Translated, “malpaso” means misstep, suggesting clumsiness. In the case of Havana based Malpaso Dance Company, the name is a clever misdirection, pointing to a sense of humor often present with this versatile and highly trained troupe.
On the eve of George Balanchine’s birthday, the New York City Ballet opened its Winter Season with a killer all-Balanchine program: “Concerto Barocco,” “Allegro Brillante,” and “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet.”
The connection between relatively new artistic director Tamara Rojo and longtime San Francisco Ballet fans has felt a little tenuous as the former Royal Ballet star and English National Ballet leader launches her second season programmed here on the West Coast.
Today we have the pleasure of speaking with former Australian Ballet dancer Brooke Cassen. On Season Three of Talking Pointes, I spoke with Brooke on what became one of our most listened-to episodes of all time.
New Yorkers who don’t have a fireplace during this deep January freeze can head to the Joyce Theater to see Ronald K. Brown’s Evidence A Dance Company, where the russet backdrops, rolling hips, and reggae beats give off plenty of warmth.
In a four-day span of early January I saw: Monica Bill Barnes wrestle a giant beach ball at Playwrights Horizons; Malcolm-x Betts and Nile Harris shoot blanks into the rafters of the Chocolate Factory in honor of Judith Jamison’s spirit; Symara Sarai run in and out of a swirling lasso at New York Live Arts Studios; and Angie Pittman dart across a shallow stage, in character as a vampire, cape flying, at BAM Fisher Hillman Studio in a shared bill with Kyle Marshall Choreography. In short, it was APAP season.*
Sara Veale’s new book Wild Grace: The Untamed Women of Modern Dance (Faber & Faber) examines the lives of nine boldly subversive dancemakers over nearly a century, starting with Isadora Duncan and ending with Pearl Lang. Along the way, it provides a pared but potent mini-history on the emergence of women’s rights.
No matter the theme, an evening with David Dorfman Dance is likely to uplift. The gregarious choreographer has a habit of engaging with the audience pre and/or post show with energy approaching that of a church revival gathering.
One of the first dances I reviewed for Fjord was Jack Ferver’s hilarious yet penetrating “Everything is Imaginable” at New York Live Arts. It featured a series of solos in which accomplished dancers from different genres portrayed their childhood idols.
There’s a distinct warrior theme to the evening shared by Angie Pittman and Kyle Marshall, though the two choreographers are working in very different styles and tone.
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,...
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.
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.