World-class review of ballet and dance.
We enter DNK: Space for contemporary dance and performance, and right at the door we are greeted by the three co-creators and performers Aleksandar Georgiev, Zhana Pencheva and Darío Barreto Damas. Smiling and warming up, the dancers thank us for attending the Sofia premiere of their new piece, “dragON aka PONY.”
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Watching Richard Alston Dance Company perform is like visiting a Rothko exhibition. It’s tidy, bright and expressive, confident in what it is and isn’t. And it’s vividly abstract; you can drink in its colour and energy without the heft of narrative interpretation. With an Alston production you have the bonus of musicality, which the dancemaker excels at. On the other hand, ephemerality is part and parcel of the experience. The fleeting nature of dance takes on an outsized presence in this particular programme, the company’s farewell show after 25 years at the forefront of the UK’s contemporary scene.
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Catapult Dance Choreographic Hub launched in Australia’s Hunter Valley just north of Sydney in 2014. Spearheaded by former dancer and dance educator Cadi McCarthy, it champions emerging choreographers, providing the platform that is so elusive for many up-and-coming choreographers, dancers, and composers—space and time to think and create.
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Modern classism meets childlike wonder in Graeme Murphy’s “The Happy Prince.” Murphy is an undisputed tour de force in Australian ballet. Arguably the most successful choreographer produced by our country, he is known for many of his works including “Air and Other Invisible Forces,” “The Silver Rose,” and, most notably, his restaging of “Swan Lake.” Murphy has also had a long and prosperous relationship with the Australian Ballet, so, to see the company begin their 2020 season with “The Happy Prince” is no great shock. The ballet itself, however, is an oddball of curiosities.
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Let’s just call American Ballet Theatre’s world premiere, “Of Love and Rage,” choreographed by the singular Alexei Ratmansky, a terpsichorean orgy of outsized proportions, an all-embracing bacchanalia, if you will.
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Since it was first written and performed in 1596, Shakespeare’s enduring classic, “Romeo and Juliet”—the doomed romance of two teenagers from feuding families—is possibly the most famous love story ever penned. Indeed, its numerous iterations include operas, films, musicals and, of course, ballets, with indelible performances such as the 1966 Royal Ballet production starring Dame Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev, choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan, racking up hundreds of thousands of YouTube views in recent years.
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I had high expectations going into the National Ballet of Canada’s mixed program on opening night. What was on the table for being the greatest highlight of the evening was Greta Hodgkinson dancing her final role before retirement in the historically star-studded “Marguerite and Armand” (originally created for Fonteyn and Nureyev by Sir Frederick Ashton). The gesture was well-considered to celebrate the ballerina’s 30-year career, but the program did not gel as I had hoped. Alongside the contemporary “Chroma” set to music from the White Stripes and a world premiere by Crystal Pite, the three pieces seemed worlds apart. In...
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BalletBoyz' twenty year anniversary is celebrated with elan with this superb double bill which showcases two world class choreographers, and the boldness and adaptability of the company. After a short cheeky film, created by Sarah Golding with all of the dancers freestyling and vying for attention, the first piece of the evening unfolds explosively, created by choreographer Maxine Doyle from Punchdrunk and featuring music from the jazz artist Cassie Kinoshi from the SEED Ensemble.
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The final week of the New York City Ballet’s winter season showcased a world premiere: Justin Peck’s “Rotunda,” to a commissioned score by Nico Muhly. Few companies would try to pull off a new work at the close of a season that commences after six weeks of “Nutcrackers,” and immediately after a grueling two-week run of “Swan Lake.” So it wasn’t surprising that by Friday night there were some casting replacements due to injury. But NYCB always operates on the edge of what is physically possible—in terms of both stylization and scheduling.
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When you’ve seen a hundred modern (and postmodern and contemporary) dance productions, with their twisted postures and gasping contractions, it’s easy to forget where it all started. When Isadora Duncan took to the stage at the turn of the twentieth century, she dazed the establishment by rejecting the upright postures of ballet, insisting that beauty—and with it, artistic dignity—could be found in a looser, more grounded form. “Isadora Now” spotlights Duncan’s vision, celebrating her work as the Mother of Modern Dance and contemplating its impact today. That it’s been produced by a distinguished classical dancer, Viviana Durante, is proof positive...
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If there is a downside to San Francisco Ballet’s zeal for commissioning international choreographers, it is that we do not often have the luxury, here in Northern California, of considering the dancers over the dance.
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Pollen grains can be dispersed by wind, insect, bird, or animal, and in the case of Akira Kasai’s “Pollen Revolution,” they can even be liberated within and dispersed by a dancer. Kasai’s “Pollen Revolution,” one of three performances presented within Dancehouse’s Japan Focus, alongside Ruri Mito’s “Matou” and Takao Kawaguchi’s “Good Luck,” as part of the 2020 Asia TOPA: Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts dance program, pollinates and vibrates the imagination in a way that only the “Nijinsky of Butoh” can.
Continue ReadingWatching 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,...
Continue ReadingThe 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.
Continue ReadingAfter 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.
Continue ReadingAn “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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