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Heinz Spoerli: A Ballet-Man of All Seasons

March 21, 2009

The Swiss Heinz Spoerli receives the German Dance Prize 2009 at the Essen Aalto Music Theatre.
In addition Marijn Rademaker, Principal Dancer of the Stuttgart Ballet, is the recipient of the German Dance Price ´Future´

by Horst Koegler
copyright @2009 by Horst Koegler

It is a bit like the General Meeting of the United Nations in New York. The place, however, is not Manhattan, but Essen, capital of the German Rhine-Ruhr industrial district (and home of the famous Folkwang School of Arts, established  some eighty years ago under the directorship of the legendary Kurt Jooss, creator of the “Green Table”).

Kleist was Right

“The Return of Ulysses”
Pacific Operaworks and Handspring Puppet Company
Project Artaud Theater
San Francisco, CA
March 24, 2009

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano, 2009

Puppets have a long tradition in dance whether they partner live performers in popular and ritual celebrations around the globe or are impersonated in ballets such “Coppelia,” The Nutcracker,” “Petrouchka”, “La boutique fantasque” and its precursor “Die Puppenfee” And who can forget the blow-up doll in DV8 Physical Theater’s “Enter Achilles?” The tension between the inanimate and the live body is one that seems to fascinate universally. A performance by Seattle’s Pacific Operaworks and Cape Town’s Handspring Puppet Company of Monteverdi’s “The Return of Ulysses” brought the topic to mind again, particularly as it relates to Heinrich von Kleist’s “On the Marionette Theater.” The Monteverdi opera was presented by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with an exhibition of the oeuvre of South African artist William Kentridge who directed and designed the production.

Exercise for Body and Eye

Paul Taylor Master Class with Michael Trusnovec
Rehearsal Studio
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 26, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

Not every dance class gets to the dancing. Many stick to technique. Practically all, though, start with limbering and stretching. Some of this warm-up happens before the formal lesson begins, the students commencing with their individual routines down on the floor or up at the barre or standing free in the center. Those participating in this class were no exception. There were 20 of them - the limit according to the Kennedy Center web site - one a tall young man, one a tall mature woman and the other 18 young women of different sizes and shapes. Michael Trusnovec, calling the class to order and asking everyone to stand up, explained that he would not be teaching Paul Taylor technique because there was no such thing. Each of the Taylor company's  dancers,including himself, had a personal way of preparing to dance Taylor's choreography. Still, the lesson he was about to give should help in performing Paul Taylor work and seeing it for what it was. Having already conferred with his pianist*, Trusnovec, demonstrating and speaking, had the class take a wide stance and move the torso and arms. These were simple actions , yet effort and deliberation were apparent. At first, his warm-up exercise reminded me of the Laocoon statue in slow motion. 

Variety Routines

"A Quarreling Pair"
Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
March 24, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

The German word "routiniert" appears frequently in that country's criticism and in that of Austria and
the Germanic cantons of Switzerland. It does not mean routine or rote in the ordinary sense but rather competent, practiced, trained or rehearsed. Yet it can be a shaded term because the English sense of standard or expected hangs over it like a cloud. "A Quarreling Pair" isn't one of Bill T. Jones' highly  inventive dance compositions nor one of his most urgent pieces of movement theater even though there's little doubt that it is competently made, well rehearsed, and entertaining at first. It becomes, however, predictable as it goes on and on. 

Familiar Fare in New Guises

San Francisco Ballet
Program IV
“On a Theme of Paganini,” “Jardin aux Lilas”,
“The Concert (or, the perils of everybody)
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 14, 2009

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano, 2009

It’s rather extraordinary that San Francisco Ballet, with its history and track record of a broad-based repertoire, had never performed Antony Tudor’s masterful “Jardin aux Lilas” until this season.  This hauntingly beautiful ballet was programmed with Jerome Robbins’ ever-popular “The Concert” and Helgi Tomasson’s workmanlike “On a Theme of Paganini” to Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini” (with Roy Bogas the splendid pianist.) These familiar works should not have offered many surprises but it’s the beauty of live performances that new perspectives always open—here mostly with welcome results.

