“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
“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
"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
"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
New York City Ballet
"Scotch Symphony", "Duo Concertant", "Sonatine", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 30, 2019
The most recent work on the all-Balanchine program was the 1975 "Sonatine" but all the dancers looked fresh and vibrant. Even "Scotch Symphony", that charming but illogical wish-mash of Romantic themes with kilted men switching effortlessly from menacing barriers to bouncy villagers and an illusive sylph morphing into a triumphant ballerina, shimmered.
“Hallelujah Junction,” “Herman Schmerman,” “The Exchange,” “Concerto DSCH”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
April 24, 2019
One of the most exciting things about New York City Ballet as a company is the sheer number of new choreographic works it manages to usher into the world season after season. That it has whole programs devoted to 21st century choreographers is a testament to that, and those tend to be my favorite evenings
“The Little Mermaid”
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
April 19, 2019
Stunning performances, particularly by Yuan Yuan Tan who we cannot possibly hope to again approach the mastery she brought to the title role of John Neumeier’s “The Little Mermaid,” left many of us speechless with admiration. If anything Tan brought an even more spellbinding intensity to her character’s physical frailty and fierce spirit. You couldn’t take her eyes off her in
“Night of 100 Solos: A Centennial Event”
Merce Cunningham (staged by Patricia Lent)
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, NY
April 16, 2019
The blockbuster birthday party celebrating Merce Cunningham’s 100th could not have made a better case for the enduring power of his choreography and vision. In creating this “event” (his own phrase about reconfiguring dance elements to make a new work,) three splendid, invented “companies” of 25 dancers each were assembled to offer live performances in Brooklyn, Los
“Art Songs” “Pole Star”
Alonzo King Lines Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
April 12 and 17, 2019
Misreading of curtain time made me miss the major part of Alonzo King’s reworking of his 2016 “Art Songs” which opened the company’s spring season. I thought it necessary to return since a partial perspective of a work never makes sense. Also, the new “Pole Star”, with original music, performed live by composer Van-Anh Vanessa