“The Sixth Beauty,” “Presto,” “Games,” “The Lottery”
Ballet West
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
March 26, 2015
With the amount of style, elegance and stature it brought to its first opening night in New York City in over 30 years, Ballet West fit right in. The three New York premieres and the world premiere of Helen Pickett’s “Games” may have been imperfect, but the presentation of each conveyed the unique identity of the Utah company, and did
“Rite of Spring,” “The Word,” “Promethean Fire”
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 17, 2015
A key facet to Paul Taylor’s new vision for his renamed and retooled company was presenting works by other important American choreographers. But the program, featuring two Taylor classics, “The Word” and “Promethean Fire,” and Shen Wei’s 2003 illustration of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring,” instead of merely showing dance by different American greats also worked
“Beloved Renegade,” “Death and the Damsel,” “Esplanade”
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 13, 2015
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, née Paul Taylor Dance Company, in its opening season under the new name at Lincoln Center managed to preserve its gloried vintage amidst the fresh coloring of its reincarnation and the added texture of live music.
The evening’s main event was the evocative world premiere of “Death and the Damsel,
"Voces, Suite Flamenca"
Ballet Flamenco Sara Baras
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 4, 2015
With a mix of traditional and modern styles, the U.S. premiere of Saras Baras’s new “Voces, Suite Flamenca” paid homage to and quite literally presented the “voces” – “voices” – of flamenco greats who have inspired Baras and transformed flamenco music, songs and dance. In doing so, “Voces” eluded any narrative or interpretation, but instead showed several distinct vignettes introduced by recordings
"m¡longa"
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and dancers
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 26, 2015
Tango is said to be a dance of seduction and despair, but Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s tango-inspired “m¡longa” delves deeper. Focusing on the myriad of underpinning tensions and connections formed between two (or more, as the case may be) people in the dance, Cherkaoui explores the emotions that are shared, and the function of the intertwining attraction embedded in the dance’s
“Havana Rakatan”
Ballet Rakatan
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 18, 2015
Coming on the heels of the recent thaw in the U.S.- Cuban diplomatic relations (though not as its result), Cuba’s “Havana Rakatan” turned up the heat on the cold February night in New York with its dazzling United States debut. Composed of the Ballet Rakatan dance company and a son cubano music band Turquino which performed live onstage with the
“Satyric Festival Song,” “Embattled Garden,” “Lamentation Variations,” “Rust,” “Chronicle”
Martha Graham Dance Company
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 12, 2015
Though the theme of Martha Graham Dance Company’s winter season was “Shape & Design,” Program A appeared to be more about history and the endurance of Martha Graham’s innovation and use of modern dance to convey a message. Following a short silent film by Peter Arnell which organized over 2,000 still photographs into what appeared
“Hallelujah Junction,” “A Place for Us,” “The Goldberg Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
February 6, 2015
Amidst portrayals of stories and emotions, it is sometimes easy to forget what dance is inherently about: expression of music. In a mixed bill to mostly piano accompaniment, New York City Ballet presented three works that served as an excellent reminder of that, and the dancers did a fine job dancing the scores.
Peter Martins’s “Hallelujah
“Symphonic Dances,” “The Cage,” “Andantino,” “Cortège Hongrois”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 30, 2015
Besides the music composers’ national origin, the works presented by New York City Ballet as part of the “Hear the Dance: Russia” program had one artistic commonality: dancers in all of the pieces seemed on a quest for a freeing approach to the stylized and formalistic aspects of the choreography. Despite a number of debuts, it was mostly the
“Swan Lake”
Mariinsky Ballet
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn, NY
January 22, 2015
Fielding a leading cast of two imports, the Mariinsky Ballet showed points of departure and a sense of new direction against the backdrop of its iconic tradition. Amidst the uneven performances from the Perm ballet school trained Oxana Skorik and the Royal Ballet school trained Xander Parish in the main roles, you could see glimpses of emerging interesting new styles, and their imperfections kept them from
“Swan Lake”
Mariinsky Ballet
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn, NY
January 16, 2015
Ulyana Lopatkina’s interpretation of Odette is largely viewed in Russia as the epitome of the role, and her single performance in the Kostantin Sergeyev’s 1950 retooling of the Petipa/Ivanov “Swan Lake” original during Mariinsky Ballet’s New York tour showed why. Not a single one of her movements was amiss, much as not a single one of them lacked detail, and to witness
"ChopEniana,” “Patterns in Space,” “Esmeralda,” “Dying Swan,” “Don Quixote”
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
December 18, 2014
The “ladies” of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo once again dazzled the audience with their clever humor and admirable technique, and from the pre-performance announcement that a dancer, a certain Ms. Notgoodenoff, will not be performing to the last note of the Hava Nagila that they spontaneously broke into while still in their “Don Quixote”