Portraits of a Lady
Martha Graham is the Georgia O’Keefe of dance. No matter what the source material, the primary subject of her works is womanhood.
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The American Ballet Theatre’s opening bill was not a hole-in-one, but the ideas behind the programming were sound: feature a new work that builds upon company traditions (Gemma Bond’s “La Boutique”), push the dancers in a different style by a hot choreographer (Kyle Abraham’s “Mercurial Son”), and show off the troupe’s prodigious technical chops in a grand manner (Harald Lander’s “Études”). The second bill, Choreographers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, was conceptually fantastic—a birdie. George Balanchine’s “Ballet Imperial,” Alexei Ratmansky’s “Neo,” and Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room” are a winning combination with their sharp contrasts of style, costuming, and cast sizes. Unfortunately, the Fall Gala was a total bogey. The 11 awkwardly framed excerpts had no flow, and the night was further marred by low production value: there were curtain issues, odd costumes, and tacky lighting choices.
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Martha Graham is the Georgia O’Keefe of dance. No matter what the source material, the primary subject of her works is womanhood.
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Continue ReadingWith his peerless vocabulary of postmodern abstract moves—or, as he’s called it, “gumbo style,” which blends Black dance with classical ballet techniques—Kyle Abraham, a 2013 MacArthur Genius grant awardee, has been making thought-provoking works for decades.
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