Mary Cargill

"Twinkliana","Les Petite Riens", "Cortege Hongrois"
School of American Ballet
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, New York
June 2 2012, matinee

The annual SAB performance opened with Sean Lavery's "Twinkliana", set to Mozart's "12 Variations".  This charming exercise was performed by younger students, who looked assured and engaging, showing how much variety can be found dancing on demi-point.  "Les Petite Riens", Peter Martins' 1987 ballet, also do Mozart, is also basically an exercise, a formal, pleasant excursion

"The Bright Stream"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 31, 2012 

Alexei Ratmansky's "The Bright Stream", to Shastokovich's boisterous, danceable music, returned in all its delicious silliness.  Yes, high-jinx on a Soviet collective farm might seem to be an odd basis for a good-hearted, loving comedy, but the stylized plot, with its disguises, its tricks, its straying husbands and forgiving wives, is one that Mozart would recognize.  There is a formal underpinning

"La Bayadère"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 23, 2012

ABT's season is showing a company in transition, as many of its male pricipals leave--Jose Manual Carreno last year, Ethan Stiefel and Angel Corella this year, leaving only a few men tall and elegant enough to be princes.  The answer, at least this year, is to import a number of guest stars, avoiding last year's situation, where Marcelo Gomes did a number

"Mes Oiseaux", "Liebeslieder Walzer", "Symphony in C"
New York City Ballet
The David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
May 19, 2012

Even in the pure-dance air of the New York City Ballet, costumes are important, and the recent triple bill showed a variety of dressings.  The first ballet, Peter Martins' new "Mes Oiseaux", was dressed by the dress designer Gilles Mendel, and featured three girls (Lauren Lovette, Ashly Isaacs, and Claire Kretzschmar, all corps dancers)

"Giselle"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
May 16, 2012, matinee

ABT's sturdy and vivid production of "Giselle" featured a young cast for the Wednesday matinee; two soloists (Hee Seo as the poor wili and Simone Messmer as Myrta) and a youngish principal, Cory Stearns in his New York debut as the duplicitous Albrecht.  These dancers have only performed their roles a few times, but imagination, understanding, theatrical intelligence, not to mention technique to burn, gave this performance a

"Serenade", Kamermusik No. 2", "Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 2, 2012

One sure sign that spring is here is opening night of the New York City Ballet, and this season opened with a generous serving of Balanchine.  The corps in "Serenade", the curtain raiser, looked very well rehearsed, dancing with a delicate urgency and a coherent, but not overly drilled, precision.  Janie Taylor was an unusual waltz girl, more

Barcelona Ballet
"Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1", "For 4", "Pálpito"
New York City Center
New York, NY
April 17, 2012

The financial crisis in Europe has affected much more than the stock market, as the Corella Ballet, founded in 2008 by Angel Corella, has seen its official funding shrink.  He has moved the company to Barcelona and rechristened the company, but the impression left from his first visit to New York, in 2010, of a fine, well-trained, and 

"Pilot", "Allegretto", "II", "Midnight Oil", "Just Passing", "Morning Will Break"
Columbia Ballet Collaborative
Miller Theatre
Columbia University
New York, New York
April 13, 2012

The Columbia Ballet Collaborative was founded in 2007 by a group of professionally trained dancers who were studying at Columbia University.  The original founders have graduated, but the idea has taken root, and the current group (again made up of dancers attending Columbia or Barnard College, many with professional experience) meets regularly to take

Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
April 7, 2012

Avi Scher's third season, like his earlier ones, featured essentially a pick-up company, augmented by some big names;  Herman Cornejo, of ABT fame, was the biggest this season.  But there was no pick-up feeling about the dancers, as they seemed to dance for and with each other.  Scher has the ability not only to make his dancers look good, he also

Paul Taylor Dance Company
"Company B", "Gossamer Gallants", "Promethean Fire"
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, New York
March 27, 2012

"Company B", Paul Taylor's salute to the men and women who endured World War II via the Andrews Sisters' songs, becomes darker at every viewing.  The opening "Bei Mir Bist du Schon", with its cheerful, upbeat rhythms, is haunted by dark figures, wandering through the melody, like ghosts remembering their past. 

The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble
The Joyce Theater
New York, New York
March 23, 2012

The Nrityagram Dance Company is a hybrid, a modern take on traditional Indian, specifically Odissi, temple dances.  That is, the company uses the historical technique in a theatrical manner.  For this visit, the three Odissi dancers were joined by two Kandyan dancers (Kandyan dance is also a temple dance) from Sri Lanka, and the two related styles made an interesting contrast. 

Paul Taylor Dance Company
"Aureole", "Troilus and Cressida (reduced)", "Brandenburgs", "Piazzolla Caldera"
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, New York
March 13, 2012

Paul Taylor made his first-ever appearance at Lincoln Center with a full and appreciative audience (the $3.50 tickets, in honor of the price of the original "Aureole" certainly helped).  The prices may have been the same, but this performance was danced to taped music, an unfortunate requirement in