Child's Play
Co. Un Yamada, a dance company and creative collective established in Tokyo in 2002, returned to the New National Theatre Tokyo last week to reprise their popular family-friendly production from 2021, “Obachetta.”
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Sacramento Ballet executive and artistic director Anthony Krutzkamp dresses sharp and gives a memorable pre-curtain speech. The way he tells it, the Central California company was in rehearsals for “Swan Lake” last year when he realized he faced an enviable problem: the dancers were too good for the ballets he’d programmed under a five-year plan. So Krutzkamp scrapped that plan and got on the phone, securing a commission from the internationally rising South African choreographer Andrea Schermoly. He then asked San Francisco-based Val Caniparoli for the rights to his widely performed “Ibsen’s House,” and decided to round the program out with Balanchine’s “Apollo.” That last ballet, from 1928, was arguably the only really innovative work on a mixed-rep bill titled “Innovations”—but I’m not complaining. The best thing about this slate was that it proved Krutzkamp right about the dancers. They look like they can take on anything.
Performance
Place
Words
“Uncommonly intelligent, substantial coverage.”
Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.
Already a paid subscriber? Login
Co. Un Yamada, a dance company and creative collective established in Tokyo in 2002, returned to the New National Theatre Tokyo last week to reprise their popular family-friendly production from 2021, “Obachetta.”
Continue ReadingVous les voyez, les étoiles dans la salle?” the woman next to me whispered as the lights dimmed. And indeed, the stalls glittered with former stars of the Paris Opéra Ballet— dancers I recognised, visibly moved and deep in conversation during the interval.
Continue ReadingThere is probably no more beloved ballet, by audiences and dancers alike, than “Romeo and Juliet.”
Continue ReadingIn 2017 Virginie Mécène reimagined the lost Martha Graham solo “Ekstatis.” A review from that Martha Graham Dance Company premiere ended with a strong vote of confidence from critic Gia Kourlas: “Ms. Mécène should keep going.”
Continue Reading
That’s the beauty of Balanchine, isn’t it? The works can withstand almost any casting with their essences intact, but every dancer who passes through them alters the tenor of each piece too. As do the stagers. Wish I could’ve seen this group, but thank you Rachel for the lovely reporting!