Page 24 - Demo

Page 4 PHOENIX January 10,1974I d e n t i t v C r i s i s a t B A MAfternoon at Hawkins ShowsChanging Academy ProgrammingBY CORRINE COLEMAN%u201cWe used to see 200 programs a season for the price of a membership,%u201d said a member of the BAM audience last week, between performances of %u201cBlack Lake%u201d and %u201cCantilever,%u201d by the Erick Hawkins Dance Co.Nostalgic for the old days of weekly travelogues and lectures presented to the membership along with the more conventional concertand ballet programs for a nominal yearly fee, the longtime Academy supporter was perplexed by the entrance of the new, often experimental programming into the hallowed halls of the Brooklyn institution.The near nudity of the Hawkins Company in the day%u2019s first piece, %u201cGreek Dreams With Flute%u201d-with the director and the second male dancer, Robert Yohn, in only gstring covering, with the women inDistrict 13 BoardMember is SpeakerA1 Vann, member of Community School Board 13 and President, A fro -A m erican T e a c h e rs Association, will be speaker at the 15th Anniversary Luncheon of Emmanuel Day Care Kindergarten, 279 LafayetteAve., Jan. 12. There will be a Recpetion at 12Plymouth Steak& Lobster House78 CLARK STREET(Opp. St. George Hotel)Brooklyn Heights%u2019 OnlyFresh Fish Restaurant| Lobster Flown in Daily from MaineSelect Your Own From Our TankCall MA4-5263for ReservationsEstoblished 1933o%u2019clock Noon and the Luncheon program will begin at 12:30 p.m. in the Emmanuel Baptist Church House on St. James PI., nr. Lafayette Ave.Reservations for the event may be secured by contacting Mrs. Thomas Mangino, Treasurer of E.D.C.K. Board of Managers, 738- 1601, or Ms. Luz Hubbard, Administrative Secretary, Church Women United in Brooklyn, Inc., who is Chairman of the Anniversary Committee, 625-5852.Mario DeFalco is president of the non-sectarian, inter-racial, and New York City approved Kindergarten which recently increased their facilities to accommodate additional children of pre-school age.0 v, ^ e v Cr, j - A a* \\ \\ Ce .9Visit theP ro m en ad eRestaurantfor steaks, chops, seafood, soda fountain.Home-style Cooking is our specialty.With our expanded facilities,we have added a service barserving cocktails,wines, and liquors.84 Montague St., ( Corner of Hicks )Open til 2 a.m. 522-74C3the troupe moving and turning, their bodies revealed under pleated diaphonous sheaths, shook up the middle-aged viewer whose earlier sights of Academy nakedness were no doubt confined to the scenes in the National Geographic films.Lucia Dlugoszewski%u2019s composition for %u201cBlack Lake%u201d combining sounds of East and West, delicate percussion tones and clarinet, timbre piano and violin, which underlines the brilliant sky dance, the Hawkins classic, symbolized too, the new %u201ceccentricity%u201d in the old opera house, to the man whose Brooklyn past held seasons of Tchaikovsky%u2019s music, the pretty turns and tutus of the %u201cSwan Lake%u201d ballet.%u201cThey%u2019re all from Greenwich Village,%u201d the man declaimed, referring to the onstage dancers, the American Symphony musicians, and the up front audience of students and dancers from other companies. He meant, also, that the Academy had gone odd - out there- was no longer relating to its supposedly more stolid Brooklyn constituency.The attitudes of the man in that Saturday audience, who did find the final Hawkins piece -the dancers%u2019 variations on the overhanging, the Cantilever theme and the added horns in the Dlugoszewski music - more appealing, more comprehensible, %u201cmore like it,%u201d point to the identity crisis the Academy has been facing since its switchover from its old style programming and its bringing forth of the Beck-Maling %u201cLiving Theater,%u201d for a long stay about five years ago. The old audiences were leaving town - moving to the suburbs - and the lovers of the new not sufficiently gathered round.The %u201cLiving Theatre%u201d days%u2019 promise of a consistent gathering place for the avante garde was not: /a*** i58 Montague St.J OPEN 7 DAYS &i NIGHTSI Complete Meals* * * * * * * * * * * 8 7 5 - 4 0 4 4Erick Hawkinsquite fulfilled, and the hope for a home for the dance was squashed with the leaving of Alvin Ailey and the folding of the Elliot Feld Ballet. The Academy still seeks a center - a theme or set of themes or borough focus to gather the audiences who now come in crowds only with the appearance of a society special or %u201cin%u201d production like the recent %u201cLife and Times of Joseph Stalin.%u201dThough the two other groups housed in the Academy, the Brooklyn Philharmonia and the Chelsea Theater, are intact %u2014 the one known largely for its new theater pieces and some revamped revivals, and the other for its marathons and modem musicOtDK'T T6 K r t A K * THIS y e *# * !Then v i s i t M R . 5 0 U V L A I C I147A \\ omTA%U%u00a3 St.,-fck* sfita& ftA fc o f . S f o s l t .1programs, the BAM%u2019s present openendedness seems at times to easily fit the category of %u201cbooking house%u201d described by a member of its staff - with %u201cacts%u201d and %u201cnovelties%u201d presented along with the more frequent, serious, exciting, often breakthrough programs.The BAM itself seems to be concentrating on bringing in the Manhattan crowd, when a central theme might more logically stem from re-establishment as a Brooklyn center; with the programming unchanged and the gaps filled with offerings from Brooklyn communities, like the recent Black Theater Festival at the Academy%u2019s LePercq space.But the Manhattan crowd is what BAM seeks according to a New York Times article promoting the Academy%u2019s British Theater season which maps out routes to Lafayette Ave. and nearby subway stops for those dwellers on the other sides of the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges. The Manhattan scene was held too as the ideal by one Academy staffer who, disdainful of the pre-Boston Symphony Sanitationman%u2019s celebration, asserted that %u201cthis would never happen in Lincoln Center.%u201dBut the focus on that otherContinued on Page 14mIt'S 9*30 !*%u00abht youyk got- no plat* -to go.Heme an intimate lithe supper in 1be cozy \atmosphere cf The Vhtertfont. Lets not contuseits served aftere xte n sive ,to o empty hours snacking i our Uteesebcard or oxttonplatir^ a Bowl i Onion Soup Spend an evening wrtbaBleu Cheese A 00am Buiger or fissTor? verted god unusual sandwiches,the poseibiHte an* unlimited.IFvVsdesea-t-yxi crawe, cuddling up 1o Mis6Grknbles Cbeescake is May satisfying, sets ourCbocnlete Mousse, Rican He orfomch Apple Cake Supper, latest night,3 delightful Otd-N&rki custom served to perfection at The wbterffnnt. 1 to perfection at The1T U E S - S A r , S oncvw d im m e r , s e r v e d 5 3 0 ~ 10:00, s u p p e r io -'IJL136 At l a n t ic a v e n u e , ( a l t cu n tto n & h e n r y ) c a l l t o r d in n e r r e s e r v a t io n s %u00a9M ~i95T5 TO 10 p, M.O l d ^ f\\ f\\ s ,x u lo115 MONTAGUE STREET _D i m o n r a a S rMid-Eastern and International CuisineOPEN 11:30a.m. to Midnight,7 Days a WeekServing Lunch and Dinner 212-624-9267