"Pilot", "Allegretto", "II", "Midnight Oil", "Just Passing", "Morning Will Break"
Columbia Ballet Collaborative
Miller Theatre
Columbia University
New York, New York
April 13, 2012

The Columbia Ballet Collaborative was founded in 2007 by a group of professionally trained dancers who were studying at Columbia University.  The original founders have graduated, but the idea has taken root, and the current group (again made up of dancers attending Columbia or Barnard College, many with professional experience) meets regularly to take

Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
April 7, 2012

Avi Scher's third season, like his earlier ones, featured essentially a pick-up company, augmented by some big names;  Herman Cornejo, of ABT fame, was the biggest this season.  But there was no pick-up feeling about the dancers, as they seemed to dance for and with each other.  Scher has the ability not only to make his dancers look 

Paul Taylor Dance Company
"Company B", "Gossamer Gallants", "Promethean Fire"
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, New York
March 27, 2012

"Company B", Paul Taylor's salute to the men and women who endured World War II via the Andrews Sisters' songs, becomes darker at every viewing.  The opening "Bei Mir Bist du Schon", with its cheerful, upbeat rhythms, is haunted by dark figures, wandering through the melody, like ghosts remembering their past.

The Nrityagram Dance Ensemble
The Joyce Theater
New York, New York
March 23, 2012

The Nrityagram Dance Company is a hybrid, a modern take on traditional Indian, specifically Odissi, temple dances.  That is, the company uses the historical technique in a theatrical manner.  For this visit, the three Odissi dancers were joined by two Kandyan dancers (Kandyan dance is also a temple dance) from Sri Lanka, and the two related styles made an interesting contrast. 

Paul Taylor Dance Company
"Aureole", "Troilus and Cressida (reduced)", "Brandenburgs", "Piazzolla Caldera"
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, New York
March 13, 2012

Paul Taylor made his first-ever appearance at Lincoln Center with a full and appreciative audience (the $3.50 tickets, in honor of the price of the original "Aureole" certainly helped).  The prices may have been the same, but this performance was danced to taped music, an unfortunate requirement

Pam Tanowitz Dance
"Untitled" (The Blue Ballet)
The Kitchen
New York, NY
March 8, 2012

Uptown and downtown combined in the hour and a half long work, featuring former ABT dancers Ashley Tuttle, Sasha Dmochowski, and Brian Reeder, Jean Freebury (formerly with Cunningham), and John Heginbothan (currently with Mark Morris) performing Morton Feldman's String Quartet #1, performed live by the FLUX Quartet.  The music is atonal, un-rhythmic, austere, with occasional bursts of energy.  Tanowitz often

"New Untitled Work", "Falling Out"
Lydia Johnson Dance
Peridance's Salvatore Capezio Theater
New York, New York
February 26, 2012

There were no tattoos to be seen at Lydia Johnson's matinee at the intimate Capezio Theater, but there was a lot to enjoy.  The small, female company (with the addition of former NYCB dancer Max van der Sterre as a guest artist) is ballet based, with a weightlessness and controlled upper bodies, which they combine with everyday, non-

"Play"
Ballet Arizona
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
February 22, 2012

Ib Andersen, the elegant, understated, and irreplaceable New York City dancer (and for those of us with a long memory, Bournonville stylist extraordinaire) returned to New York as the director of the 35 member Ballet Arizona.  Not surprisingly, these dancers embody some of his best traits; elegant, open upper bodies, modesty, precision, musicality, and the strength to make everything look easy.  The dancers, from a

"The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "Le Tombeau de Couperin", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Who Cares?"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
January 17, 2012

The New York City Ballet's winter season opening night had no gimmicks, no so-called theme, no major debuts.  It was "just" an all-Balanchine evening, and pretty pink-and-white Balanchine at that.  But it  had some enjoyable, entertaining, and magnificent

"Arden Court", "Cry", "The Hunt", "Revelations"
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
City Center
New York, NY
December 24, 2011

Robert Battle's first season as the director of the Alvin Ailey Company began with a complete triumph, as he acquired Paul Taylor's sublime "Arden Court".  The Ailey dancers attacked the quick, difficult, and witty choreography with their unique physicality, and captured the uplifting, joyful spirit of the Taylor Company.  It was like watching champagne bubbles do an

Pilar Rioja
Repertorio Español
New York, NY
December 6, 2011

Pilar Rioja, looking much younger than her seventy+ years, gave a series of farewell performances on the wonderfully intimate stage of the Repertorio Español.  She ranged from full-blooded flamenco to a more gracious filigreed fandango, alternating (so she could change costumes) with haunting flamenco singers and guitarists.  The setting was powerfully simple--a stage, a spotlight, and a black background; no gimmicks, just music and

"The Garden of Villandry", "Sinatra Suite", "Private Light", "In the Upper Room"
American Ballet Theatre
New York City Center
New York, NY
November 8, 2011

ABT opened its weeklong City Center program with a gala completely bereft of fouettes, and a minimum of point shoes.  The brief welcoming speech by Kevin McKenzie seemed to imply that the dancers were relieved not to be romping through the Spring blockbusters, and that he was glad he could feature some of the