World-class review of ballet and dance.
The Royal Ballet's mixed programme for the 2015/16 season combines a selection of three very different works. Resident choreographer Wayne McGregor's new one-act ballet, “Obsidian Tear,” sits alongside a revival of Kenneth MacMillan's “The Invitation” and the return of Associate Choreographer Christopher Wheeldon's “Within The Golden Hour.”
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In Jennifer Hart’s sensitive and contemporary “Camille: A Story of Art and Love,” narrative, chorus, and drama resurfaced like friends lost long ago to the seas of neoclassicism. The forty-minute ballet, the final work on the program of four presented by Hart’s pickup company Performa/Dance, was like a polished stone: a composition of epochs, worn smooth.
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There’s no way around it: We are living in a violent, hate-infested world, where moral bankruptcy can—and often does—lead to heinous crimes, and humanity takes another collective plunge into an unfathomable abyss. In other words, the city of Orlando, Florida, will no longer be thought of as a theme park utopia (home to Disney World, Sea World, Universal and the like), but as the site of an unspeakable tragedy.
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Northern Ballet’s brilliance at narrative dance is proven once again in their new adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. The company's clear and expressive style, in which classical steps merge with the fluidity of contemporary dance, quickly draws you in to the story, each step they perform filled with meaning and emotion. In narrative ballets there are so often moments where movement is indulged at the expense of the story, but in choreographer Cathy Marston's hands, this short, two-act ballet keeps its focus.
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Alexander Ekman’s “Cacti,” created for Nederlands Dans Theater in 2010, is a playful sendup of contemporary dance as Stella Gibbons’ 1932 novel, Cold Comfort Farm, is a delicious flapdoodle cliché.
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“NYCB Classics II” program which the company performed during its spring season at David H. Koch Theater included four dances: George Balanchine’s “Serenade,” “Duo Concertant,” and “Western Symphony” as well as Peter Martins’ “Hallelujah Junction.” All these pieces, with their own strength and merits, are the company’s staples, loved by the audiences and performed with affection and competence by the dancers; yet, in my opinion, only “Serenade”—a ballet of unparalleled beauty and invention—can be rightfully regarded as a timeless classic. Given the selection of the works, “NYCB Favorites” would have made for a more appropriate name of this musically and...
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“Mirrors” opened with a work previously set on Boston Ballet. “Resonance”—choreographed by José Martinez and recently revived through the support of the Krupp Endowment for Contemporary Dance—is a moving work in which audience members can continue to find additional layers of depth upon second viewing. With costumes and set cloaked in shades of grey, the choreography unfolds with an emphasis on lines, partnering, and shadows. Most memorable of this work is its roaming walls—a series of large panels which shift effortlessly throughout the stage, at times revealing a second pianist, at others concealing a duet in motion.
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Alexei Ratmansky’s “Shostakovich Trilogy” is a poignant homage to the musical genius of twentieth century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. It’s also a reflection on the composer’s life—triumphant, tormented, and tragic—and his struggle to survive under Stalin's rule.
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He became a celebrity in 2011, when a video of him and superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma went viral on YouTube (that it was shot by Spike Jonze also didn’t hurt). He is Charles (Lil Buck) Riley, purveyor of Memphis jookin—a sneaker-clad, footwork-centric idiom that evolved from hip-hop. The performance was Lil Buck’s rendition of “The Dying Swan,” a 1905 work originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for ballerina Anna Pavlova and set to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns.
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This year sees the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a cause for many in the arts to celebrate the great bard’s life and works, and the latest triple bill from Rambert, “Murder, Mystery and a Party,” marks the occasion with its own contribution. Choreographer Lucy Guerin has created “Tomorrow,” a new work for the company based upon Macbeth, following her recent collaboration on the same play with theatre director Carrie Cracknell at the Young Vic.
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Vaslav Nijinsky's personal struggle with both genius and mental illness is a classic dramatic paradigm, cliché for a reason, but Company Chordelia's study of his life is both delicate and physical, avoiding the usual traps of dance biographies.
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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