World-class review of ballet and dance.
New York City Ballet’s Here/Now festival proved an epic undertaking. Over the course of four weeks, the company presented 43 ballets created by 22 choreographers, all works made during the past four decades—a celebration of contemporary choreography, unprecedented in its size, depth, scope, and richness.
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Cloaked, hooded figures process ceremoniously across the stage. They cross themselves before an unseen altar and disappear into the darkness between towering pillars. Dramatic, stately chimes enhance the pious atmosphere. Kneeling at their pews the company begin a sequence of precise and ordered movement, the angular isolations of their arms and upper body suggesting a ritual of prayer.
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On the eve of Mother’s Day, it is altogether possible that the mother of modern dance, Martha Graham, would be looking down and beaming at the latest incarnation of Martha Graham Dance Company, originally founded in—gasp—1926. To say that the 16-member troupe looked and moved beautifully is almost an understatement. Their very beings seemed infused with the spirit—and essence—of Martha herself.
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In January 1889, at the royal hunting lodge at Mayerling, Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria-Hungary committed suicide with his 17 year old lover, Mary Vetsera. The tragedy was quickly covered up to protect the Habsburg dynasty and, as such, the ambiguous events of that night have become as much speculation as fact; the inspiration for several screen adaptations and, of course, Kenneth MacMillan's ballet.
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Opening nights at Sydney Dance Company have become the place to see and be seen. The troupe's charismatic artistic director, Spaniard Rafael Bonachela, has transformed SDC into a chic contemporary outfit, at the heart of Sydney's hip art scene. The company's recent premiere of “Orb,” a double bill featuring “Full Moon” by Taiwanese choreographer Cheng Tsung-lung and “Ocho,” Bonachela's latest, was no exception, drawing the glitterati to the Roslyn Packer Theatre in Sydney's Walsh Bay.
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Wilful, bold Rosalind—the heroine of Shakespeare's As You Like It—who dressed as Ganymede the man, always eschewed traditional tropes of female behaviour in literature, so James Cousins Company's re-imagining of her in this incredible piece seems timely, as gendered issues—whether of feminist or transgender visibility—are increasingly pushed into the mainstream media and news. His company, featuring British and Korean dancers, are effectively loosening the corset strings of Shakespeare for a new generation. And how!
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It is no coincidence that the huge unruly piles of trainers and pumps littering the stage are mostly the Adidas brand, as Uri Ivgi and Johan Greben's new piece for Scottish Ballet casts an unblinking eye over exploitation, and such global brands have faced accusations in recent years of forced labour and poor working conditions, often involving young children. These symbolically also serve as borders, partitioning some of the dancers off against the others, as they scrabble piecemeal for survival.
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Hot on the heels of a widely acclaimed premiere with the Royal Ballet, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite is back in the laudatory limelight, this time with an Olivier Award, won for her 2015 dance theatre work “Betroffenheit,” co-created with Jonathon Young of Electric Company Theatre.
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Isobel Anderson Awards & Joan and Monica Halliday AwardsScience Theatre of the University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, March 26, 2017
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Performances of the New Zealand company Black Grace, founded, directed, and choreographed by Neil Ieremia, a charismatic New Zealander of Samoan heritage, are as rich as multilingual conversations. Almost instantaneously upon being introduced to Ieremia’s egalitarian and boundless movement language, embodied by eleven sturdy, versatile dancers, many of whom are of Samoan or Maori descent, one-dimensional ideations of “culture” are rendered passé and ridiculous. The work draws from—and transcends—contemporary dance, ballet, dances of the Pacific islands, and Ieremia’s personal reflections. He and the dancers are fluent in all of it, all at once.
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For his 2009 revamp of San Francisco Ballet’s “Swan Lake,” artistic director Helgi Tomasson added a Prologue. The idea was to make this Odette’s story, but if you ask me it’s still all about Siegfried. We may see Odette first, witnessing her capture by Von Rothbart and transformation into an animal, but Siegfried is still the character who has, as the narratologists might say, “agency.” He’s the one who makes the wrong choice and must pay penance; his is the narrative arc.
Continue ReadingWatching 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,...
Continue ReadingThe choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.
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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.
Continue ReadingAfter 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.
Continue ReadingAn “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.
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