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Eiko & Koma

“Hunger”
Eiko & Koma
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 25, 2008

by Lisa Rinehart
copyright ©2008 by Lisa Rinehart
 

Anyone who’s wondered, even for the tiniest moment, what life is all about, should see Eiko & Koma in performance. Allow me a quote from William Blake’s “Auguries of Innocence,”

To see a world in a grain of sand,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

 Or, perhaps, in eighty minutes, the running time of Eiko & Koma’s newest offering, “Hunger.” “Hunger” pulls from earlier works “Grain” (1983), and “Rust” (1988), but adds material from “Cambodian Stories: An Offering Of Painting and Dance” (2006) including two beautiful young painters turned performers, Charian and Peace. The sections are loosely bound together by the notion of rice as sustenance, as well as by Joko Sutrisno’s delicate vocals and gamelan, but “Hunger” is really about desire; the aching desire that gnaws at our stomachs, our hearts, and our minds. As Eiko & Koma put it, “At any age we are all hungry, not only for food, but also for knowledge, intimacy and life.”

Star Supply

“Ballo della Regina,” “Flames of Paris,” “Overgrown Path,” “Brief Fling”
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 28, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

American Ballet Theater has never made any bones about being where the stars come to shine.  It’s what its audience wants.  ABT needs a steady supply of stars, and they’re easier to attract than create. Twenty one year old soloist Daniil Simkin is the newest wunderkind to join ABT, and he introduced himself to us with the “Flames of Paris” pas de deux choreographed by Vainonen for the Kirov in the thirties.  It’s familiar territory for Simkin, there are videos of him dancing this all over the Internet, and he does it very well.  Simkin’s not tall, but he has long proportions and elegant lines; also a baby face – he still looks like a precocious teenager.  He can deliver the goods; a cyclone of turns and soaring calm jumps including a “540” rivoltade.  The audience roared in approval and he caused a sensation. That’s what ABT’s audience pays its money to see, and they got their money’s worth.  Now that we’ve seen him in what he does best, it will be interesting to see his range.

Not Without Genius

The Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
October 25, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

Criticism should focus on the art, not the advertising. The latter, though, leaked into the printed program for Washington Ballet’s first bill of the 2008/9 season. The bill was a mixed one of four short works and bore the umbrella title “Genius2”. Intended was a sequel to last season’s G1. The company offered G2 for 6 performances in the fussily redesigned Eisenhower Theater. Septime Webre, the WB’s artistic director, in one of his on-stage chats likened the assembly of a mixed bill to the planning of the menu for a fine meal. Fair enough – that comparison has been made often since one-act ballets became popular in European opera houses at the end of the 19th Century. Must, though, all the “courses” be imported? That was so for G1 and now again for G2. Isn’t there work by at least one “Washington choreographer” worthy of being seen together with those by guest chefs? Apparently, for Webre the answer is no.

Production vs. Performance

“The Leaves Are Fading”, “Overgrown Path”
“Theme and Variations”
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 23, 2008

by Carol Pardo
copyright 2008 by Carol Pardo

Something is amiss when production rather than choreography grabs one’s attention at the ballet. At first, I thought this was just a reaction to seeing “The Leaves Are Fading”, made for the huge stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, on the smaller stage of City Center. On the larger stage, the dancers in Antony Tudor’s meditation on love, set in a wooded grove, seem almost overwhelmed by the scale of the natural world. Here, the enveloping forest is a protected cocoon, where humans take pride of place and feel safe revealing emotions that make them vulnerable. The change in scale also means that the structural details of the piece are not subsumed by its sweep. According to remarks made at the pre-performance talk, each of the four pas de deux reflects a facet of love seen through the prism of memory, with the finale a mixture of relief and triumph at having stuck it out, forty years on. I wish the dancers had tuned into this, for each pas de deux looked all too similar to the others and the ballet as a whole monotonous.

Repertory Begins

“Baker’s Dozen,” “Citizen,” “The Leaves are Fading,” “Theme and Variations”
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 22, 2008

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2008 by Leigh Witchel

Even if one quibbled with an individual performance or ballet, American Ballet Theatre opened its first night of repertory with a promising and solid evening.  The company commissioned a new work, “Citizen” by Lauri Stallings.  “Citizen” has a contemporary, theatrical flavor with some familiar looking elements (bare stage stripped of all leggings, hyperactive choreography) but a bit more heart than the usual aerobics fest.  German-born Max Richter composed the two pieces used;  both were heavy on strings and reminiscent of the pensive work of Henryk Górecki or Arvo Pärt.

