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Symphonic Variations

"Onegin" excerpt, "Cortège", "Le Corsaire" pas de deux, "Symphony #9", "Sylvia" hunt scene, "Apothéose", "The Sleeping Beauty" Act III pas de deux, "Symphony in C"
American Ballet Theatre
Spring Gala
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

ABT's Spring gala was more substantial than the usual parade of pas de deux, clocking in at almost three hours, with one intermission, and including two complete works, the new Ratmansky "Symphony #9" and the old Balanchine "Symphony in C".  Both of these have gala-friendly casting, allowing many principals to dance in roles that show them off.  The other principal dancers (with the exception of Natalia Osipova, who was injured and replaced by Xiomara Reyes in her scheduled "Corsaire" and Irina Dvorovenko, who was hoofing it in the Encores production of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue", got their chance in various excerpts.

Old Favorites and New Clothes

"Who Cares?", "Ivesiana", "Tarantella", "Stars and Stripes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

The 2013 New York city Ballet Spring Season opened on the anniversary of Balanchine's death with an all-Balanchine program, celebrating the froth, with the exception of the seldom-seen, dark, and unforgettable "Ivesiana".  The present, I supposed, was new costumes for "Who Cares?" by Santo Loquasto. The older ones (by Ben Benson, replacing the Karinska ones, which I never saw) featured light-hearted, fizzy little pastel tutus.  The new ones use more saturated colors, the corps boys in atomic blue shirts, pants and shoes, the female corps in strident turquoise and the demis in electric pink with distracting (and vulgar) cutouts under the bust.  The three principal women are in the same outfit; a sleeveless do cut like a Western dance-hall girl's come-hither dress, with black net overlaying bright pink (Tyler Peck), purple (Abi Stafford) and turquoise (Ana Sophia Scheller).  The older, somewhat garish male costume has been replaced by a sequined vest that might make Liberace avert his eyes.  The colors seemed to fight each other, and were so dark that they tended to blend into the background, making the dancing hard to focus on.

Back in Business

"Agon", "Black Swan Pas de Deux", "Far But Close", "Return"
Dance Theatre of Harlem
Rose Theater, Jazz at Lincoln Center
New York, New York
April 11, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

The Dance Theatre of Harlem hare returned to New York, after a nearly nine-year hiatus due to budget problems.  Virginia Johnson, one of the original dancers, now leads the company and she has assembled an engaging group of 18 dancers.  The larger works that the old company could perform (I especially remember their "Giselle" and Nijinska's magestic "Les Noces") are out of bounds now, but the New York repertoire was an ecclectic mix of old and new.  The program opened with Balanchine's "Agon", an especially apt choice because DTH's founder, Arthur Mitchell, was in the original cast.

Miniatures

"Faure Fantasy", "Gershwin Preludes", "La Plage", "The Graceful Ghost", "Mad about the Boy"
TomGoldDance
Gerald Lynch Theater
John Jay College
New York, New York
March 12, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

Tom Gold, a former soloist with the New York City Ballet, noted for his forthright style and way with comedy, formed a company with a revolving cast of dancers selected from the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater.  This two-day run featured, among others, NYCB principals Abi Stafford, Sara Mearns, and Adrian Danchig-waring, and other fine dancers.  The five brief dances were set to a variety of composers, from Gabriel Faureto the avant-garde John Zorn, with stops in between for Gershwin, William Bolcom, and Noel Coward.  

Times Past

"Cascade", "Eventide", "Company B"
The Paul Taylor Dance Company
David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center
New York, New York
March 9, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

For the second year, Paul Taylor has chosen the larger, more formal Koch Theater (State Theater to some of us), rather than the City Center.  The dancers have adjusted to the bigger canvas well, though what is the use of an orchestra pit without live music?  The recent Saturday matinee (complete with a fractious child) was a nostalgic glimpse of various past times; the first two works (music by Back and Ralph Vaughan Williams) would have been even stronger, I suspect, with live music, but the final work, "Company B", used the period recordings of the Andrews Sisters to set the scene, a fine and imaginative answer to the perennial problem of paying for live music. 

