World-class review of ballet and dance.
P.O.V. Dance Project debuted “Wireless Connection” at Dancemakers in Toronto last Friday evening. The newly formed company appeared neat, sophisticated and upbeat, with a compelling hybrid style informed by styles ranging from ballet to hiphop. P.O.V. is directed by choreographers Amy Adams and Kylie Thompson, and have a pick-up company of a dozen versatile dancers. They have a light touch, and the dance was fresh, and the attitude contagious.
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Nat Cursio (award-winning “Private Dances,” “Blizzard,” “The Middle Room”) and Shannon Bott (“Racket,” “Hang in there,” “Nice Mate Nice”) have been creating “Recovery” for a period of six years. The work came about due to untimely deaths in both their families, and confronts grief, and what it is to continue on in the wake of loss. Simon Ellis, well-known creator of intimate choreographies, joined the creative process, and just when it seemed “Recovery” would never be, here it is. I am deeply appreciative to Nat Cursio, Shannon Bott and Simon Ellis for answering my questions via email.
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The term ‘plateau effect’ describes the phenomenon of diminishing returns—that is, the reduced effectiveness over time of a once effective measure. Jefta van Dinther’s production by the same name does just that, putting forward a series of bold scenes, each of which ploughs ahead at a high-octane pace until the wow factor wears off and the audience adjusts to the sensory shock (think pulsing music, flashing lights, shuddering bodies). Van Dinther has a knack for detecting the very moment viewers have acclimatised, and it’s then that he throws another jolt into the mix, making for some powerful transitions. The one-act...
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Instead of employing a straight narrative, this dance theatre piece tells its story through a series of interlacing vignettes, each one evocative, impassioned and quasi surreal. The twisted tale centres on an urban park facing commercial redevelopment and its occupants' response to the impending loss of their communal space, which brings together homeless people, tourists, street performers, pedestrians and more. It's an elliptical piece, its tone careening from wacky to biting in a flash, but the quality is steady throughout: Jasmin Vardimon's dancers commit themselves to their roles wholly, and the result is a crisp slice of social commentary on...
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Jillian Vanstone and Harrison James made an exquisite pair, dancing the lead roles in “Manon” with the National Ballet of Canada on Sunday. It may be getting cold outside, but inside, the pas de deux were scorching.
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Though it lags somewhat in the middle, this four-part bill is robust and stimulating. The intricate music of London-based contemporary composer Thomas Adès unites the pieces, each of which features the musician conducting from the pit or tickling the ivories on stage. Adès' participation in the programme elevates it greatly, breathing life into his already vigorous notes so that they form an integral and unforgettable element of the performance.
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Jasmin Vardimon is the artistic director of Jasmin Vardimon Company, founded in 1997, and has been an associate artist at Sadler's Wells since 2006. Her career spans more than two decades, and she's received numerous accolades for her contributions to the dance world, including an honorary doctorate from Royal Holloway, University of London, awarded in July 2014.
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Who knew that when modern dance legend Martha Graham teamed up with Baroness Batsheva de Rothschild in 1964 to be artistic advisor of an Israeli dance troupe (Graham held the role until 1975), that the company would not only be going strong 50 years later, but would be at the forefront of contemporary dance. That fact, of course, has to do with the iconoclastic choreographer Ohad Naharin, who has helmed the 34-member troupe since 1990, his full-bodied dancemaking never failing to astonish, mesmerize and awe.
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A day before Halloween, and Anastasia Adani doesn’t have a costume. “We’re going trick-or-treating anyway. I don’t know how I haven’t been fired as a wife and a mother—I’m here all the time,” she says, gesturing to one of three cavernous studios, home to her creative agency, A Plus Creative. Ms. Adani is the visionary behind the short film Lost in a Dream, featuring principal dancer Svetlana Lunkina. The film, evoking the ethereal, fairy-tale romanticism of the ballet, was made in collaboration with the National Ballet of Canada, and Toronto-based fashion designer David Dixon.
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When it was founded in 2012 by Benjamin Millepied, L.A. Dance Project was touted as some kind of second coming for the dance scene in Los Angeles. It’s too bad, then, that the 9-member troupe is rarely in town and that its home, the Theatre at Ace Hotel, a refurbished United Artists movie palace originally co-founded by Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D.W. Griffith, has extremely bad sight lines and a small stage for dance. That the audience can also bring in food and drink (popcorn, wine and whatever), is another reason the venue is a less than...
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Forget crooning crockery; it’s waltzing pigs and jazz-dancing ravens in David Bintley’s “Beauty and the Beast,” a glittery production with a green twist. Bintley’s version reframes the fairytale as a pro-conservation allegory: an arrogant prince with a heartless hunting habit is cursed into living as a beast himself among the very animals he once targeted. The eco slant calls to mind Bintley’s excellent “Still Life at the Penguin Café” in its manifest respect for the natural world, though “Beast” is less of an admonitory tale than one focusing on personal redemption.
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Equal parts dystopian horror show and raucous romp, Matthew Bourne’s “Lord of the Flies” is a firecracker of a production. Over two acts, nine members of Bourne’s New Adventures and 22 locally sourced teenagers retell William Golding’s allegorical tale of marooned British schoolboys and their atavistic descent.
Continua a leggereWatching 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,...
Continua a leggereThe 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.
Continua a leggereAfter 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.
Continua a leggereAn “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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