World-class review of ballet and dance.
Celebrating the opening of its 96th season at the iconic Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, under the baton of the esteemed Gustavo Dudamel—his eighth season as the orchestra’s music and artistic director—offered an uneven program of ballet and music, some thrilling, some head-scratching, all begging for more, however.
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“Tatiana, dear Tatiana! / I now shed tears with you. / Into a fashionable tyrant’s hands / your fate already you’ve relinquished. / Dear, you shall perish; but before, / in dazzling hope, / you summon obscure bliss, / you learn the sensuousness of life, / you quaff the magic poisons of desire…”
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Nobody ever accused Heidi Duckler of thinking inside the box. The Los Angeles-based choreographer/director who founded her eponymous troupe 32 years ago and has been dubbed “Queen of Site-Specific Dance,” has set her works all around our sprawling megalopolis. Making use of iconic locations that include the L.A. Police Academy, City Hall and the long-gone Ambassador Hotel (the site of Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 assassination), to moving in more intimate settings such as laundromats, parking lots and bowling alleys, the gal has guts, grit and gumption to burn.
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Le Patin Libre (“the Free Skate”) is a group of five high-level ice skaters eschewing the sparkles, and creating something akin to contemporary dance on ice. Their double bill “Vertical Influences” was brought to Toronto as part of this year's Luminato arts festival, directed by Josephine Ridge who discovered the troupe in the south of France. “It was a pinch-me moment,” Ridge writes for Luminato, “Here is young group of surprising, exceptionally talented and entirely original artists.”
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“First and foremost it’s a party.” This is how Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker characterises “Rain,” created in 2001 for her troupe Rosas. As far as festivities go, it falls more on the side of relaxed rendezvous than all-night rager, but certainly a feeling of elation defines the work. Over the past 16 years, “Rain” has become a signature feature in the Rosas repertory and part of the wider pantheon of contemporary classics. Crafted not just in sync but in symbiosis with Steve Reich’s minimalist score “Music for 18 Musicians,” it swirls song and dance to form a dreamy...
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The final programme of the Royal Ballet’s Spring/Summer season sees the company perform a mixed bill of work by their founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton. Including two of his narrative works, one comic (“The Dream”) and one tragic (“Marguerite and Armand”), as well as the first piece he created for the Royal Opera House stage (“Symphonic Variations”), it’s a bill that pays homage to this admired choreographer. While there are times where the age of these works feels noticeable, the programme is, nonetheless, an enjoyable close to the season.
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On the back of a US tour of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s imaginative reworking of “A Streetcar Named Desire” comes another bold showing from Scottish Ballet: a double bill with works from Crystal Pite and Angelin Preljoçaj. It’s an edgy turn for the company, and some slick, focused displays of dance arise from it, particularly in Pite’s “Emergence,” created in 2009 for National Ballet of Canada and acquired by Scottish Ballet last year.
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It’s a given that Los Angeles, the sprawl-to-the-wall city, has some intriguing locations for site-specific dance, the Getty Center, Union Station and the plaza at the Music Center, to name but a few. With its tall royal palms, May-June jacaranda trees and sleek minimalist architecture, Santa Monica’s Tongva Park, proved a perfect match for the ever-exciting choreographer/dancer Mecca Vazie Andrews and her 11 skilled performers.
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A final performance. The audience applauds. Cries of Brava! can be heard, and flowers are tossed upon the stage in adoration and gratitude. In a tutu of rich autumnal hues, Clara takes her last bows. From the wings, her fellow dancers add to the applause.
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Nobody, but nobody, fuses together pop culture references, storytelling and populist dance quite like the fabulous Matthew Bourne. There is a reason people flock in droves to see his work, including those who are immune to dance's charms—he is simply a master craftsman. He is Britain's best-loved choreographer. This double Olivier Award-winning production is simply superb, and his company New Adventures are at the top of their game. “The Red Shoes” is arguably the most fully-formed production of his career to date.
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Myele Manzanza makes sound. Terrific sound. He plays drums. He plays the floor like it too were an instrument. Every surface, by this extension, has the possibility of being an instrument. And Manzanza also tap, tap, taps sound on Elle Evangelista, beginning with her shoulders. Standing face-to-face, he transmits sound to Evangelista. You can hear sound, yes. But you can also feel it as vibrations within the body.
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Only five years ago, choreographer Justin Peck was virtually unknown. Today he is a prominent presence in the world of dance, widely praised and admired by audiences (particularly young audiences) and critics alike. His meteoric rise to fame is underpinned by an impressive body of works. So far he has created 14 ballets for New York City Ballet where he is soloist and resident choreographer (he assumed this position in 2014). His other creations (more than a dozen) include commissions from Paris Opera Ballet, Miami City Ballet, and San Francisco Ballet among other companies. His ballets have been performed by...
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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