World-class review of ballet and dance.
Claudia Schreier’s “Passage” for Dance Theatre of Harlem was commissioned to mark the 400-year-anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to Virginia in 1619. But to think of “Passage” as a commemoration, or as a historical piece, doesn’t do justice to its purpose or its power.
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When Seibi Lee discovered Kathak, at first, she says she almost didn’t know what happened. Up until that point, her life—at least in terms of her career—was that of a typical 20-something: exploring, learning, and trying out multiple options in hopes of finding the best fit. Then along came Kathak, merging her multiple life paths and bringing a clarity and confluence that she hadn’t felt before.
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Mark Morris Dance Group delighted the audience at Brooklyn Academy of Music on Thursday, March 24th, with the return of “L’Allegro, Il Penseroso il Moderato.” The performance was a reminder of the reassuring effects of good repertory: coming once again, like spring, to revive us with light, color, and joy.
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Ethan Stiefel thinks the world could use some laughter right now. “My mantra as of late has been that love and laughter can prevail,” says the former American Ballet Theatre star, who took the reins of the Princeton, New Jersey-based American Repertory Ballet last summer. “I felt that coming out of the pandemic it would be great to have a new ballet that really exudes laughter and joy.”
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With new artistic director Hope Muir taking the helm of the National Ballet of Canada in January 2022, the company returned to the stage early March in a mixed winter programme that had a bit of the new, the old, and a goodbye. The quadruple-bill evening at the Four Seasons Centre included world premieres from Alysa Pires and Siphe November, Kenneth MacMillan’s ragtime classic “Elite Syncopations,” and a retirement performance from Jillian Vanstone in Christopher’s Wheeldon’s “After the Rain.”
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It’s difficult to be the most memorable piece of the night when flanked by George Balanchine’s blissful “Chaconne” and Jiří Kylián’s seminal “Bella Figura,” yet Stephen Galloway’s new work “Devil’s/eye” rose to this challenge and exceeded all expectations. Set to five songs by The Rolling Stones, “Devil’s/eye” is a joyous celebration of sizzling sensuality and vibrant individuality. Boston Ballet’s dancers performing to rock and roll, you might ask? Yes, and it works!
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If there’s a secret to keeping a dance company together for more than 50 years, Garth Fagan knows what it is. Indeed, his Rochester, NY-based Garth Fagan Dance was founded in 1970 (first called Bottom of the Bucket, BUT…Dance Theatre), and, at 81, Fagan, who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, has no plans to retire.
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Sarasota Ballet is known for its scrupulous renditions of ballets by Frederick Ashton and other British choreographers, as well as for its general excellence in classical dance. What it is less known for is commissioning new works from living choreographers. Which makes its new “A Comedy of Errors,” which premiered at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on March 26th, all the more remarkable.
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When I heard that Karole Armitage had packaged her latest creations as “A Pandemic Notebook,” I was intrigued. What exactly does a punk ballerina/director/choreographer get up to during a long cultural shutdown? As is her wont, a lot. And though she did succumb to one straightforward pandemic trope, in “6’ Feet Apart” (the only clunker on the bill), she mostly took the big themes of the past few years—disease, Trump, nature, celebrity—and filtered them through her smart and eclectic lens. At New York Live Arts last week, her Notebook entries were presented as a series of short works alternating between...
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Last seen at La Scala in 2014, George Balanchine’s “Jewels” returned on stage this season, coincidentally like many other companies around the world: the New York City Ballet and Royal Ballet, not to mention the Bolshoi Ballet and the Mariinsky Ballet.
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Calling all dance junkies! Seriously, after being deprived of live performances for more than two years—save for the occasional outdoor terpsichorean pleasure—Angelenos were treated to heavy doses of balletic feasting when Hamburg Ballet made its debut at the Music Center this month.
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The Joyce Theater celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a riveting and rhythmic run by the midwestern Trinity Irish Dance Company. The company, under the direction of founding artistic director Mark Howard, claims to be the birthplace of “progressive Irish dance,” a genre which uses traditional Irish step dance in contemporary choreographies alongside both traditional and contemporary music. The company presented a number of short pieces, mainly by Howard, as well as one new commission by tap stars Michelle Dorrance and Melinda Sullivan.
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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