Lifted Spirits
Even at his most straightforward, Paul Taylor often imbued his dances with a sardonic wit. Whether invoking darkness or light, he did so with a wink.
Continue ReadingWorld-class review of ballet and dance.
The New York City Ballet’s excellent 2023 Fall Season featured only the works of founding choreographer George Balanchine. This winter, eight choreographers are being showcased as the company’s 75th anniversary celebration continues. But on paper, the most well-conceived program is another all-Balanchine one: the combination of “The Four Temperaments” and “Liebeslieder Walzer.” These ballets present both sides of the Balanchine coin: his stark coolness as well as his lush romanticism. On Tuesday night, however, a wan “4Ts” and a somewhat miscast “Liebeslieder” failed to make this contrast pop, though there were some thrilling individual performances in both pieces that hinted at this bill’s latent potency.
Performance
Place
Words
Starting at $49.99/year
Your weekly source for world-class dance reviews, interviews, articles, and more.
Already a paid subscriber? Login
Even at his most straightforward, Paul Taylor often imbued his dances with a sardonic wit. Whether invoking darkness or light, he did so with a wink.
Continue ReadingTalk about Gesamtkunstwerk! Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s “SCAT!...The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar,” is just that—a total work of art: operatic in scale, replete with stellar musicians and singers, and the glorious dancers of Urban Bush Women, the troupe that Zollar founded in 1984, is also storytelling at its best.
Continue ReadingOf all of Shakespeare’s plays, “Hamlet” might seem the hardest to adapt into dance. Its long soliloquies and a titular character stymied by indecision do not immediately scream movement potential.
Continue ReadingComplexions Contemporary Ballet turned 30 this year, and their two-week residency at the Joyce Theater was a party.
Continue Reading
Oh, thank you Mindy!
Good points here; the production and performances are sharply observed. We see the stage events in a welcomely fresh way. One note: Balanchine went on record as saying that the setting for Liebeslieder he had in mind was not based on anything in Vienna but rather on a rococo building in Munich—the Amalienburg Park palace.
https://www.schloss-nymphenburg.de/englisch/p-palaces/amalien.htm
A delightful reading of performances I missed while recovering at home from surgery. The review had me visualizing the ballets as if sitting in the theater.