World-class review of ballet and dance.
Shortly after Russia invaded its neighbor, Ukraine, almost a year ago now, Ukrainians began streaming across the borders into Hungary and Poland, and from there into Western Europe. Most were traumatized; some had lost homes; all feared for their lives or their family’s lives. Among these multitudes were dancers and dance students who, like so many refugees, were unsure what would happen next, to them or their country.
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Phil Chan wants to get one thing straight: his work is the opposite of cancel culture. As co-founder of the organization Final Bow for Yellowface, Chan has long called for updating the obsolete stage representations of Asians and has even encouraged arts leaders to sign a pledge committing to the elimination of these damaging stereotypes. It is an advocacy he pursues in writing, teaching, consulting, directing, and choreographing.
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Everything is everything for Israel Galván. A circle of wood is a hockey puck and a stage; a microphone stand is a broom and a drumstick; a hand is a flower, a light switch, and then a hand again in his tremendous “Solo” which was recently presented at Baryshnikov Arts Center.
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Over the decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) has presented music and dance events in the East entrance’s Great Stair Hall as well as in its other spaces. In 2022, the PMA used the new cantilevered Gehry staircase for dance and music. It replaces the small auditorium where I once saw performances of Trisha Brown’s company and others dance. Inaugurating the new space, Philadanco danced memorable pastiches of Merce Cunningham’s early works, and former Cunningham Dance Company member, Melissa Toogood soloed down the staircase to choreography by Pam Tanowitz.
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As I watched this evening of works made by 13 choreographers who grew up in the NYC-based after school dance program run by Ellen Robbins, I couldn’t help but think of a heated debate the dance community took up sometime in the aughts over the question, can choreography be taught? Peter Martins, then director of New York City Ballet, claimed it could not. Nearly everyone else disagreed. Surely this Dances By Very Young Choreographers alumni concert erases any lingering doubt. Robbins, now in her 41st year of teaching, produces a public show every year of the remarkable creations of her young makers,...
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The big news before the start of New York City Ballet’s winter season was the announcement that the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky would be joining the company as artist in residence (in September) after the conclusion of his contract with American Ballet Theatre (in June). As many will remember, this was the first New York company Ratmansky choreographed for, before being swooped up by ABT. He has made some of his most innovative works here, including “Russian Seasons,” “Concerto DSCH,” and “Voices,” which returns to the repertory this week.
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Penn Live Arts’ Dance Theatre of Harlem program this past weekend at Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center braided together an historical, social, racial, cultural, and artistic event. The relationship between the late Dance Theatre of Harlem’s founder, African American dancer Arthur Mitchell (d. 2018) and his mentor and benefactor, choreographer George Balanchine covers all those topics, with a Philadelphia dance community slant that was not lost on the audience.
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Elongated bodies meticulously keep time stepping on demi-pointe to the hard driving techno-beat. They crisscross the stage in various groupings from different directions with their prissy steps sporting opaque nylon knee socks, bare limbs, and nude colored leotards. The costumes by Rebecca Hytting amplify the picture of constricting uniformity; at the same time, they reveal the individual body shapes and builds of the seventeen highly trained dancers of tanzmainz. Trapped in a throbbing playlist and choreography of constrained energy, these bodies look like humans on a conveyor belt—intermittently exposing micro-signs of desperateness for escape. And occasionally some do escape—that’s when...
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“It was packed and I was surprised at the kind of adoration I received. But it seemed like people were responding to the work and it felt good. It [also] scared me a little bit.”
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It is always interesting to see what a famous ballerina does when given the freedom to program her own show. On Saturday, Natalia Osipova, the Russian-born superstar (who has been a principal with the Royal Ballet since 2013), brought her much-hyped and sold-out extravaganza, “Natalia Osipova: Force of Nature,” to City Center for one night only. The ambitious, crowd-pleasing lineup—including the “Don Quixote” Act III Pas de Deux and “The Dying Swan” solo—was announced in a press release in early January and promoted in an interview with Pointe’s Kyra Laubacher less than a week before the performance. I don’t know...
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The New York City Ballet opened its Winter Season with a wonderful all-Balanchine program, which I caught on the second night. Not only was the lineup of ballets interesting and well-balanced, there were excellent performances in leading roles throughout the show, by dancers in various stages of their careers—including the best principal casting I’ve ever seen in Balanchine’s tiny 1967 masterpiece, “Valse-Fantaisie.”
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If an evening of dances from Ronald K. Brown/Evidence could be said to leave me wanting, it is surely only because the dynamic and spirited dancers in Brown’s rousing compositions leave me wanting more. On Tuesday evening at the Joyce Theater, this was the case once again. I would have happily stayed put in my seat late into the evening if the show could have gone on longer. The three works on the program charted a range of moods and explored the worldly with a divine nuance.
PlusLong 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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