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Things Fall Apart

"You’re Me"
Faye Driscoll
The Kitchen
New York, NY
April 21, 2012

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2012 by Martha Sherman

Relationships are a bitch. In the tangled partnership at the heart of Faye Driscoll’s world premiere of “You’re Me,” she and her dance partner, Jesse Zaritt, really go at it. Both dancers used wild emotional swings and a stageful of props to wend through loving, torturous, puzzling, energized scenes of the power of two.

A Welcome Hint of Spring

“Who Cares?”, “Fearful Symmetries,” “West Side Story Suite”
“Hallelujah Junction,” “Russian Seasons,” “Les Carillons”
New York City Ballet
Opera House
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
April 3, April 7 (evening), 2012

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2012 by Alexandra Tomalonis

The New York City Ballet brought two of the most interesting programs of the season to Kennedy Center’s Opera House this week. It really was a fresh, spring breeze. The company was dancing not only well, but with an edge, and we saw nearly all of the dancers in multiple roles. We saw a varied sliver of the rep, with works by Balanchine, Robbins, Martins (two ballets), and, best of all, two new ballets – Alexei Ratmansky’s “Russian Seasons” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “Les Carillons” – that show a clear path to a wonderful future.

A Present from Spain

Barcelona Ballet
"Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1", "For 4", "Pálpito"
New York City Center
New York, NY
April 17, 2012

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2012 by Mary Cargill

The financial crisis in Europe has affected much more than the stock market, as the Corella Ballet, founded in 2008 by Angel Corella, has seen its official funding shrink.  He has moved the company to Barcelona and rechristened the company, but the impression left from his first visit to New York, in 2010, of a fine, well-trained, and engaging group of dancers, remains.  The evening opened with the late Clark Tippet's "Bruch Violin Concerto no. 1", a generous introduction to the company.  The work is a neo-classical exploration of the ballet vocabulary, both formal and exhilarating, with four couples and a corps filling the stage with constantly shifting shapes.  As in the last visit, some of the women seem to have rather fixed grins, but all danced with a refined clarity.  Carmen Corella, with Dayron Vera, danced the adagio role, with an innate sense of drama, using her eloquent back to express a generalized sorrow.  She, and her generous partner, did have a few technical glitches, but it was a lyrical, gracious, and mature performance.  Momoko Hirata, with Alejandro Virelles, were a fine contrast, as they sparkled through the slightly Hungarian variation, with its fast footwork and exciting jumps.  The corps, in yellow tutus, supported by men in brown, were very well-rehearsed, alert, eager, and completely winning.

Balanchine 1946-1956

"Divertimento No.15," "Scotch Symphony," "The Four Temperaments"
San Francisco Ballet
Program VII
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
April 12, 21012

by Rita Felciano  
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2012

San Francisco Ballet's penultimate program of this season reminded me of the time when reservations about Helgi Tomasson's appointment as Artistic Director in 1985 circled around fears that he was going to turn the company into a Balanchine ensemble. Of course, he did, and he didn't make SFB a Balanchine repository.

All For Love

"Pilot", "Allegretto", "II", "Midnight Oil", "Just Passing", "Morning Will Break"
Columbia Ballet Collaborative
Miller Theatre
Columbia University
New York, New York
April 13, 2012

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2012 by Mary Cargill

The Columbia Ballet Collaborative was founded in 2007 by a group of professionally trained dancers who were studying at Columbia University.  The original founders have graduated, but the idea has taken root, and the current group (again made up of dancers attending Columbia or Barnard College, many with professional experience) meets regularly to take and give classes, and to put on an annual show.  Their training and experience gave the dancers a polish that traditional student performances lack, and their current status as students meant that the slickness and competitiveness of the current competition circle wasn't an issue; these dancers performed simply for love, and the program was a fine reminder of what a joy dance can be.

The Human Touch

Avi Scher & Dancers
Alvin Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
April 7, 2012

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2012 by Mary Cargill

Avi Scher's third season, like his earlier ones, featured essentially a pick-up company, augmented by some big names;  Herman Cornejo, of ABT fame, was the biggest this season.  But there was no pick-up feeling about the dancers, as they seemed to dance for and with each other.  Scher has the ability not only to make his dancers look good, he also makes them look interesting, and it was pleasant to spend an evening without munching on any stale "after Balanchine" pretzels. The program was varied, balanced, and engaging, though Scher seems to have caught the modern tic of point shoes with bare legs.  The small stage made the sight of pale, slightly wobbly thighs a bit unappealing.

Writ Large

"Who’s Zoo?"
Michael Clark
Whitney Biennial 2012
New York, NY
April 5, 2012

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2012 by Martha Sherman

Michael Clark is no stranger to vast spaces.  In “Who’s Zoo?,” Clark filled the expansive fourth floor of the Whitney Museum with what seemed like a cast of thousands, a booming score, walls of light, and dancers who flew across the enormous dance floor  leaping and running. The dancers’ training showed in crisp, disciplined movement à la Cunningham; the choreography skittered along, sometimes quick studies of long limbs in perfect balance, sometimes combinations of tangled body parts that morphed the dancers into creatures of Clark’s own “zoo.”

A Disappointing "Snow White"

“Snow White”
Ballet Preljocaj
Eisenhower Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington,  D.C.
March 30, 2012

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2012 by Alexandra Tomalonis

If last year was the year of the Swan, this year’s fairy tale heroine is Snow White. There are several movies and at least one TV show in which she’s a featured character. Unfortunately for Snow White, in many cases she’s caught up in the current fad – if one can consider something that’s been going on for 50 years a fad – of being a new !! look at an old tale. Angelin Preljocaj, who often choreographs interesting work, has produced a nearly two-hour ballet that has moments of beauty, and moments that are appropriately shocking (the Evil Queen stuffing the apple down Snow White’s throat in one brutal thrust comes to mind) but leaves both the magic and the moral of the story behind.

From the Aerospace Laboratories -- New Ballets by Marco Goecke, Edward Clug and Mauro Bigonzetti

Stuttgart Ballet
Stuttgart Schauspielhaus
Stuttgart, Germany
March 27, 2012

by Horst Koegler
copyright 2012 by Horst Koegler

With its third programme in its “Bodies Languages” series, Stuttgart strengthened its reputation of the continent´s foremost forge of choreographic talents. Any new creation of a ballet means a risk. However, a programme of three new successful pieces comes up a smash. And this is what happened at the company´s first appearance in the city´s newly renovated Schauspiehaus, home of the local drama company.

Spoerli´s Zurich Farewell

“Grid”, “Don Juan” and “Till Eulenspiegel”
 Zurich Ballet
Zurich Operahouse
Zurich , Switzerland
March 25, 2012
 
by Horst Koegler
copyright 2012 by Horst Koegler
 
With his March 2012 premiere Heinz Spoerli closed his 16th and final season as  artistic director and chief choreographer of the Zurich Ballet. He had held the same position from 1973 through 1991 at Basel (the city where he was born in 1940), and from 1991 through 1996 at the Duesseldorf/Duisburg based  German Opera on the Rhine. It means that he functioned as a director/choreographer for 39 continuous years, during which he created almost 200 ballets in the three/four cities plus guesting for many companies abroad. It is an imposing balance-sheet, which earned him the title of ´Switzerland´s No. 1 Ballet-Man´, which hadn´t existed before. Actually he was the first Swiss to secure a set place for Swiss ballet in the history of ballet, established through his companies touring around the globe. And if Swiss ballet does not yet rank among the Ivy League companies of the world, it certainly holds its honorary place in the second row.