GAYLETTER

I ain’t going to lie, this event sounds pretty cray, cray. We asked its creator, Michael Musto — Village Voice institution and one of its long-time columnists—what his ball at 54 Below, which is the performance space below the infamous 70’s club Studio 54, is all about. He tells us the ball will feature a live band, “backups, a Village Person, a Tony nominee, and me singing disco classics.” The Village person in question is Randy, the cowboy, who you may remember from one of Mossy’s previous write ups is the same dude who gave Mr. Mossy a BJ, way back in the day, then somehow managed to get a nosebleed, fleeing the scene, after politely leaving him a $20 tip. That story has nothing to do with Sunday’s show...but it’s just too good not to mention again. Anyhoos...go check it out. It will be about as close as those born after 1980 will ever get to feeling like we were doing mounds of coke at Studio 54.  —tom

We interviewed choreographer Karole Armitage for our new site a few weeks back. She had just finished a conversation at the LGBT Center with legendary dancer and choreographer Benny Ninja. We were in the Keith Haring bathroom — which is now somewhat of a museum. We had a great talk about her history in the dance world. Karole’s resume is too long to go into, so I’ll just give you a couple highlights; she choreographed 5 works for the Ballet de l’Opéra National de Paris, taught Madonna how to Vogue, helped (perhaps unsuccessfully) Michael Jackson to “appear erotic in relation to a woman” for his In the Closet music video, collaborated with everyone from Mikhail Baryshnikov to Jeff Koons, she’s even been nominated for a Tony for the musical Hair. After living in Europe for 15 years, she’s now returned to NYC as the creative director of Armitage Gone! Dance company. This Saturday is your last chance to see their new show: Mechanics of the Dance Machine. Given one word to describe the show, Karole calls it “a trip.” After the incredible life she’s lead, Karole should know a thing or two about taking trips. Don’t miss out!  —tom

Amber Martin is a tour de force. Her pitch perfect multi-octave voice propels her show Hi! through a manic course of characterizations and costume changes, yet she never once leaves the stage. The woman is a chameleon. Whether it be a touching duet with her mom (over the phone, at the show we attended), a favorite track from her prized childhood Foreigner LP, a cover of a disco classic, or a spot-on Reba McEntire impersonation (with a twist) Martin serves up musical comedy the likes of which I have NEVER seen. At one point she kicked off her shoes, climbed into my booth and finished off her song laying on top of me! I honestly have not had this much fun at a show in years. Martin is a comic genius and watching her head spin out loud in full voice, surrounded by a bag of tricks is a real treat — don’t miss out.  —Gayletter

I just love the word squirt, I can repeat it many times in a row and still have the same satisfaction. Squirts is a new queer performance series that playwright and performance artist Dan Fishback is curating and hosting at La MaMa. To be honest with you, with the caliber of performers in this series, Squirts could fill up an entire issue of GAYLETTER, but you know I gotta stick with our 5-gems a week format, even though we’ll fudge it a little bit here. Starting January 4th thru the 15th they are going to have 18 queer performance artists, “from new voices like Shane Shane and Chris Tyler to special legendary guests of honor like Justin Vivian Bond and John Kelly.” Other performances include Santiago Venegas (pictured), Becky Eklund, Khi Armand, Marga Gomez, Man Meat Collective, Mike Albo, etc... I recommend that you grab a pen and paper, go to this link: lamama.org, go down the list and start writing down the performances that you want to see, if you need any help making selections, contact us via twitter. We’ll show you how to squirt whether you have a vagina or a penis.  —Abi

So I’m scurrying up 8th Avenue to the dentist (to re-glue my temporary crown that fell off at Miami’s Art Basel while chewing a tough piece of beef at The Shore Club—the glamour never ends) when I glance up at the Joyce Theatre marquee to read, “Les Ballets Trockadero de Mote Carlo” and I’m thinking ...de Monte Carlo, Monte Carlo—when all of a sudden a light bulb goes on. Is this the same all male dance troupe who did a hilarious version of Swan Lake’s (pas de deux) on pointe that left me in tears? That I saw somewhere downtown NYC in the 80’s? By golly it is. The Trocks as they are affectionately called, I soon learned, were founded in 1974 and have been entertaining audiences with their gender bending ballet “classics” worldwide ever since. Even Richard Avedon shot a photo essay of them for Vogue—need I say more? Please make an effort to go see them, dance enthusiast or not, you won’t been disappointed.  —Gayletter

