Can all the ladies in the house say Hell Yes?!

Female performance makers – how excited are you about the January festival offerings? This feels like our year! What a plethora of exciting writers, directors, choreographers showing their stuff.. may I call you all lady auteurs? Ladi-ators?

I’ve rarely anticipated a show as much as I have Seagull (Thinking of You), by Tina Satter/Half Straddle and a whole cohort of downtown’s most interesting women performers, presented in COIL. I witnessed a strange, intriguing rehearsal a few months ago, and will see it tomorrow with a group of friends, one visiting New York for the first time, so I can’t wait to see what they think. The company just announced an extension today. I suggest you snap your tickets up fast as they’ve been selling out!

Other lady-show-makers who I can’t wait to see- the choreographer/performer/European wild child La Ribot, who will be performing a duet, Gustavia tomorrow Thurs 1/10 at the new French Highlights festival presented by FIAF. This one-time event is ‘sold out’ of course–La Ribot rarely performs in New York- but it’s free, so I suggest you try your luck at the door.

PS122 (full disclosure: my former employer) is particularly killing it with more than half of COIL’s shows created by lady performance makers such as big guns (may I say big guns?) Emily Johnson, Kristen Kosmas, Annie Dorsen (in a co-presentation with New York Live Arts) and Peggy Shaw, a diverse array of incredibly smart and gifted performance makers rarely seen in one city, let alone in one festival.

Let’s get out there, see some great shows, and support female artists!

Image: Gustavia © Marc Coudrais