artists invite the ghost of Ikkyu, a 15^th century monk known for provocative, biting and unorthodox poetry, to share the stage with them.

The presentation and tour of ”The Crazy Cloud Collection” was made possible by the New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project (NDP).  Additional tour funding comes from Performing Arts Japan, a program of Japan Foundation.

“The Crazy Cloud Collection” is a National Performance Network (NPN) Creation Fund/Forth Fund Project, produced by inkBoat, the U.S./Japan Cultural Trade Network, Inc. and the San Francisco International Arts Festival.

“Yamazaki’s ability to represent and distinguish a new world is cutting-edge performance”
—Dance Magazine

Yamazaki’s new work, (glowing), is inspired by the famous essay In-ei Raisan (or In Praise of Shadows) written by Junichiro Tanizaki – one of the major writers of modern Japanese literature, African dance, and Yamazaki’s somatic practice, “Fluid Technique” which was developed with influences in Butoh and Noguchi Gymnastics.  The six performers, including dancers from Senegal and Ethiopia, will join Yamazaki to investigate shadows/darkness that blur forms of body and boundaries between illusion and reality.

*This concert is the culmination of our Black Cat Brew. Enjoy the show + dinner and festivities. More info HERE.

Ticket prices:
$100 – Black Cat Brew AND Steve Bernstein performance {BUY}
$75 – Black Cat Brew ONLY {BUY}
$25 – Steve Bernstein performance ONLY {BUY}

“When the time comes, Bernstein clicks an invisible switch and the band pops into semi-flawless unison. At that point, you might imagine yourself in Harlem in 1929…” —Village Voice

Tearing into witty and funky new arrangements of little-known jazz nuggets from the 1920s and ‘30s, as well as radically transforming songs by artists such as Prince and the Beatles, Steven Bernstein (Grammy-nominated composer/Sex Mob trumpeter) leads an improvisational nine-piece outfit playing irreverent 21st-century jazz. On this evening audiences can expect an ambitious, yet reverent take on Sly & the Family Stone’s music, spirit, and legacy.

The evenings STELLAR line-up:

Steven Bernstein-trumpet, slide trumpet
Curtis Fowlkes- trombone
Charlie Burnham-violin
Marty Ehrlich- clarinet, tenor sax
Michael Blake- tenor/soprano sax
Erik Lawrence-baritone/soprano sax
Will Bernard-guitar
Ben Allison- bass
Ben Perowsky-drums
John Medeskii-organ
Dean Bowman-vocal

InLiquid at the Bride presents
ANIMALIA
Work by Lynnette Shelley
November 4 – January 6, 2012
Painted Bride Art Center Café Gallery
First Friday receptions: November 4 and December 2, 5 – 7 pm
Gallery Hours: Tues. – Sat. | 12pm – 6pm

Across cultures around the world the animal kingdom has remained a fascinating force throughout time. With ANIMALIA, Lynette Shelley’s rich illustrations take inspiration from the myth, magic, and mystery the many motifs used ubiquitously in legends and folklore. Individual narratives are nuanced within the tone of each piece. The works are intertwined through a contrast of bold, confident lines and ornamental, delicate detailing. This contemporary reinterpretation holds onto its primitive roots as much as it gives way to fantasy. Ultimately unfolding into a jungle of their own, these new founded allegories speak to our collective unconscious and explore our place inside them.
Lynnette Shelley is a Delaware native who moved to the Philadelphia area in 1999. Having a great love animals, fairytales, and world mythology, Lynnette fuses these influences into her unique illustrations. Her artwork strikes a primal chord in many viewers, with almost Jungian associations found within. Her animal art and creature illustrations are both primitive and sophisticated, and have been likened to images from an undiscovered ancient civilization or culture.

Shelley’s artwork has been displayed nationally as well as at various regional venues, including the Philadelphia Open Studio Tours (POST), the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, the Nichols Berg Gallery in Philadelphia, and various space in the surrounding area. The appeal of Shelley’s creature drawings have ventured beyond gallery walls, from the Toronto Film Festival to the science fiction conventional, Dragon Con, in Atlanta, GA. In addition to her fine art pursuits, Lynnette is also the co-founder of The Red Masque, an original avant rock band signed to an experimental label based out of Colorado. Lynnette currently lives and works out of Ambler, PA.

InLiquid has chosen ANIMALIA to complement the world premiere stage adaptation of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins, presented by Gas & Electric Arts and The Painted Bride. Director Lisa Jo Epstein brings puppetry and live klezmer music to create an imaginative, contemporary holiday performance.

November 26, 7:00 PM and Sunday, November 27, 4:00 PM

Sacred Journeys is a celebration of faith and the human spirit featuring new and revised selections from Kùlú Mèlé’s extensive repertoire of Afro-Cuban and West African sacred dance. Founded in 1969 by Robert Crowder, Kùlú Mèlé is known for infusing traditional African dance with urban American flair. The company has graced stages from New York to Guinea and throughout the African Diaspora, distinguishing itself with beautiful costumes, a thrilling percussion battery and dynamic choreography. General admission to Sacred Journeys is $20 in advance/$25 day of show; children under 12: $12 in advance/$15 day of show. For more information, visit www.kulumele.org.