danceviewtimes

NYCB's "Early" Music Masters

Early Music Masters
"Divertimento No. 15," "Stabat Mater," "Brahms/Handel"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater, New York
January 30, 2009

by Tom Phillips
Copyright 2009 by Tom Phillips

Eight is a boring number, especially when it’s divided up into the standard four pairs or two quartets. But in the hands of George Balanchine, eight became a magic number in his “Divertimento No. 15.” Instead of the normal groupings, he used three men and five women as his principals, breaking them into ones, two and threes in kaleidoscopic shifting patterns, backed by a more geometric corps of eight women. As for Mozart’s four-beat, four-measure phrases, he often cut them into three fives, adding an extra step at the end to make 16. Thus does “Divertimento” endlessly divert and delight the viewer, especially when danced with the precision and verve that Sterling Hyltin and Ana Sophia Scheller brought to the opening Theme and Variations.

More Than Entertainment

San Francisco Ballet
Program I
“Prism”, “Diving into the Lilacs” and “The Four Temperaments”
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 27, 2009 

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2009
 

George Balanchine famously maintained that he was in the business of providing entertainment. San Francisco’s first program of the season certainly did that. But in doing so, the evening also built an arc from pleasant through memorable to masterful—entertainment. More than pleasant but less than masterful was San Francisco Ballet Resident Choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s “Diving into the Lilacs.” It was bracketed by Helgi Tomasson’s  2000 Diamond Project safe “Prism” and Balanchine’s breathtaking “The Four Temperaments.”

Founders Keepers

"Monumentum/Movements", "Dances at a Gathering", "Stars and Stripes"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 27, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright 2009 by Mary Cargill

The marketing department seems to have given up trying to find brands, and this wonderful program was simply called "Founding Choreographers I" which is a little more succinct than a title like "Four Really Different, Really Great Ballets".  "Monumentum Por Gesualdo" and "Movements for Piano and Orchestra", to give them their complete names, were choreographed three years apart for different ballerinas (Diana Adams and Suzanne Farrell respectively) but now are danced together by the same dancer, in this case Maria Kowroski, partnered by Charles Askegard.  The choreography cast its usual spell from the opening, giving the feeling of being inside the music, of visible architecture.  Kowroski has magnificent physical gifts, but her uncanny resemblance to Farrell tends to work against her in some roles, raising unattainable expectations.  She can be an emotional blank (though not in comedy, where she shines).  The various ambiguous movements, like holding her hand to her ear, looked, not like she was responding to an inner impulse, but like she was showing that she had learned her lesson. This is certainly better than chewing on invisible scenery to yank some extraneous drama in, but at times the ballets looked like a demonstration at a bendy straws sales convention. 

DTW's Fresh Tracks

"Public," "oldscales," "Everlast and So Badly," "in the Middle, somewhat aggravated," "Magic Under My Belt,"Response time with help her out/take 357"

Dance Theater Workshop

New York, NY

January 21, 2009

by Lisa Rinehart

copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart

Dance Theater Workshop's 43-year-old "Fresh Tracks" series isn't for the faint of heart. The audience is guinea pig, critic and consumer all at once, and the dance makers are, at best, inexperienced. "Star Search" without the fun I'm afraid. So it is with this year's offerings from Adriane Lee, Devynn Emory, Jen Rosenblit, Sahar Javedani, Stacy Grossfield and Hilary Clark; all of whom received 50 hours of free rehearsal space along with workshops in grant writing, fundraising and marketing.

For some, the workshops may be premature.

Whatever the selection committee saw in the auditions of Adriane Lee and Stacy Grossfield remains a mystery. There is neither interesting movement nor an engaging idea in Lee's "Public," a vignette for three dancers in puffy nylon Fed Ex jumpsuits that, sadly, are the piece's most original element. Grossfield is even farther adrift with "Magic Under My Belt," a tedious meander through the post-modern world of small gestures meaningful only to the choreographer.

Rosenblit's "Everlast and So Badly" is equally bewildering, but because Rosenblit is built like a shotputter and moves like a dancer, we watch. The presence of three lithe women encased up to their noses in black tubular leotards, a vaguely ominous lone woman and piles of plastic cards and fake bling dropped around the stage are inexplicable.

Javedani's "in the Middle, somewhat aggravated" gets closer to (gasp!) meaning. More political theater than dance, Javedani's cheerful laptop montage of veiled Iranian women advertising Botox, make-up and careers in telecommunications is amusing, but shallow. Barely brushing loaded topics such as women in the Muslim world, American saber-rattling towards Iran and the conflicting loyalties of Iranian-Americans, Javedani needs to work harder if she wants her pieces to pack a punch.

Clark, always a fascinating performer, is hysteria embodied in "Response time with help her out/take 357." There's not much memorable movement, but Clark makes a convincing mini-portrait of a woman-on-the-verge. Her little girl voice quavers with desperation before she explodes into a sort of slam dance frenzy. She's one to keep tabs on.

Devynn Emory's "oldscales" isn't riveting, but Emory and Meg Foley make an intriguing pair as they make repeating right angles sliding on their backs with the glide and grace of a Michael Jackson moonwalk. Deadpan throughout, there's an oddly engaging moment when the two turn slowly on demi-pointe, survey the stage and converse in an incomprehensible language as though important information is being exchanged. Go figure, but I liked this one. Emory understands form and has the necessary fearlessness to create her own language -- an admirable accomplishment for a relative greenhorn.

