Marc Bamuthi Joseph put on an impressive show over two dates at the Emmett Robinson last week. His poetic speech and movement was combined with hip-hop music, conversational “travel diary” monologues, video interviews shot by Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi and a large moving lighting rig choreographed by James Clotfelter.

Yet for a really intense experience, I went to Bamuthi’s two hour workshop at the Avery Research Center, part of a free “Spoleto at the Avery” program” that ran last week.

At the Emmett Robinson Theatre, Bamuthi shared the stage with all those bells and whistles. In the workshop, there were no such distractions. The performer’s work was a lot more powerful in the intimate classroom environment, and he got to show another side to his work – he mentors teen writers through a “Youth Speaks” literary arts organization.

The workshop was part writing class, part dance-off. Bamuthi began with a demonstration of what he does, switching from hip-hop speech to regular talk about his partner’s pregnancy and a planned natural birth. As he spoke he moved, creating visual images with his physical being, his expressions and his breathing.

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Perhaps the nearly overlooked and best deals for your money of the offerings of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival this season are the Piccolo Harbor Cruises. You are out on the ocean with a terrific view of leaping dolphins taking a spin around Fort Sumter and then admiring the lights on The Battery, which alone would cost you at least $25 a person for a two-hour cruise.

But that would be without the fantastic jazz offered by some of the areas best musicians. Not only that, you can dance on the top deck. And all for $15. I was on the first of the four Piccolo cruises Wednesday night which had people at the dock wanting to buy tickets. However, boat officials said the place was totally filled with 255 passengers. For full disclosure, I will say the Franklin Ashley Quintet was churning out the tunes that night, and I happen to be married to the piano player, whose name headlines the group. But I was not the only one who was amazed to hear clarinetist Jack Dressler produce a sound like Benny Goodman on “Moonglow.” And more than one person said, “Does that fellow play in New York?”

When Dressler and Bryan Reed swung like crazy with a jazz duet of “Honeysuckle Rose,’ the crowd went ballistic, as the wine flowed. As I mingled in the crowd, I estimated about 50 percent were from “off,” like playwright Carmilla Carr and her son Kali O’Dwyer who are from L.A., and about half were Lowcountry residents. “Los Angeles doesn’t have anything like this,” said Dwyer.

We also hear that John Tecklenburg & Friends’ mellow jazz on the cruise last night was well-attended in spite of the lousy weather. You can still catch Rolling on the River with Oscar Rivers on June 4 and singer Rob Keiter’s trio on June 5. And for all of this, tickets are just $15. Only in Charleston.

Spoleto gossip
Although the Boston Ballet has come and gone, as a dance critic I would like to point out that no matter how terrific, that dancers like writers, need to be edited. Certainly, technically, the Boston Ballet was to this dance critic of 30 years, on the level with the Bolshoi, the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet. However, the first number “Brake the Eyes,” beautifully executed en pointe, consisted of the same combination of eight to 10 steps performed over and over again, despite the fact the audience kept applauding at various intervals, thinking it was over. This went on for nearly 30 minutes, but seemed like several hours. Choreographer Jorma Elo simply took the easy way out by having something that was superb go stale.

The excerpts in the next piece from”Swan Lake” were the best I’ve ever seen and 27 years ago I saw Russian prima ballerina Maya Pletsetskaya dance the “Dying Swan” divertissement. Unfortunately, we were left disappointed when Twyla Tharp in her modern piece “In the Upper Room” took the same path as Elo. She had her superb dancers perform the same combination over and over for about 25 minutes. At firstn we delighted in the “with it” costumes or black and white stripes with women in mini-skirts with matching briefs (often seen) and red socks. But after awhile, the frenetic trademark Glass music started to seem like bees buzzing in our brain and I began to feel imprisoned, as if I couldn’t bear the repetition and the unrelenting music anymore. Afterward, at the gala, which WAS gorgeous, a prominent local artist was walking around inquiring as to whether anyone had an asprin as the dance had given him a terrific headache.
I knew exactly how he felt. What a shame some of the most astute dance in the world had to be partly spoiled by choreographers.

I arrived at the Footlight Players Theatre too late to get a seat for the very first dance in this year’s Piccolo Dance Festival.  Waiting to hear the applause before I could sneak in for a seat, someone leaned into me and said, “This next group isn’t really up to our normal standards…”  Startled, I immediate thought to myself, What exactly ARE the standards to be part of Piccolo Spoleto??? Especially for young unprofessional dancers?  I sat down and looked at my program to see who was coming up next.  Before my brain could register anything, the lights went down, and I watched with tears in my eyes, wondering at how anyone could be so demeaning to these girls…girls who are out of trouble and up on stage…girls with big hearts and blooming talent.  I applaud them for their courage and passion. 

After an hour and a half, I left totally inspired and came up with a list of all that I saw and why I think every group in that show (unfortunately I didn’t get to see them all) was “up to par”.  I danced when I was younger and studied the figure during my undergraduate education.  I believe that dance is really not only expression, but performance art, and perfection of the human form.  It is music visualized.  It is complete control and balance sided with organic and fluid energy.  It is raw muscle and tissue sided with ethereal grace and gravity defiance.  Who are you to put a restrictive line around what is and what isn’t in “normal standards”?  Each group had such individuality in their pieces, it would be ludicrous to discriminate one from the next.  Sure I had my favorites, but as a whole, Well done ladies and gents.

