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Swans In Stereo

“Swan Lake”
New York City Ballet
The David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 17, 18, 2013

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2013 by Michael Popkin

Headlining the first two “Swan Lakes” of New York City Ballet's fall season, Sara Mearns and Ashley Bouder were as different as Odette and Odile.  On opening night, Mearns and Jared Angle danced full-tilt and with raw emotion.  Working against expectations the second night, Bouder and Andrew Veyette were cooler and more formal. Yet both ballerinas seemed to succeed by dancing their own Swan Lakes and largely ignoring the production’s cartoonish designs and mise-en-scène.

India Classical: Differences

Music Academy Madras’ UTSAV Celebration
with Mythili Prakash and Musicians
Terrace Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
September 22, 2013 at 7:30 PM
 
and
 
Dakshina / Daniel Phoenix Singh Dance Company’s
10th Annual Fall Festival of India Dance and Arts
“Tulsi: A Life in Balance” with Dakshina
plus  Solos, Duos by Srimathi Shanta & Sri VP Dhananjayan with Musicians
Harman Hall
Washington, DC
September 28, 2013
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2013 by George Jackson
 
Washington has become a prime place in the Western World to sample India’s performing arts. Two festivals during September presented much variety. The series at Kennedy Center featured five different programs* and that at Harman Hall also had five^. I was able only to see the last bill of each series. In both, what counted was Bharata Natyam – the classical dance style with its clarity and emphatic articulations that calls to mind ballet’s Maryinsky manner in contrast to more cushioned Odissi, the India dance tradition resembling perhaps ballet’s Copenhagen (i.e., Bournonville) classicism. What differences, though, what contrasts there were between the two presentations. Mythili Prakash is vitality personified whereas Srimathi Shanta and VP Dhananjayan are like wisdom’s embodiments. Prakash’s Bharat Natyam engages the senses. The venerable duo’s Bharat Natyam teases the mind and haunts the memory.

Bug Juice

“The Metamorphosis”
The Joyce Theater
New York
September 18, 2013

by Kathleen O’Connell
copyright © 201 by Kathleen O’Connell

"The insect itself cannot be depicted. It cannot even be shown from a distance." So Franz Kafka wrote to his publisher in 1915 when he learned that Ottomar Starke had been hired to illustrate the title page of "The Metamorphosis." Starke complied with Kafka’s wishes, but they’ve been cheerfully ignored by artists and directors—not to mention Vladimir Nabokov—ever since. U.K.–based choreographer Arthur Pita’s prize-winning 2011 adaption, commissioned by the Royal Opera House and now on view at the Joyce, is but the latest attempt to bring Gregor Samsa from page to stage.

Black and White and Red All Over

Fall Gala
"Capricious Maneuvers", "Neverwhere", "Spectral Evidence", "Western Symphony" (4th movement)
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 17, 2013

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

NYCB's fall gala focused on new works, with costumes by fashion designers, presumably to pull in a fashion-conscious audience with lots of money.  Each new work was introduced by a short film of the designer talking about his/her process, very "Project Runwayish".  Black, white and red were the colors du jour, which made a change from last year's Valentino red excursion.  After saluting the orchestra with John Adams "Short Ride in a Fast Machine", the intermissionless evening began in earnest with Justin Peck's "Capricious Maneuvers".  The costumes (black, white and red) were designed by Prabal Gurung and the music was Lukas Foss.  Peck was in his Robbins' mood, with the musicians on stage, an odd number of dancers (three women, two men), and lots of youthful frolicking.  The dresses were quite attractive, knee-length and sassy, and moved beautifully. The choreography was lighthearted and musical, but rather anonymous.  Even Taylor Stanley and Britanny Pollack, two of the most intensely individual of NYCB's young dancers, couldn't make their pas de deux look like a conversation.

Opening with a Splash

"Human Fountain," "Upside Down," "Red Angels," "Esplanade"
Streb Extreme Action Company, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, New York City Ballet, Paul Taylor Company
Fall for Dance Festival
Delacorte Theater
New York, NY
September 16, 2013

By Martha Sherman
Copyright © 2013 by Martha Sherman

The tenth anniversary of Fall for Dance, City Center’s annual dance festival, was celebrated with energy and joy - but not in the usual spot. Hosted in Central Park by the Public Theater, the event brought dance back to the Delacorte Theater for the first time in decades, and in the crisp fall darkness, the crowd enthusiastically welcomed the return. Every seat was filled, and the Delacorte’s democratically distributed free tickets offered access to anyone, also an essential goal of Fall for Dance. The eclectic four-part evening that launched this year’s festival was particularly American in character, celebrating risk and community, discipline and spirit.

Good Friends

Roberto Bolle and Friends Gala
City Center
New York, New York
September 17, 2012

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2013 by Mary Cargill

2013 is, apparently, the Year of Italian Culture in the United States, and to help celebrate this, the Italian Roberto Bolle brought his magnificent presence, along with some dancer friends, for a one-night performance of various solos and pas de deux.  This was not your usual gala-fodder (with the exception of "The Dying Swan") since most of the dances were unfamiliar.  Unfortunately, most of them deservedly so, but the dancers were generally first rate.

Modernizing Othello?

“Othello
Stuttgart Ballet, Stuttgart State Opera,
Stuttgart, Germany July 5, 2013 
Hamburg Ballet-John Neumeier, Hamburg State Opera,
Hamburg, Germany, September 15, 2013 

by Ilona Landgraf
copyright 2013 by Ilona Landgraf

Northern as well as Southern Germany is well provided with ballets by doyen John Neumeier this season. In Munich his “A Midsummer Night's Dream” and “The Nutcracker” will be staged later this year, his “Othello” is scheduled twice: Stuttgart Ballet revived Shakespeare's tragedy in July, and Hamburg Ballet followed, having a little surprise in store.

Arms and the Artist

“Mirror & Music”
Saburo Teshigawara / KARAS
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
September 12, 2013
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2013 by George Jackson
 
Artists are teachers too, to some extent. Japan’s Saburo Teshigawara is the insistent sort. Like it or not, his pupils i.e., we the public, will learn the lessons he promulgates. Foremost seems to be the precept that repetition makes us keenly aware of differences. Over and over again the six dancers in Teshigawara’s “Mirror & Music” flail their arms. No two do it quite identically. The choreographer himself, the only man in the group, has strongly expressive arms from the elbow down. Rihoko Sato, the Karas company’s principal woman, has buoyant arms that give her elongate frame a lift. Another woman keeps her arms close in and yet another’s are consistently energetic along their entire length. By the end of the performance (supposedly 75 minutes long although I’d have guessed 90) one could have identified the individual dancers just by their flailing port de bras.