A number of iconic dance makers have emerged from DTW's "Fresh Tracks." Hey, you never know.

Tribute to Nureyev - Lifecasting

“Flower Festival in Genzano pas de deux,” “La Stravaganza,” “After the Rain pas de deux,” “Lifecasting,” “Theme and Variations”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 22, 2009

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel

Rudolf Nureyev had a hair-thin connection with New York City Ballet.  He never danced for the company during Balanchine’s lifetime; Balanchine famously told him to come back when he was ready to stop being The Prince.  However towards the end of his career, Balanchine did stage (with assistance) dances from “Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme” for Nureyev at New York City Opera.  The Rudolf Nureyev Dance Foundation just donated a half-million dollars to support emerging choreography at NYCB, so now the company is dancing a Tribute to Nureyev.  Considering the fact that this week two smaller American companies, Arizona and Sacramento Ballets, curtailed their seasons, it may be time to cease being cynical about what any ballet company needs to do to stay afloat.

Philosophy 101

"A Light Conversation"
Wally Cardona and Rahel Vonmoos
Dance Place
Washington, DC
January 24, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

The title of this duet isn't really misleading. Much of what Wally Cardona and Rahel Vonmoos dance is accompanied by a recorded conversation* about the philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, but it is lucid talk. The challenge for the audience at first is to both listen and watch. Watch for what? It isn't apparent right away whether the dancing of this pair of young adults is pure movement or tells a tale. Didn't Balanchine claim that to put a woman and a man together on stage is drama already, without further ado? The pace of the conversation is rather rapid whereas the cadence of Cardona and Vonmoos' motion is often different from that of the radio voices. Yet, once you've adjusted to the acts of looking and listening at simultaneously distinct rates, other hurdles start standing in the way to comprehension. Parts of the conversation are censored by erasure or by drumming that drowns the voices out. Analogous gaps arise in the choreography, but overcoming these obstacles can be fun. Moreover, though the dancers aren't idealized types, they are most attractively human - another reason for keeping ones eyes on them in addition to trying to find out what they are up to. 

The Men Have It

“76th Anniversary Gala Celebration”
San Francisco Ballet
January 21, 2009
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, California

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2009

Considering that two-thirds of San Francisco Ballet’s latest Gala was derived from, or inspired by, Balanchine and Petipa, it made sense to put the evening under the motto of “Russian Treasures.” (Some of the women attendees took this as an invitation to pull out their furs, something rarely seen in the Bay Area). But looking at the line-up, the program might as well have been titled “Look at Our Men.”

Bringin' It All Back Home

Miami City Ballet Program 2
"Square Dance," "Rubies," "Symphony in C"
Miami City Ballet
City Center, New York
January 22, 2009

by Tom Phillips
Copyright 2009 by Tom Phillips

Not far into Miami City Ballet’s curtain raiser, “Square Dance,” about the time when principal Jeanette Delgado tossed off her first set of perfectly etched garguoillades, this observer felt a familiar sensation from a long time ago, but that’s been absent in recent years: a sense that one had just put on a new pair of glasses with a better prescription, and was suddenly able to see more clearly and vividly. I’d call it the Balanchine effect, a product of his revolution in dance, in which he stripped dancers down to their elemental forms, turned them out to reveal every angle of the body, gave them steps that revealed the inner workings of the music, and taught them to do it as if it mattered – to mean what they danced. No dancer produced the effect better than Edward Villella, whose turning leaps could make you feel like you were being kicked back in your seat, even in the top balcony. Villella performed in the premiere of “Square Dance” at City Center, with New York City Ballet in 1957. More than a half-century later, with his own Miami City Ballet, he’s bringing it all back home.

The Visitors

“Symphony in Three Movements,” “La Valse,” “In The Upper Room”
Miami City Ballet
New York City Center
New York, NY
January 21, 2009

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel

Well, they’ve finally come to New York. Miami City Ballet has played area theaters before, bussing critics out to see them, but they splashed down at City Center last night amidst politics and hoopla to an eagerly anticipated debut in a Balanchine-Tharp triple bill.  The company was forced to use recorded music; given City Center’s muddy acoustics this was a dear sacrifice.

The choice of “Symphony in Three Movements” to open the program also had its drawbacks.  Created for the Stravinsky Festival at the State Theater and meant to eat space, the ballet was crammed onto the smaller City Center stage with the corps de ballet curtailing their movements and still knocking into the side curtains.

Four Voices - NYCB

“Chiaroscuro,” “Papillons,” “Concerto DSCH,” “Brahms-Schoenberg Quartet”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 17, 2009

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel

The Four Voices program at New York City Ballet returned a few disparate works to repertory. Peter Martins revived his “Papillons,” made for the Dancer’s Emergency Fund Benefit, back in 1994.  A quartet set to Schumann piano pieces, it looks like the pièce d’occasion it was made as. The two women are demure in filmy white bodices and skirts; the men are in discreet black. The work is constructed in short dances and variationettes one after another.  It’s short and slight, clever as Martins can be for better or worse, but inoffensive.  There’s no reason not to bring it back on occasion.