George Jackson

“Le Corsaire”
The Mariinsky Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
April 11, 2019

Eighty-one dancers are listed by Russia’s Mariinsky Ballet in its current Kennedy Center program. That does not include the children who supplement in the grand, Act 3 divertissement of “Le Corsaire”. These junior dancers are local, from two ballet schools – the DC Kirov Academy and The Washington School of Ballet. Of the company’s regular dancers, 44

“Le Corsaire”
The Mariinsky Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
April 9, 2019

A minimum of five composers, four text smiths, plus ten choreographers and ballet masters was required to reconstruct the 19th Century ballet “Le Corsaire”, which the Mariinsky company has brought to Washington. It shows. The action is choppy, especially at the start of what is a three-act production with prologue and epilogue. Not even mentioned up front in

“Wood Work”, “Shadow Lands”, “Teeming Waltzes”
The Washington Ballet
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
April 6, 2019

In the barrage of new ballets that Washington has had lately, only one eluded a fundamental sameness. It was Trey McIntyre’s “Teeming Waltzes”. I’m thinking not just of The Washington Ballet’s bill of three premiers but also of the Jones/Zane group’s trilogy, of the New York City Ballet’s two programs and of additional fare. Melding hipster configurations of

“Composer’s Holiday”, “Kammermusik No. 2”,
“Opus 19, The Dreamer”, “Symphony in C”
New York City Ballet
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
April 2, 2019

The company’s new bosses, former dancers Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan, introduced this DC opening. Both were dressed casually. Their brief appearance in front of the curtains was followed by a premiere – Gianna Reisen’s “Composer’s Holiday” to Lukas Foss music. It is a ballet

DEMO: Now
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 29, 2019

Tap-dance made the latest in Damian Woetzel’s “Demo” series memorable, and there was just one tapper: Caleb Teicher. He is a thin, young fellow with a bleached blob at the front of his haircut. At rest, Teicher seems high strung. Dancing, he surfs atop a spectrum of moods that includes the joy of free mobility, the relief of secure landings

DEMO: Now
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 29, 2019

 Tap-dance made the latest in Damian Woetzel’s “Demo” series memorable, and there was just one tapper: Caleb Teicher. He is a thin, young fellow with a bleached blob at the front of his haircut. At rest, Teicher seems high strung. Dancing, he surfs atop a spectrum of moods that includes the joy of free mobility, the relief of secure

Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company of New York Live Arts
Analogy Trilogy – Dora:Tramontane
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 28, 2019

What has become of yesterday’s rebels? In the instance of Bill T. Jones, this dancer remains a choreographer true to his Castor and Pollux vision of companionship with the late Arnie Zane (1948 – 1988).  Jones made “Dora” in 2015, basing it on oral interviews he conducted with

“RedWhiteBlueBlack&Orange -
the Art and Dance of Resistance”
Maida Withers Dance Construction Company
Center for Contemporary Political Art
Washington, DC
January 20, 2019

The performance took place in the main room of a downtown art gallery, a space with windows on one long side and art work hung on the inside walls. Through the windows came the sunlight of a clear winter afternoon, illuminating the space and its pictures. All the art was of actual, recognizable things but not

"Menagerie", "Myriad", "The Outset"
The Washington Ballet
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
March 18, 2018 at 1:30 PM 

The surprise of this ambitious bill of three brand new ballets was the similarity of the dramatic theme which tantalized the 3 different, rather new choreographers. Clifton Brown, Gemma Bond and Marcelo Gomes addressed the relationship of the individual to that person's group. I suspect the similarity wasn't due to collusion but astonished the dance makers and also Julie

Choreography by Michio Ito and Dana Burgess
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
March 17, 2018

The site of the performance was an oblong salon on the Portrait Gallery's second floor. Prominently on display in addition to the dancing was a large portrait of a female dancer by Ferdinand Hodler (1853 -1918), the Swiss German painter. Hodler shows both motion and pause in his subject's pose, and areas of geometric flattening and of