I’m so over winter. Which is actually very obnoxious of me to say, since I’m writing this from Australia where it’s now the middle of summer (I have the bad tan lines to prove it.) So when I read the description for Coil: Performance Space 122’s “annual winter performance festival” I guess I got a little bummed out at the reminder that I’m coming back to months of cold. Yet after seeing the large list of performances on offer I perked up a little. There’s everything from dance, to drama, to people simply rolling about on stage expressing themselves. I won’t give you the whole list, because lists are boring. Let’s just say that you’re guaranteed to see at least one thing that will change your life. Maybe not in a monumental, taking mushrooms with the Dalai Lama type of way, but it will certainly open your eyes, ears and mind to another way of looking at the world. If that’s all we get from this winter, then maybe it won’t be so bad after all.  —tom

It’s that time of the year when we give the most, you know Christmas approaching and all that shit. We got an email about this lovely event from contemporary dancer, and friend of ours, Tyler Ashley (pictured). It’s a fundraiser featuring 8 dancers (Tyler, Megan Byrne, Joey Kipp, Caitlin Marz, Jessica Ray, Tatyana Tenenbaum, Mariana Valencia, and Elizabeth Ward) performing simultaneously for about an hour. Tyler told me a bit about his piece and it sounds like it’s perfect for GAYLETTER. Apparently he is obsessed with sex toys: “I perform a rigorously repetitive solo that explores masculinity and femininity, aggression and passion, tool and organ. The piece also features a series of bedazzled power tool sculptures...I get naked, as well as show softcore power tool porn videos.” Curated by dance group Aunts, it’s taking place at Danspace Project in collaboration with Food for Thought. They’ll be “collecting canned food over the course of the run to support the St. Mark’s Church food distribution program.” This is your opportunity to see a great show as well as give to people that are in more need than your stupid cousin.  —Abi

Christeene is one of those characters who scares people. For one thing, her aesthetic is tranny-zombie. Her performances can confuse people, which as far as we’re concerned is absolutely wonderful. Truly transgressive, transformative performance should make people uneasy, it should challenge something... anything. Christeene was developed by Austin-based performance artist Paul Soileau, a member of the contemporary performance troupe Rude Mechanicals. According to Earl Dax, Christeene “affirms the radical and transgressive possibilities of queer performance... and does so with booty shaking élan.” Her live show at TBA prompted Earl’s pal Aaron Scott to quip, “I think she is ready for a stadium show, but I don’t know if there’s a stadium that’s ready for her.” I couldn’t agree more, Christeene is a super-star in the making; the bitch can even rap. This Wednesday she is performing at Glasslands in BK. Cody (SSION) is Djing. If you want a taste of Christeene google African Mayonnaise, you won’t regret it.  —tom

Promoter and creator of the wildly awesome performance series Pussy Faggot, Earl Dax is like a big brother to us. He has impeccable taste when it comes to performance and is generally just  one of our favorite people on earth. So when he wants to share something with us, we pay attention. This time around it’s a “world-class cabaret artist on par with Meow Meow, Mx. Justin V. Bond and Joey Arias” (who’s also making a guest appearance) named Sven Ratzke. Earl says Sven has the rare ability to “put a personal stamp on his interpretations of songs that run the gamut from French chanson to 70’s glam rock.” Abi and I have seen Sven perform in the past, and honestly at first I was a bit confused by this strange half Dutch, half German performer wearing wild feathers on his head and large shoulder pads under his satin smoking jacket. He pranced around the stage and addressed the audience in that creepy/cute timbre that Germanics seem to have perfected. His true talent however came out when he began to sing — he has a wonderful voice. He’s performing at Joe’s Pub this Saturday, and we’re happy to be able to offer our readers half price tickets. Just type in JPTIXB313 when you purchase to get the deal. You can thank us with a gift: Abi likes ornate jewelry and scented candles, I like grilled cheese sandwiches and generic xanax.    —tom