World-class review of ballet and dance.
Philadelphia Ballet premiered three commissions in a program called New Works for a New World last weekend in the intimate Perelman Theater. Also part of the Kimmel Cultural Campus, the company will continue to mount its large classical ballets at the Academy of Music, including artistic director Ángel Corella’s choreographed “Swan Lake” in March. The Perelman is now the designated venue for contemporary works.
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It’s been a busy week of débuts at New York City Ballet. With several departures last season, and more to come (including Teresa Reichlen in less than two weeks, and Gonzalo García at the end of the month), the company is going through something of a generational shift. The impression is magnified by the fact that some of the principal dancers are out with injuries, leaving the lion’s share of performances to younger principals or rising soloists, dancers like Indiana Woodward, Unity Phelan, Mira Nadon, Jovani Furlan, Roman Mejía, Chun Wai Chan (making a major mark after just a season...
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At last, the highly anticipated Ballet International Gala (BIG) premiered to a very eager audience. Organised by Queensport Arts—a newly formed promotional company, headed by dancer/actor Joel Burke, and associates Beck Phillips, and Kahlid Tarabay—it showcased some of the most in-demand talent from across the globe live on the mainstage. Seeing the list of dancers slated to perform was quite astounding; not least because covid travel restrictions have, up until this point, have limited international access to the state. Skylar Brandt and Aran Bell from American Ballet Theatre; Shugyla Adepkhan and Bakhtiyar Adamzhan from Astana Opera; Alexander Campbell from the...
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There is a lovely egalitarian spirit in Go Dance, the mini-festival at Theatre Royal. It features dancers of all abilities, age groups, backgrounds and body types. Tonight though, it's mainly focused on emerging dancers, with the exception of established company Inspire (more of whom, later.) Rescheduled due to the pandemic, it's great to see its return. With family members cheering on their offspring, and dance fans also in attendance, it's hard not to get swept up in the obvious bonhomie.
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The curtain rose on New York City Ballet’s winter season on January 27, 2022, to a delightful showpiece of a set, designed by Eva LeWitt. Made for “Partita,” Justin Peck’s latest premiere, LeWitt’s colorful ribbons of fabric floated down from overhead, spanning wing to wing, the vibrant color palette creating circles of varying sizes. The dancers appeared in a tight clump center stage under these floating orbs, which hovered over their dance like so many moons.
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No, but I spent two sunny afternoons in the Philadelphia Museum of Art for dances based on or in reference to one of the museum’s greatest assets, its permanent Duchamp collection, and, in its waning days, the stunning Jasper Johns: Mind/Mirror exhibit. PMA curators collaborated with dance artists to produce two weekends of live performance in the new Williams Forum, site of the awe-inspiring cantilevered Gehry staircase that replaces the small auditorium where I once saw the likes of Trisha Brown dance.
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In the forest at night, the same place you know by day feels different. It sounds different, and the paths you might normally have taken are either obscured from view or no longer possible to traverse. Other senses come into play to orientate, perhaps those that seemed more dormant in the day, like smell or sound. In such instances I think of microbats capable of echolocation, sending out a call into their environment and reading the echo returned to them from nearby forms in their surroundings, in order to forage and navigate, as I listen to pinpoint where I might...
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The Good Lord came to Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson in a clap of thunder. It was July of 1830 and she was convinced she was going to die—either from the storm or from her deathly fear of it. As lightning struck, she prayed for redemption. Suddenly, “the cloud burst.” But what Mother Rebecca feared might be her end in fact became her beginning: She acquired what she called her “gifts of power,” and Mother Rebecca became a spiritual leader in the American Shaker religion.
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At a time typically associated with the ritual flocking of audiences to “The Nutcracker,” Montreal’s intimate Usine C theatre was packed over the course of four evenings to a very different kind of ritual: the unbridled, animalesque revelry of Compagnie Marie Chouinard’s “Le Sacre du printemps” (The Rite of Spring).
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I must admit, I was scared walking in. The warehouse was dark, and I got lost. I called for directions, and someone shined a cell phone light to show me the path to the front door. I walked in, and was asked to sign a document to ensure I would not sue the company if I tripped and fell over the string that would be present through the performance. I’ll repeat—I was scared at first. But wow, what an incredible evening! I’m so glad I drove through the dreary night, in the rain, to see this performance.
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The last edition of Cannes’ Festival de danse was a kind of mirror of the times. Biennial, it skipped last year’s lockdown but called to account the new incertitude of this season. Director Brigitte Lefèvre, at her last mandate before the arrival of the newly appointed Didier Deschamps, rooted her last program in the metaphoric security of two themes: “earth” (after the other three elements: water, air, fire) and “femininity.” A link with the territory was also essential in the program: in cooperation with the Cannes based École Supérieure de danse, professional students could benefit from masterclasses, the Nice University...
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The “Nutcracker” has a way of feeling magical year after year. But something new is always welcome—especially as the ballet has long perpetuated cultural stereotypes. In “The Gift,” Boston Ballet drastically reinterprets the “Nutcracker,” and in doing so, proves that the ballet’s holiday magic extends beyond just its storyline and costumes.
PlusWatching 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,...
PlusThe choreographer Alexei Ratmansky reflects on the war in Ukraine, the connection between geopolitics and ballet, and joining the house of Balanchine.
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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.
PlusAfter 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.
PlusAn “Ajiaco” is a type of soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru that combines a variety of different vegetables, spices, and meats.
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