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Jasperse & friends

John Jasperse Company
"Becky, Jodi and John"
created and performed by Becky Hilton, John Jasperse and Jodi Melnick
Dance Theater Workshop, New York
May 27, 2009
by Tom Phillips
copyright 2009 by Tom Phillips

Dancemaking is a social art form, and the artist John Jasperse says that’s why he chose it from among the arts as a lifetime occupation. Midway through that life, he’s come up with “Becky, Jodi and John.” It’s a meditation on the pains of getting old in a world that’s constantly looking for something new, but it’s also about what endures in a life devoted to a fleeting form of art.

Dancing Ahoy

"Le Corsaire"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 27, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

"Le Corsaire" made its ABT debut in 1998, along with another ballet in the continuing full-length sweepstakes, Ben Stevenson's long-forgotten "The Snowmaiden", a completely unmemorable stab at a fairy tale, remarkable only for its stunning sets and the limpid performance of Nina Ananiashvili.  "Le Corsaire", while its story is even less resonant than the poor Snowmaiden's, does have pockets of brilliant choreography, led, in one performance, by the ageless Ananiashvili, looking a young and almost as technically accomplished as she did all those years ago traipsing through Stevenson's choreography.  The long-after Petipa choreography, though, shows off so brilliantly the many possible facets of female dancing; unfortunately the men's steps, many added, apparently, to give ABT's brilliant stable reason to wander around in Petipa's female world, tend to be unmusical, repetitious, and distracting.   The original ballet was French, based very loosely on the Byron poem, and Petipa reworked it for the Maryinsky.  It involves a somewhat complicated set of Barbary pirates, Greek captives, and Turkish pashas and is spectacularly preposterous.  Basically, Medora, a Greek slave with a habit of being kidnapped, loves Conrad, a friendly pirate who trusts Bribanto, an unfriendly pirate, who tries to kill him and sell Medora back to the cowardly slave owner Lankendem, who sells nubile young women to the Pasha Seyd, who dreams of a beautiful garden populated by Medora and her equally kidnappable friend Gulnare, who are rescued by Conrad and his friendly slave Ali.  But there is some serious dancing going on, and it requires serious dancers.

Tchaikovsky-Balanchine Spectacular

“Allegro Brillante,” “Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Mozartiana,” “Theme and Variations”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 22, 2009

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2009 by Kathleen O’Connell

“Spectacular” in a program title suggests the kind of no-holds-barred flotilla of sequined showstoppers championed by the Ice Capades. Despite the generous dusting of glitter on its very pink and purple “Theme and Variations” tutus, American Ballet Theatre’s “Tchaikovsky–Balanchine Spectacular” wasn’t that kind of extravaganza. “Balanchine” and “Spectacular” aren’t antithetical terms: the man who choreographed “Circus Polka” for fifty elephants and “Vienna Waltzes” for a fifty ballerinas had no aversion to spectacle. But ABT chose to showcase the choreographer who made a virtue of limited means. The company endeavored to make a big show out of a program with a modest contingent of dancers, next-to-no sets, and no world premieres, and they mostly succeeded. “Allegro Brillante” would fit more comfortably into one of ABT’s City Center programs, but the company made the case that it can be an eyeful even on the Metropolitan Opera’s cavernous stage.

The Enigma Opens Vistas of a Future Art

Hamburg Honors Nijinsky both on stage and with the most extensive exhibition of his paintings
John Neumeier: “Nijinsky” and “Dance of Colours – Nijinsky´s Eye and Abstraction”
Hamburg Ballet John Neumeier at the Opera-House and Hamburger Kunsthalle
Hamburg
May 19, 2009

by Horst Koegler
copyright @2009 by Horst Koegler

On May 19, 2009, at 20.05 p.m., John Neumeier told the 1674 visitors of  the capacity filled Hamburg Opera House, that exactly 100 years ago ballet had entered the Modern Age with the debut of Diaghilev´s Ballets Russes at the Paris Théâtre du Châtelet – that is one hundred years minus thirty minutes, for the Paris performance had started half an hour later. For Hamburg it meant the 90th performance of Neumeier´s ballet “Nijinsky” since its premiere on 2nd July 2000 – 16 months prior to that fatal New York date of September 2001.

