Lights go up on three dancers who sit side by side on the floor in a far corner of the stage, legs outstretched, soles of their bare feet delightfully exposed. Siblings posing for a photo in the backyard? It’s a brief look, like a flashback.
Mesmerizing to watch? Or commentary on life versus machine? The program performed by Lyon Opera Ballet at New York’s City Center is both. Merce Cunningham’s “Biped” (1999) features a double cast—one of human dancers, and another of computer generated figures.
In the second week of February, an ensemble of young and remarkably accomplished dancers presented a lovely and generously conceived programme just beyond the Paris city limits, at the Théâtre des Sablons in Neuilly-sur-Seine, as part of a tour spanning not only several French cities but also Spain, Germany, Switzerland and Malaysia. The evening unfolded as a carefully balanced succession of styles, allowing the dancers to reveal both technical assurance and interpretative maturity. Overall, the cohesion of the ensemble and the clarity of their stage presence matched those of an established professional company. Yet this was not, strictly speaking, the...