"Split"
Lucy Guerin Inc
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York
October 13, 2018
Two women – one naked, one in a modest blue dress – dance parallel figures to the sound of drums, on a bare stage marked off by a square of white tape. The gestures suggest a range of human activities: play, sport, religious ritual, repetitive work, rest, sex, sleep, and dance itself, ballet and modern and folk. The moves are identical but look different, articulate and sensuous
“Rhapsody” (excerpts), “Canto Ostinato,” Petrushka,” “Rennie Harris Funkedified’ (excerpt)
Fall for Dance, Program 4
New York City Center
New York, New York
October 11, 2018
Fall for Dance is known for the variety of its programs, but Number Four, seen on Thursday, felt like whiplash as it changed from one offering to the next. Yet when all was said and done, there were relationships to be found among the works, which started with classical ballet and ended with hip
“Ballet,” “Pamplona Stones,” “Working Title”
Trisha Brown Dance Company
BAM Fisher
Brooklyn, New York
October 10-13, 2018
Carolyn Lucas and Diane Madden, who are the directors of the Trisha Brown Dance Company, seem to be making all the right decisions on how to proceed after the founder’s death eighteen months ago. Last year the company presented a splendid concert of late Brown works at Jacob’s Pillow, and at BAM Fisher this week the group showed earlier pieces
"Napoli"
Oregon Ballet Theatre
Keller Auditorium, Portland
October 6, 2018
In 2015 Oregon Ballet Theatre staged the third act of August Bournonville’s 1842 ”Napoli.” It’s the best-known part of this enchanting ballet, often excerpted in mixed programs; the variations have become a staple in competitions and gala events. It turns out that the Oregonians used this last act as a dress rehearsal for the entire “Napoli.” That meant commissioning sets and costumes along the lines of the
“Pitkin Grove”
Beth Gill
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 4, 2018
Beth Gill is in no hurry. She has lots to say, but the audience must step up and choose to join her in the complex performance she creates. The world premiere of her latest work, “Pitkin Grove,” has been set on the Joyce’s temporary Quadrille stage; it’s a delicate assemblage, where all the players, boldly color-coded, play their not-quite-solo parts with different energies,
"Six Brandenburg Concertos"
Rosas
Park Avenue Armory
New York NY
October 7, 2018
by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2018 by Carol Pardo
Why didn't it work? That question hangs over Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's "Six Brandenburg Concertos". It should have worked. Evidently, De Keersmaeker was listening to the Brandenburgs (or at least no. 5) while choreographing "Fase", to Steve Reich in 1982, the piece that put her on the map. Having made minimalism move exultantly, you'd
“New Work for Goldberg Variations (excerpt),” “Sleep Well Beast,” “Inner Voices,” “Promethean Fire”
Fall For Dance Festival Program 2
Pam Tanowitz Dance, Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado, Gemma Bond Dance, Paul Taylor Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 4, 2018
For fifteen years Fall for Dance Festival has taken pride – rightly – in introducing a wide audience to a wide variety of dancers, dances and dance forms on each of its program. So it was surprising to
“Judson Dance Theater: The Work Is Never Done”
Museum of Modern Art
New York, New York
September 16, 2018 – February 3, 2019
The canonic status of the Judson Dance Theater was secured nearly forty years ago with Sally Banes’ two studies, “Terpsichore in Sneakers: Post-modern Dance” and “Democracy’s Body: Judson Dance Theater, 1962-1964.” The handsome exhibition that the Museum of Modern Art has mounted does not question Judson’s place in the canon, although in certain details
Pacific Northwest Ballet Jerome Robbins Centennial Celebration: Jerome Robbins' Male Solos
Works & Process
Peter B. Lewis Theater
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
New York, NY
October 3, 2018
Jerome Robbins' centenary is being celebrated in many different ways in many different places.( In homage, the Paris Opera Ballet will perform Robbins most explicitly American ballet "Fancy Free" set specifically on a side street of New York City on a hot summer night in 1944.) But one of the most intriguing
“Bach Cello Suites,” “Dances of Isadora Duncan – A Solo Tribute,” “Bzzz,” “The Barbarian Nights, or First Dawns of the World (excerpt)”
Fall For Dance Festival
Boston Ballet, Sara Mearns, Caleb Teicher & Company and Cie Hervé Koubi
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 1, 2018
Perhaps the best attribute of the Fall For Dance Festival, this year in its 15th season, is its ability to expose viewers to works and artists they may not otherwise see
"Pepperland"
Mark Morris Dance Group
Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
September 28, 2018
Can Mark Morris disappoint? Yes and no. The recent “Pepperland” performance at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall showed his company at the top of its abilities. These magnificent dancers probably couldn’t present a sloppy show if they tried. A ballet company’s quality is in major parts determined by the quality of its corps. The Mark Morris Dance Group is a corps made up of Principals. Elizabeth
"Schubert Scherzo," "The Eternal Idol," "Sinfonietta" "Echo," "Merely Players" "Blue Until June"
Smuin Contemporary Ballet
Palace of Fine Arts
San Francisco, CA
September 30, 2018
Smuin Contemporary Ballet, as it is known today, is that rare story of a company surviving without missing a beat even after the unexpected death of its founder. Michael Smuin in this case. Less than a decade after his acrimonious departure from San Francisco Ballet, with which he had been associated off and on since