Farewell of a Giant

Farewell of a giant - Manuel Legris, never less than a hundred percent.
Onegin
Paris Opera Ballet,
Palais Garnier
Paris
15 May 2009

by Marc Haegeman
copyright 2009 by Marc Haegeman

On May 15 Manuel Legris danced his official farewell with the Paris Opera Ballet. For more than twenty years Legris has been one of the company’s most brilliant and acclaimed étoiles. An artist of incomparable commitment, energy, generosity, and versatility, he was the last étoile of the Nureyev-era remaining at the Opera. Nominated by Rudolf Nureyev while still only a 22-year young sujet following a performance of "Raymonda" on tour at the Met in 1986, Legris has as most Parisian dancers of his generation been strongly marked by his towering personality and credos. A performance by Legris was always an exchange, with his partners, and with the audience. He was never on stage for anything less than a hundred percent. He danced all the great classics in the repertory and a lot more, virtually every major contemporary choreographer created works on him, and since 1996 he has his own touring group “Manuel Legris et ses étoiles”, allowing younger dancers to try out new roles or work with choreographers. His retirement closes a chapter in the history of the Paris Opera.

Sylphs and Others

"Scotch Symphony", "Quasi Una Fantasia", "Concerto DSCH"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 22, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

Balanchine's "Scotch Symphony" is a somewhat haphazard take on "La Sylphide", and despite some true romantic choreography, it lacks emotional logic.  Why does the sylph, who has spent most of her time gesturing up to the sky, where she belongs, suddenly become earthbound and perfectly happy as a bravura classical dancer?  Why do the village boys, after dancing so willingly with the local sylphs, suddenly turn into heavies, separating our hero from his own sylph.  And why, after their ominous appearance separating the couple, do they literally throw the sylph at the person not called James?  There is no real exploration of the two different worlds which so intrigued the romantic period, just some wonderful, but unconnected choreography, which can be enjoyed on its own terms, but which leads me, at least, to wish I was watching the real thing.  This season saw a new set, designed by Karin von Aroldingen, which replaced the leafy glen with what looks like a particularly arid part of the Sahara, but, while it adds nothing to the atmosphere, doesn't get in the way of the dancing.

Get Real

"Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare"

Mark Morris Dance Group

The Rose Theater

New York, NY

May 17, 2009

copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart

Let's get something straight -- there are no soaring lifts in Mark Morris' "Romeo & Juliet, On Motifs of Shakespeare," no stage loads of sword clanking nobles, no fat bumbling nurse. There's not even a tragic ending. But bring fresh eyes to this elegantly spare production of everyone's favorite love story and you won't be disappointed.

Singular

"Scheherezade"
Baltimore Ballet
Kraushaar Auditorium, Goucher College
Towson, Maryland
May 17, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by GJ

Is there any ballet more difficult to bring back to life than the Diaghilev company's legendary "Scheherezade" of 1910? Part of the problem may be that Mikhail Fokine, its choreographer, had experience, instinct, insight and imagination that few today share. The harem life he evoked on stage was more than merely colorful and strange. It might actually have been alien -  in the extraterrestrial, science fiction, frightening sense. Montesquieu, in his "Persian Letters", refers to the seraglio as "another world". Fokine had traveled to the Persian parts of Czarist Russia. He had certainly read the "Arabian Nights". He knew the harem's rules were cruel by civilized Western standards and its inhabitants obsessed with immediate sensual gratification - whether pleasure of the flesh or the possession of treasure - even at the risk of death. Immerse yourself in that world if you can and likely you will tremble.

The Pleasure of Limitations

Joe Goode Performance Group
“Falling Inward”
 Oliver Ranch
Geyserville, CA
May 16, 2009

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2009

Nestled among the golden hills of Northern California, and at first barely visible through the canopy of gnarled California oaks, Ann Hamilton’s Tower, a 2007 commission by art collector Steven Oliver, resembles the beacons of defense that dot lonely landscapes from Central Asia to the Scottish highlands. Eight stories high, with slits that pass for windows, it’s a forbidding structure that tells you to stay away. But as you enter—actually you have to crawl in—it opens into an elegant wall-hugging spiral staircase that invites a climb towards the oculus open to the sky. This powerful, yet vertically challenging space inspired Joe Goode’s translucent ”Falling Inward,” one of his gentle musings on living and the uncertainties that come from it.

Spring Awakening

ABT Gala
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, NY
May 18, 2009

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2009 by Mary Cargill

ABT began its traditional Spring season at the Met with a flourish, capped by the gracious speech of First Lady Michelle Obama, stressing her support for the arts.  She was greeted by a spontaneous standing ovation (and lots of flashing cameras which added to the occasion), and the buzz generated by her presence was infectious.  The gala program was crafted carefully, to give all the principals and then some a chance to be seen, and was made up primarily of coming attractions.  This meant that few dances were complete, so critical artistic judgment is really impossible, but the evening was a lot of fun, and fortunately the fouettes were  kept to a minimum.  The evening opened with new principal Veronika Part in the "Preghiera" from Balanchine's Mozartiana, which she danced as if it were a meditation on the Lilac Fairy, seeming to bless both the four young girls and the entire audience.  It didn't have the interior mystery of Farrell's version, but it was warm, lush and beautiful.