Story Time

"In Violent Circles (The Rite of Spring)", "Vashti"
Riedel Dance Theater and Ariel Rivka Dance
Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
March 7, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

Two modern dance companies, the Riedel Dance Theater and the Ariel Rivka Dance, premiered new works together.  These were both character-driven explorations of old stories--a medieval Swedish ballad in Riedel's piece and the Biblical myth of Vashti in Rivka's work.  Jonathan Riedel, who danced in the José Limón Dance Company from 1996-2006, has created a number of interesting pieces; his Edward Gorey works were especially intriguing for his concise, witty approach.  "In Violent Circles" is not witty, nor concise.  It is set to Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" in a piano arrangement by Neil Alexander, played live, and the thoughtful, meandering, restless quality of the arrangement was extremely effective.  The ballad, which also inspired Igmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring", tells the story of daughters (three in the ballad, two in the dance) who are killed by vagabonds.  The killers turn up at the parent's house and (in the ballad) try to sell the girls' shifts.  The dance has the mother discover the necklace (a cross) that one girl had.  The mother then urges the father to kill the murderers, which he does, and then suffers spasms of guilt.  The ballad is even grimmer, since the parents discover that the murderers are their own sons, sent away years ago to fend for themselves.  (Medieval parents tended to be careless that way.) 

Old and New

"Cave of the Heart", "From the Grammar of Dreams", "Lamentation Variations" "Variations of Angels (Film)", "Diversion of Angels"
Martha Graham Contemporary Dance
The Joyce Theater
New York, New York
February 27, 20013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

The current Graham season at the Joyce is called "Myth and Transformation", Graham presumably being the myth, and the new dances the transformation.  "Regeneration" should also be acknowledged, as the beleaguered company struggled to cope with the damage from Hurricane Sandy.  The opening myth, "Cave of the Heart", Graham's compact and powerful retelling of the Medea story got a graceful introduction by company director Janet Eilber, who briefly described the action.  (Presumably, when Graham choreographed it in 1946, the audience would have been better versed in the classics.)

Dark Secrets

"Caravaggio Meets Hopper", "Threshold", "Butterflies and Demons", "Zjawa", "Suspended Women"
Buglisi Dance Theatre
The Joyce Theater
New York, New York
February 6, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

Jacqulyn Buglisi and her dancers are celebrating their twentieth season with old and new works; this evening ranged from 1991 ("Threshold") to two new premiers, one by Buglisi ("Butterflies and Demons") and one by the young Katarzyna Skarpetowska ("Zjawa").  The general mood was dark, with only flashes of gentleness and humor, with a powerful and imaginative theatricality and stunning dancing.  The opening work, "Caravaggio Meets Hopper", choreographed by Buglisi in 2007 to a combination of Nina Rota, Jelly Roll Morton, and John Corigliano, had flashes of irony, hints of violence, and a gently moving ending.  The backdrop was a giant set of louvers which was echoed by the masks the dancers sported.  They were all in various degrees of office attire, sitting in chairs and moving as if pulled by strings--it looked like a casual Friday the 13th. 

Tchaikovsky Variations

"Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Bal de Couture", "Diamonds"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 27, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

All Tchaikovsky all the time (with Stravinsky channeling Tchaikovsky) is a gimmick, yes, but the Tschaikovsky (as NYCB spells it) Celebration does include some wonderful music and powerful dancing, so as gimmicks go, there are certainly worse ideas to warm up a bitter winter.  The "Divertimento from 'Le Baiser de la Fée'" is not a warm ballet, and it is a slightly downbeat opener.  But Tiler Peck, with Robert Fairchild (who made his debut earlier in the week) found the soul of this oddly disturbing work, using her incisive musicality to dance inside the music, almost to disappear at times, so that Fairchild gave the impression of dancing with a cloud or a memory, as he reached for her in vain.  Their pas de deux had a hushed privacy that was hauntingly beautiful, and Peck's timing, as she reached for him and fell back was simply shattering.  Fairchild, one of NYCB's most imaginative dancers, gave his twisting, turning solo a fierce urgency, and the final group of turns and bends, as he scooped his hand from the ground to the sky managed, in a few seconds, to convey so many unrealized dreams.

Drums and Bells and Hoops

Thunderbird American Indian Dancers
Theater for The New City
New York, New York
January 26, 2013, matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

Folk dance is by definition participatory, so presenting it on a stage raises several issues--should it be performed as theater, or presented as is, and if the decision is "just do it", how can the audience be engaged.  The Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, founded in 1963 by New York-based Native Americans from several tribes, took the "just do it" approach for their annual fund-raising concert (the admission fees go to scholarships).  The various dancers were introduced by the founder Louis Mofsie, who gave a description of the original purpose of the dances, and then members gave tantalizingly brief demonstrations, wearing colorful and distinctive costumes.  This wasn't an anthropological exploration, of course, but I would have liked more information about these costumes.  The sequins on some of the women's looked a bit anachronistic, and the dancers wore the same clothing no matter what tribe's dances they were performing.  But the dancing was the focus, and it was wonderful.