This summer's dance presentations in the Damrosch Park Bandshell are highlighted by the return of the Paul Taylor Dance Company on August 3 and 4 and the Trisha Brown Dance Company on August 14. A double bill of Lula Washington Dance Theatre and Les Ballets Jazz de Montr_al is scheduled for August 16 and 17.
Other notable events on the dance schedule include:60s Snapshots (August 23): new works commissioned by Lincoln Center from dance experimenters Gus Solomons jr, Yoshiko Chuma, Merian Soto and Elaine Summers. The previous day, the New York Baroque Dance Company "celebrates love" with 18th-century music and dance.
Among the new music offerings, Kristjan J‹rvi conducts the Absolute Ensemble in a multi-genre program created by himself and Swiss composer/saxophonist Daniel Schnyder called "Arabian Nights," featuring guest artist Marcel Khalif_ on oud and vocals.
Composer/performer Carman Moore's electro-acoustic chamber ensemble Skymusic offers a blend of classical, jazz and world music on August 15. Neely Bruce conducts the Manhattan School of Music Percussion Ensemble in Dormant Craters, a work for 16 percussionists — including jazz drummers, a gamelan ensemble, steel-drummers, timpani, chimes, cowbells, Chinese wood blocks, as well as everyday items such as kitchen pan covers and tin pots — by Henry Brant, a 93-year-old American composer of acoustic spatial music.
Composer/performer Pauline Oliveros leads A World Wide Tuning Meditation, which is billed as an interactive "sound-a-long" in which the audience in attendance, as well as those at a variety of remote, international locations communicating via wireless web links, become the instrument.
The Chinese American Arts Council presents "From Chinatown with Love, an evening of Chinese theater, dance, song , martial arts and live orchestras on August 7. Two Chinese Opera companies, Bejing Chinese Opera Ensemble and Fujin Shiyan Min Opera, will perform.
On August 24, the Trance Music Ensemble offers a celebration of tea, as musicians, calligraphers, tea master, actors and floral artisans illustrate the traditional arts that make up China's ancient culture of tea.
Jazz highlights include the Dave Brubeck Quartet (August 5) and an 85th birthday tribute to avant-garde jazz innovator Charles Mingus, by the Mingus Big Band and Mingus Orchestra conducted by Gunther Schuller, to conclude the festival on August 26.
There are also many theater, world music, gospel and childrens' events.
