Dance
Preserved Expectations
Ballet’s Perilous History on Video Not enough of Natalia Makarova’s high artistic quality nor her particular qualities were on view at the tribute to her staged by Youth America Grand prix late last month. The videos shown of her performances existed almost in a class of their own. I don’t think that this was deliberate,...
Not Standing Still
Dance Doc Highlights Jacob’s Pillow A documentary filmmaker has two responsibilities. The first is to make an interesting subject even more interesting. The second is to make a good film. Director Ron Honsa hits both marks with Never Stand Still, an intimate look at dance that will galvanize anyone who’s ever moved his body to...
All Along the Lines
Alonzo King’s Ballet at the Joyce When Alonzo King established LINES Ballet in 1982 in San Francisco, few believed he could maintain a new company in the city where the San Francisco Ballet had long captured the area’s ballet audience. Moreover, King did not conform to the typical ballet artistic director—he grew up in Santa...
I Come to Praise
Anna Liceica and The Joffrey Survive I want to give high praise to ex-American Ballet Theater soloist Anna Liceica, now a member of Ballet Verité, who danced recently month at a concert honoring Levi HaLevi. He was a rabbi and civil rights activist who was the father-in-law of Verité choreographer Seth Gertsacov. In Manhattan Movement...
Life-Long Extensions
Sylvie Guillem stretches out Even Sylvie Guillem’s not doing it anymore, so ballerinas everywhere can just put their legs down (a bit)—can’t they? That was one takeaway from Guillem’s concert at the Koch theater early this month, presented by the Joyce Theater Foundation. Now 47, Guillem put her pointe shoes back on last year to...
Spanish Steps
Corella’s Barcelona Ballet Fulfills a Dream Many great ballet dancers dream of starting their own companies, though few get the opportunity. Even as he performed with American Ballet Theater, Angel Corella was plotting to establish a ballet company in his native Spain. Unlike most European countries, Spain had never been able to sustain a first-rate...
Designing Movement
The Body Revolution at ‘Youthquake’ Some profound connections between dance, fashion and individual as well as social transformation emanate from Youthquake: The 1960s Fashion Revolution, the exhibit of 1960s ready-to-wear now at the Fashion Institute of Technology. In the same way that dance wear usually does, minimally constructed clothes like those that roiled the ’60s...
Choreographers in the Classroom
Teaching What You Love “The connection between teacher and student creates a bond,” says Jason Samuels Smith, who like most choreographers teaches locally at studios and colleges as well as on tour, “strengthening the dance tradition and building upon it with each generation’s input and style.” There may be no better way for choreographers to...
Smart Moves
Ballet Arizona and the Graham Tradition “I hate dancing that is just sort of dumb,” Ib Andersen, artistic director of Ballet Arizona said in New York last week. Andersen was in town for his company’s local debut at the Joyce. Formerly a star of the Royal Danish Ballet, when Andersen joined New York City Ballet...
Transcending the Self
Manuela Carrasco’s Flamenco Wows This year’s City Center flamenco festival (March 1-4) celebrated four of the genre’s leading ladies—Manuela Carrasco, Carmen Cortés, Rafaela Carrasco, and Olga Pericet. Each had her own show, save Cortés, who performed two unmemorable spots at the gala. This opening event was so lackluster that it immediately brought the film Billy...
Stephen Petronio and Company Come to The Joyce
Stephen Petronio’s season looks like a fascinating mix, with his latest cutting-edge dance—infused with a Nordic sensibility—counterbalanced with a pivotal work from a decade ago. For the first time, he is adding someone else’s work to the company’s repertory: a 1970 structured improvisation by seminal Judson Dance Theater innovator Steve Paxton. And he has brought...
One Night of Tom Gold Dance
When New York City Ballet’s winter season ends Sunday, you’d expect the dancers to relax and put their feet up. But one contingent of prominent company members will be back on stage the following evening, performing works by their former colleague Tom Gold. Principal dancers Sara Mearns, Abi Stafford, Jared Angle, Tyler Angle and Robert...
Sin-sational: NYCB Mixes Brecht and Balanchine
Thought-provokingly revived at New York City Ballet earlier this month, Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht’s 1933 The Seven Deadly Sins is mercilessly unsparing of its audience’s feelings. It parades before us every act of compromise and hypocrisy, both individual and collective, of which we—spectators, society—may have been guilty. Just as when it was new last...
Ib Andersen returns to NYC with Ballet Arizona
Mention Ib Andersen’s name to anyone who attended New York City Ballet during the 1980s and vivid, defining memories come flooding back. Already the youngest male principal ever named by the Royal Danish Ballet, he arrived in 1980 in time for George Balanchine’s final burst of creative genius. Technically prodigious and effortlessly musical, Andersen proved...
Pivot Around the World: Crystal Pite’s increasingly international company stops by New York City with ‘The You Show’
There have been intriguing glimpses of Crystal Pite’s work in and around New York in recent years, but the Canadian choreographer’s own company will be making its local debut next week. Founded in Vancouver as Kidd Pivot 10 years ago, the troupe became Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM when it received a three-year residency in that...
That Lubovitch Touch
This winter will play host to a varied program of choreographer Lar Lubovitch’s work Back in the 1980s, when live music was not the rarity it has become for dance performances, Lar Lubovitch often collaborated with Ransom Wilson, a prominent flutist and conductor. Among Wilson’s projects was the Solisti New York Orchestra, which was in...
The Takeover
When guest stars rule dance It sometimes seems today as if every ballet company in the world is fronted by a representative sampling of about a dozen perpetual guest stars. Each has a company that they at least nominally call home, but they are continuously orbiting out on their own. Sometimes they need no more...
Two for One: Cloud Gate 2 makes its NYC debut at The Joyce
Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, the Taiwanese company that has brought its meditative, scenically stunning full-evening works to BAM five times since 1995, is a known quantity on these shores. But Cloud Gate 2, which gives four performances at The Joyce Theater next week, is making its first U.S. appearances in a five-city tour. Don’t let...
Flickers of Dance: Lincoln Center’s annual Dance on Camera Festival is a must-see
Now in its 40th year, Dance on Camera is at a new level of maturity. The annual event at the Walter Reade Theater that once fit into a three-day weekend has expanded to fill five days, Jan. 27–31, and within its brief duration has its own opening night, centerpiece and closing night films. This year’s...
Up, Down and Sideways
The year 2012 can wait until my next column. But let’s hope for—let’s go so far as to look forward to—dance events as memorable as those that took place in the closing week of 2011. Winding up its annual City Center season, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater gave an admirable rendition of Paul Taylor’s...
Keely Garfield brings her surreal autobiography style to ‘Twin Pines’ at Danspace
“I like to layer meaning and imagery. I think that creates an opportunity for people to enter where they will; one will come in through that door or an open window, someone else is going to dive into the middle of it,” Keely Garfield said recently as she was readying Twin Pines for its Danspace...
