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At the Start of a New Era

 “Marsch, Walzer, Polka” and “3rd Symphony“ by Martin Schläpfer
and “Frank Bridge Variations” by Hans van Manen
Ballett am Rhein
Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Düsseldorf
October 16, 2009

by Horst Koegler
copyright ©2009 by Horst Koegler

At 50, Martin Schläpfer could be the older Continental brother of the Anglo-American Christopher Wheeldon. Born and grown up in the Swiss provinces, he served his apprentice years as a dancer with the Heinz Spoerli directed company at the Basle Municipal Theatre, an allegro-type whizz-kid comedian of small build and nimble feet. At 17 he won the Prix de Lausanne and started to branch out, studied at the London Royal Ballet School, later polishing his academic basics with Gelsey Kirkland and David Howard in New York, gained some international experience as a dancer with the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, returned to Basle where he starred in numerous, often quite funny Spoerli ballets and began to teach. In 1994 he was engaged as artistic director of the rather small company attached to the Berne Theatre – a surprise as he had no choreographic experience whatsoever, but soon attracted critical acclaim through his finely drafted, beautifully worked out, always eminently musical pieces of chamber-like size. He obviously belonged to the rare species of classically based choreographers who react instantaneously, whenever they hear some sound of music. In his interviews he clearly stated his preference for Balanchine as his model choreographer.

Rising from the Ashes

“Jewels of the Bay”
Oakland Ballet Company
Holy Names College
Oakland, California
October 16, 2009 

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2009

The San Francisco Fire Department proudly displays the phoenix on its official medallion. They really should loan this symbol of resurrecting yourself from the ashes to the Oakland Ballet Company who with three performances of “Jewels of the Bay,” last weekend made its latest attempt to come to back to life.

Even the Don Makes a Difference

"Don Quixote" Cast Changes
The Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
October 16, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

In "Don Quixote", the Don matters after all! He's more than a mere pretext for others to get on with their dancing and romantic dilemmas. How much he counts became clear when the cast changed for Anna-Marie Holmes's production of the ballet classic. Friday night's Don was no man with a mission. Instead of being a benighted idealist, he was a slightly eccentric gentleman of a certain age. His mild manners gave the entire story a jolly air. The demonic never even tinged the action and most of the characterizations opted to be quite humane. 

Balancing Act

"Don Quixote"
Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
October 15, 2009

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2009 by Alexandra Tomalonis

Marius Petipa's "Don Quixote" is a complex, messy ballet of mixed lineage. It was made for the Bolshoi, which explains its emphasis on character dancing and liveliness; then transferred to the Maryinsky Ballet, where the second act dream sequence was added to appeal to the taste of the St. Petersburg balletomanes; then redone again, at the Bolshoi, by Alexander Gorsky, whose production was geared more to popular taste and a new century. Every production since has had bits and pieces of this and that, so in a way, it's a good 19th century work for a small company to try; there's no standard text, no Swans or Shades. In any "Don Q," though, there needs to be a convincing Spanish flavor, a mix of character and bravura classical dancing, and (most difficult of all) enough good character dancers to handle the many acting parts that are difficult for today's dancers to manage convincingly.

Black and White, Lucite and Light

"Primo Toccare"
Balletto Teatro di Torino
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 14, 2009

by Carol Pardo
Copyright ©Carol Pardo

Skulls and flowers have symbolized the transience of human existence for centuries. But the still life that greeted audience members as they took their seats for "Primo Toccare" presented by the Balletto Teatro di Torino at the Joyce Theater, was not your grandmother's--or your great- great- great- great-grandmother's 17th century vanitas canvas.

Love Is Hell

“Decreation”
The Forsythe Company
Brooklyn Academy of Music
New York, NY
October 7, 2009

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

“This is irritating,” snapped one of the performers halfway through “Decreation,” William Forsythe’s 2003 exercise in tanztheater which opened for a brief run at BAM last week. No joke: lots of it felt like being trapped in a car with a bickering couple and their fidgety children. Forsythe’s dancers writhed, sang, shuddered, and shouted their way through fractured vignettes of love gone wrong punctuated by detours into darker territory. It was hard to watch, not just because it was unsettling, but because one didn’t know where to look or what listen to.

Ad Infinitum

“Concerto,” “Largo,” “DANCE”
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
October 6, 2009

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2009 by Leigh Witchel

Lucinda Childs’ return to the Joyce was an immersion into a long-steeped aesthetic, but there was nothing pedantic about it. Hardcore minimalism never went down so easy.

Childs has been around.  She was an original member of the Judson Dance Theater in 1963, and started her own company in 1973. She worked with Robert Wilson on “Einstein on the Beach”; much of her success has been in Europe.

A King in His Castle

"Cleave"
Douglas Dunn & Dancers
Danspace Project
New York, NY
October 9, 2009

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2009 by Martha Sherman

It's hard to imagine a choreographer more at home than Douglas Dunn at St. Mark's Church. In the world premiere of "Cleave," part of his three week residency with Danspace Project, Dunn came home, a king to his castle of several decades, with the equally regal Grazia Della-Terza on his arm and a court of eight energized courtiers. They entered the stage regally clothed by Dunn's long time collaborator Mimi Gross, in shiny long black and white vests edged in white fur, and extravagant feathered headdresses. They proceeded through respectful columns of dancers, then walked up the stairs of the church's altar niche, deep upstage, and turned. Although there were no thrones waiting, we could imagine them. Although most of the dance centered on their eight dancers, Dunn and Della-Terza kept watch throughout, dancing, narrating, and guarding from their perch. Their short solos were targeted and poignant; their guardianship of the proceedings was not intrusive but was intimately linked to every image.

Island, Mainland, Mother Courage

Dana Tai Soon Burgess & Company
Dance Place
Washington, DC
October 10, 2009

by George Jackson
copyright 2009 by George Jackson

The figures in Dana Tai Soon Burgess' new "Island" are packed into a tight place. Around them, above them and beneath them there is light, air or earth. Everything moves, but whereas the elements pulse with ceaseless time, it is only the human forms that configure the space, splitting and reshaping it as individual feelings fluctuate. These are people, not statistics or stereotypes, no matter how shared their fate. Burgess sets himself a challenge of scale in this richly different opus on his favorite theme of alienation and accommodation. 

ABT Tech Up North

“Seven Sonatas,” “One of Three,” “Some Assembly Required,” “Everything Doesn’t Happen At Once”
American Ballet Theatre
The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Bard College, NY
October 3, 2009

by Lisa Rinehart
copyright © 2009 by Lisa Rinehart

The Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College is a pile of Frank Gehry exotica plopped into the bucolic woods of Duchess County, NY. Productions can look beautiful in its industrial interior of concrete and pale wood, but American Ballet Theatre’s repertory program featuring premieres by Alexei Ratmansky, Aszure Barton and Benjamin Millepied, as well as a revival of Clark Tippet’s “Some Assembly Required” looks crowded and civic.