"Theme and Variations", "Aftereffect", "The Tempest"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 30, 2013
The ABT gala was a feast featuring new costumes for Balanchine's "Theme and Variations", a pièce d'occasion for eight men by Marcelo Gomes, and a new Ratmansky ballet based on Shakespeare's "The Tempest". New costumes and eight bare-chested men are fine, but the focus was on the Ratmansky. How could Shakespeare's cerebral,
"Pacific", "Twilight", "Solo", "Play"
Houston Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 22, 2013
The Houston Ballet, directed by the Australian choreographer Stanton Welch, returned to the Joyce for a week-long season, with four works (two with live music), variable choreography, and strong, confident, and appealing dancers. Mark Morris' "Pacific", to two movements of a Lou Harrison trio, opened the program. It was choreographed in 1995 for the San Francisco Ballet, and combines point shoes with unusual,
"Veils", "String Quartet in E Minor"
Celebrating the Music of Giuseppe Verdi
Intermezzo
Buttenwieser Hall
92nd St. Y
New York, NY
October 18, 2013
Giuseppe Verdi is two hundred years old this year, which is welcome news for opera marketers. Ballet companies have generally not taken up the opportunity (waiting for Tchaikovsky's party, perhaps), so ABT soloist Craig Salstein's Verdi celebration, with his new company Intermezzo, was a novelty. Verdi, of course, wrote a lot of
"Company", "Tower"
Mazzini Dance Collective
Roulette
Brooklyn, New York
October 16, 2013
The Mazzini Dance Collective performed as part of a program of new music presented by the American Modern Ensemble. (Annmaria Mazzini is the ensemble's choreographer-in-residence.) This group, as the affable introduction explained, presents "adventurous modern music". Not too adventurous, though, as the works all had rhythm and structure. The first half was all music, featuring an eclectic group of instruments--xylophone, cello,
"La Sonnambula", "The Prodigal Son", "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 9 and October 11, 2013
"All Balanchine Short Stories" was the somewhat cumbersome name the marketing department came up with for the triple bill. It is a bit misleading, since the ballets are really poetic examinations of events , not straightforward narratives. Nor are they "all Balanchine" since in each case, he was assigned the music and the
"The Arrogant King", "The Perfect King", "The Story of the Stories", "The Ascetic Prince", "The Trojan King"
Rajika Puri in Sutradhari Natyam
Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, NY
October 6, 2013
In the question and answer session after the performance, Rajika Puri explained that she is trying to be a bridge, to show her Western audience the meaning behind the stories her dances tell. She sings her own lyrics, often in English, a convention, she said, not used in
Fall Gala
"Capricious Maneuvers", "Neverwhere", "Spectral Evidence", "Western Symphony" (4th movement)
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 17, 2013
NYCB's fall gala focused on new works, with costumes by fashion designers, presumably to pull in a fashion-conscious audience with lots of money. Each new work was introduced by a short film of the designer talking about his/her process, very "Project Runwayish". Black, white and red were the colors
Roberto Bolle and Friends Gala
City Center
New York, New York
September 17, 2012
2013 is, apparently, the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, and to help celebrate this, the Italian Roberto Bolle brought his magnificent presence, along with some dancer friends, for a one-night performance of various solos and pas de deux. This was not your usual gala-fodder (with the exception of "The Dying Swan") since most of the dances were unfamiliar. Unfortunately,
"The Impulse Wants Company", "Epistasis"
BalletCollective
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
August 14, 2013
Ballet 6.0, for those who are counting, is a mini-festival of small, ballet-inspired companies. BalletCollective (founded in 2010 by New York City Ballet dancer Troy Schumacher as Satellite Ballet and Collective), it their own words "assembles artists, poets, composers, choreographers, and designers to collaborate as equals". This Diaghilevian idea includes seven supremely talented current and former New York City
"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
June 26, 2013 Matinee
Veronkia Part and Cory Stearns were scheduled to make joint debuts as the nymph Sylvia and her beloved Aminta; however at the last minute Stearns was injurned and replaced by Marcelo Gomes. (There wasn't even enough time to put a slip in the program.) Gomes, of course, is an experienced Aminta and a partner extraordinaire, but much of the partnering requires split second
"Sylvia"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
June 24, 2013
Michael Mayer, the director of the new "Rigoletto" at the Met, explained his decision to set the opera in 1950's Las Vegas by saying "It gives the audience a chance to recognize these people in a way that doesn't require a giant imaginative leap. I'm not totaly sure where Manuta is in Italy, it's not one of those beautiful places I'
"Change of Heart", "Dusk", "Night of the Flying Horses", "Night and Dreams"
Lydia Johnson Dance
Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
June 7, 2013
Lydia Johnson's appealing group of dancers, augmented by Carlos Lopez, a former soloist with ABT, presented a series of four dances at the intimate Alvin Ailey Theater. The music, which ranged from Bach to Osvaldo Golijov, unfortunately was taped, but the dancers managed to make their movements seem spontaneous. Johnson's