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Ashton Celebrated

‘La Valse’, ‘Meditation’ from Thais’, ‘Voices of Spring’, ‘Monotones I and II’, ‘Marguerite and Armand’
The Royal Ballet
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
London
15 February 2013

by Judith Cruickshank
copyright 2013 by Judith Cruickshank

At last, the Royal Ballet has offered us a complete programme of works by its founder choreographer, Frederick Ashton. That’s certainly something to be glad about. I hope I won’t seem too grudging if I say that I find the choice of ballets rather lightweight, presenting Ashton as primarily a choreographer of pretty bonbons. But even in his slightest pieces he shows a sure hand and exquisite sensibility.

A long dark evening

Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
‘Two cigarettes in the dark’
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
London
14-17 February 2013

by Judith Cruickshank
copyright 2013 by Judith Cruikshank

It seems that London can’t get enough of Pina Bausch. Last summer saw a month long season by Tanztheater Wuppertal in which the company showed no fewer than ten of her theatre pieces; all city based works. Now the company is back at Sadler’s Wells with two pieces; "Two cigarettes in the dark" which was made in 1985 and the later "Vollmond" which dates from 2006.

Exposed in Flight

"Live Dancing Archive"
Jennifer Monson
The Kitchen
New York, NY
February 15, 2013

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2013 by Martha Sherman

Ten years is a long time to immerse yourself in an idea, but Jennifer Monson has dedicated a decade to her exploration of nature, art, and community through the metaphor of birds since 2002 with “BIRD BRAIN Osprey Migration. In a retrospective look, “Live Dancing Archive” incorporates video from the “Bird Brain” work, a web archive of images and ideas, and a live performance by Monson. 

Opening Night Pacific Northwest Ballet

"Concerto Barocco," "Apollo," "Agon"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
City Center
New York, NY
February 13, 2013

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2013 by Carol Pardo

Want to build buzz for a New York season? Do as the Pacific Northwest Ballet did. Announce and promote the season, but provide a sneak peek—live—too. New Yorkers were given exactly that last September, when a clutch of PNB dancers appeared in a lecture/demonstration at the Guggenheim Museum’s "Works and Process" series. They performed excerpts from "Apollo," "Agon" and "The Four Temperaments" comparing differing versions of each.

The topic was that fraught issue, the text of a ballet, particularly fraught where Balanchine is concerned, nowhere more so in the city that Balanchine made his own. Our guide was Peter Boal, beloved former principal with the New York City Ballet, now director of PNB—smart, self-deprecating, with a well-developed sense of history, and very much in charge. The dancers, performing on a stage the size of half a postage stamp, were personable, unmannered, musical and assured. After ninety minutes one left the auditorium, not confused by a haze of images but really considering the nature of a choreographic text and the relationship of steps to style. If a string of excerpts provided such nourishment, what a banquet the complete works would be.

Too Much and Too Little

"Nijinsky"
Hamburg Ballet
February 13, 2013
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
by Rita Felciano

Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2013

For its first visit to San Francisco, Hamburg Ballett brought a staged a subject, dear to Artistic Director and Choreographer John Neumeier's heart: Nijinsky. The great dancer has been part of Neumeier's life--according to his own account--since at the age of eleven he ran across a biography on the great dancer in the local library. His two-act "Nijinsky" (2000), is spectacular in every sense of that term. Performed by the company very fine dancers, particularly strong in its male contingent, it left you wanting more and a lot less.

Discourse

 Mark Morris Dance Group
“The Office”, “Festival Dance”, “Socrates”
Center for the Arts, George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
February 8, 2013
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2013 by George Jackson
 
