Why it’s called American Street Dancer
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
To Vaslaz Nijinsky, the circle was the embodiment of a complete, perfect movement from which everything in life could be based.[1] The intersection of two circles form an almond-like shape,[2] and express the interdependence of opposing yet complimentary forces—life and death, heaven and earth.[3] In Nijinsky’s intimately proportioned drawings on paper with crayon and pencil, you can see these two shapes repeated over and over. The complete line that is the circle, the circular curve that is an organising principle, contain an energy that belies their scale, and they speak of Nijinsky, not solely as an artist, but as a person. All the more so because they were drawn not long before he retired from dance, between 1918 and 1919. Criss-crossing back in time, they have a dynamism, and a rhythm. So, too, John Neumeier’s “Nijinsky,” which faithfully, soulfully, like the drawings, through recurring motifs and a retracing of steps, delivers a powerful blow. As he lays bare the fragility of Nijinsky, Neumeier lays bare the same said fragility of the human condition. Into a two-hour ballet, told over two acts, Neumeier reveals Nijinsky as a dancer and choreographer, and Nijinsky as a person.
Performance
Place
Words
“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”
Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.
Already a paid subscriber? Login
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continue Reading“Lists of Promise,” a new work currently in a two-week run from March 13- 30 at the East Village cultural landmark, Theater for the New City, promised more than it delivered, at least for now.
Continue Reading“State of Heads” opens with a blaze of white light and loud clanking onto a white-suited Levi Gonzalez, part Elvis, part televangelist addressing his congregation. A pair of women sidle in—Rebecca Cyr and Donna Uchizono—dressed in ankle-length white dresses and cowered posture.
Continue ReadingThe late John Ashford, a pioneer in programming emerging contemporary choreographers across Europe, once told me that he could tell what sort of choreographer a young artist would turn into when watching their first creations.
Continue Reading
comments