All – Tagged "REVIEWS" – Page 39

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REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

On Wednesday night, the New York City Ballet premiered “Fortuitous Ash,” the first ballet choreographed by an Asian American woman, Keerati Jinakunwiphat, in the company’s history. It was set to the first score by a female Asian composer, Du Yun, to enter the repertory. Unfortunately, the overdue shattering of dual glass ceilings was more exciting than the work itself. When the curtain fell on the ballet’s final tableau, it came as a surprise; it felt like the piece was finally gearing up to say something. Before the gold fabric dropped, I thought the lights were dimming to signal the end...

REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

American Romance

Justin Peck’s new ballet, “Copland Dance Episodes,” is a project Lincoln Kirstein would have embraced. Seventy-five minutes of great, unmistakably American music for a ballet company that in many ways reflects the country; with choreography by a young American dancemaker; framed by stage designs by an artist (Jeffrey Gibson) whose inspiration lies in the symbols and patterns of his Choctaw-Cherokee culture. Creating a new American ballet idiom was the aim of Kirstein’s short-lived company Ballet Caravan, which toured the US and Latin America. And it was Kirstein who, in 1938, commissioned “Billy the Kid” from Aaron Copland, and asked the...

REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

Ukrainian Giselle

Shortly after Russia invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, almost a year ago now, Ukrainians began streaming across the borders into Hungary and Poland, and from there into Western Europe. Most were traumatized; some had lost homes; all feared for their lives or their family’s lives. Among these multitudes were dancers and dance students who, like so many refugees, were unsure what would happen next, to them or their country.

REVIEWS | By Cecilia Whalen

Galván's playground

Everything is everything for Israel Galván. A circle of wood is a hockey puck and a stage; a microphone stand is a broom and a drumstick; a hand is a flower, a light switch, and then a hand again in his tremendous “Solo” which was recently presented at Baryshnikov Arts Center.

REVIEWS | By Merilyn Jackson

Kyle Marshall Channels Matisse

Over the decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has presented music and dance events in the East entrance’s Great Stair Hall as well as in its other spaces. In 2022, the PMA used the new cantilevered Gehry staircase for dance and music. It replaces the small auditorium where I once saw performances of Trisha Brown’s company and others dance. Inaugurating the new space, Philadanco danced memorable pastiches of Merce Cunningham’s early works, and former Cunningham Dance Company member, Melissa Toogood soloed down the staircase to choreography by Pam Tanowitz.

REVIEWS | By Karen Hildebrand

Dances By Very Young Choreographers

As I watched this evening of works made by 13 choreographers who grew up in the NYC-based after school dance program run by Ellen Robbins, I couldn’t help but think of a heated debate the dance community took up sometime in the aughts over the question, can choreography be taught? Peter Martins, then director of New York City Ballet, claimed it could not. Nearly everyone else disagreed. Surely this Dances By Very Young Choreographers alumni concert erases any lingering doubt. Robbins, now in her 41st year of teaching, produces a public show every year of the remarkable creations of her young makers,...

REVIEWS | By Marina Harss

The Basics

The big news before the start of New York City Ballet’s winter season was the announcement that the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky would be joining the company as artist in residence (in September) after the conclusion of his contract with American Ballet Theatre (in June). As many will remember, this was the first New York company Ratmansky choreographed for, before being swooped up by ABT. He has made some of his most innovative works here, including “Russian Seasons,” “Concerto DSCH,” and “Voices,” which returns to the repertory this week.

REVIEWS | By Merilyn Jackson

In the Mood for Love

Penn Live Arts’ Dance Theatre of Harlem program this past weekend at Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center braided together an historical, social, racial, cultural, and artistic event. The relationship between the late Dance Theatre of Harlem’s founder, African American dancer Arthur Mitchell (d. 2018) and his mentor and benefactor, choreographer George Balanchine covers all those topics, with a Philadelphia dance community slant that was not lost on the audience.

REVIEWS | By Karen Greenspan

The Perpetual Motion of Longing

Elongated bodies meticulously keep time stepping on demi-pointe to the hard driving techno-beat. They crisscross the stage in various groupings from different directions with their prissy steps sporting opaque nylon knee socks, bare limbs, and nude colored leotards. The costumes by Rebecca Hytting amplify the picture of constricting uniformity; at the same time, they reveal the individual body shapes and builds of the seventeen highly trained dancers of tanzmainz. Trapped in a throbbing playlist and choreography of constrained energy, these bodies look like humans on a conveyor belt—intermittently exposing micro-signs of desperateness for escape. And occasionally some do escape—that’s when...

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Goodbye to All That

It is always interesting to see what a famous ballerina does when given the freedom to program her own show. On Saturday, Natalia Osipova, the Russian-born superstar (who has been a principal with the Royal Ballet since 2013), brought her much-hyped and sold-out extravaganza, “Natalia Osipova: Force of Nature,” to City Center for one night only. The ambitious, crowd-pleasing lineup—including the “Don Quixote” Act III Pas de Deux and “The Dying Swan” solo—was announced in a press release in early January and promoted in an interview with Pointe’s Kyra Laubacher less than a week before the performance. I don’t know...

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Off to the Races

The New York City Ballet opened its Winter Season with a wonderful all-Balanchine program, which I caught on the second night. Not only was the lineup of ballets interesting and well-balanced, there were excellent performances in leading roles throughout the show, by dancers in various stages of their careers—including the best principal casting I’ve ever seen in Balanchine’s tiny 1967 masterpiece, “Valse-Fantaisie.”

REVIEWS | By Candice Thompson

Finding Grace

If an evening of dances from Ronald K. Brown/Evidence could be said to leave me wanting, it is surely only because the dynamic and spirited dancers in Brown’s rousing compositions leave me wanting more. On Tuesday evening at the Joyce Theater, this was the case once again. I would have happily stayed put in my seat late into the evening if the show could have gone on longer. The three works on the program charted a range of moods and explored the worldly with a divine nuance.

Featured Reads

REVIEWS | Lorna Irvine

Teenage Angst and Institutions

Watching Matthew Bourne's reworked version of the “star-cross'd lovers,” I was briefly reminded of Veronica, played by Winona Ryder, in the dark 1988 comedy by Daniel Waters and Michael Lehmann, Heathers, and her line, “my teen angst bullshit has a body count.” Yes, this is the darker side of Bourne's repertoire,...

INTERVIEWS | Marina Harss

The Me of Today

The choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.

REVIEWS | Rachel Howard

Starry Nights

Beneath blue California skies, manicured trees, and the occasional hum of an overhead airplane, Tamara Rojo took the Frost Amphitheater stage at Stanford University to introduce herself as the new artistic director of San Francisco Ballet.

REVIEWS | Faye Arthurs

America, F**K Yeah

After a week of the well-balanced meal that is “Jewels”—the nutritive, potentially tedious, leafy greens of “Emeralds,” the gamy, carnivorous “Rubies,” and the decadent, shiny white mountains of meringue in “Diamonds”—the New York City Ballet continued its 75th Anniversary All-Balanchine Fall Season with rather more dyspeptic fare.

REVIEWS | Emily May

Acosta Danza’s Choreographic Soup

An “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.