"Blak Whyte Gray"
Boy Blue
Michael "Mikey J" Asante, Creative Direction and Music 
Kenrick "H2O" Sandy, Choreography
Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College 
Lincoln Center White Light Festival 
November 16, 2018

Members of Boy Blue held a post-performance chat last night after the US premiere of "Blak Whyte Gray," and it was a shock to hear their British accents. Their intense and acrobatic hip-hop dancing was straight from the streets of New York – having made

"Anna Karenina"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 10, 2018

The National Ballet of Canada has taken a liking to John Neumeier's full-length dance dramas over the past decade with performances of "The Seagull", "Nijinsky", and "A Streetcar Named Desire". His latest work to enter the repertoire, "Anna Karenina", is a new commission and a joint effort between the NBoC, Hamburg Ballet, and Bolshoi Ballet. Leo Tolstoy's epic story needs no

“Scotch Symphony,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Divertissement Pas de Deux from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” “The Four Temperaments”
San Francisco Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet
Balanchine, The City Center Years
New York City Center
November 2, 2018

City Center’s 75th anniversary celebration of Balanchine ballets was a rare example in today’s arts world – routinely long on hype and short on substance – of a festival that focused on a worthy subject and actually delivered.

"Don Quixote" 
Hungarian National Ballet 
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY 
November 9, 2018 

Michael Messerer's version of "Don Quixote" was last seen in New York in 2014 danced by the Mihailovsky ballet with supernova superstars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev in the leading roles. Four years later, Hungarian National Ballet couldn't field as brilliant a pair of leads -- few companies could -- but other, quieter virtues became apparent this time around.

The curtain

"Apparatus Hominus"
Tom Gold Dance
Florence Gould Hall
New York, New York
November 9, 2018

Tom Gold, the former New York City Ballet soloist who now has a small company of semi-regular dancers, many of whom also work for other companies, presented what was billed as his inaugural fall season with an hour-long work originally choreographed for the TurnPark Art Space, an outdoor sculpture garden in the Berkshires.  The printed program included pictures of some of the artwork which

“Estrogen/Genius,” “Distant Kin,” “North Star,” “Mudan 175/39”
Garth Fagan Dance
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
November 2, 2018

Garth Fagan Dance returned to the Joyce Theater this fall for less than a week, but was determined to make the most of the appearance. Each night’s program presented the company’s two new works, Garth Fagan’s “The North Star,” which was a celebration of the life of Frederick Douglass, and Norwood Pennewell’s “Distant Kin,” so

“I hunger for you”
Kimberly Bartosik/daela
BAM Fisher (Fishman Space)
Brooklyn, NY
November 3, 2018

Like the zone inhabited by whirling dervishes, Kimberly Bartosik’s passionate “I hunger for you” reaches for moments of mystical power through relentless motion. In its New York premiere in the capacious black box of BAM Fisher, her work for five dancers (plus a brief observer) offers passion and intensity that often finds that ecstatic zone; even the act of reaching offers many of

"Written in Water"
Ragamala Dance Company
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
November 3, 2018

In “Written in Water,” a menagerie of talented dancers, music- ians, and visual artworks joined together and intermingled to perform a sonically extravagant and visually alluring show. Ranee and Aparna Ramaswamy, the mother-daughter duo responsible for Ragamala Dance Company’s artistic direction, were informed by tradition and compelled by innovation to create a masterpiece respecting the sanctity

"The Four Temperaments", "Pas de Trois (Glinka)", "Pas de Deux from Agon", "Divertimento No. 15"
The Joffrey Ballet, Miami City Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, San Francisco Ballet
Balanchine: The City Center Years
New York City Center
New York, New York
November 3, 2018, matinee

The City Center's brief Balanchine celebration made the wide appeal of Balanchine's choreography clear on this Saturday matinee as the varied program had no performances by Balanchine's own company.  These performances had different accents, some

“Kreatur”
Sasha Waltz & Guests
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, New York
November 2, 20 18

Contemporary German choreographers are not known for light-hearted fare, but Sasha Waltz’s “Kreatur,” which opened Friday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, may set a record for dystopian gloom. Not that there is much optimism on either side of the Atlantic these days.

The ninety-minute piece is set for fourteen dancers and is described as an examination of existence in a disrupted society.

“Apollo,” “Concerto Barocco,” Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Divertimento No. 15”
Mariinsky Ballet, New York City Ballet, Royal Ballet, San Francisco Ballet
Balanchine: The City Center Years
New York City Center
New York, New York
November 1, 2018

Last year the Lincoln Center Festival celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of George Balanchine’s “Jewels” by inviting the Paris Opera Ballet, the Bolshoi, and New York City Ballet to perform sections of the work, trading off sections at various performances. One good idea