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At The Brooklyn Academy O f Music:Riding High On The Next Wave Of New TalentBY SHARON CUCINOTTAThough Brooklyn is starting to get comfortable with its ever-developing culturalcache, an in-depth look at BAM%u2019s upcomingseason still manages to shock with the electric realization that much of what is happening in the global avant-garde isavailable right here at home.The fourth annual Next Wave Festivalwill kick off the Anniversary celebrations ofthe Brooklyn Academy of Music%u2019s 125thyear. The Festival opens with the MerceCunningham/John Cage collaboration%u201cRoaratorio: An Irish Circus on Finnegan%u2019sWake.\since the title is from %u201cFinnegan%u2019s Wake%u201dand the entire musical concept is derivedfrom Cage%u2019s long-time obsession withJoyce%u2019s enigmatic work.This is the American premiere of%u201cRoaratorio,%u201d scored for five musiciansfrom Ireland and taped sounds collectedfrom around the world by Cage.%u201cFinnegan%u2019s Wake%u201d can be consideredalmost a literary Rorschach test, becauseits philologic convolutions providesomething for everyone. Cage used some ofthe sounds in the Wake identified by placewith the help of a book by Louis Mink called%u201cA Finnegan%u2019s Wake Gazeteer.%u201d Cage thentaped ambient sounds from the places listed(choices were narrowed down by throwingthe I Ching). Combined with Cage%u2019s ownpoetry gleaned also from Joyce and the impact of Cunningham%u2019s choreography of theCircus itself, %u201cRoaratorio%u201d promises to be acycle, and a conundrum, of unusual interest.ALREADY WORKING ON NEXT YEARE iko a n d K o m a w ill p re m ie re th e c o m p le te %u201c N e w M o o n S to rie s ,\o u r p a rts , as part o f th e B ro o k ly n A c a d e m y o f M u s ic 's N e x tW ave F e s tiv a l. T h e th ird s e c tio n o f th e s e rie s w a s c o m m is s io n e d by B A M . T h e d a n c e rs w ill p e rfo rm N o v e m b e r 18-23.Next Wave programming is researchedand hammered out by Harvey Lichtenstein,President of BAM, and the Director of theNext Wave Festival itself, Joseph Melillo.Melillo describes his responsibilities as being essentially %u201cschizophrenic.%u201d Whileoverseeing the entire production of the%u201986-%u201987 Festival he is simultaneouslyscouting, researching and finalizing choicesfor the %u201987-%u201988 Next Wave.Though categories blend and becomevague in Next Wave programming, theFestival, famous for its multi-mediumisticforays, has always had dance at its heart.Melillo expects the appearance of Britishdancer/choreographer Michael Clark andCompany to be particularly controversial.The Scottish-born 23-year-old Clark bringshis troupe of eight to BAM as the firstBritish dance company ever to appear atthe Festival. Clark is considered an exceptionally gifted dancer in the classical repertoire and struck out on his own as achoreographer to bend the classical to hisown vision. Melillo analyzes Clark%u2019screative departures: %u201cHe has taken hisclassicism and has detracted it, merged itwith his contemporary sensibility.%u201d Melilloattributes Clark%u2019s provocative style to his%u201cnihilism.%u201dDANCERS TO DEBUTAnother 23-year-old European, AnneTeresa de Keersmaeker, who is Belgian,will make her New York debut at the NextWave with her work %u201cRoasas DanstRosas.%u201d Three other dancers will join her inthis five-part piece that is said to be a blendof minimalism and formalism, where structure imposes on the mundane.Returning to the Next Wave is thecritically acclaimed Molissa Fenley andDancers. Fenley will premiere two workswith scores by Philip Glass and JuliusEastman. Also returning after making hisNext Wave debut in 1984 is the popularMark Morris Dance Group. Morris willpremiere a large work using a score byPergolesi, taking its title, %u201cStabat Mater,%u201dfrom the music. The St. Luke%u2019s Chamber orchestra will perform with the company.Bill T. Jones/ Amie Zane and Company(seen recently in the \Festival this summer in Prospect Park)will follow their 1984 Next Wave success%u201cSecret Pastures%u201d with a work entitled%u201cThe Animal Trilogy.%u201d This New Yorkpremiere, an evening-length production, hasa score by the formerly esoteric, now lesselusive Conlon Nancarrow. A tape of Nancarrow%u2019s music written for and realized onplayer piano will play a significant role inthe piece. %u201cThe Animal Trilogy%u201d ischoreographed very closely to the score,with movement highly responsive to therhythmic intricacies of the music.David Gordon%u2019s Pick Up Company, thedance troupe in the Next Wave presentationof Philip Glass%u2019 %u201cThe Photographer%u201d will beback, on their own this time. Besidesdeveloping choreography for his owntroupe, Gordon is greatly in demand andhas choreographed for the American BalletTheatre and The Dance Theatre of Harlem.At this year%u2019s Next Wave, Gordon will perform a New York premiere and a WorldPremiere.DANCE COMMISSIONED BY BAMAs is this eclectic group of companiesneeded further rounding out, they will bejoined by Eiko and Koma, two Japaneseborn dancers who will premiere theirtetrology %u201cNew Moon Stories.