BAM! BAM! BAM! catching the next wave for 20 years
Dancers throw hundreds of red carnations in the air to the sound of fireworks in a production by the German choreographer Pina Bausch. Naked men and women roll across a wall illuminated by projections in a play by the Canadian director Robert Lepage. An airplane lands on stage and Richard Nixon emerges to sing, “News. News. News. It’s a kind of history” in an opera by the American composer John Adams.
These are but three of the striking scenes you will see here in a video installation celebrating the twentieth year of the vanguard Next Wave Festival of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, or BAM. The twenty-eight-minute video consists of brief excerpts from forty-five of the more than two hundred productions presented at the festival since 1983. Featuring the work of such visionary artists as Philip Glass, Lucinda Childs, Robert Wilson, Bill T. Jones, Laurie Anderson, Garth Fagan, Lou Reed, Sankai Juku, and Steve Reich, these excerpts exemplify the kind of risk-taking dance, theater, and opera that have made the Next Wave Festival one of the most acclaimed performing arts events in America.
The installation’s design is meant to reflect the festival’s cutting-edge spirit. Though the video is projected on the ceiling, there’s no need to crane your neck. Just lie on one of the cushioned viewing platforms. And ride the Next Wave.
Matthew Yokobosky
Exhibition designer and curator