Last night drummer/performer Tommy Shepherd had his flock squirming in their seats as he roved around the Emmett Robinson auditorium, asking them questions with microphone in hand. he was warming up the audience - or cooling it off - before the his cohort Marc Bamuthi Joseph came on stage.

As far as audience participation went, the audience questions were the farthest Bamuthi’s production of the break/s went. As he danced, conversed and poeticized across the boards, he created an incredible impression of a down-to-earth guy with uncanny abilities in discourse and movement.

He says he’s a frequent visitor of Planet Hip-Hop. That would explain his otherwordly skills. But he’ll be workshopping with mere mortals today at 5-7 p.m., part of the Avery Center’s free series of classes and panels.

The Avery is a research center for African-American history and culture at 125 Bull Street, downtown Charleston. Tomorrow, the center will host a panel discussion on the Amistad court case. For more information on either of these events, call the Spoleto team on 843.579.3100.

More photos from yesterday’s Reggae Block Dance.

The headliner, Slice International kept the party going despite some early technical difficulties. It was my first block dance, and I enjoyed the music, dancing, and people spotting.

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Today’s New York Times (Sunday, May 11) mentioned Spoleto Festival USA three times in the national spring/summer festival roundup. Here’s what the Times thinks is hot …

In Theater: “SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA Charleston, May 23-June 8. The city’s Southern setting adds to the charm of this sumptuous annual artistic feast that, since 1977, has brought hundreds of artists from opera, theater, dance and music together for 17 days each spring. Among the theatrical events is ‘The Burial at Thebes’ by a British troupe, the Nottingham Playhouse Theater Company (May 29-June 2), which will also play at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in Connecticut (see above). The American premiere of ‘The Great War’ (June 4-8) will follow. This highly technical, multimedia piece about World War I is being presented by Hotel Modern, a Dutch company. The annual Piccolo Spoleto festival (much bigger than the name implies) offers hundreds of additional events around Charleston. (843) 579-3100, spoletousa.org; and (888) 374-2656, piccolospoleto.com.

In Dance: “SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA Charleston, May 23-June 8. In an unusually wide-ranging array of dance, the festival opens with Shantala Shivalingappa, a former Pina Bausch dancer, in work influenced by the traditional Indian dance form of Kuchipudi (May 23-25). It continues with Boston Ballet in works by Mikko Nissenen, Jorma Elo and Twyla Tharp (May 24 and 25), the immensely likable and even funny Ballet du Grand Théâtre de Genève (May 31-June 1), Donna Uchizono (May 30-June 2) and Compagnie Heddy Maalem in, yes, ‘The Rite of Spring’ (June 7 and 8). (843) 579-3100, spoletousa.org.”

In Classical Music: “SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA Charleston, May 23-June 8. The season commemorates the bicentennial of the abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Spoleto focuses on the black experience with a new production of a revised version of Anthony Davis’s ‘Amistad,’ which will inaugurate the reopening of the historic Memminger Auditorium. The festival also features leading African and African-American musicians like the Imani Winds, a new production of ‘La Cenerentola’ and Morton Feldman’s seldom-performed “For Philip Guston.” (843) 579-3100, spoletousa.org.”

Charleston Ballet Theatre’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival production of ‘Under the Angel Oak: CBT Xposed with Christine Kane,’ scheduled to be performed today on John’s Island was canceled because of the rain.

However, the show will be performed at 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday at the CBT black box theater, 477 King St. All tickets, which are $25, will be honored.

Just a few observations from Sunday’s 2 p.m. Batsheva performance from Beverly. (She liked the dance, btw)

lease do not bring your cell phone to Spoleto events. If you must, put it on Silent; even vibrate can be dicey - imagine a tense moment of silence interrupted by a Brrrt Brrrt Brrrt … In a split second, you’ve ruined a mood the performers have worked so hard to create.

Also, parents might think twice about bringing young ones to the show. Some of the dances were a bit sexually suggestive, which personally gave me the heebie-jeebies sitting just up from an elementary school-aged kid.

- Stephanie

At one point on Saturday evening at the opening of the Batsheva Dance Company, the 18 male and female dancers, looking ominous in black suits and fedoras, walked off the stage at the Gaillard and filtered through the audience.

At first they appeared to merely shake hands with some audience members, but then whispered something to them, and gently pulled a dozen women and three men to their feet and led them up onto the stage, where the women were picked up and flung about and then allowed to remain mostly stationary as the dancers cavorted around them to such tunes as “Hooray for Hollywood,” which has the appropriate lyrics “Hooray for Hollywood…where any barmaid can be a star made dancing with or without a fan.”

And of course it was all in good fun as an elderly woman who appeared to barely make it up the steps to the stage, launched into kind of a hip-hop, cha-cha-cha to a swinging version of “Dance With Me.”

Spoleto Festival board member David Rawle, appropriately attired in white tie, was one of the men enticed to dance with the stars for a few minutes. Said Rawle at the gala afterward: “It was terrific fun and a contrast to the serious message delivered by dances at the beginning of the first act and in the second act. The only thing I didn’t care for was that the young girl who picked me wouldn’t let me lead, and so I was dancing the Ginger Rogers part!”

Su-Su Johnson of Spartanburg was one of those chosen to show off her terpsichorean skill: “I was just shocked! I really hate to get up in front of anyone to just give a speech, much less dance with a professional dance group! But it WAS kind of fun.”
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