“Silhouettes”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
October 30, 2018

Before photography was invented in 1839, silhouettes were pretty trendy. These simple, economical cut-outs of a person’s profile were easily available, so even people belonging to marginalized minority groups were able to get silhouettes made. As a result, those who study these underrated slivers of history are able to recognize America’s diversity. The concept of silhouette features the

“Xenos”
Akram Khan
White Light Festival
Rose Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 31, 2018 

Akram Khan has long been one of the UK’s most inventive dance artists. He is known for imaginatively combining classical Indian Kathak dance with contemporary western forms, and for his collaborative productions with important artists from varied genres. “Xenos,” presented as part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, has to do with Indian soldiers who fought for Britain in World

"Serenade", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Tarantella", "Symphony in C"
Miami City Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet
Balanchine: The City Center Years
New York City Center
New York, New York
October 31, 2018

When Mayor Fiorello La Guardia established the New York City Center 75 years ago, the current president Arlene Shuler's gracious opening speech reminded the audience it was New York's first performing arts center.  Several years later, in 1948, it

“But First A School: The Making of a Balanchine Dancer” 
Studio 5 
New York City Center
New York, New York
Oct. 29, 2018

New York City Ballet’s first home was New York City Center, and as part of the Center’s seventy-fifth anniversary, it is featuring a George Balanchine celebration, which is going on this week in the main auditorium. Meanwhile, upstairs in Studio 5, a less formal celebration took place on Monday evening. It was

Song of the Mermaid
K'Arts Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 20, 2018 evening

"Song of the Mermaid", choreographed by Sunhee Kim, has as its source Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid". The Mermaid, the youngest of six daughters of the King of the Sea, falls in love with the prince she has saved from drowning. To act on her love, she seeks help from a Blanket Octopus who covets her father's throne.

"Symphonie Concertante", "Garden Blue", "Fancy Free" 
American Ballet Theatre 
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY 
October 20, 2018 matinee

At American Ballet Theatre, the dancing did the talking in a program that included a revival of Balanchine's "Symphonie Concertante" to Mozart, once considered lost; "Garden Blue" in which the production carried the day; and an unalloyed classic, Jerome Robbins' "Fancy Free" all with debuts in leading roles.

What amazes initially in "Symphonie Concertante" is how

The Balanchine Woman
Studio 5
New York City Center
New York, New York
October 25, 2018

The New York City Center is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and to salute the Center's crucial role in the development of the New York City Ballet has arranged an impressive array of Balanchine ballets to be performed by several companies, a glorious mini-festival celebrating the choreographer.  The intimate, innovative Studio 5 series started the party with a presentation by

“Viva Vivaldi (excerpts),” “Aureole,” “Gamelan (excerpts),” “Party Mix”
Dig Dance, Taylor, Joffrey, Arpino: Deliciously Alternative Classics
New York Dance Project, Taylor 2 
92nd St Y
New York, NY 
October 19, 2018

When it comes to dance, particularly 20th century theatrical dance with a classical or neoclassical bent, words can be, if not dangerous, certainly misleading, paving stones on the road to disappointment. This has little to do with the quality of the dancers or dancing but rather

“Watermill”
BAM Fisher
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, New York
October 24, 2018 

Jerome Robbins created “Watermill” for New York City Ballet in 1972. It was staged for what was then known as the State Theater, now the David H. Koch Theater, a proscenium theater of opera house proportions. Choreographer Luca Veggetti has re-imagined the work for the intimate BAM Fisher, and the ballet benefits greatly from it.

Veggetti has been respectful of Robbins’ vision for “Watermill;” his

“Körper”
Sasha Waltz & Guests
Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances
Berkeley, CA
Oct, 20, 2018

If the body is both the object and the subject of Dance, you can stop worrying about Sasha Waltz’s “Körper” being dance or not, because it is. Waltz made her reputation for making work about the ordinary, the everyday, and she makes us look at it through a prism that enlightens and entertains simultaneously. The human body is about as basic an object to become

“Concerto Barocco,” “Company B” and “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2”
Miami City Ballet
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
Miami, Florida
October 19th and 21st, 2018

Miami City Ballet Artistic Director Lourdes Lopez addressed the audience before the start of MCBs 33rd season on Friday, October 19^th at the Adrienne Arsht Center and dedicated the performance of “Company B” to choreographer Paul Taylor, who died in August. 

With that, Program I opened to “Concerto Barocco”, danced

“Le Jeune,” “Dream within a Dream (deferred),” “In the Upper Room”
American Ballet Theatre
Fall Gala
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
October 12, 2018

Is there something specifically female in the content or experience of a ballet by a woman, besides the fact that a woman created it? In programming a Fall Gala exclusively of works by women at the start of its brief fall season at Lincoln Center, American Ballet Theatre implicitly put this question on