"Isadora" Returns to the Royal Ballet

"Isadora," "Dances at a Gathering"
The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House
London, England
11 March –- 21 March, 2009

by Judith Cruickshank
copyright 2009 by Judith Cruickshank

Monica Mason doesn't give up easily on something she believes in. Earlier this season she allowed Will Tuckett's production of “"The Seven Deadly Sins"” a further run of performances, despite the lack of enthusiasm with which it was initially received. Now we are presented with a new version of Kenneth MacMillan's “Isadora”, almost universally - and in my view understandably - disliked at its full-evening premiere in 1981 and dropped from the Royal Ballet repertory soon after.

Mark Morris on His Own

San Francisco Ballet
Program V
“A Garden,” “Joyride” “Sandpaper Ballet”
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 13, 2009

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2009

After last season’s heady flood of new works, San Francisco Ballet’s programming this year definitely feels like a retrenchment. The only world premieres are Helgi Tomasson’s “Swan Lake” last month and Resident Choreographer Yuri Possokhov’s “Diving into the Lilacs” in January. So between now and the first week of May, it’s re-visiting time. This is not an unpleasant exercise, particularly when one of the choreographer is Mark Morris who has entrusted more works to SFB than to any other company, except his own. “A Garden” dates from 2001, “Joyride” from 2008 and “Sandpaper Ballet” from 1999.  All were commissioned by SFB.

Canadian Innovation

“In Colour,” “Emergence,” “Dextris”
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 7, 2009

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel

The National Ballet of Canada mounted three new ballets for its “Innovation” program, all by Canadian choreographers, and all with large casts.  Peter Quanz’ “In Colour” was the most classical.  To a commissioned score by the young Russian composer Anton Lubchenko, Quanz moved through the spectrum of colors.  Lubchenko’s music was big, symphonic and modern, without a tune but interesting and energetic. The dance itself was ambitious, large-scale and unsettled, pushing on with themes and never resolving into symmetry.

Infinite variety

"Images", "Last Look", "Offenbach Overtures"
Paul Taylor Dance Company
New York City Center
March 11, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright 2009 by Mary Cargill

 This typical Taylor program took the audience through a variety of emotions, from the sublime ("Images") through the tragic ("Last Look") to the sublimely ridiculous ("Offenbach Overtures"), and was yet another reminder of how multi-faceted his dancemaking is.  The 1977 "Images" evokes Ancient Crete, by way of piano music by Claude Debussy, unfortunately, as has been the case for a number of years, heard on a recording.  There is a feeling of various rituals, ranging from an intimation of sacrifice, a celebration of spring, a mating dance, and a group celebration.  Annmaria Mazzini, with Robert Kleinendorst, was especially notable in the mating dance, womanly, in control, seductive without a trace of coyness.  The men got equal time with Michael Trusnovec's confident, powerful, and irresistible performance as a man who feels he can have any woman he wants.  Ancient Crete was probably not this much fun, but it should have been.

A Dancer's Story

"Veronique Doisneau"
A Film by Jerome Bel and Pierre Dupouey
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
March 8, 2009

by Tom Phillips
Copyright 2009 by Tom Phillips

Veronique Doisneau, 42 years old, married, with two children, winding up her career as a sujet in the corps of the Paris Opera Ballet. This middle-class worker is the subject of what film-maker Jerome Bel calls an “application of Marxist theory to a monarchical organization.” In 37 minutes “Veronique Doisneau” reveals the toll a lifetime of physical and emotional discipline takes on a beautiful young woman. But the film-maker is a dancer himself, and his portrayal does not slight the sublime nature of her toil. The result is a dancer’s story, told with a dancer’s exquisitely refined sense of balance.