“Judah,” “Dances at a Gathering,” "Stars and Stripes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 17, 2019

The New York City Ballet presented a program that was simultaneously overstuffed and undercooked. The evening lasted more than two and a half hours, with a generous helping of dance, including four local debuts in "Dances at a Gathering", but underpowered, and leaving one peckish at its end.

The evening began with "Judah" intended presumably as a

"Exuberant Fanfare”, “At the Seams”,
“Lissajous” and “Du Vent et des Vages”
Bowen McCauley Dance Company
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
May 18, 2019

The entire program was titled “An Awakening”, and without doubt the evening’s choreographers, Lucy Bowen McCauley and Ilana Goldman, displayed the ferment and sensitivity of nascent feelings. The joyous opener, “Exuberant Fanfare” by Bowen McCauley, was very balletic. Bodies were turned-out and limbs were streamlined or

“Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet,” “Tschaikovsky Suite No. 3”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
May 15, 2019

The return of “Brahms-Schoenberg” to the stage was a highlight of the still unfinished season at New York City Ballet this week. The ensemble ballet of all ensemble ballets, the first work Balanchine made for at Lincoln Center after the company moved from City Center, showed Balanchine reveling in the space afforded by the larger stage with

“Scotch Symphony,” “Valse-Fantaisie,” “Sonatine,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 8, 2019

With its “All Balanchine” program, New York City Ballet turned to the older works of its founding master – George Balanchine’s “Scotch Symphony,” “Valse-Fantasie,” “Sonatine,” and “Stravinsky Violin Concerto.”  This particular evening had many debuts, allowing for a fresh look at the company through the older works, and also proving that the company’s classics are

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 50^th-anniversary tribute to the Beatles’ masterpiece “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.