Wicked Moves with Christopher Scott
Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) steps down the steps, rests her hat on the floor and takes in the Ozdust Ballroom in Wicked. She elevates her arm, bringing her bent wrist to her temple.
PlusWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
This is historical,” Ballet22 co-founder Theresa Knudson told the audience between works on the company’s latest program, “Momentum.” It may seem a big claim for a small company, but as the young people like to say these days, she’s not wrong. Launched in 2020, Oakland-based Ballet22 is the only company in the world with a mission to present men and non-binary dancers en pointe, not as a drag joke (as in Les Ballets Trockadero), but in earnest. And it’s doing so at a time when the rights of transgender and non-binary people are under unprecedented political attack in the United States. As “Momentum” co-artistic director Lorris Eichinger added in his plea for support, “It’s really bad out there.”
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Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) steps down the steps, rests her hat on the floor and takes in the Ozdust Ballroom in Wicked. She elevates her arm, bringing her bent wrist to her temple.
PlusThe Sarasota Ballet does not do a “Nutcracker”—they leave that to their associate school. Instead, over the weekend, the company offered a triple bill of which just one ballet, Frederick Ashton’s winter-themed “Les Patineurs,” nodded at the season.
PlusI couldn’t stop thinking about hockey at the New York City Ballet’s “Nutcracker” this year, and not only because the stage appeared to be made of ice: there were a slew of spectacular falls one night I attended.
PlusLast week, during the first Fjord Review Dance Critics’ Festival, Mindy Aloff discussed and read from an Edwin Denby essay during “The Critic’s Process” panel.
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