World-class review of ballet and dance.
There is no other ballet quite like “Coppélia.” A romantic comedy spiced with elements of an action-thriller and accompanied by one of the most joyful ballet scores ever written, “Coppélia” never fails to delight and entertain.
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This new programme from Akram Khan—one of the UK’s foremost contemporary choreographers—is a look into both the past and future. Khan and Farooq Chaudry, producer at Akram Khan Company, have invited four young dancers of colour to present self-choreographed solos that reflect on their heritage and explore the evolving language of contemporary dance. Drawing on genres as diverse as hip-hop and folk dance, their work forms a ‘portrait of otherness’ that encourages innovation of form and promotes visibility of lesser-heard perspectives—something Khan has strived to champion with his own company over the years.
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Danielle Rowe was a bright star at the Australian Ballet. Born in Adelaide, Rowe trained at the Australian Ballet School before joining the company in 2001. With extension for days, she rose quickly through the ranks, winning accolades and hearts along the way. She is the only dancer in the company's history to win the Telstra People's Choice award twice, once in 2003 and again in 2005, and she was also the first recipient of the Dorothy Hicks Fund. She attained principal in 2008, and was the apple of company's eye.
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Overall it must be questioned whether ballet is the right medium for a biographical tribute. Ballet by the limits of its nature is only able to give a broad brushstroke, a stylized impression of what a person stood for. Details of historical context, complex personal stories and exploration of inner drive fall by the wayside; all questions you seek in a biographical treatment remain opaque. In “Frame by Frame” a new ballet for the National Ballet of Canada directed by Robert LePage and choreographed Guillaume Côté, ballet was interspersed with film and overlaid with interactive effects by Ex Machina, yet...
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Thierrée, Shechter, Perez, Pite: they could have their names in light anywhere in Europe, but at Aurélie Dupont’s invitation, they shared the bill at the Palais Garnier. Alas, with two brand new tailor-made creations, one revival and one recent entry into the repertoire, the bill inspired mixed feelings. Amid underwhelming performances, the audience is left to draw its own conclusions, ranging from hazardous to poignant.
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Every year, revellers flock to New York City’s Times Square to usher in the New Year. In 1999, the celebration was more grand than usual: Times Square 2000 featured twenty-four hours of live programming to usher in the Millennium. More than one million people attended; more than one billion tuned into the live broadcast. One of the masterminds behind this spectacular was David Parsons, who choreographed and directed its dance elements. Parsons seems an ideal choice for the event: since he founded Parsons Dance in 1985 with Tony Award-winning lighting designer Howell Binkley, he has been developing pieces that pulse...
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In May of 1913, the choreographer Vaslav Nijinsky premiered a ballet that culminated in a riot. The ballet, “The Rite of Spring,” was set to Igor Stravinsky’s notoriously finicky score, which tremors and thrums like something buried, vengeful, underground. Over the course of the performance, Nijinsky’s cast enacted two sacred rites; the first, a harvest celebration, and the second, the ritual sacrifice of the Chosen One, a virginal maiden commanded to dance until she dies. Stravinsky had composed the piece to evoke his family home in Russia, the wildness of village life, and the cyclical rites of harvest growth and...
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“THERE ARE NO STORIES TO ANY OF THE DANCES IN ‘DANCES AT A GATHERING,’” the American choreographer Jerome Robbins reportedly wrote in a missive to a prestigious dance magazine in advance of the ballet’s New York City Ballet premiere of “Dances at a Gathering” in 1969. “THERE ARE NO PLOTS AND NO ROLES. THE DANCERS ARE THEMSELVES DANCING WITH EACH OTHER TO THAT MUSIC IN THAT PLACE.”
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“I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh: it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal—as we are!”
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Katharine Hepburn once quipped of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers: “Fred gave Ginger class, and Ginger gave Fred sex.” Ballroom champs and married couple Janette Manrara and Aljaž Skorjanec share a more even split of both in this charming homage to Astaire's dazzling, game changing career. They simply ooze personality, wit and sex appeal. Far more meta and clever than a Hollywood homage should be, the show is bursting with insights on Astaire's rise to the top, and features brilliant choreography from director Gareth Walker and assistant choreographer Scott Coldwell.
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Miami City Ballet concluded its 2017/18 season at Fort Lauderdale’s Broward Center for the Performing Arts in style with a program that featured ballet’s greatest hits of past and present: George Balanchine’s historic “Apollo” and his darkly enchanting and haunting dance-drama, “La Valse,” plus the company’s premiere of Alexei Ratmansky’s exuberant and nostalgic “Concerto DSCH.”
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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