All – Page 69 – Fjord Review

Latest

INTERVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Rise from the Ashes

Penny Chivas is a superb Glasgow-based dancer and activist whose work is graceful, insightful and challenging. Her current project, “Burnt Out,” interrogates the effects of Australian bush fires, with particular emphasis on trauma, in terms of both body and the environment. Plans for the piece were put on hiatus because of travel restrictions in the wake of the pandemic. Lorna Irvine caught up with her—socially distanced, outdoors—to talk with her about her career so far, and plans for when current restrictions are lifted in the UK.

INTERVIEWS | By Victoria Looseleaf

Toni Basil, Dancing through the Decades

Quentin Tarantino called her the “Goddess of Go-Go.” Indeed, when the acclaimed director hired dancer, choreographer, singer, and actress Toni Basil to make dances for his 2019 film, Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, choosing Basil was a no-brainer. After all, this polymath, who was born in 1943 and is still going strong at 77, not only has cred in the swinging ‘60s, but has also been relevant for six—count ‘em, yes six—decades.

DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Extremes of Choreography: Wim Vandekeybus

Belgian choreographer and film maker Wim Vandekeybus’ work is characterised by absolute extremes: jaw-dropping theatricality; the use and abuse of unusual props, athleticism, frenzy, danger and discomfort. He doesn't deal in soft options; rather, he credits his audience with enough intelligence to enjoy, pick apart and understand his challenging, often dreamlike pieces. The scenography and sound are as integral to the work as the steps.

FEATURES | By Merilyn Jackson

Next stop, Tanz Station

Pascal Merighi’s raffish confidence dazzled when I first saw him dance in Pina Bausch’s “For the Children of Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. He all but hurled dancer Ditta Miranda Jasjfi around his waist as if she were a lifeless rag doll.

REVIEWS | By Paul McInnes

Beauty in Japan

The National Ballet of Japan's performance of “The Sleeping Beauty” at Hatsudai's mammoth New National Theatre Tokyo was actually a late replacement for artistic director Miyako Yoshida's “selection” which was scrapped near the end of last year.

DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | By Lorna Irvine

Reframing

As Glasgow's famous Tramway venue remains closed until further notice, Unlimited have commissioned a short film screening for those missing this superb live dance festival. This particular film is a superb example of the artists who would be participating on the stage throughout the spring, and feels entirely apposite, given its overarching theme.

REVIEWS | By Claudia Lawson

Fleeting Beauty

And here we are—in Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre. Everyone is wearing masks, yet the theatre is buzzing. The anticipation is palpable—the Sydney Dance Company is about to take the main stage for the first time since late 2019. The work is Rafael Bonachela's “Impermanence.”

REVIEWS | By Rachel Howard

Love & Strife

The task at hand is a review of “Romeo and Juliet,” but more on that in a minute. What needs to be said first is this: In our moment of political and pandemic chaos, Peter Boal is doing an extraordinary job of connecting his company to its public with a spirit of empathy, vulnerability, and humility.

REVIEWS | By Faye Arthurs

Winter Festival

The American Ballet Theatre Studio Company aired performances of new works and excerpted classics over two nights this week, for free on YouTube. Actually, the shows were billed as two halves of one Winter Festival performance, separated by a 23-hour intermission. I appreciated the digestibility of this scenario, for watching ballet online is not the same as watching it in person—it is much harder to focus on a computer screen than a massive stage.

INTERVIEWS | By Marina Harss

Christopher Wheeldon: Making Dances in a Pandemic

The last decade of Christopher Wheeldon’s career has gone by in a blur. The global nature of the ballet world means that he is constantly on the move, finishing one project even as another is taking shape somewhere else, demanding his attention. When the pandemic hit, he had two enormous projects on the way, a new evening-length ballet for the Royal Ballet in London, and a musical headed to Broadway. Both are now on hold until theaters open again. But he hasn’t been idle. In 2020, he took on several projects, most of them far less formal or elaborate than...

DANCE FILM | REVIEWS | By Róisín O'Brien

Dancing Out Loud

Come for the choreographers, stay for the dancers. A collaboration between Sadler’s Wells and BBC Arts, Dancing Nation presents a selection of new and restaged works from emerging and established artists across the UK over 3 hour-long episodes. Most of the pre-recorded performances were filmed on grand stages across the UK (including the Sadler’s Wells main stage), but some pop up in the foyer or, in the case of Oona Doherty’s seminal work Hope Hunt & The Ascension into Lazarus, explode onto the streets of Belfast.

INTERVIEWS | By Marina Harss

Tamisha Guy: Reaching Out

When I caught up with Tamisha Guy, in mid-January, she was in the middle of a creative residency at Kaatsbaan with the company of which she is a member, A.I.M. It was her day off, and she had been on a walk around the gorgeous grounds, once home to a horse farm belonging to Eleanor Roosevelt’s grandparents. Last summer, a simple wooden stage was erected in the middle of the main meadow there, making it possible to hold an outdoor dance festival. Tamisha Guy performed on that stage with her friend and former colleague Lloyd Knight, of the Martha Graham...

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.