Journeys

Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company
Lisner Auditorium
Washington, DC
October 24, 2008

by George Jackson
copyright 2008 by George Jackson

Following one of Burgess’ dances is like traveling through unfamiliar territory with a consummate guide. A sense of adventure persists even approaching the end of a work. Only later do you realize that the finds you think you’re making were put there at precisely the moment they mattered – as when the two couples in “Meditation” weave long, mellow, looping phrases but also raise a question. Why the two pairs, why wouldn’t one couple suffice since they pretty much duplicate the same line and phrasing? Just then you notice slight but certain differences in what they do. You could grow tired of this light counterpoint, but before that happens a third couple enters boldly so that true change reigns. In “Chino Latino” people dance together with real partners or ones yearned for but also seem aware of others on the club’s floor. No actual club set or dance crowd exist, but the feel of a specific place is tangible and there's pressure as if others were present. In “Khaybet”, a solo for a veiled female figure, we watch cloth that at first becomes one with the flesh it covers. Then, though, does it try to stifle the life articulating and agitating so persistently within its folds? The brand new “Hyphen” joins and segregates, binds or puts barriers between individuals, ideas, emotions, time present and memory. To bring such sights into view takes some doing.

Company A

"Theme and Variations", "Romeo and Juliet", "Time","Overgrown Path", "Don Quixote",
"Company B"
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
October 21, 2008

by Mary Cargill
copyright © Mary Cargill

ABT's gala was more substantial and more varied than the usual fouette fest, and two great and very different works sandwiched a group of generally interesting shorter pieces.  "Theme and Variations", even with the somewhat kitchy costumes and black backdrop, remains one of Balanchine's jewels, an intricate and facinating synopsis of Petipa.  Marcelo Gomes is the perfect prince, steady and generous, and he danced the difficult variation with ease, never going for big effects, but stringing the steps into a gorgeous flow; his dancing sang rather than shouted.  His princess, Paloma Herrera, looked very good, with a much softer and rounded upper body than she has sometimes shown; her legs and feet are still second to none.  Her dancing at times, though, was scrupulous rather than rapturous, and the magnificent pas de deux at times seemed like a demonstration, not a conversation.   

Good Enough

The Mariinsky Ballet

Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, CA
Oct. 17 and 19, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Just about all is well with the Mariinsky Ballet’s old-fashioned “Don Quixote”, a ballet which I didn’t think I needed to ever see again. The music is just so insufferably crude. Yet this past weekend I found myself twice trekking across the Bay Bridge to watch these dancers come alive in performances that were nuanced, delivered with gusto and whose choreography actually made sense.

Beautifully Schooled, But..... the Mariinsky in London

Mariinsky Ballet
Apollo, Middle Duet, Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux, The Prodigal Son
Sadler's Wells Theatre,
London, England
13 -16 October, 2008

by Judith Cruickshank
copyright 2008 by Juditih Cruickshank

There was some surprise when earlier this year it was announced that the Kirov Ballet and Opera would be giving a short season at Sadler's Wells. Until now, the company had always appeared in London either at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden or at the London Coliseum, and the rebuilt Sadler's Wells, with its big stage and excellent sightlines, is still very much a people's theatre. But come the company did, now officially called the Mariinsky, bringing an all-Forsythe evening, and a mixed bill of ballet, plus a splendid production of Rimsky Korsakov's opera “The Tale of Tsar Saltan”. All were given just two performances.

Good but Good enough?

“Raymonda, Act 3”, “La Bayadère, the Kingdom of Shades”, “Paquita, Grand Pas”
The Mariinsky Ballet
Cal Performances, Zellerbach Hall
San Francisco, California
October 15, 2008

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

It may not have been fair to have groaned when Cal Performances announced the programming for this season’s two all--Petipa evenings by the Mariinsky Ballet. It was to be excerpts of rarely performed or lost full-length ballets and “Don Quixote.” But shouldn’t simply having the Mariinsky back for the third time in five years—after an absence of eleven—be enough of an occasion for rejoicing?  In fact, it is not. We know that this is a great company. We have seen them in Balanchine and Petipa. Now it was time for Forsythe, perhaps even Roland Petit. And yet. . . .