danceviewtimes

Memories—Delicately Recalled

“Mei Lanfang”
Guangzhou Ballet
Cal Performances/Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
October 19, 2007

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2007 by Rita Felciano

The American premiere of the three-act “Mei Lanfang” by Guangzhou Ballet raised a number of intriguing questions, particularly about how an outsider looks at work that is so deeply imbedded in a particular culture. Using movement language that included Chinese opera and Western style ballet and a non-dramatic approach to narrative, the piece told the story of Mei Lanfang (1894-1961), a legendary performer with Peking Opera who became best known for interpreting female characters.

October 21 Update

Be sure to check Dale Brauner's What's On This Week and

Read Lisa Traiger's review of Dana Tai Soon Burgess: Skimming the Surface.

Check us during the week for another review of Morphoses (the second program) and reviews of American Ballet Theatre's City Center season!

Strictly Dancing

“Daphnis and Chloe”, “Nine Sinatra Songs”, “Paquita Suite”
Birmingham Royal Ballet
Sadler's Wells Theatre
London, England
9-10 October 2007 and touring

by John Percival
copyright 2007 by John Percival

Why did it take choreographers so long to wake up to Ravel's music? Although he wrote five ballet scores and part of another, they had few stagings before he died in his sixties. And the poor chap could scarcely guess that they and much of his concert music would be danced more often in latter years, even that he would become one of only three choreographers chosen by Balanchine to be celebrated by New York City Ballet with a festival devoted to their work (and a less obvious choice than the similarly honoured Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky).

Morphoses Arrives

"There Where She Loved," "Tryst Pas de Deux," "Slingerland Pas de Deux," "Prokofiev Pas de Deux," "Dance of the Hours," "Fools' Paradise"

Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company

City Center

New York, NY

October 17. 2007

by Susan Reiter

copyright ©2007 by Susan Reiter

After all the months of expectations, acres of press coverage, allusions to Diaghilev and to goals of making ballet “sexy” to those normally immune to its appeal, we finally have Morphoses -- Christopher Wheeldon’s daring leap into autonomy and independence -- in front of us in actuality. The nearly overstuffed opening program consisted of six ballets, all but one by Wheeldon; on the second, completely different, program, only two of the six works are his. What we saw was an evening of finely wrought, deeply intelligent and musically sophisticated choreography that blends homages to past masters with a brazenly contemporary attack. Wheeldon’s fascination with investigating the outer reaches of partnering possibilities can result in striking images that soar into metaphorical allusion, but also often registers as a near-obsession with mechanics. Bodies are manipulated as levers and interlocking parts, and obviously risky lifts can distract form the ongoing flow of a work. Much of the time, these sleek explorations are presented with a cool detachment, almost a high-fashion gloss.

Intriguing Juxtapositions – Fall for Dance Programs 5 and 6

Program 5: “Ligeti Essays,” “Inventing Pookie Jenkins,” “After the Rain,” “Spanish Dance,” “Martinete y Solea”

Armitage Gone!Dance; Kyle Abraham/Abraham in Motion; Mosphoses/The Wheeldon Company; Trisha Brown Dance Company; Noche Flamenca & Soleded Barrio

Program 6: “Quick!,” “The Evolution of a Secured Feminine,” “Treading,” “Brake the Eyes,” “Nkululeko”

Srishti – Nina Rajarani Dance Creations; Camille A. Brown; Elisa Monte Company; Boston Ballet; Via Katlehong Dance

City Center

New York, NY

October 4 & 5, 2007

by Susan Reiter

copyright © 2007 by Susan Reiter

Between the wildly varied menu of performers, and the rabidly enthusiastic, unusually mixed (and often youthful) audience that seems poised to greet every selection with cheers, Fall for Dance programs are a distinctly sui generis experience. It is truly the populist event it was envisioned to be, with people clamoring for seats and packing City Center to the rafters. It’s amazing how many ardent dance fans come out of the woodwork when the tickets cost $10.

