What Moves You
The Fall for Dance Festival programming formula runs roughly thus: feature a new troupe, include a pet (or vanity) project of a big NYC star, and end with a feel-good group showcase.
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World-class review of ballet and dance.
The Fall for Dance Festival programming formula runs roughly thus: feature a new troupe, include a pet (or vanity) project of a big NYC star, and end with a feel-good group showcase.
PlusHe is the love of your life. You are his one-and-only. The pair of you is doomed: Obligations to the social order make your relationship impossible. The only way out—double suicide. Actually, this being eighteenth-century Japan, you let him literally do it all; still, you are his forever and there is no turning back.
PlusMeasured against his own criteria, French dance maker Jérôme Bel would seem a failure. In the eponymously named show that opened the L’Alliance New York Crossing the Line Festival last week, Bel professes he has no desire to entertain an audience.
PlusIt’s a new era at Smuin Contemporary Ballet, but incoming artistic director Amy Seiwert was still invoking her old boss pre-curtain as the company toured its first program under her leadership to the San Francisco suburb of Walnut Creek.
FREE ARTICLEI have a confession. Until last week, I had never seen “Coppélia.” I know the story well, however, and a young me performed many approximations of Swanilda’s role alone in my bedroom, thanks to a beloved and well-worn copy of The Illustrated Book of Ballet Stories, a book and cassette combo narrated by Darcey Bussell.
PlusThe second program of the New York City Ballet’s fall season was called “Eclectic NYCB” and it lived up to its billing. It featured a second-tier Balanchine work, a Jerome Robbins crowd-pleaser, and two heartfelt pas de deux acquired from outside dance festivals—one a company premiere.
PlusNew York City Center's Fall for Dance Festival continued with programs featuring Complexions Contemporary Ballet, a world premiere duet performed by Skylar Brandt and Herman Cornejo, and a tap tribute to Nina Simone performed by M.A.D.D. Rhythms collective, among other performances.
PlusImagine a large net stretched across the vast expanse of our world system studded with an infinitely faceted jewel at each intersection.
PlusA smoky, orange hue hovers over the stage like wildfire smoke. A woman emerges from the flame, floating erect atop a crawling man’s back. She bends her knees and dismounts, arriving center stage, delivered to the audience like a queen.
PlusLast night I went to my first show of New York City’s jam-packed fall dance season, and though I never floated outside of the space-time continuum, I did feel invigorated by the New York City Ballet’s excellent opening program.
PlusEn Chalant,” Richmond Ballet artistic director Ma Cong said at the opening night of the company’s Studio Finale series on September 17th, “is the opposite of nonchalant.”
FREE ARTICLELong before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.
PlusIt is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.
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The Spring is Blooming festival, by Dance Reflections by Van Cleef & Arpels, now in its fifth year, has become a highlight of the spring dance circuit.
PlusAs the audience come to their feet at the end of this ballet there is a noted difference to be seen on stage. Three women stand with joined hands, taking their call as the romantic leads of a loud and proud lesbian ballet.
PlusOne of San Francisco Ballet’s greatest assets is its home venue, the Beaux-Arts style War Memorial Opera House, with four rings of seating that require performers to project their energies practically to the exosphere.
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