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Jack Vartoogian / FrontRowPhotos

The whole BAM fam: From above: Maria Nurmela performing in “Borrowed Light”; choreographer Merce Cunningham and Judy Fishman; and Burt Barr, Trisha Brown, Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson.

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Elena Olivo

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Elena Olivo

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With a lavish cocktail party, the premiere of choreographer Tero Saarinen’s Shaker-inspired dance piece, “Borrowed Light,” and a dinner on the 45th floor of Lower Manhattan’s 7 World Trade Center, the Brooklyn Academy of Music truly celebrated the 25th anniversary of its “Next Wave” festival last week.

Before the curtain went up in the opera house on Nov. 7, the Lepercq Space, which usually houses the BAMCafe, was packed with deep-pocketed donors and local luminaries — we loved your coat, Jane Walentas! — who munched on passed canapes and sipped wine (no full bar, folks) before slipping into their seats.

The men looked all business but the ladies, especially the two wearing the same green dress, were certainly decked out for the evening. And everyone looks better under the twinkling lights of installation artist Leo Villareal’s “Stars,” which shone in the windows all evening long.

But it wasn’t always this luxe at 30 Lafayette Ave.

“Twenty-five years ago, I was employed by BAM to produce the first Next Wave festival,” said Joe Melillo, BAM’s executive producer. “So I was running around in jeans and a work shirt, not a suit and tie. That first festival was [small], but this year is the largest festival I’ve ever produced.”

Indeed this year’s fest, which included the U.S. premiere of Israeli playwright Hanoch Levin’s “Krum,” a sparse drama featuring TR Warszawa, Poland’s famed theater company, and the already legendary all-night “Takeover” party, where hundreds of people piled into BAM for a party featuring a brilliant and unexpected Lindsay Lohan mid-career retrospective, has been rather expansive. But according to BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, it isn’t the only thing that’s grown.

“I was a lot younger and a lot thinner 25 years ago, but I was still working at BAM. Nothing changes,” the still-svelte Hopkins told GO Brooklyn. And in that time, what was the best performance that she’s seen?

“I’ve seen lots of things in my millions of years, and there are a lot of things that I’ve loved,” she said. “But my favorite was Peter Brook’s ‘Mahabharata’ [in 1997] — it was 10 hours long!”

Melillo added, “The most incredible thing I’ve seen at BAM was ‘Einstein on the Beach’ by Phillip Glass and Robert Wilson.”

Offering a more philosophical take on the history of the festival was Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

“The best thing I’ve seen at BAM is how it’s grown and flourished to become America’s premier cultural venue,” he said. “And seeing all the Manhattanites crossing the bridge to come to our events!”

On any other night, Marty, but not this one. After “Borrowed Light” let out, the well-heeled crowd headed from Fort Greene to Manhattan to enjoy a dinner of caramelized onion and goat cheese turnover, potato-crusted cod and melting chocolate cake with hazelnut ice cream and pomegranate coulis. The raw space of 7WTC, which was decorated by Fleurs Bella’s Bella Meyer with a Shaker theme including baskets of apples, metal jars filled with branches and an overall earthy theme, was brimming with close to 850 guests including performance artist Laurie Anderson, musician Lou Reed, choreographer Merce Cunningham and composer Glass.

After all was said and done — with a last minute change of venue thrown in for good measure — pulling off a production like this might have been the most impressive part of BAM’s 25th anniversary season.

©2007 The Brooklyn Paper