Just like Socrates, Mark Morris is difficult to debate. He makes you persuade yourself that his is the right perspective: that Dvorak’s buoyant bagatelles call for a bizarrely eerie story, that Hummel’s efflorescent piano trio has roots in folkways plus tendrils reaching skyward, and – not least – that Plato’s dialogues can be danced. For the Dvorak work, “The Office”, Morris envisions a waiting room. Half a dozen people are there, one standing on the right while the others sit in a row on chairs. Costuming (by June Omura) and lighting (by Michael Chybowski) establish the atmosphere. It is drab. Postures and expressions, too, contribute with everyone finely tuned to a different degree of expectation or resignation. As activity arises among those waiting, it is of a follow-the-leader sort that soon becomes varied. Briefly there are dance pairings. Suddenly a different sort of figure appears: a woman meticulously groomed and severely yet fashionably dressed. She carries a clipboard, looks down at what must be noted there, summons one of the individuals waiting and takes the person away.  Among those remaining, a camaraderie arises. They join in line formations, dance little steps and dare bigger ones. They are still waiting to be called and, indeed, the clipboard lady appears repeatedly. One by one those in the waiting room walk off with her. No one returns. Those left dance. Like the music, some of the dancing has folk flavor but Morris has given the movement a frantic edge that isn’t in Dvorak’s score. Finally just one person, a woman, remains on stage to be summoned. She has no one with whom to dance so she sits down on a chair to wait. Not a sound can be heard. Mark Morris has convinced me that Dvorak actually composed that final silence.
 

Robot-Human Theater

Sayonara & I, Worker
Seinendan Theater Company + Osaka University Robot Theater Project
Japan Society, New York
February 7, 2013

by Tom Phillips
Copyright 2013 by Tom Phillips

Ever since the fictional Doctor Frankenstein created his monster, human beings have been worrying about what may happen to them at the hands of their own human-like creations. Usually those worries have been about robots seizing power with their superior strength and intelligence. But now, in the work of Japanese playwright and director Oriza Hirata, we see humans simply ceding power to artificial beings that are not just stronger and more intelligent, but more emotionally sensitive and stable than their human masters. That’s the theme of these unsettling short plays, in which human performers interact with “live” robots and androids.

By the Sea

"Paz de La Jolla," "Variations pour une Porte et un Soupir," "Concerto DSCH"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 31, 2013

By Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2013 by Carol Pardo

"Paz de La Jolla," is Justin Peck’s third ballet for his home company is about speed, memory, mystery, menace and romance, delivered with a light touch and an unexpected punch, in just twenty minutes. Commissioned to fill an unexpected hole in the season’s schedule, for the score, Peck turned to a piece he’d already been attracted to, Bohuslav Martinů’s "Sinfonietta La Jolla," and to memories of his youth on the beaches of San Diego. Beach volleyball anyone?

Dark Secrets

"Caravaggio Meets Hopper", "Threshold", "Butterflies and Demons", "Zjawa", "Suspended Women"
Buglisi Dance Theatre
The Joyce Theater
New York, New York
February 6, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

Jacqulyn Buglisi and her dancers are celebrating their twentieth season with old and new works; this evening ranged from 1991 ("Threshold") to two new premiers, one by Buglisi ("Butterflies and Demons") and one by the young Katarzyna Skarpetowska ("Zjawa").  The general mood was dark, with only flashes of gentleness and humor, with a powerful and imaginative theatricality and stunning dancing.  The opening work, "Caravaggio Meets Hopper", choreographed by Buglisi in 2007 to a combination of Nina Rota, Jelly Roll Morton, and John Corigliano, had flashes of irony, hints of violence, and a gently moving ending.  The backdrop was a giant set of louvers which was echoed by the masks the dancers sported.  They were all in various degrees of office attire, sitting in chairs and moving as if pulled by strings--it looked like a casual Friday the 13th. 

Checkered Armitage

"Mechanics of the Dance Machine"
Armitage Gone! Dance                           
New York Live arts
New York, NY
January 31, 2013

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2012 by Martha Sherman

For a work inspired by fractal geometry and Walsh functions - ideas that beg to be looked up - Karole Armitage’s “Mechanics of the Dance Machine” is pretty tame. Showing off the lineage of her Balanchine and Cunningham training, Armitage mixed classical moves, Bach, and pointe work with modern movement, music, and costuming, and added changing checkerboard lighting, yet failed to evoke geometric mysteries – and was less innovative that its hype suggested. What she did capture well, as she has often done, were the many guises and angles of relationships, as pairs of dancers levered on and off of each other and through space in well-disciplined form.