World-class review of ballet and dance.
Alexei Ratmansky’s “Shostakovich Trilogy” is a poignant homage to the musical genius of twentieth century Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. It’s also a reflection on the composer’s life—triumphant, tormented, and tragic—and his struggle to survive under Stalin's rule.
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He became a celebrity in 2011, when a video of him and superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma went viral on YouTube (that it was shot by Spike Jonze also didn’t hurt). He is Charles (Lil Buck) Riley, purveyor of Memphis jookin—a sneaker-clad, footwork-centric idiom that evolved from hip-hop. The performance was Lil Buck’s rendition of “The Dying Swan,” a 1905 work originally choreographed by Michel Fokine for ballerina Anna Pavlova and set to the music of Camille Saint-Saëns.
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This year sees the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, a cause for many in the arts to celebrate the great bard’s life and works, and the latest triple bill from Rambert, “Murder, Mystery and a Party,” marks the occasion with its own contribution. Choreographer Lucy Guerin has created “Tomorrow,” a new work for the company based upon Macbeth, following her recent collaboration on the same play with theatre director Carrie Cracknell at the Young Vic.
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Vaslav Nijinsky's personal struggle with both genius and mental illness is a classic dramatic paradigm, cliché for a reason, but Company Chordelia's study of his life is both delicate and physical, avoiding the usual traps of dance biographies.
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Justin Peck, the 28-year-old resident choreographer of New York City Ballet, is on a roll. Judging by the number of works he has created for NYCB and other ballet companies in the last few years, Peck seems unstoppable in his drive, creativity, imagination, and eagerness to create. He is a rare, prodigious talent when it comes to dancemaking. A new Peck ballet (just like a premier by Alexei Ratmansky or Christopher Wheeldon) is a major event in today’s ballet.
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Feminism, queer theory, ontology, postcolonialism—these subjects and more cropped up in the whirlwind 90 minutes I recently spent interviewing Cecilia Lisa Eliceche ahead of the UK premiere of her latest work, “Unison.” The Argentine choreographer is an avid political activist and well versed in the academia behind the issues she’s drawn to, which range from wealth inequality to racism, sexism and international human rights abuse.
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It’s been nearly 35 years since Steve Paxton, whom the New York Times once dubbed “a titan of the 1960s and 70s avant-garde,” created and performed his solo work, “Bound.” But who’s counting?
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Usually based in Melbourne, the Australian Ballet is currently residing at the Sydney Opera House for the first of two Sydney seasons this year. They have premiered two ambitious works: first delivering a month-long season of Stephen Baynes’ “Swan Lake,” followed by “Vitesse,” a triple bill of contemporary works, including William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.” In the very same week of “Vitesse’s” premiere, the Australian Ballet gave us “Symphony in C,” an evening of divertissements followed by George Balanchine's stunning ballet from 1947, lending its name to the programme. For the third opening night within a month, I’m sure it wasn’t just me...
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Cue mermaids, businessmen and gumboot dancers, as well as a host of other characters, including the sultry cigarette girl, Carmen. Welcome to the wild and wonderful world of Daniel Ezralow, and his 75-minute intermissionless work, “Open,” which had its West coast premiere at the Wallis in Beverly Hills over the weekend. Ezralow, who has been a movement/theatrical pioneer for some four decades—from dancing with Paul Taylor and as an original member/choreographer of Momix (with Moses Pendleton), to founding ISO Dance and working with Julie Taymor on an array of projects, including the film Across the Universe and Broadway’s “Spiderman: Turn...
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“You—you alone will have the stars as no one else has them . . .” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Le Petit Prince in all its aphoristic wisdom will soon be on stage in the form of a ballet, to be performed by the National Ballet of Canada.
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What is life if not one long memento mori? This is the question Trevor Nunn and William Trevitt—co-founders of the all-male troupe BalletBoyz—have posed with their latest bill, “Life,” which reflects on mortality with two diverse, thoughtful works. It’s terrain the pair has trekked before, most recently with 2015’s “Young Men,” a meditation on the violence and emotional trauma of war. Here they uphold their knack for picking bold, engaging commissions that highlight their ten dancers’ impressive emotional range.
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Miami City Ballet’s week-long engagement at the Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater was full of wonderful surprises, rewards, and revelations. Watching the two mixed-bill programs the company presented during the run, I couldn’t help but notice just how much at home the Miami dancers looked on the stage that is invariably associated with the illustrious New York City Ballet.
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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