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Cause for Celebration

"Divertimento No. 15," "Within the Golden Hour," "Fusion"
San Francisco Ballet
City Center
New York, NY
October 10, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

The primary focus of San Francisco Ballet's nine-performance New York season is on the commissioned ballets from last April's New Works Festival, the highlight of the company's 75th anniversary celebrations. But it was altogether appropriate, and just as celebratory, that on the opening night, the curtain rose on Balanchine's luminous gem, "Divertimento No. 15." Not only is this a ballet whose serene and timeless mastery reveals new delights with every viewing -- how rare to find a ballet that can be both profound and witty --- but it is always interesting, and often revelatory, to see a Balanchine work from that era danced on the stage where it was first performed. SFB, for all its venturesome versatility, has maintained a high standard of Balanchine dancing in an ever-increasing range of his works, and offered a splendid, engaging performance.

Fall for Dance: From China to Hawaii

“The Cold Dagger,” “Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux.” ”The New 45.” “Single Room.” “Kahikilani”
Beijingdance/LDTX; Houston Ballet; Richard Siegal/The Bakery; Fang-Yi Sheu; The Gentlemen of Hälau Nä Kamalei
City Center
New York, NY
September 23, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

There's nothing quite as exhilarating as being part of an audience as it is taken by surprise and utterly delighted. That happened midway through this brief but enriching fourth Fall For Dance program, when Richard Siegal's juicy, rambunctious "The New 45" was danced with fantastic abandon and engaging directness by Ayman Harper and Mario Zambrano. Some might have arrived at City Center eager to check out Houston Ballet performing Balanchine, or for an all-too-rare glimpse of the divine Fang-Yi Sheu, but they responded to Siegal's work, deservedly, with the type of spontaneous enthusiasm that cannot be faked.

Fall for Dance: Invigorating Sampler from Afar

“Les Chambres des Jacques,” “Rush,” “Odissi:PRAVAHA,” “Harmonica Breakdown,” “Uprising”
[bjm_danse] Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal/Oregon Ballet Theatre/Madhavi Mudgai/Sheron Wray/Hofesh Shechter Company
City Center
New York, NY
September 20, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright 2008 Susan Reiter

The Fall for Dance Festival really hit its stride with this third program, as wide-ranging a sampler as one could devise -- and with not a single New York-based company among the five. In fact, only one -- Oregon Ballet Theatre -- was American, with the others hailing from Canada, India and England. The three works seen in excerpted form were intriguing enough that one wished to put them in a fuller context, and the two that were performed complete -- one solo and one duet -- were powerful and distinctive.

Elemental Keigwin

"Elements"
Choreography by Larry Keigwin
Keigwin + Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
July 30, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright 2008 by Susan Reiter

Sly, playful, and more than willing to entertain, Larry Keigwin has gained a reputation for smart, tight pieces marked by wit -- an all-too-rare commodity in dance these days. His latest work is a full-evening traversal of the four elements (Water, Fire, Earth, Air), set to a musical selections -- from Handel to Cole Porter, Peggy Lee to Debussy -- that sometimes invite mockery, especially when they are as overly familiar as Mozart's "Elvira Madigan" piano concerto. He locates and sustains a particular motif or bit of whimsy for each segment, and neatly divides each of them into four sections, taking an intermission halfway through. The result is a polyglot suite that is brisk and engaging, if ultimately not particularly nourishing.

Verona Without Bombast

"Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare"
Choreography by Mark Morris
Mark Morris Dance Group
Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
July 4, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

It was certainly not the most likely venture for Mark Morris to undertake. A complete "Romeo and Juliet" set to the Prokofiev score is generally found in the repertory of large ballet companies, served up to audiences eager for drama and three-act lavishness. But Morris has certainly provided us with vivid dance-dramas in the past, and with "The Hard Nut" proved he could meet a beloved ballet score on his own vivid terms. He has always gone in the directions where his musical interests lead him, and the recently recovered 1935 version of Prokofiev's score -- the composer's original conception, before political censors, recalcitrant dancers and presumptuous ballet company functionaries imposed changes on it -- captured Morris' interest. With the admirable support of Bard Summerscape (the annual summer festival held at this enlightened, arts-oriented campus), he was able deliver a "Romeo and Juliet" free of bombast and excess. This is a more intimate Verona where we can sense the full fabric of the society, one where robust earthiness prevails and the family feuds are embedded in the genes and surface with instinctual spontaneity, not just on musical cues.

