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Ambiance

"Everyone Intimate Alone Visibly"
Levydance
Dance Place
Washington, DC
January 23, 2010

by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson

Was it a sign of these times - the economic recession which is proving to be a depression for the arts - that San Francisco's Benjamin Levy brought just two dancers on tour, himself and Aline Wachsmuth? A surfeit of multimedia (lighting changes, video projections, music tracks) and harassing the public (audience participation) didn't really compensate for the trained bodies of visits past. Yet ingenuity could be discerned in some sections of the company's new "EIAV". In section 2 (the "Intimate" part of the title), there was a novel ambiance for Levy - sexual passion. 

Enterprise

Salute to Vienna: New Year's Concert 2010
The Music Center at Strathmore
North Bethesda, Maryland
January 2, 2010

by George Jackson
copyright 2010 by George Jackson

Want to welcome New Year the Viennese way by indulging in waltzes and polkas? Chances for doing so have, it seems, increased. Apart from the original New Year's Concert by the Vienna Philharmonic on television, similar performances of light classical music and dance can be experienced live. The foremost presenter of these in America is a Canadian agency, that of the enterprising Attila Glatz. This year its "Salutes" to Viennese tradition are taking place in 14 different cities. 5 distinct road companies are involved and whereas the musicians of all the groups are listed as being part of a single orchestra, The Strauss Symphony of America, the dancers belong to distinct troupes. 

Dancers in Daylight

Form and Movement: Photographs by Philip Trager
National Building Museum
Washington, DC
December 27, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson 

This exhibit of Philip Trager's photographs has been up for some time but having seen it only now, not long before its last day on January 3, I want to go again. Trager takes pictures mostly of structures (buildings, bridges, statues) and dancers (postmodern and some ballet), and does so preferably in natural light - which often means out of doors. What he captures is the timeless transience of his subjects. It is an aspect seldom looked for.

Ballet for All Seasons

"Concerto Barocco", "Liturgy", "Les Gentilhommes" & "Liebeslieder Walzer" i.e., Program 2
New York City Ballet
Opera House, Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
December 11, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

The solution for a sluggish box office seems to be good programming and quality casting. The small portion of NYC Ballet which is in Washington this cold December week has attracted customers galore with its decidedly non-Nutcracker repertory. It even happens that two of the ballets, the first bill's "Dances at a Gathering" and this program's "Liebeslieder Walzer", take place ostensibly during one of the year's warmer seasons. Programming savvy was in evidence too when the three shorter works on bill 2 were presented as a triptych, separated only by brief pauses. Not that "Barocco", "Liturgy" and "Gentilhommes" have similar or complimentary essences. Quite the contrary, but their proximity helped in seeing what each had to offer - which wouldn't be the case with the ballet that followed a full intermission, "Liebeslieder".

Rays of Sunlight Amidst the World's Woe

CityDance Ensemble
4th Floor Studio
Music Center at Strathmore
North Bethesda, Maryland
December 4, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

The big and new work on this bill, "About Wishes of the Sailor", involved at least 4 choreographers, the music of 6 composers and texts by several of its approximately 10 performers. It concerns Iraqi refugees. Two of the three short works which preceded "Sailor", Meisha Bosma's piece of women's testimony  "Souvenirs" and Christopher K. Morgan's men's declaration "Unusable Signal", also dealt with the problems of survival. Only the program's "special performance" by CityDance students opted for a happier mood. Cleanly trained and well coordinated without displaying competition tricks, the students turned the straightforward group choreography of Alex Neoral's "Trajectory" into a team effort that was fresh and looked to the future. Still, it wasn't all sunshine but just rays because only a couple of the 23 dancers on this youth squad were male. 

Which Way?

ADI Chamber Ballet
American Dance Institute
Rockville, Maryland
November 14, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

Making its debut, the ADI's resident company set out on two paths simultaneously. One is towards being a small, flexible entity that provides the Washington area with new work and exciting performances when our two classical ensembles of medium size - Washington Ballet and The Suzanne Farrell Ballet - are otherwise occupied and when no big companies are coming to visit. Chamber Ballet's other path is towards becoming the showcase for ADI pupils. To make the two directions meld would take a miracle. 

Memorials

A Memorial Celebration for Francis Mason 
Joyce Theater
New York
October 30, 2009 at 2 PM

A Celebration for Clive Barnes, CBE
Walter Reade Cinema at Lincoln Center
New York
November 2, 2009 at 3 PM

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

Memorials are performances too. Although the style of these two differed, both celebrated the life force of the man being remembered. Mason and Barnes were important dance writers, yet neither made that calling his sole pursuit. Mason's memorial included dance and music (even premieres) and 5 talks. Barnes's was all talk - 13 speakers plus a recent PBS video interview of him. Just before these occasions, the memorial for dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham was, reportedly, even more like a performance. Apparently it resembled one of Cunningham's "Events". What is spoken, danced and sounded at a memorial can have more significance than a regular performance even when the latter has a "post-performance discussion".

Fingers with a Coloratura Trill, Dancing a Da Vinci Smile

Fall Festival of Indian Arts
      Dakshina / Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company
      Madhavi Mudgal and Arushi Mudgal
      Leela Samson
The Lincoln Theater
Washington, DC
October 24, 2009 at 2 PM & 7:30 PM

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

Disregard history! Ballet and India's classical dance are cousins! They share core traits! Perhaps they are just kissing cousins, because the evidence for a joint ancestor does not exist. Perhaps their similarities are the result of convergent evolution or their single origin lies in the inscrutable future. Whatever the explanation, allow me to state the case. Both forms are based on the body's side-to-side (bilateral) symmetry, and on its ability to stretch vertically and fold horizontally. Limbs articulate finely and hips turn out strategically. There are differences, of course. Being stretched is ballet's norm, its starting stance, whereas Indiadance proceeds from a folded form - a plie that in profile looks like a zigzag lightning flash. Classical ballet emphasizes the pointed toe, banishing the thrust heel to the category of character ballet, but in Indiadance the toe-to-the-fore and the-heel-to-the-rear alternate rhythmically. There's more - quite a few steps that are shared, and that both recognize the interplay for eye and ear of rhythmic beat (tala) with melodic line (raga). On, though, to the three remarkable women from India who gave substance to all my orisons.

Snacks

Keigwin + Company
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
October 23, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

What more would you want when the curtain goes up than heavenly music, titillation and movement that's dancy? Larry Keigwin's "Elements" kicks off with Mozart (the so-called "Elvira Madigan" Andante), a half dozen bodies seemingly nude behind toweling, and bouncy, funny action. The theme of the first four, fairly short  numbers in this tongue-in-cheek catalog of antique chemistry and human antics is the element "Water". No question that we were being entertained. Yet, I found myself waiting for a change, I wanted a surprise - at least by the time "Fire", the second theme, arrived. In "Fire", like in its wet counterpart, I counted four, brief, catchily humorous dances. All the musical offerings were tasty and choice. Again so in "Earth", for which Keigwin himself performed the opening solo looking like the young Mark Morris. The resemblance triggered a memory. 

Even the Don Makes a Difference

"Don Quixote" Cast Changes
The Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
October 16, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

In "Don Quixote", the Don matters after all! He's more than a mere pretext for others to get on with their dancing and romantic dilemmas. How much he counts became clear when the cast changed for Anna-Marie Holmes's production of the ballet classic. Friday night's Don was no man with a mission. Instead of being a benighted idealist, he was a slightly eccentric gentleman of a certain age. His mild manners gave the entire story a jolly air. The demonic never even tinged the action and most of the characterizations opted to be quite humane.