A Brooklyn dance company needs a home. Several, actually.
Tze Chun Dance Company looks to bring its latest production, “Parlour Games,” a playful look at what served as entertainment pre-TV, to different brownstones in Brooklyn.
“It’s a free arts event that is not in the usual spaces,” said artistic director Tze Chun. “We’re bringing it literally into people’s homes introducing dance into a much more domestic atmosphere.”
The series kicks off April 10, with South Oxford Space in Fort Greene hosting the first night, and Serenity at Home, a bed and breakfast in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, hosting on April 11. Chun looks to extend the series until June, but needs a few more locations to make that happen.
“It’s hard to get people to go outside of their comfort zone and try something new — like hosting a dance performance,” said Chun, who’s interested in using vacant brownstones on the market as sites, especially in her neighborhood, Clinton Hill.
Zenobia Marion was not shy about hosting the series at her Prospect Lefferts lodge.
“I think it’s absolutely fabulous for the community,” said Marion, who’s lived in the neighborhood for 20 years, and has run Serenity at Home for the past three. “It’s such an unassuming neighborhood.”
More than 100 years old, the building may have even seen some parlour games in its time. Some of the games are familiar, like Blind Man’s Bluff, a precursor to Marco Polo, others baffling, like Are You There Moriarty, where participants lie on the floor hitting each other with newspapers.
The reason behind the games is what’s important to Chun, who borrowed movements from the games for her new piece.
“We as a culture always create distractions as an outlet for whatever we’re not getting from our everyday lives,” said Chun. “Examining these games, you ask, what was the point?”
To recreate the atmosphere of those games, the piece will be set to a piano accompaniment and other era-appropriate sounds like grandfather clocks. All that’s needed is the brownstone.
Anyone have a lead?
“Parlour Games” at South Oxford Space [138 S. Oxford St. between Atlantic and Fulton avenues in Fort Greene, (718) 398-3078], April 10 at 2 pm; and at Serenity at Home [57 Rutland Rd. between Bedford and Flatbush avenues in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, (347) 414-5536] hosts April 11 at 3 pm. For info on all performances, visit www.TzeChunDance.com.
