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Revisiting the Maiden

"Giselle"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 29, 2011

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano, 2011 

One of the great joys of returning to the classics derives from the discovery of details and perspectives you may have forgotten or never noticed in the first place. The experience proves particularly acute in dance which provides the pleasure of surprise -- well prepared for to be sure -- because instability is inherent in the medium and, therefore, provides breathing space for artists to fill as they see fit. But fairly or not, familiarity with a work also imposes a baseline of expectations against which artists are inevitably measured. The pleasure (and frustration) of San Francisco Ballet's latest "Giselle" -- the production dates from 1999, the first complete version the company ever performed -- arose more from individual performances than from the thrust of conviction that a theatrically unified approach imposes on material.

Benched

"Concerto DSCH", "Polyphonia", "For the Love of Duke"
New York City Ballet
Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, NY
January 22, 2011

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2011 by Mary Cargill

"For the Love of Duke", Susan Stroman's new work for City Ballet to Duke Ellington, is made up of two short pieces, "Frankie and Johnny...and Rose", a premiere, and "Blossom Got Kissed", first seen in 1999.  Stroman is best known as a Broadway choreographer, and this new piece will, one hopes, convince her that ballet isn't her forte.  "Frankie and Johnny...and Rose" featured Amar Ramasar, Tiler Peck, Sara Mearns and a bench.  These are usually vibrant and musical dancers, but they were stymied by the dull choreography and lame jokes--basically, Ramasar loves Peck while dancing on a bench, Mearns prances in (with an unfortunate hairdo that makes her look like Woody Woodpecker), wags her hips, and entices Ramasar, who pushes Peck off the bench.  Peck changes from a nice girl to a floozy, wags her hips, and knocks Mearns off the bench, then eventually, after much hip wagging, (and a series of fouettes by Mearns) both girls knock Ramasar off the bench, and strut off.  It seems like it is trying to be "Who Cares?", a ballet that all three dancers shine in, but the jokes are lame and obvious, the choreography limited, and Stroman seems to think that mugging and glittery tights equals characterization.

It Takes a Village

"The Bright Stream"
American Ballet Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
January 21 and 23 (matinee), 2011

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2011 by Alexandra Tomalonis

When was the last time you saw a ballet that kept you on the edge of your seat wondering what would happen next? Alexei Ratmansky’s restaging of the Shostakovich-Lopokhov “Bright Stream,” a comedy set on a Soviet collective farm originally choreographed in 1935, is full of surprises and delights, and American Ballet Theatre’s dancers take full advantage of them. “Bright Stream” is a sweet success, impossibly so, given the plot (philandering husband gets his comeuppance at the hands of two traveling ballet stars who cross-dress to fool him, as well as two dacha dwellers of advancing years and impossible dreams) and the setting (a 1930s Soviet collective farm). I can’t remember when the company looked so comfortable and confident in a new work, this despite the fact there was considerable tightening between its first performance on Friday and second Sunday afternoon; a mime conversation that seemed muddy on Friday was crystal clear on Sunday.  The dancing had been clear from the first second, and when the ensemble swept across the stage opening night in a gorgeous waltz, they had the house. Lordy! A brilliant ensemble dance in 2011!  Can world peace be far behind?

Off the Deep End

“For Glenn Gould”
GALLIM Dance

“POOL”
Sidra Bell Dance New York

Dance Theater Workshop
New York
January 19, 2011

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 2011 by Kathleen O’Connell

Andrea Miller and Sidra Bell want to bowl you over with big movement and big ideas, and they’re not afraid of making the body look weird in the process. There’s nothing particularly novel about their brands of weirdness: Ohad Naharim and William Forsythe respectively are obvious models for the hyperkinetic dislocations on display in Miller and Bell’s shared bill of premieres at Dance Theater Workshop. The big ideas—the creative process, life and death, order and disorder—have been big for millennia, too. Unfortunately, neither woman trusted movement to speak for itself: they were at pains to tell us on their websites and in their program notes what their works were all about, but the works didn’t live up to their words. Sometimes the less said the better: what might seem a rich ambiguity if left to our imagination can come across as half-baked when we’re told what to see.

Birthday Party

"Walpurgisnacht Ballet", "Duo Concertant", "The Four Temperaments", "Cortege Hongrois"
New York City Ballet
Koch Theater
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
New York, NY
January 22, 2011

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2010 by Mary Cargill

New York City Ballet celebrated Balanchine's birthday with matinee and evening performances of wall-to-wall Balanchine.  The matinee was sort of a marshmallow sandwich, with beautiful fluff surrounding a substantial filling, and showed off some beautiful music.  The company has continued its "Dancers are really just folks" approach by having the program open with a casual introduction by several dancers, in this case Amar Ramasar, Sterling Hyltin, and Robert Fairchild.  Despite the usual assortment of uhs and ums (I overheard someone behind me say "They talk with their feet, not their mouths"), the comments about Balanchine and music seemed sincere and touching; the introduction did have an obvious impact, since those performers garnered some extra applause.

