World-class review of ballet and dance.
Every year since 1881 in the forests of northern California, a secretive club of male elites in the world of politics, finance, and culture gather to burn an effigy in front of a giant statue of an owl in order to leave behind the worries of the past.
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Men: You can’t live with ‘em, and you can’t let ‘em die! Seriously, “Giselle,” the über-Romantic dance that premiered in Paris in 1841 and was the peak of the pre-Tchaikovsky ballets (before, for example, “Swan Lake”), was first presented by Los Angeles Ballet in its fifth season.
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What gives a dance staying power? What makes any work of art continue to be relevant over time? These are questions I pondered while revisiting Andrea Miller’s “Blush,” performed by her company, Gallim, at 92NY’s Harkness Mainstage Series this spring.
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Asami Maki’s 2004 reworking of Marius Pepita’s “Raymonda” for the National Ballet of Japan dials up the wow-factor at every level.
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You can hear it before you see it. The sound of chatter, sneakers squeaking against the floor, the booming DJs reverberating through space.
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The New York City Ballet’s orchestra tackled two new pieces at this year’s Spring Gala: Edouard Lalo’s “Symphonie Espagnole,” with the star violinist Hilary Hahn debuting alongside them in the pit—her first time ever performing while submerged in subterranean darkness—and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction.”
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In October 1942, within four days of one another, two Douglas Dunns entered the world—one in Scotland, one in California.
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Almost mirroring the geopolitical situation, contemporary dance in the West—already in the USA and soon in Europe—is showing signs of wear and tear, if not decline.
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Rudolf Nureyev’s “Romeo and Juliet” is built with a finely calibrated balance of choreographic structure, theatrical intelligence, and historical awareness.
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“Too much sanity may be madness!” Carlos Acosta’s “Don Quixote” revival is proudly, fittingly quixotic—a confetti cannon of cheerful characterisations and vibrant visuals that culminate in an actual confetti cannon.
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As a journalist and critic, I am often privy to an artist’s process before viewing their work. This insight pays off as an audience member, offering new ways of allowing a piece to come to life before my eyes.
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We ballet fans grow irrationally attached to the productions of the classics we grow up with—taking in a different “Swan Lake” or “Giselle” from the one we know can make us feel like sensitive children refusing to eat the non-Kraft-brand mac ‘n cheese.
Continue ReadingThe title of this dance interpretation of The Tempest highlights a notable departure from canon. In “We Caliban,” Shobana Jeyasingh imagines Shakespeare’s titular native in the collective sense—a tribe, a spirit and a place at once.
Continue ReadingLong before the dancers take the stage, Dance Theatre of Harlem’s season at New York City Center feels like one of the most energizing cultural events of the spring.
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It is rare for George Balanchine’s grand, bedazzled “Symphony in C” to open a program. Its champagne-popping finale for 52 dancers tends to be a nightcap.
Continue ReadingWhen we think of countries that have shaped the world of dance our mind will often drift to the United States, Russia, or Germany. But what of Luxembourg?
Continue ReadingIn times of rapid change, predicting the road ahead can seem to be a fool’s errand. But on a spring afternoon at Lincoln Center, I feel confident in this assertion: the future of dance is very bright.
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