Why it’s called American Street Dancer
Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continua a leggereWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
Marius Petipa’s “Paquita” Grand Pas Classique has been around since 1881. I last reviewed a version in 2023, by Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The Trocks danced a standard (and technically impressive) account of the divertissement, but they did it with copious humor and their own special flair to nod at the bizarro 1846 full-length ballet into which the excerpt was shoehorned—and which very few companies bother with now. How to summarize the absurdity of the original “Paquita”? Here goes: Joseph Mazilier’s “Paquita,” set to the music of Edouard Deldevez, is the tale of a Romani girl, Paquita, who saves a Napoleonic officer from being poisoned by a Spanish governor. It turns out that the two are cousins, as Paquita is revealed to be a noble kidnapped at birth by gypsies. This cousin revelation pleases the lovers, they wed. Pierre Lacotte revived Mazilier’s narrative and incorporated Petipa’s 1881 updates (which are set to the music of Ludwig Minkus) for the Paris Opera Ballet in 2001. The POB just performed it again last month, to drab reviews.
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Books are banned, DEI scuttled, and Africanist studies scaled back. Yet, the irrepressible spirit of African American artists is not extinguished.
Continua a leggere“Lists of Promise,” a new work currently in a two-week run from March 13- 30 at the East Village cultural landmark, Theater for the New City, promised more than it delivered, at least for now.
Continua a leggere“State of Heads” opens with a blaze of white light and loud clanking onto a white-suited Levi Gonzalez, part Elvis, part televangelist addressing his congregation. A pair of women sidle in—Rebecca Cyr and Donna Uchizono—dressed in ankle-length white dresses and cowered posture.
Continua a leggereThe late John Ashford, a pioneer in programming emerging contemporary choreographers across Europe, once told me that he could tell what sort of choreographer a young artist would turn into when watching their first creations.
Continua a leggere
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