Cinderella Unites East and West
The National Ballet of Japan’s rendition of the Frederick Ashton classic, “Cinderella,” offers an authentic taste of English tradition, subtly flavored by Japanese aesthetics.
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World-class review of ballet and dance.
What is dance?” is a question posited by postmodern choreography, and postmodern choreographers generally seek to answer it through means as far away from conventional notions of dance as possible. Classical codifications are often eschewed, along with formal training and any vestiges of performativity—including music, costumes, makeup, sets, lighting, and stages. Process is prized over product. Practitioners of the Judson Dance Theater, who formed the postmodern dance movement in Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s, frequently sought out pedestrians and tasked them with mundane activities like squeezing oranges or reciting addresses. Choreographer Lucinda Childs emerged from this scene. In a 1964 solo she made for herself, she sat on a stool with a colander on her head and stuffed her mouth with hair rollers and kitchen sponges.
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The National Ballet of Japan’s rendition of the Frederick Ashton classic, “Cinderella,” offers an authentic taste of English tradition, subtly flavored by Japanese aesthetics.
PlusAs October starts to draw to an end, so too does Dance Umbrella, London’s annual international dance festival. Having worked their way through the Barbican and Sadler’s Wells East, one of the final programmes is on at the Place—which has had an especially impressive Autumn season.
PlusThis fall, the American Ballet Theatr is celebrating its 85th anniversary by highlighting the choreographers key to the company’s history. Agnes DeMille, Antony Tudor, Frederick Ashton, Michel Fokine, Marius Petipa, George Balanchine and Alexei Ratmansky are all featured, but only Twyla Tharp got her own night.
PlusWhat’s special about Rudi van Dantzig’s “Romeo and Juliet” is how deeply it is steeped in the textures of popular devotion and everyday life, reminiscent of Flemish painting in its chiaroscuro and crowded humanity.
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