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Hell's Kitchen Dance

Hell’s Kitchen Dance
Howard Gilman Performance Space
Baryshnikov Arts Center
New York, NY
June 23, 2007 (matinee)   

by Susan Reiter
copyright © 2007 by Susan Reiter   

It seemed poignant and oddly appropriate that, while the two major ballet companies with which he performed so spectacularly during an earlier period were holding forth on grand Lincoln Center stages with velvet curtains for several thousand people, Mikhail Baryshnikov was revealing his exquisite mature artistry in an unadorned, intimate black-box space 25 blocks to the south for about 200 fortunate spectators. The setting, the repertory, the project itself — an unpretentious ensemble, most of them still in or just past their undergraduate years, that he has assembled for its second summer of touring — suggest how unconcerned Baryshnikov is with the grander trappings of celebrity or stature, and how much he currently revels in the process of creation and in a direct, forthright approach to performance. Yes, the four-performance run was preceded by a major New York Times feature and a (by network TV standards) generous profile on the “Today Show,” so one could hardly say his performances took place completely under the radar. But the matter-of-fact tone of the presentation — from the no-frills printed program to the de facto star’s lack of star curtain calls — was as far removed as possible from “uptown” glamour and hype.

Masters and Ballerinas

Balanchine & Robbins: Masters at Work
    "Raymonda Variations," "Dybbuk," " Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
New York, NY
June 19, 2007               

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2007 by Leigh Witchel   

Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette made their debuts as the lead couple in “Raymonda Variations” on Tuesday night. Bouder’s performance was the sort we expect from her, musical, sunny, witty, assured — and brash. She sailed through the technique and used her energy to flirt with us. It’s always enjoyable but not what the role called for. Her talent and ability make us want to see her as Everyballerina but by nature she’s a soubrette. Bouder has broken type often; her performance as the Firebird was heroic, and her Swan is no little chickadee either. There’s no need to — pardon the pun — pigeonhole her, but her interpretations of grand roles are going to look different; sunshine where we expected moonlight and roses.  Her debuts tend to be more excessive than subsequent performances and down the road there will be a compromise.  She’s at her most engaging when she’s being herself yet she has to work at being what the role demands.  Veyette sped impressively through the beats in his variations, but his lines are less than refined with feet that don’t always point and legs that don’t always close into tight positions. His partnering in the first pas de deux seemed uncertain, perhaps from nerves, and though he’s learned to smile, he still smiles as if he learned to – it looks like something he does to get a response rather than from pleasure.

Mixed Messages

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet "Mozartiana," “Divertimento Brillante ," “Scene d’amour” from Bejart’s “Romeo et Juliet,” and "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" 
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
June 8, 2007    

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright © 2007 by Alexandra Tomalonis   

Suzanne Farrell is taking the slow, careful road to building a ballet company. Rather than bringing in stars and have them dance whatever they dance, she’s training dancers to support her vision for the troupe, and it’s beginning to pay off. Every year, the Suzanne Farrell Ballet looks more like a company. This year, in “Scotch Symphony,” the corps was much stronger than it’s been on previous outings, and danced cohesively. It's beginning to develop an identity, a School. Couple this with Farrell’s gifts as a stager, her ability to show the outline of a ballet clearly from its first outing (and fill in the details later, if necessary), and an evening at the Suzanne Farrell Ballet is a wonderful way to enjoy sophisticated choreography. The downside is that, until these dancers develop into principals, or Farrell can, or will, use established dancers as part of her ensemble, those details are sometimes marred by underpowered dancing, and that was, unfortunately, often the case this week.

Beauty Betrayed

“The Sleeping Beauty”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 1, 2007   

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2007 by Mary Cargill

Other than the dancing, there’s very little beauty in American Ballet Theatre’s new “Sleeping Beauty.” The words “additional choreography by…” added to any Petipa ballet have always struck fear into a balletgoer’s heart, but a new fear has been added — the word “dramaturge”.  The Sleeping Beauty has always been the tightest and most coherent of classical ballets. Conceived by Maryinsky director Ivan Vsevolozhsky, a lover of French culture, it looked back to the classical form of the ballet de cour, and honored the French values of the Enlightenment: beauty, harmony, order, and reason. In Petipa’s great choreography, form and structure illustrate and amplify these virtues.   

San Francisco International Arts Festival

San Francisco International Arts Festival
      Zaccho Dance Theatre
“Departure and Arrival”
      San Francisco International Airport
      May 20, 2007

“Dance en Creations”
      Dance Mission Theater, San Francisco

Program I
      Dimensions Dance Theater
      Nelisiwe Xaba
      May 25, 2005

Program II
  Robert Moses’ Kin
      Compagnie Li-Sangha
      Mhaise Productions
      May 24, 2007

by Rita Felciano
      copyright © 2007 by Rita Felciano

If the rest of this year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival’s other guests brought works as vital and as beautifully performed as the debut presentations by dancers from Africa, the Festival should become a major hit in the years to come. But San Franciscans have yet to find out about it. Audiences at both “Dance En Creations” programs that I attended were sparse; the artists for the most part deserved better.