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Nureyev's Nutcracker
REVIEWS | Par Valentina Bonelli

Nureyev's Nutcracker

Even those who don’t like Rudolf Nureyev as a choreographer (and this writer is among them), cannot fail to appreciate his “Nutcracker,” returning this season to La Scala after a sixteen-year absence. It was foreseeable that the director of the ballet, Manuel Legris, a pupil of the dancer-choreographer and a great performer of his ballets, would dust off the production, allowing few regrets for the previous versions that have passed on the stage at La Scala without leaving a mark: from the bad edition by Nacho Duato to that sadly staged by George Balanchine. The return to a ballet by...

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The Collective is Strong
FEATURES | REVIEWS | Par Candice Thompson

The Collective is Strong

2022’s abundant, and at times, overwhelming, calendar of dance was a weekly reminder of New York’s place as ‘a’ if not ‘the’ major dance capital of the world. Though the pandemic caused an exodus of artists from the city in search of affordability and space, I was thrilled again and again, by how many have stayed and continued to make powerful work centering their fellow dancers and uplifting their communities. And while there were many singular performances of note—like Jacquelin Harris’s brilliant conjuring of Winnie Mandela in “Survivors” during Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s winter season last week—what has stayed...

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The Power of Performance
FEATURES | REVIEWS | Par Marina Harss

The Power of Performance

In New York, the year that is drawing to a close was marked by a true return to the pleasure of live performance. Going to the theater felt almost normal again. Sure, theaters were a bit emptier than before the pandemic, and that is understandable. Some people are still nervous about spending hours in close proximity to others, especially now that the masks are coming off. But many are returning, reacquainting themselves with the irreplaceable sensation of sharing time and space with extraordinary performers, knowing that what one is about to see will never again be repeated in quite the...

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A Movable Feast
FEATURES | REVIEWS | Par Victoria Looseleaf

A Movable Feast

With the global pandemic mostly in the rearview mirror, dance lovers once again enjoyed—literally—a movable feast. Indeed, the movers and shakers on this writer’s radar during the past year proved to be resilient, gorgeous and, happily, an embarrassment of riches.

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A Gift for the Season
REVIEWS | Par Karen Greenspan

A Gift for the Season

Considering the ongoing conversation regarding the true scope of dancers’ labor and the role they play in a choreographer’s dance making process, I mused about the Gibney Dance Company’s announcement of their recent New York Live Arts season (December 13-17) presenting “Yag 2022,” a reimagining of Ohad Naharin's acclaimed 1996 work for Batsheva Dance Company. “Yag” is a family memoir—come to life in the Gaga-trained bodies (and minds) of the Batsheva dancers. What would happen when such a collaborative and personal work was restaged on a completely different company of dancers?

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Romancing to Robbins
REVIEWS | Par Marina Harss

Romancing to Robbins

While practically every other ballet company is putting on a “Nutcracker,” Sarasota Ballet has decided to present a program of chamber ballets in the weeks before the end of the year. And why not? It’s a triple bill, with two works by Jerome Robbins (“In the Night” and “Fancy Free”) and, in the only concession to the season, Frederick Ashton’s picture postcard “Les Patineurs,” set at a Victorian skating rink. Given the scale of the theater (the Sarasota Opera House) and of these works, it is a perfect program for getting to know the company better, with the luxury of...

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Rome and Jewels Redux
REVIEWS | Par Merilyn Jackson

Rome and Jewels Redux

“Romeo and Juliet” was a favorite in high school lit-class, a real two-hanky play. My first experience of any version of the play on stage was with choreographer John Cranko’s version at the Academy of Music in 1969. I knew Prokofiev’s score, especially “Dance of the Knights,” where the Capulets and Montagues curtsy and circle one another. The sinister music trumpeted that they would soon be killing each other. Around the same time Franco Zefferelli’s dance-heavy film came out. Both Cranko’s dance and Zeferrelli’s film were full of pomp and ceremony, velvets, pearls, crimsons, swords, and sumptuous beyond words. So,...

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Think Pink
REVIEWS | Par Claudia Lawson

Think Pink

Artistic director Rafael Bonachela’s remarkable “New Breed” has hit the stage at Sydney’s Carriageworks for its 9th year. Each year the initiative provides a springboard for four budding choreographers to create a brand new work—the hope for many is to establish themselves as choreographers. Miraculously, the initiative has somehow survived the Sydney lockdowns and is now a mainstay of the company's performance season. The initiative comes with all the creative trimmings and infrastructure of Sydney Dance Company—the chosen four have access to company dancers, studios, composers, costume, and lighting designers. The concept is wonderfully simple, but rare in the performing...

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Let it Slide
REVIEWS | Par Karen Hildebrand

Let it Slide

The last time I saw Michelle Dorrance perform in person was in her breakthrough production of “Soundspace” (2013). I remember my view from the risers at the short end of St. Mark’s Church, where she had gathered what seemed surely every available tap and body percussion artist in NYC. I remember the generosity with which she showcased her fellow artists—and also, socks. Imagine rhythm tappers wearing socks! It was an experiment that both paid tribute to the tap great, Jimmy Slyde, and protected the wood floors of the historic building. That show raised Dorrance’s star. She had already been recognized...

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Nuts and Bolts
REVIEWS | Par Faye Arthurs

Nuts and Bolts

Making an annual visit to the New York City Ballet’s “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker®” is like tuning into a balletic State of the Union address. This is the time of year when City Ballet asserts cultural and commercial dominance (it has the preeminent “Nut” in the marketplace) and company patriotism burns brightest (in advertising, anyway—just look at all those possessives and the trademark in the title). But though this oft-imitated production is copyrighted and tightly regulated, it is not inalterable. Like the Constitution, it is amendable and evolves with the times. Most of the changes have been positive: in recent...

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Sunburst and Snowblind
REVIEWS | Par Lorna Irvine

Sunburst and Snowblind

With frost on the ground, and a nip in the air at minus 7 degrees, “The Snow Queen” is back again for another spin—what new approaches and tweaks can we expect from this evergreen winter ballet? Well . . . there's a carnivalesque approach to this particular iteration, from Scottish Ballet's artistic director Christopher Hampson, with all of the well-known beats ramped up to campy, but exuberant, levels. The emphasis on disruption of the main narrative is a welcome choice, as the two leads—Anna Williams' Gerda and Bruno Micchiardi as Kai—while sweet, are a little bland and saccharine—at least, initially....

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Be Like Water
REVIEWS | Par Karen Hildebrand

Be Like Water

Given the title, “Rivulets,” I’m thinking about water even before the stage lights go up. So I’m primed to view the opening tableau as a strand of bedraggled seaweed washed ashore: eight dancers, sprawled in a languid glowing heap of green, blue, and black. After a short period of stillness, the painterly tableau dissolves into distinct individuals who interact. They variously bow, lunge forward, recoil. Their heads jerk forward and yank back repeatedly. Tight turns open out, then reverse, as if tossed this way and that in the current.

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Featured Reads

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.

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