Butoh on Parade

Kazuo Ohno 101:  3-week Butoh Parade
"Tiger's Cave: Butoh Boot Camp"
"Yupiters"
Dairakudakan Kochuten + Akaji Maro
Japan Society, New York
October 10 and 13, 2007

by Tom Phillips
copyright 2007 by Tom Phillips   

Japan Society's 3-week Butoh Parade began with chaotic foot-stomping on a darkened stage.  As the lights come up, we see seven shaven-headed young men in loincloths, sitting cross-legged on the floor.  The backdrop is a scarred grey wall, with double clotheslines on each side.  One by one the boys rise, and go through a series of martial-arts exercises, more comical than menacing, including one where they try to eat their own feet.  It's not clear exactly what they're training for, but their disciplines are rudely and irrevocably interrupted by a series of three bizarre visitations.  Welcome to Butoh Boot Camp!

Philosophical Dance

"Thin Air"
Donna Uchizono Company
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
Oct 9-13, 2007

by Lisa Rinehart
copyright 2007 by Lisa Rinehart

Ever fearless, Donna Uchizono explores the abstractions of Buddhism and quantum physics in "Thin Air," a heady conceptual piece with just enough dancing to keep it grounded (and, I might add, fascinating). Uchizono likes to immerse herself in something -- a place, an emotional experience, an idea -- then riff on it in unpredictable, and pleasantly inexplicable ways. In "Thin Air," Uchizono concentrates on perceptions of reality by way of juxtaposing the corporeal qualities of dance with the theoretical realities of video. Video images are projected on two dimensional surfaces to create an illusion of sculptural depth, while projections on a dancer's body flatten her curves into a blank canvas. If this sounds potentially boring, it's not. Uchizono has a visual artist's eye for composition, and a performance artist's sensibility for engagement. This means that while much of the piece's movement is minimal and repetitive, it's evocative of Uchizono's current interest -- the parallel between the conundrums of physics, and the Buddhist tenet that the world doesn't exist in the way we see it. Stay with me here -- did I mention there are several ladders, a sheet of opaque plastic manipulated from nimbus cloud to rubbish wad in a series of transformations worthy of art installation status, and a very cool score by Fred Frith? Such is Uchizono's palate; quirky, layered, visually arresting, and intimate as a stranger's diary.

Weekly Update - October 7

Be sure to check Dale Brauner's New York Calendar listing here:

What's On This Week

Replications – Fall for Dance Program 4

“Cornered,” “Love Songs,” “A Suite of Dances,” “Batty Moves”
Royal Ballet of Flanders/Keigwin + Company/New York City Ballet/Urban Bush Women
City Center
New York, NY
October 3, 2007

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2007 by Leigh Witchel

It seems appropriate that Nicolo Fonte turned himself into the Han van Meegeren of choreographers for a Flemish company, creating “Cornered,” a ballet seemingly unearthed from the William Forsythe archives. On a stage enclosed by a steel pole at each corner, two couples dance clad all in black; Two other couples watch; after a series of duets the black couples change to the outfit of the others, pink tops and white shorts.  The women didn’t wear pointe shoes; the vocabulary was danced with Forsythe’s signature distortion and hyperextension of the pelvis.

Cloud Gate's Fluent Calligraphy

“Wild Cursive”

Choreography by Lin Hwai-min

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan

Howard Gilman Opera House

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn, NY

October 2, 2007

by Susan Reiter

copyright 2007 by Susan Reiter

 

Cloud Gate last appeared at BAM in 2003, performing Lin Hwai-min’s exquisite “Moon Water.” In that tai chi-inspired work, fluid figures in white moved with stately, purposeful serenity on a shiny blue-black floor, as water gradually seeped onto the stage. Returning with “Wild Cursive,” this remarkable Taiwanese troupe offered a no less mesmerizing black-on-white world, as the 20 dancers became the living, breathing embodiments of a particularly bold style of Chinese calligraphy. The program informs us that Kuang Chao, from which Lin drew his inspiration and developed the movement, “is considered the pinnacle in Chinese cursive aesthetics and frees characters from any set form and exposes the spiritual state of the writer in its expressive abstraction.”