Tabula Rasa

"Toward the Light", "Flames of Paris" Duo, "Jerusalem Divertissement"
American Ballet Theatre's Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School
Millennium Stage North
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 20, 2011

by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson

During this visit to Washington, American Ballet Theatre showed off 18 of its students. They gave two free performances which, like the company's run, were in celebration of President Kennedy's legacy. The students were cleanly trained and generally good looking. What they hadn't was a distinctive style - unless their absence of manner can be considered a style. It must be taught at the school, judging by how uniformly these young dancers seem pleasantly open yet, in the long run, bland. I'm comparing them to students at New York's School of American Ballet and Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet who look like Balanchine dancers in the making (high carriage, emphatic phrasing, etc.) or those of St. Petersburg's Vaganova Academy or Washington's Kirov Academy who have distinct Maryinsky traits (refined articulation of the joints, light yet complete plie, etc.). In performance, the ABT students were not allowed to do any tricks they didn't fully master. 

Obsession and Ecstasy

“Devotion”
Sarah Michelson for New York City Players
The Kitchen
New York, NY
January 15, 2011

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2011 by Leigh Witchel

Devotion and obsession are cousins, often found worshipping in the same pew. For her lengthy dance on faith, “Devotion,” Sarah Michelson brought an obsession to the subject much like a Sufi’s determined whirling to ecstasy. It was magical, strange, and for someone not caught up inside the process, way too long.

Chopin, Our Contemporary

“Dances at a Gathering” and “The Concert”
Hamburg Ballet
Hamburg State Opera
Hamburg, Germany
January 13 and 14, 2011

by Horst Koegler
copyright 2011 by Horst Koegler
 
It is marked as a red letter day in my calendar: Sunday, 22 June 1969, two performances of the New York City Ballet in Monte Carlo: Balanchine's “Jewels” in the matinee. and in the evening John Cliffords's  “Tchaikovsky Suite” (later renamed “Tchaikovsky Suite No. 2”), followed by Balachine's “Apollo” and Robbins´ ”Dances at a Gathering”, exactly one month after its official  premiere on 22 May 1969 at New York´s State Theatre -- with Edward Villella, Patricia McBride, Violette Verdy, Sara Leland and Kay Mazzo, Anthony Blum, John Clifford, Roberto Maiorano, and John Prinz plus Gordon Boelner at the piano. It struck me immediately as one of the world wonders of ballet -- which it has done ever again since the half century that has passed in between, whenever I happened to chance upon it, either in performances of the New York original, at the Royal Ballet (notably so when it was danced by Anthony Dowell or Rudolf Nureyev, Antoinette Sibley, Lynn Seymour and Michael Coleman). So it made me completely happy when it entered the Stuttgart repertory in November 2002.

Forget-Me-Nots

"Theme & Variations", "Jardin aux Lilas", "Duo Concertant", "Fancy Free"
American Ballet Theatre
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
January 18, 2011

by George Jackson
copyright 2011 by George Jackson

The program looked good on paper, but coming closest to a festive air on the first night of ABT's annual week in Washington was the closing item, "Fancy Free". We were supposed to be remembering and celebrating President Kennedy's inauguration 50 years ago. Three of the evening's four ballets were certainly in repertory then, in 1961. How close, though, are works of art and political history? Imagine calling "Lilac Garden", made in 1936 Britain, a Stanley Baldwin ballet because he was prime minister. Arguably 1944's "Fancy Free" reflects one facet of the FDR era, but is 1947's "Theme and Variations" at all typical of the Truman presidency or is 1972's "Duo Concertant" particularly relevant to the Nixon administration? What all four ballets share is having been favorites of President Kennedy's fascinating first lady, who was a ballet enthusiast. As a bouquet of Jacqueline Kennedy forget-me-nots, one hopes that Wednesday's and Thursday's performances of the program will be memorable. Tuesday's  wasn't. It started with "Theme", a ballet of courtship  in a courtly setting, performed without romance.  

Boys Will Be Boys

"Lonesome Cowboy"
Compagnie Philippe Saire
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
January 6, 2011

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2011 by Carol Pardo

For its debut at the Joyce, the Compagnie Philippe Saire, a contemporary dance group based in Lausanne, Switerland since 1986, presented "Lonesome Cowboy." Conceived in 2004 as a duet, it has grown into a dance for five dancers with one inescapable message: It’s tough being a guy. This point is driven home repeatedly. Men have to cope with emotional and psychological states common to everyone, regardless of gender: the individual versus the group, independence versus community. And that community is defined by camaraderie that never blossoms into friendship, by competition and violence. It is no surprise that these men occupy a world modeled on sports: a football game or rugby scrum. If that weren’t tough enough, these guys dance it out on gravel.