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Private View

"Watch her" and "A Month in the Country"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
February 26, 2014

By Denise Sum
Copyright © by Denise Sum 2014

Thanks to its British roots, and Alexander Grant's tenure as artistic director (1976-1983), the National Ballet of Canada is fortunate enough to have a number of Ashton ballets in its repertoire: "Les Rendezvous", "The Dream", "La Fille mal gardée", "Les Patineurs", "Monotones", and "Symphonic Variations". Ashton's brilliant drama, "A Month in the Country" premiered in Toronto in 1995, almost two decades after its world premiere in London. It was the first time the ballet had been performed by a company other than the Royal Ballet. Karen Kain danced Natalia as she approached her retirement.

Carnival

Compagnie Kaefig
“Correira”, “Agwa”
Eisenhower Theater
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
February 28, 2014
 
by George Jackson
copyright 2014 by George Jackson

Compagnie Kafig in Agwa, photo by Michel Cavalca.

The curtain calls at the very end of this short show were fun! Into the brighter, less “artistic” lighting tumbled a bunch of dancers looking like Rio street boys smiling for carnival’s first night. Gone was the  defensive frowning. Absent was the “martial arts” aggressiveness of their tricks. Bare chested, sweating, these eleven lads seemed to be enjoying pulling off their favorite stunts. Prompted by the audience’s applause, they lapped up approval as if it were honey. If only Mourad Merzouki’s two works had been blessed with such spontaneity.

I am Woman

"KaitlynCaitlin", "Take...Taken...Taking", "The Air turned White", "The Book of Esther: The Journey of Queen Vashti and Queen Esther"
Ariel Rivka Dance, with Texture Contemporary Ballet and Trainor Dance
Ailey Citigroup Theatre
New York, NY

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2014 by Mary Cargill

Kaitlyn Gilliland and Caitlin Trainor in "KaitlynCaitlin"
Photo by Bill Bramswig

Three comparatively new companies shared the Ailey stage in an interesting and varied program, and the cast, with one exception, was all female.  "KaitlynCaitlin", choreographed by the modern dancer Caitlin Trainor for herself and the ballet dancer Kaitlyn Gilliland, opened the program.  I enjoyed this when I saw it at Riverside Church last November, and it looked even better on the well-lit and more intimate Ailey stage.  It is an interesting compare and contrast piece, with Gilliland, formerly a City Ballet dancer, floating more lyrically through the same moves done by the more forceful and grounded Trainor.  The piece had a dead pan, improvisational humor, as each dancer stayed in her own world, apparently oblivious of the other.  There was no winner or loser; this was not a competition, but rather a free and easy exploration of different types of movement.