"Sleeping Beauty"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 9, 2019
Why do we keep going back to see “Sleeping Beauty” when we can almost hear the music’s next section before it hits the air? Of course, this is Tchaikovsky's greatest ballet score, here sensitively conducted once again by Martin West. Yet we may have seen the ballet many times, sometimes live, sometimes on screen. Some of us even make a point of seeing
"World's On Fire"
ODC Dance
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
March7, 2019
Every arts institution, particularly one over forty years old, has to face the future. Most of them do it rather later than sooner. ODC Dance, still under the leadership of its founding members Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada, is planning more openly than any other I can think of. Currently, Oakland-born Kate Weare now heads her thriving Kate Weare Dance
"One. One & One"
Vertigo Dance Company
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
March 6, 2019
Except for a neat row of dirt at the front of the stage, the opening section of “One. One & One” by Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company looks much like the closing elegy of George Balanchine’s “Serenade.” It’s a solemn communal idyll, to sonorous cellos in a minor key, with a motif of dancers leaning on each other for balance and support.
"Prodigal Son", "Liebeslieder Walzer"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
March 2, 2019 (matinee)
"Prodigal Son" is one of Balanchine's most robust ballets; it turns ninety this year and has rarely been out of the New York City Ballet's repertory since being revived for Edward Villella in 1960. There have been always male dancers, willing, able, even eager to take on the title role and a stable of tall long-
"Apollo", "Night", "The Sea Above, The Sky Below", "Paquita"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 1, 2019
The National Ballet of Canada's winter mixed program featured an pleasing blend of old and new works, from the grand classical showpiece "Paquita" to the company premiere of Julia Adam's "Night". Artistic Director Karen Kain has a knack for putting together a well-rounded mixed program that makes for a
"Xenos"
Akram Khan Company
Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances
Berkeley, CA
March 2, 2019
When last Saturday night the stage went dark at the end of Akram Khan’s “Xenos,” nobody moved in the near-capacity audience of the 2,600-seat Zellerbach Hall. The silence was deafening. Finally, a small, dirt-covered figure walked downstage, and the hall exploded. “Xenos” supposedly, is Khan’s last solo performance. With his first-rate collaborators he created a haunting meditation on what it
New York City Ballet
"Prodigal Son", "Liebeslieder Walzer"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
February 28, 2019
The typical image of a Balanchine ballet features an austere backdrop illuminating the dancers (in leotards or pastel shifts) and their glorious formations, but the February 28th performance showcased two Balanchine ballets whose sets and costumes created distinctive atmospheres. Georges Rouault's stained glass glow helps give "Prodigal Son" the rooted, ritualistic feel of an ancient parable and
“Sleeping Beauty”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 21, 2019
“Sleeping Beauty” is many things to a ballet lover. One of Tchaikovsky’s greatest scores, the ballet laid the foundation for the post-World War II ballet boom when Ashton’s staging for the Royal Ballet, starring Margot Fonteyn, took the Euro-American stages by storm with its Rose Adagio and famous balances. But first and foremost, the debut of young Indiana Woodward
“To Create a World”
Gallim
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 13, 2019
It takes some chutzpah “To Create a World.” Choreo- grapher Andrea Miller, along with the Gallim dancers, had good reason to attempt the feat, in the premiere of their new work. On a stage of swirling, contorted bodies bathed in deep color and harsh swipes of light and dark, Gallim inhabited a place apart, in a community of unique movement and connection.
"Divining"
little seismic dance company
ODC Theater, San Francisco
February 16, 2019
The first time I saw Katie Faulkner’s choreography was when, as a member of AXIS Dance Company 2003-2007, she set “Decorum” on three dancers, a wheelchair and a sofa. It was one of those “where did she come from?" moments. For her own little seismic dance company, she has since made and performed dance films, solos on herself and for small groups. She also created the
"The Fifth Season," "Snowbird," "Etudes"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
February 14, 2019
The third season program again showed the SFB in fine mettle with Helgi Tomasson’s darkly hued “The Fifth Season,” the heart-breaking “Snowbird” by Cathy Marston, and one of the oddest works in Ballet repertoire, Harald Lander’s “Etudes”, first performed by SFB in 1998. For that one the dancers ought to have been given a bonus for the sheer stamina and
“Sleeping Beauty”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 13, 2019
Nearly 15 months after Peter Martins’ resignation from New York City Ballet, where an interim artistic team continues to run things during the search for his successor, his elaborate production of “The Sleeping Beauty” went back on stage Wednesday night for the first of fourteen performances. Yet with a full house and Martins himself in the audience, the opening night was anything but