%u201d Thoughparts I, H and IV have already seen performances, Part HI has been commissioned byBAM and the entire tetrology will be seenhere for the first time. Says Melillo of theirartistry: %u201cTheir work is pure dance. Theyhave created dance movement that isessential %u2014 austere. Eiko and Koma perform naked in three of the sections. In watching their work, the nakedness is like looking at living sculpture.%u201d He goes on to saythat their movements are not classical.%u201cLooking at their dance is not like lookingat a Michelangelo sculpture come to life. Itis more about a body being molded andtwisted into form, to express human emotions. Their sense memory is uncanny.%u201dProductions that are primarily theatricalwill take various hybrid forms in this year%u2019sFestival. A new vaudevillian interpretationof Stravinsky%u2019s %u201cThe Soldier%u2019s Tale%u201d will bedanced, acted and read by the indefatigableFlying Karamazov Brothers (they are notreally brothers) with music by the%u201cKamikazi Ground Crew.%u201d The originallibretto by Charles Ramuz has been newlyA Fall ScheduleO f Events At BAMM E R C E C U N N IN G H A M D A N C E C O M %u00adP A N Y , %u201c R O A R A T O R IO %u201d , M e rc e C u n n -in g h a m /J o h n C a g e , O c to b e r 7-12, O p e raH o u s e .IM P O S S IB L E T H E A T E R , %u201c S O C IA LA M N E S IA ,%u201d O c to b e r 14-19, L e p e rc qS p a c e .J O H N H A S S E LL, O c to b e r 1 8 /C a re yP la y h o u s e .M IC H A E L C LA R K & C O M P A N Y , O c %u00adto b e r 2 1 -2 6 , L e p e rc q S p a c e .P IN G C H O N G %u2019S F IJ I C O M P A N Y , %u201c T H EA N G E L S O F S W E D E N B O R G ,%u201d O c to b e r2 2 -2 6 , C a re y P la y h o u s e .A N N E TE R E S A d e K E E R S M A E K E R ,%u201c R O S A S D A N S T R O S A S %u201d , O c to b e r2 8 -N o v e m b e r 2, L e p e rc q S p a c e .J O H N ZO R N A N D F R IE N D S , N o v e m b e r1/C a re y P la y h o u s e .M O L IS S A F E N L E Y A N D D A N C E R S ,N o v e m b e r 5-8, C a re y P la y h o u s e .B R O O K L Y N P H IL H A R M O N IC , %u201c S O N G SO F IN N O C E N C E A N D O F E X P E R IE N C E %u201d ,by W illia m B o lc o m , N o v e m b e r 7 -9 /O p e raH o u s e .M A R K M O R R IS D A N C E G R O U P ,N o v e m b e r 12-15, O p e ra H o u s e .K R O N O S Q U A R T E T , N o v e m b e r 14-16,L e p e rc q S p a c eE IK O & K O M A , %u201c N EW M O O NS T O R IE S %u201d , N o v e m b e r 18-23, L e p e rc qS p a c e .D A V ID G O R D O N /P IC K U P C O .,N o v e m b e r 19-22, O p e ra H o u s e .T H E F L Y IN G K A R A M O Z O V B R O T H E R Sand th e K A M IK A Z E G R O U N D C R E W ,%u201c T H E S O L D IE R %u2019S T A L E ,%u201d D e c e m b e r 2-7,C a re y P la y h o u s e .BILL T JONES/ARNIE ZANE & CO..D e c e m b e r 3-6, O p e ra H o u s e .%u201c th e C IV IL w arS : a tree is b estm ea s u red w h en it Is d o w n \R o m e S e c tio n , P h ilip G la s s /R o b e rtW ils o n , D e c e m b e r 12-30, O p e ra H o u s e .scripted by Len Jenkin and Paul Magid forthis version of the Tale.As Melillo explains: %u201cThis is a real playwith the five Karamazov Brothers, sevenmusicians in the Ground Crew and two additional vaudevillians. This will be a highlyvisual and highly active rendition of theStravinsky.%u201dIn extreme contrast to theKaramazov/Stravinsky, Ping Chong and hisFiji Company, who collaborated last yearwith Meredith Monk in the evocative%u201cGames%u201d will present the New YorkPremiere of his %u201cThe Angels of Swedenborg%u201d blending live theatre, dance, tapedsounds, film, slides and other devices. EvenEmanuel Swedenborg, that 18th centurySwedish scientist and mystic has found hisway to the BAM stage. Ping Chong was inspired by a chapter, %u201cSwedenborg%u2019sAngels,%u201d in Luis Borges%u2019 %u201cThe Book of Imaginary Beings.%u201d Perhaps Ping Chong willexpand upon a saying of Swedenborg%u2019s thathas been quoted by Emerson: %u201cIn heaventhe angels are advancing continually to thespringtime of their youth, so that the oldestangei appears to be the youngest.%u201dThe Impossible Theater, a Baltimorebased group will present %u201cSocial Amnesia,%u201d%u201ca multimedia visual opera%u201d in collaboration with John Schneider, a writer andDirector of Milwaukee%u2019s Theater X. The Impossible Theater describes its work as examining the effect of the industrial andelectronic revolution on Western culture.This is not dry dogma. Their work has beendescribed as %u201cmetaphysical pie-in-the-facetheater.%u201d %u201cSocial Amnesia%u201d includesseveral slide projectors, a 24-track soundsystem, live actors and a score by BobBoilen for Synclavier n Synthesizer, as itsframework. A Mackintosh Computer coordinates its technical intricacies (for instance there are 2,400 lighting and musicalcues in the 90-minute production.) HowardZinn%u2019s %u201cA People%u2019s History of the U.S.%u201d andRussell Jacoby%u2019s %u201cSocial Amnesia%u201d wereused as philosophical departures.CIVIL WARS PREMIERESPhilip Glass and Robert Wilson, participants in the Next Wave since the beginning, and the big daddies of multimedia productions using the colossal and the minimal.ContinuedS e p te m b e r 25, 1 9 8 6 , T H E P H O E N IX /S E C T IO N 2, P a g e 25