World-class review of ballet and dance.
When the prerecorded voice of Karen Kain announced that this year marks her tenth anniversary as artistic director of the National Ballet of Canada, the theatre burst into applause. Twice. It is no secret that the company has transformed under her watch, and the mixed winter programme suggests nothing is out of reach. The four works, spanning the balletic spectrum, highlighted the company’s range, and gave glimpses of rising stars.
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If Chunky Move’s “Depth of Field,” the beginning of my Dance Massive 2015 marathon, was to show me a seasonal pattern unshaped by human hand, “Meeting” revealed a pattern defined by sixty-four small-scale robots whilst “Overworld” writhed in a chaotic pattern of YouTube fragments tethered to the four elements, earth, air, fire, and water. The tenuous link between these Dance Massive performances is solely that of my own programming: one night, two performances seen back-to-back, separated by an hour, at the North Melbourne Town Hall.
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Sylvain Émard Danse of Quebec celebrates their 25th anniversary this year, with a Canadian tour of Sylvain Émard’s most recent work, “Ce n’est pas la fin du monde” (“It’s not the end of the world”). The work premiered a year ago at the Plateau d’Eysines in Bordeaux during the Danse Toujours biennial, and the company have twice since visited France to perform the piece.
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Seated in a purpose built grandstand in the formally exposed run-though of Chunky Move and Australian Centre for Contemporary Art’s forecourt, I waited. From this position, squinting into the sun, I was presented with a brilliant urban stage set. I pondered what I might have missed in a space I have only ever moved through at speed; the ‘field notes’ of author Richard Mabey came to mind:
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Contrary to Mae West’s delicious quip, “Too much of a good thing is wonderful,” choreographer and ABT Artist in Residence, Alexei Ratmansky, whose interpretation of the iconic fairy tale landed in Orange County stuffed with ballet stars, sequins and sky-high wigs, this over-the-top world premiere is somewhat of a snooze. Blame, too, must be placed on Richard Hudson’s elaborate sets and costumes, which, although inspired by Léon Bakst’s 1921 Ballets Russes production,“The Sleeping Princess,” might be better suited to Las Vegas or Macao, where spectacle is the norm but taste is generally tossed aside.
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Martha Graham’s legacy remains something of a problem for the company she founded in 1926, which continues performing her work today. Review after review will tell you that her seminal works feel outdated, even kitsch. Isamu Noguchi’s sets, with their mobiles and stylized sculptures, look like relics of an old avant garde. The women interpreting roles Graham originally created for herself end up looking a lot like Graham, with heavy makeup and strange, angular buns. The audience laughs at moments which are supposed to be serious, as when the “Creature of Fear” (aka the Minotaur) menaces the female version of...
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“New Combinations” was an apt way to describe the outstanding triple bill that featured “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Alexei Ratmansky, “‘Rōdē,ō: Four Dance Episodes” by Justin Peck, and “Mercurial Manoeuvres” by Christopher Wheeldon. All works were specifically created for NYCB in the 21st century; all three choreographers have close artistic and collaborative ties (past and present) with the company.
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The year was 1913; the city, Paris. The cause for commotion—indeed, a full-blown riot? Vaslav Nijinsky's choreography for Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes’ production of “Le Sacre du Printemps,” set to a raucous score by Igor Stravinsky. And though it's been more than 100 years since that infamous night, the legendary music, which critics then dubbed “Massacre du Printemps,” continues to inspire choreographers.
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It’s been a decade since New York City Ballet staged George Balanchine’s vibrant ballet-comedy “Harlequinade,” and the current revival of this sparkling gem comes just in time to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the original production.
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The American sensibility has a lot to do with a sense of the space. This might be why theaters in the US started making their stages wider and more expansive than their European counterparts, as if trying to match the topography outside. In 1942, when Agnes de Mille choreographed “Rodeo” (pronounced “ro-day-o”) to a commissioned score by Aaron Copland, she worked with this idea of the expanse, its limitlessness, the way in which it can intoxicate its inhabitants with aspirations and anxieties.
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Sadler's Wells first started appointing associate artists a decade ago, and the prestigious title has evolved into a distinct badge of influence: Sadler's associates don't simply add to the landscape of contemporary dance; they decide where its borders will extend to next. This bill features new commissions from Kate Prince, Crystal Pite and Hofesh Shechter—three current associates whose bodies of work vary wildly in tone but each place a premium on wit and seeking out the humanity in the subjects they cover. The showcase is an illuminating snapshot of the mutable nature of contemporary dance and the diverse territories the...
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He’s racked up some of the arts’ most prestigious awards, including the MacArthur “genius” grant in 2013, a “Bessie,” and in 2012 he not only received the Jacob’s Pillow prize, but was also named the newly appointed New York Live Arts Resident Commissioned Artist for 2012–2014.
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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