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BAAD PRESENTS BUTOH BLOSSOMS

By Howard Giske

he Bronx Academy of Arts & Dance (BAAD) is beginning a new season on Friday September 21st, at 8pm: BAAD! Presents Butoh Blossoms: Rise and Fall of the White Flower, produced by the Asian American Arts Alliance. I stopped by when the artists were working on preparing the performance space, and got to say hello to co-founders Charles Gonzalez-Rice and Arthur Aviles, plus some of the performers. Dancers were working hard, dressed up in painting clothes and painting the high ceiling white. It was good to see the enthusiasm and love that these performers at BAAD have for this venue. BAAD is located in the historic Bank Note Building at 841 Barretto Street. The Butoh Blossoms show is supported in part by the Japan Foundation, as part of the Asian American Arts Alliance's Locating the Sacred Festival, which takes place across New York City from September 12 to 23, 2012, including the acclaimed Vangeline Theater, and the dancer named Vangeline. She is described by The New York Times as "captivating in her devotion to simple movements." Butoh Blossoms: Rise and Fall of

Painting the theater

Charles Gonzales-Rice and volunteer Roberto Ventura

BAAD performance

the White Flower is a performance of Butoh - the avant-garde post-war Japanese dance form - that seeks stillness in search of the sacred within. The dancers embark on a symbolic journey of human life through moments of elation and struggle in the slow and hypnotic Butoh form. Vangeline's closing solo, which conjures up haunting images of the ghosts of women past and their often forgotten sacrifices, has been critically acclaimed and featured in the film The Letter (2012) with Winona Ryder and James Franco. Theres so much more to see at BAAD. It stages four festivals each year: Blaktinx Performance Series, Baad Ass Women, Out Like That, and the Boogie Down Festival. BAAD! is an art, performance

and workshop space that presents cutting-edge and challenging works by established, evolving and emerging choreographers, playwrights, poets, musicians and visual and performing artists that are empowering to women, Latinos and people of color and the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community. BAAD! is home to Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre and the Bronx Dance Coalition. It is the site of the performance of productions by Arthur Aviles and his dance company, famous for works such as Dorothurs Journey, a dance piece based on The Wizard of Oz. The next BAAD festival is fast approaching. The BlakTinx Performance Series takes place October 5 November 16, 2012 featuring a new one-woman show

by Elizabeth Macha Marrero, the Latina Dance Project, Inspirit Dance Company, Butters Papi Queer Cabaret, Maverick Dance Experience, Kraven Seneca Dance Company, the Bootylicious Monologues, and an evening of dances set to the late Donna Summers music. There will be additional performance art works by Lawrence Graham Brown & Ricardo Muniz, Companhia EluzArtes from Brazil, the Roberto Robles Dance Group from Mexico and a comix workshop by Ivan Velez. For more information on the full schedule and tickets, call BAAD at 718-842-5223 or see http://bronxacademyofartsanddance.org . . For more info on the Asian Alliance citywide festival see www.locatingthesacred.org .

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Harlem News Group September 13, 2012

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