2019 Whitney Biennial
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, New York
May 14, 2019
Neck-deep in controversy even before it began, the 79th Whitney Biennial opened today –- organized by two adventurous young women, showcasing emerging artists and artists of color, many of them under 40 years old. Curators Jane Panetta and Ru Hockney set out to reflect the current American turmoil in both social and aesthetic issues. Their show delivers with a panoply of objects d’
"Shostakovich Trilogy"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
May 7, 2019
Just about everybody I encountered at the reprise of Alexei Ratmansky’s “Shostakovich Trilogy,” premiered by ABT in 2013 and San Francisco Ballet in 2014, commented on how they “hate Shostakovich’s music, but love it when danced.” I am actually one of those who Ratmansky made hear the music because I could see it in the dancers’ bodies. More often than not well known
Dance Icons’ Thesis Concert
Choreography by Rachael Alexandra,
Alicia E. Diaz de Leon, Jess Hoversen,
Naomi Lang, Mariah Lopez Solonick,
Paul Lytle and Mecca Mayers
Dance Loft on 14
Washington, DC
May 11, 2019
Music by single composers served the first two dance works on the program. Each of the five following pieces of choreography used several composers, from three to six. Was it any wonder that the first two dances didn’t meander? The opener, Paul Lytle’s “Trilemma”
“Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” “Barber Violin Concerto,” “Diamonds”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 5, 2019
New York City Ballet’s “Barber, Broadway & Balanchine” program, showing Balanchine’s “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue” and “Diamonds,” and Peter Martins’ “Barber Violin Concerto,” at first seemed like an odd mix of repertory give the ballets’ vastly different styles. But combining dance hall theatrics, strong American modern dance flavor, and of course one of the best examples
Pepperland
Mark Morris Dance Group
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, New York
May 11, 2019
Great artists know where they shouldn't go. George Balanchine, for example, never choreographed to Beethoven, because he said Beethoven's works were complete in themselves, nothing to add. Mark Morris could have used that kind of discernment when he accepted a commission for a 50th-anniversary tribute to the Beatles’ masterpiece “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” The resulting
“Close the Door Slowly”
Liss Fain Dance
Z Space
San Francisco, CA
May 5, 2019
Clarity of vision is one of the characteristics of Liss Fain who has been making dance in the Bay Area since 1990. While for the time being she seems to have forgone proscenium performances in favor of installations, often combined with wandering poets and narrators, in this new show language is buried in stacks of books, which however, are barely consulted. “Close the Door Slowly”
“Bright,” “Bartók Ballet,” “Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3”
New York City Ballet
Spring Gala
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 2, 2019
Congratulatory speeches from the stage; women in fancy dresses passing up and down the aisles; a rather late start to the evening; men of a certain age in formal wear shaking hands across the rows of the orchestra of the David H. Koch Theater: it's another gala at New York City Ballet. All three of the
“Tracings”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Kogod Courtyard
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
May 4, 2019
This time Dana Tai Soon Burgess didn’t make a new dance but restaged his 2003 work. If memory serves, it emerged with fresh bravura and with a lyric thrust from start to stop. Apparently the current version, with a duration of 43 minutes, is a bit shorter than the original that was shown at Kennedy Center. Aspects of ritual and of a
“Bright,” “Bartók Ballet,” “Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3”
New York City Ballet
Spring Gala
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 2, 2019
Positive sentiments were very much in evidence when New York City Ballet’s new co-directors Wendy Whelan and Jonathan Stafford opened their first gala with remarks about their dedication to the institution that had nurtured them and to its core values: on the one hand preserving the company’s incomparable Balanchine/Robbins repertory and on the
"Renaissance" "The Best of Smuin"
Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
April 26, 2019
Last year Smuin Contemporary Ballet (formerly known as Smuin Ballet) changed its name to the current one; this year they celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Michael Smuin’s finally having his own troupe. Remarkably right from the start, Smuin could count on a sizable, faithful audience who appreciated his showmanship and the breadth of his musical tastes. He died quite
"Estado Vegetal"
Manuela Infante
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
May 3, 2019
In medical Spanish, "Estado Vegetal" means a vegetative state, where basic life functions go on but consciousness and thought are absent. Politically, a "Vegetative State" could mean rule by the plant kingdom. This intense theatrical piece, starring a young Chilean woman and an array of potted plants, suggests such a state is exactly where humanity is headed.
The plot is a parable – an
"Pictures at an Exhibition," "Oltremare," "Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 25 and 26, 2019
No Balanchine. No Robbins. For the first week of its spring 2019 season, the New York City Ballet looked not to its bedrock repertory but to works of this century, made long after Balanchine and Robbins were gone: Alexei Ratmansky's "Pictures at an Exhibition", Mauro Bigonzetti's "Oltremare" and Justin Peck's "Rodeo: