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Star Power

"Swan Lake"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 8, 2014

by Denise Sum
Copyright © by Denise Sum 2014

James Kudelka's darkly reimagined "Swan Lake" has many fundemental problems that have been previously written about here. An incoherent narrative, an overly intrusive Rothbart, and a dreary and violent first act are only some of the problems. In cases like this, it is up to the dancers to try to elevate the work, which is never fair. However, on opening night, two principal guest artists, ex-Bolshoi star Svetlana Lunkina and Stuttgart principal dancer Evan McKie tried valiantly to do the impossible. They succeeded in making a flawed production considerably more watchable.

After Magritte

“Sunny in the Furnace”
Aki Sasamoto
The Kitchen
New York, NY
March 8, 2014

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2014 by Martha Sherman

photo ©Julieta Cervantes: Aki Sasamoto in "Sunny in the Furnace"

All the stuff on the stage of Aki Sasamoto’s work has meaning – it’s just hard to figure out quite what that is. In “Sunny in the Furnace,” Sasamoto tells the story of a friend’s suicide, played against the 1966 pop tune “Sunny,” by Bobby Hebb, which he composed in 1963 in the 24 hours after both the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the murder of his own elder brother. The song stares down grief with hope; Sasamoto does the same, using images, words, physical landscape, and movement to create a dense collage about the human condition of coping.  While she’s at it, she has plenty to say about artists’ condition of coping, as well.

Blast from the Past

"Raymonda Suite", "Leaves are Fading Pas de Deux", "Ballebille", "Flames of Paris", "Pas de Quatre" "Cavalry Halt"
Gelsey Kirkland Ballet
Peter Norton Symphony Space
March 7, 2014

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2014 by Mary Cargill

Dawn Gierling and Anderson Souza in "Cavalry Halt"
Photo by Luis Pons

Gelsey Kirkland established a ballet school in 2010, with an emphasis the dramatic aspect of dance; she has classes in mime and character dance, two arts which are often shortchanged in today's emphasis on strength and power.  This year, she has established a company, made up of both professionals and students from the school, with an emphasis on those older virtues.  Their second performance (a "Nutcracker" last year was the company debut), showed a well-trained, stylish group of dancers, which saved the best for last.  "Cavalry Halt" (originally "Halte de Cavalrie") is an 1896 one-act Petipa comedy, which was revived for the Maly Ballet in 1968 by Pyotr Gusev.  There was not much information on the genealogy of the Kirkland production, and the already simple story seems to have been smoothed out (in the original  libretto the heroine, Marie, had a father).  It is set in an Austrian village, apparently bordering on the town of Swanhilda and Franz, where happy young peasants have banished the grownups so they can spend the day dancing and frolicking.  Philipp and Maria, the hero and heroine (Dawn Gierling and Anderson Souza), dance and frolic with glorious abandon.  In their opening dance they wrap themselves up in ribbons, related, perhaps, to Ashton's more complex ribbon embroidery in his pastoral "La Fille."  (Certainly, Tamara Karsavina, who encouraged Ashton to re-choreograph the old ballet, would have known "Halte", so there may be a connection between the two.) 

New Look

Joffrey Ballet – Chicago
“Crossing Ashland”, “Bells”, “Nine Sinatra Songs”
Center for the Arts
George Mason University
Fairfax, Virginia
March 8, 2014
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2014 by George Jackson
 

April Daly and Fabrice Calmels in Twyla Tharp's Nine Sinatra Songs. Photo: Herbert Migdoll.

The Joffrey’s two programs in the Washington, DC vicinity were supposed to have distinct repertory. On the so-called “American Legends” bill of March 7 were Jerome Robbins’ 1945 “Interplay”, Twyla Tharp’s 1982 “Nine Sinatra Songs”, Christopher Wheeldon’s 2005 “After the Rain” duo and Stanton Welch’s 2012 “Son of Chamber Symphony”. Having seen other companies dance all these works except  the Welch, and also it being a busy dance week hereabouts, I chose initially to see only the so-called “Body & Soul” bill of March 8 with ballets I didn’t know at all:  Yuri Possokhov’s 2011 “Bells”, Alexander Ekman’s 2011 “Episode 31”, and Brock Clowson’s 2014 “Crossing Ashland”. Things changed. Ekman’s work on the second program was replaced by a repeat, but with somewhat different casting, of the Tharp. The reason for the switch seems to have been technical, that the Center for the Arts would have needed more preparation time than was available during the Joffrey’s brief visit for staging the Ekman. Then, I found myself also attending the first Joffrey evening and am glad to have done so. I got to see the company’s dancing from two very different locations and could confirm my impression of the Joffrey’s new look.
 

Rock and Roll that Soothes the Soul

British Invasion: The Beatles and The Rolling Stones
“Rooster”, “There Where She Loved”, “A Day in the Life”
The Washington Ballet
Eisenhower Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC
March 6, 2014
 
By Ashley McKean
copyright © by Ashley McKean

Maki Onuki, Brooklyn Mack and Jonathan Jordan in "A Day in the Life". Photo: Paul Wagner.

At first blush, ballet and classic rock seem to have little in common. Yet the Washington Ballet synergized the two, in not just one but two pieces on Thursday's program: Christopher Bruce’s “Rooster” and Trey McIntyre’s “A Day in the Life”. The program was an example of the integration of ballet with popular culture and contemporary styles that has occurred more frequently during the past couple of decades. Any such fusion can only be effective if the elements are compatible. Both “rock ballets” performed on Thursday combined masterful choreography and well-chosen melodies that blended together as seamlessly as the colors in a kaleidoscope. But it was the dancers’ commitment, individuality and spectacular dancing in all three pieces on the program that made the evening truly remarkable.
 

Something Old, Something New

“Gala Flamenca: Antonio Canales, Carlos Rodriguez, Karime Amaya, Jesús Carmona”
Flamenco Festival 2014
Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University
Washington, DC
March 4, 2014

by Ashley McKean
copyright © by Ashley McKean

 

Photo © Jessica McConnell Burt: Gala Flamenca

Flamenco—like bull-fighting, Picasso, and paella—remains an iconic symbol of Spanish culture.  The music, song and dance that embody it are fueled by a fourth element:  deep-rooted tradition.  The most authentic venue for flamenco may be a café or a bar in Andalucía, Spain, where a singer, a guitarist and a dancer improvise, almost more for each other than for the audience.  Tuesday night’s “Gala Flamenca” that opened the Flamenco Festival at Lisner Auditorium was anything but small in scale, focusing less on improvisation and tradition and more on choreography and innovation.  But above all, it was a showcase for four Spanish flamenco stars, some well-established and others newer to the scene:  dancers Antonio Canales, Carlos Rodriguez, Karime Amaya and Jesús Carmona.  Each brought unique interpretations to what was an impressive display of modern flamenco, but one—Carmona—truly excelled in bridging the gap between the traditional and “nuevo” styles.

The Girl Who Played With Matches

“Acheron,” “Afternoon of a Faun,” “Walpurgisnacht Ballet,” “La Valse”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 1, 2014 evening

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2014 by Leigh Witchel

Photo © Paul Kolnik
Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici taking their final bows at New York City Ballet.

Janie Taylor is as much metaphor as ballerina. An unorthodox dancer whose career was slowed by an autoimmune disorder, her flaxen looks could have come from an Edward Gorey drawing or one of Isak Dinesen’s Gothic Tales.

She was never a workhorse but was riveting in her bizarre fragile strength. Taylor made her mark in Balanchine’s most strangely perfumed repertory: parts such as the spectral, sleepwalking beauty of  “La Sonnambula.” Retiring alongside her husband, Sébastien Marcovici, who is heading cross-country to be ballet master for the L.A. Dance Project, if she had to leave us far too soon, at least she left in one of her great roles – and an ironic metaphor – the doomed heroine of “La Valse.”

Two to Treasure, One to Tolerate

"The Kingdom of the Shades from 'La Bayadere, Act II'", "Ghosts", "Firebird"
San Francisco Ballet
Program 3
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 2, 2014

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2014 by Rita Felciano

photo © Erik Tomasson San Francisco Ballet in Wheeldon's "Ghosts"

After six performances of the "La Bayadère's" Shades scene, it is perhaps understandable that the Corps was fatigued by the rigorous disci pline of that descending zigzag line of arabesques and penchées. It was not until the block groupings center stage that the ensemble found its common voice and redeemed itself, but also reminded us of what could have been. So it was left to two relatively recent works, Christopher Wheeldon's so very fine 2010 "Ghosts" and Yuri Possokhov's "Firebird" (new production in 2007), a work originally created in 2004 for Oregon Ballet Theatre, to make this matinee at least partially successful.

Alone and Together

“Here I Am Again Alone Again,” “Sheathings from a Steep Slope”
Heather Bregman and Katie Dean, Nadia Tyskulsker/Spark(edIt) Arts
Triskelion
New York, NY
February 22, 2014

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2014 by Martha Sherman

photo©Breegan Kearney: Aya Wilson in "Sheathings from a Steep Slope"

A magical dreamscape trumped an athletic performance in the recent double bill at Triskelion. In an industrial setting in “Here I Am Again Alone Again,” Heather Bregman and Katie Dean leaned heavily on yoga and gymnastic moves; each was powerful in her own way, but, in their aloneness, they failed to connect either with each other or the audience.  In “Sheathings from a Steep Slope, Nadia Tyskulsker/Spark(edIt), presented three more strong women, but braided them together in a work of strange and engaging imagery.

Two and a Half Hits

"Tears," "From Foreign Lands," "Borderlands"
San Francisco Ballet
Program 2
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 1, 2014

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2014 by Rita Felciano

photo © Erik Tomasson Sasha De Sola and Tiit Helimet's in "Tears"

Despite a few hiccups in the last performance of program two, the beautifully balanced triple bill satisfied a hunger for good choreography well performed,  challenging the hearts and minds of viewers as well as the dancers. With one world premiere and two reprises from last season's new repertoire, the evening proved to be a most pleasant illustration of how varied contemporary perspectives on this much beloved old art can be.