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Shining

“Balanchine and Robbins” 
New York City Ballet
Opera House, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 27, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

The Japanese just did it on this very stage and other ballet companies bring it too, so why must we see “Serenade” again?  Because it has become the measuring stick for style, attack, technique and attitude. Right now NYCB is astir with a fresh wind as management fields new dancers into familiar roles. The pace on opening night in Washington was furious, as if the Tchaikovsky score had a race to win. Maurice Kaplow’s conducting hardly let up for dramatic pause or romance in the George Balanchine choreography. Blue-white gauze whipped across the stage: women, heedless of their gowns, shot into traveling arabesques and took aim with pirouettes. The female corps couldn’t be bothered trimming formations or clicking into file like the Japanese. It got where it was going with spontaneity, ambition and passion. The great groupings appeared shimmering with energy, and dispersed again as individuals went their own way. Determination seemed to be the emerging generation’s standard in all three ballets - the ubiquitous “Serenade”, the seldom seen and silent “Moves” by Jerome Robbins, and the treasured Bizet/Balanchine “Symphony in C”.

Delivery at DTW

“Center of Sleep”
Yanira Castro + Company
Dance Theater Workshop
New York, NY
February 27, 2008
By Tom Phillips
copyright 2008 by Tom Phillips

Choreographer Yanira Castro had to sit out the premiere of her new work at Dance Theater Workshop, because she'd just had a baby.  As it turns out this is not incidental information:  “Center of Sleep” is intimately related with what was happening to her over the last nine months, the processes of gestation and development, an acting-out of the mystery of human growth.  For this she turned the Bessie Schonberg Theater  into a kind of super-womb, lined with mirrors, rooms and platforms, and invited the audience to follow her performers around.  It was a circuit of surprises, with the best saved for last. 

Nrityagram

“Pratima: Reflection”
Nrityagram Dance Ensemble
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 20, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

The “for export” product is often quite different than what is made at home. “Odissi is characterized by sensuousness and lyricism” the program for Nrityagram Dance Ensemble explained.  We got more lyricism than usual in the current offering, “Pratima: Reflection,” which had its world premiere at the Joyce, and it gave a different impression.

Boldly Venturing into Balanchine's Tschaikovsky

RUSSIAN TREASURES: "Serenade," "Mozartiana," "Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
February 22, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

It's almost a tradition that during the final weekend of a New York City Ballet season (sometimes even at the final performance) a major, often surprising, debut is scheduled. This second performance of the winter season's final program definitely were offered a major -- and, as it turned out, triumphant -- one. Teresa Reichlen bounded joyfully and expansively into the lead ballerina role of "Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2," a role that includes fiendish technical demands and requires authoritative ballerina presence. Others have sometimes been done in by the role as early as the daunting opening solo; if she does not command the stage and radiate a regal, confident glow as she navigates the intricate steps to the piano's extended solo passage, the ballerina can throw the whole work out of balance. But Reichlen displayed no hint of tension, and shaped her long line, which tends to look more at home in rangy, more knotty choreography, with exquisite, bracing clarity and energy.

The Maiden and the Nobleman

“Giselle”
State Ballet of Georgia
Zellerbach Hall, Berkeley
February 17, 2008

“Giselle”
San Francisco Ballet, Program 3
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco
February 20 and 23, 2008

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2008

Watching two different “Giselles” back to back is a rare privilege. Looking at the interpretations of different artistic directors is even more gratifying. Former Bolshoi Theatre Ballet Artistic Director Alexei Fadeyechev put his “Giselle” on the State Ballet of Georgia in 2006;  Helgi Tomasson reprised his 1999 version for San Francisco Ballet this season. If the Bay Area dancers had it for the overall quality of the production, Fadeyechev’s twist on the story telling proved to be more intriguing.

New in the Blogs!

Nancy Dalva reviews the Trisha Brown Dance Company in her blog:

Trisha's Back

Lisa Traiger reviews Liz Lerman's Dance Exchange in her blog:

Quick Peek: Liz Lerman Dance Exchange

and previews upcoming performances:

Ailey, Coyaba, Edgeworks and City Ballet

And don't forget to check Dale Brauner's blog for What's On This Week, a calendar of upcoming performances in New York:

What's On This Week

A Fine "Don Quixote" in Phoenix

"Don Quixote"
Ballet Arizona
Symphony Hall
Phoenix, Arizona
February 16, 2008

by Helene Kaplan
copyright 2008 by Helene Kaplan

With its familiar comic plot and passages of technical virtuosity, it's easy to forget that at the center of "Don Quixote" are relationships and transformations. Ballet Arizona's new production of the old ballet (by Olga Evreinoff), featured three Kitris and two Basilios. Paola Hartley and Astrit Zejnati danced the leading roles in the performance I saw, and showed that the sum can be greater than the parts, brilliant as those parts are.

Couplings+

7x7: Love Duets
The Washington Ballet
England Studio Theater, Washington Ballet Building
Washington, DC
February 21, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

Some lovers are sensual - they arch and swoon, every touch lingers and their bodies gravitate to each other when they are apart. Some are all business, dispatching kisses as if sealing envelopes containing checks. Others are selfish, possessive and even miserly. A few can be noble to the point of sacrificing for the sake of love. Septime Webre must have imagined the entire spectrum when he conceived this year’s edition of 7x7 – seven different choreographers’ ballets, each seven minutes long. What the Washington’s Ballet’s artistic director did differently this time was to schedule performances not at the end of the season but earlier, just after Valentine’s Day. The program is being performed 26 times, from February 19 to March 9 with, as previously, the public being invited into the company’s home. There is cabaret-style seating and quarters are close, which means that people who normally sit in the top balcony of theaters have the chance to see the pores opening in their favorite dancer’s skin.

Eurotrump

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
Opera House, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 19, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

Politics, personal allegiance, even morality and not merely aesthetics come into play when an American dance company decides to do choreography by Maurice Bejart. This Frenchman (he resided in Belgium for a major part of his career and then in Switzerland until his death late last year) was persona non grata with critics in the USA. Other choreographers could be bad sometimes or often, but Bejart became the anti-Balanchine, the contra-Cunningham. To be seduced by anything he did was the sign of a lost soul. Despite the bad press, he acquired a following in this country. His company hadn’t toured here in decades but a couple of summers ago, when a documentary film on his Lausanne work was shown, venues filled up unexpectedly. Live performances, too, have functioned as drawing cards in the rare instances when a Bejart ballet was taken into an American repertory. The most recent example is the Ailey’s acquisition of “Firebird”, with which the company opened its Washington season. The performance did not do Bejart justice.

Tudor and Limon Celebrated

Signatures 08: Antony Tudor and José Limón 100th Birthday Celebration
New York Theatre Ballet
Florence Gould Hall
New York, NY
February 8, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

The centennials of two major, and very different, 20th-century choreographers were celebrated with evident dedication and charming intimacy in this program. Given New York Theatre Ballet's longtime association with Antony Tudor's works, in meticulous stagings by former ABT principal and Tudor specialist Sallie Wilson, the evening was primarily devoted to his dances. But the inclusion of Limón's unfamiliar and surprising "Mazurkas" was an intelligent complementary bit of programming. With the benefit of coaching by dancers who had worked closely with the choreographers themselves and are clearly able to convey their intentions, and the larger world of each dance, to today's dancers, the performances were notable for their unmannered transparency and touching attention to detail.