Robbins: The Later Years

Bach to Glass: A Musical Odyssey II
"2 & 3 Part Inventions," "A Suite of Dances," "In Memory of ...," "Glass Pieces"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
June 17, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

The Robbins Celebration continued with this program that could have been titled Late Robbins, since all the ballets date from the final 15 years of his life. Performed on this occasion in reverse chronological order -- begining with the sprightly, pristine and endlessly inventive "2 & 3 Part Inventions," which was created for the 1994 School of American Ballet Workshop, and concluding with the 1983 "Glass Pieces," which has become a repertory staple and reliable program-closer over the past quarter-century. From the expansive and varied range he pursued during the 1980s -- a prolific decade for him, though not all of the works proved to have staying power -- he returned to ballet, following the triumph of "Jerome Robbins' Broadway" to focus his creative energies on Bach in the '90s.

The Rite, According to Maalem

"Le Sacre du Printemps"
Compagnie Heddy Maalem
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
June 12, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

Another week, another "Sacre." Last week it was Michael Clark, with the score live on two pianos. This week, it's French-Algerian choreographer Heddy Maalem's interpretation, with taped music (a viscerally powerful 1969 Cleveland Orchestra recording conducted by Pierre Boulez). This one has the (dubious) distinction of interrupting the score in between its two parts, for an interlude of video, sound effects and some dimly visible posturing on the darkened stage. Two such interludes also opened and closed the hour-long evening. They seemed to place this particular rite within the context of a journey from purity within the natural world towards the increasingly brutalizing, impersonal existence of contemporary civilization.

Silver Toe Shoes and Chandeliers

"Etudes," "Rabbit and Rogue"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 3 and 4 (matinee)

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2008 Susan Reiter

You can certainly sense the meeting of two inquisitive, omnivorous, expansive minds – and the molecular energy their ideas must have sparked in each other – behind “Rabbit and Rogue,” Twyla Tharp’s new 45-minute work to a commissioned score by Danny Elfman. The exhilarating action pours forth -- shifting gears, offering surprises, perplexing with its non-sequiturs. The dance evolves, in look and tone, from chicly ominous darkness and incipient chaos to a gleaming promise of transcendence. Along the way, it veers from silly to sublime, from frantic to incantatory, from gestural shtick to pristine allegory. Just as Elfman’s vigorously nourishing score keeps shifting gears and introducing new elements, Tharp’s choreography veers towards overabundance. Occasionally, one longs for some breathing space. But compared to anemic new ballets that politely mark time and beat a hasty retreat, this one asserts itself viscerally, if at times perhaps a bit too pushily, and much of what it offers is exhilarating.

En Français

French Cuisine: "Mother Goose," "Afternoon of a Faun," "Antique Epigraphs," "In G Major"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
May 28, 2008

by Susan Reiter
copyright © Susan Reiter

"Go slow, go slow," Jerome Robbins instructs Peter Martins and Suzanne Farrell in the film clip that preceded this all-Robbins, all-French music program. He is seen coaching them intently in 1979 as they rehearse "Afternoon of a Faun," and Robbins is clearly mesmerized by them yet also concerned that the brush of a hand across a face, the gentle turning of a cheek, not be rushed. Throughout the four works on this program -- neatly balanced between Ravel, for the opening and closing works, and Debussy, for the two central pieces -- one could find a languid air of reverie, a quality of slowing-down and absorbing the moment that this music drew from Robbins. The quiet gaze, the sculptural pose, the moment of rapt engagement -- these were all much in evidence. Even amid the giddy playful hubbub of "In G Major," the one work most clearly geared to entertain in a more expansive manner, there is that quietly pulsating, dreamlike duet of gentle advances and retreats, of two bodies inevitably being drawn together, that casts a spell of calm reflection and allows us to contemplate the infinite.

Youth is Well Served

ABT II
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
May 10, 2008 (matinee)

by Susan Reiter
copyright © Susan Reiter 2008

Bracing and beautifully shaped, Aszure Barton's "Barbara" unfolds with a deeply satisfying blend of inevitability and surprise. These seemingly contradictory qualities coexist quite naturally because Barton never ventures into predictable territory, yet every moment of the ballet reflects a keen insight and response to the wistful, charmingly simple yet poignant songs of the late French singer/songwriter for whom it is named. Many choreographers seem to wander aimlessly through the scores they select -- why did they choose this music, we are often left wonder -- but Barton pierces to the heart of these songs with delicate restraint. Add in her confident sense of structure and her knack for the odd yet resonant gesture, and you have just some of the elements that make this premiere that distinctly rare experience -- a new work that one immediately hopes to see again.