World-class review of ballet and dance.
Akram Khan’s newest production “Jungle Book reimagined” is a spellbinding work of dance theatre that retells Rudyard Kipling’s original tale through dance, animation, text and music. At its core is a group of fantastically talented dancers, who ably take on their animal characters with a commitment that doesn’t rely on lazy mannerisms.
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Battery Dance Festival's closing night of outdoor performances harmonized perfectly with the sky. The festival celebrated its 41st anniversary at home in Battery Park City's breathtaking Robert F. Wagner Park, and as the sun set, the sky turned from baby blue to pinks, oranges, and navy. Like the New York harbor which glistened from below, the five performing companies of the evening reflected this changing background remarkably, with costumes which coordinated with the natural color palette and movement that complimented the shifting backdrop of sailboats and seagulls.
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In summarizing Sir Frederick Ashton’s oeuvre in 1961, celebrated critic Clive Barnes writes, “For all this his ballets are best seen from above.” In Covent Garden, Barnes continues, his favorite seat from which to view Ashton’s work is “from gallery right at the top of the house.” Although New York City audiences had the chance to catch a rare glimpse of Ashton’s choreography last week, thanks to Sarasota Ballet, the venue—the Joyce Theater—lacked the depth and perspective to really do his ballets justice. With its unadulterated sight lines, the intimacy of the Joyce is usually a joy for viewers. But...
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For the second year in a row, Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theater of Harlem came together for a week of free performances at the Damrosch Park Bandshell. There were way too many titles and slogans involved: it was officially the BAAND Together Dance Festival within Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City Festival, for which the tagline was: Remember, Reclaim, Rejoice. These phrases were plastered around the stage and surrounding areas. More simply, these shows are Lincoln Center’s attempt to create a summertime version of City Center’s successful Fall...
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Some might consider that a circus tent deep in the Berkshire mountains, with a full moon rising, might prove adequate to evoke a gathering of witches. With the tent sides propped open to frame glowing sections of the woods outside, it was as if we had indeed joined a witches celebration in the forest. Despite this setting for her sold-out premiere of a long anticipated “Wicked Bodies,” Liz Lerman wasn’t taking any chances of leaving her audience in the dark. The evening began as an interactive experience to prepare us. Approaching the performance tent, we first encountered an altar designed...
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Under a sturgeon supermoon, I head to Transit Dance in Brunswick, to see the Australian Ballet’s annual Bodytorque program of new contemporary works. Were I in a different hemisphere, such a bright night would symbolise the start of the harvest season, which, I guess, is true of the Bodytorque choreographic showcase: a gathering of crops, this year from Jill Ogai, Mason Lovegrove, Timothy Coleman, Serena Graham, Benjamin Garrett, and winner of the 2020 Emerging Female Classical Choreographer, Xanthe Geeves.
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I will see anything with the choreographer Kyle Abraham’s name attached to it, and so I attended the premiere of “Reunions”—a free, outdoor dance festival set on a makeshift stage squeezed between the edge of the Paul Milstein Pool and Hearst Plaza at Lincoln Center. That Abraham’s name was attached was pretty much all I knew going in. He curated the program, which consisted of new works made by alumni from his company, A.I.M. It is rare, as a reviewer, to have so little foreknowledge of an assignment. And it was more mysterious yet when I arrived to check in...
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That eerie post-Covid time warp—are we moving forward or stuck in a loop?—prevailed on a windy summer night as former San Francisco Ballet artistic director Helgi Tomasson took the stage of Stanford University’s Frost Amphitheater and explained that the program would begin with his old staple set to Bach keyboard works, “7 for Eight.”
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While books are being banned and burned in the States, and the political climate continues to roil, one can take solace in art. Especially the art of Butoh master and Los Angeles treasure, Japanese rice-farmer-turned-dancer Oguri, who’s been making dances in Southern California since 1990. And what dances they are: From site-specific work that has included the phenom exploring the connection between humans and the Getty Center’s architectural environment, to his ongoing series, “Flower of the Season,” in which he tackles subjects as diverse as Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arranging, to “Caddy! Caddy! Caddy!” inspired by William Faulkner’s...
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In the archives at Jacob’s Pillow a 1948 video of Talley Beatty performing “Mourner’s Bench,” plays on a loop. In the space of a couple minutes, Beatty moves fluidly through wave-like motions, contracting and extending his body with a coiled intensity searching for release. The black and white footage is silent and flickering, and it is difficult to make out the expression on his face. Watching it over and over, I am struck by how Beatty continues to rise up with a Phoenix-like quality, eventually lifting up so much he executes a precarious one leg balance and promenade on top...
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The Vertigo Dance Company from Israel performed "One. One & One"─a work of incisive sensitivity and raw physicality at PS 21 (Performance Spaces for the 21st Century). Just a 3-hour drive north of New York City, the expansive conservancy with its singular, open-air pavilion theater is arguably the most perfect space to experience Vertigo’s earthy masterpiece. The 300-seat, open-air, state-of-the-art theater sits at the apex of a 100-acre preserve of apple orchards, meadows, and woodlands with trails. As the drama of sunset over New York’s verdant Hudson Valley played out in full view, the spectacle of Vertigo’s nine amazing dancers...
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The international dance festival Colours in Stuttgart is a fairly young endeavour. Commencing in 2015, it repeated every two years through 2019 and restarted this year with a grand program. Launched by Eric Gauthier together with Claudia Bauer and Meinrad Huber, the festival has received international acclaim since its conception. As often dance festivals do, it brings together dance professionals, amateurs and enthusiasts in a friendly environment where it’s possible to relish in a vibrant and colourful atmosphere.
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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