Jonah Bokaer Choreography at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. August 24, 2017. It’s one of Manhattan’s best summer days—hot enough to encourage many of its citizens to don amazingly skimpy outfits, but graced by a balmy breeze. This is the last day that Jonah Bokaer performs site-specific solos in the garden of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. I’m disoriented from … [Read more...]
Lives in Layers
Jonah Bokaer and Daniel Arsham bring their latest work to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. Hooded figures swathed in pale clothing stand, isolated in pools of light, on the stage of the BAM Gilman Opera House, as part of BAM's Next Wave Festival. Their faces are hidden, and they’re frozen in diverse positions. In place when we enter the theater, they could be statues awaiting renovation. This … [Read more...]
From Tunis to Ithaca
Jonah Bokaer performs his The Ulysses Syndrome with his father, Tsvi Bokaer, May 9 and 10, during the French Institute's World Nomads Festival. Ithaca is the island in the Ionian sea that Odysseus (aka Ulysses) left when he armed himself for the Trojan War, and it’s the place he returned to after ten postwar years of wandering. Ithaca, New York, is the city where Tsvi Bokaer finally settled … [Read more...]
Shadowing the Planets
i Eons ago, a solar eclipse made people fall to their knees or consider sacrificing some handy victim. Even when you know astronomy, a rare solar eclipse can feel ominous and a lunar one eerie, but the cosmos is full of smaller eclipses most of us don’t see. A distant planet’s orbiting moons can cast their shadows on one another or on their host. It’s that slow cosmic game of dodge ball that … [Read more...]
Shadow Presences, Tangible Absences
The back story: Jonah Bokaer and David Hallberg were working together on a duet—the postmodern dancer-choreographer and the adventurous ballet virtuoso, the dark-haired guy and the blond one. Hallberg broke his foot shortly before the piece was to premiere at the Avignon Festival. Steps were taken. The show went on. Now I’ll shut up and talk about Curtain as it was at Jacob’s Pillow, August 1 … [Read more...]