Risilient

George Jackson

01 Apr 2019 — 1 min read

DEMO: Now
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 29, 2019

Tap-dance made the latest in Damian Woetzel’s “Demo” series memorable, and there was just one tapper: Caleb Teicher. He is a thin, young fellow with a bleached blob at the front of his haircut. At rest, Teicher seems high strung. Dancing, he surfs atop a spectrum of moods that includes the joy of free mobility, the relief of secure landings and the itch to explore further. Three low tap tables served him as surfaces. They had been placed in a row across the stage, with some space between them. Teicher jumped from one table to another like a Nijinsky faun. His tapping had rhythmic nuance. He jabbed the toes proudly, relished standing on pointed heels for balancing and seemed to treasures clapping the full underfoot onto the sounding surfaces. His solo “TurnAround” was accompanied by two pianists – Kurt Crowley and Joel Wenhardt who played a medley of compositions by J.S. Bach, Joe Garland, Louis Prima, George Gershwin and John Adams. I’d like to see Teicher tackle a single composition, for he seems to be not just a vivid dancer but also a thoughtful choreographer.

There was much of this performance that my poor hearing made inaccessible – Damian Woetzel’s commentary, Sarah Kay’s poetic yarns to Caroline Shaw’s fiddling, etc. Among the participants, Dance Heginbotham’s danseur Victor Lozano had sensual intensity. Alas, the ballerina Patricia Delgado seemed to have become hard. Woetzel’s series of “Demo” performances will resume at Kennedy Center next season.

Men Alone

"Birthday Offering", "Mercurial Son", "Ballet Imperial"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 23, 2026 and October 24, 2026, matinee

Perhaps coincidentally, the “Neoclassical Works” program with ballets from three very different choreographers (Sir Frederick Ashton, Kyle Abraham, and Balanchine) all featured glimpses of men alone on stage searching yearningly or restlessly for something. Ashton’s “Birthday Offering” (1956), a radiantly abstract celebration of classical ballet, had an anonymous cavalier looking longingly around the empty

Working Hard

"Petal", "Petite Mort", "Paquita"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 22, 2026

ABT’s optimistically named “Fresh Visions and Timeless Classics” program included ABT’s first performances of Helen Pickett’s “Petal”, originally choreographed in 2008 for the Aspen/Santa Fe Ballet, Jiří Kylián’s “Petite Mort”, first danced in 1991 by the Nederlands Dans Theater, and a revival of Natalia Makarova’s 1983 staging for ABT of the final act of Petipa’s “Paquita”

An Understated, Warm Goodbye

“The Four Temperaments,” “Each In Their Own Time,” “Once with you,” “Agon”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
October 18, 2026

It is rare for ballet stars to time a retirement well. Most often, it comes either too soon or when the peak of their creative form is meaningfully behind them. Adrian Danchig-Waring set his date a year ago. In 2024 a spinal infection nearly killed him, and he promised himself that if he

To Break a Heart

“Oscar”
The Australian Ballet
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 11, 2026 (matinee)

By the time the moon began to weep red tears, it was clear how much of himself Christopher Wheeldon had put into his “Oscar.” The 2024 work was danced by The Australian Ballet, which returned to New York for the first time in more than a decade thanks to its new Artistic Director, David Hallberg. Though the city saw it a mere five times, at

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Men Alone

Working Hard

An Understated, Warm Goodbye

To Break a Heart