Down to Earth Festival

The CUNY Graduate Center's Martin E. Segal Theatre Center goes wide with a new annual festival of free alfresco performances by artists from around the world. The French tightrope artist Tatiana Mosio-Bongonga walks the line, and the Senagalese circus troupe Compagnie SenCirk presents separate indoor and outdoor programs; Quebec's Le Cirque Kikasse performs acrobatic and balancing acts on a tricked out food truck. Two groups up the cool factor with actual frozen water: France's Théâtre de l’Entrouvert shares a choreographic project involving feet made of melting ice, whereas performers from the U.K. troupe Kaleider try to construct an arch out of ice and concrete. Italy's Parini Secondo uses jump rope as percussion for a dance piece, and France's Théâtre de la Ville teams up with the Down to Earth team to offer multilingual one-on-one "poetic consultations" in three boroughs. Meanwhile, the Segal Center offers—as a "festival-within-a festival"—a new edition of its annual Prelude series, an unmissable showcase for upcoming avant-garde work that offers the theater and dance equivalent of a coming-attractions sampler. This year's Preludes is devoted to site-specific work by artists from Cuba, France, Iran, Ivory Coast, Brazil and Ukraine in addition to those from the U.S. Check out the festival's website for a full schedule of events and locations.