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Divas in Tulle

"ChopEniana,” “Patterns in Space,” “Esmeralda,” “Dying Swan,” “Don Quixote”
Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
December 18, 2014

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2014 by Marianne Adams

The “ladies” of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo once again dazzled the audience with their clever humor and admirable technique, and from the pre-performance announcement that a dancer, a certain Ms. Notgoodenoff, will not be performing to the last note of the Hava Nagila that they spontaneously broke into while still in their “Don Quixote” costumes to end the night, Program B of the company’s 40^th Anniversary season was a real treat of dance and entertainment.

Photo of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. Photo © Sasha Vaughn

Sweet, Silly and Saccharin

"The Christmas Ballet: Uncorked"
Smuin Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
December 18, 2014

by Rita Felciano
© 2014 Rita Felciano

Some traditions refuse to die. The end-of-year pleas for donations keep coming. The lights are up inside and out even in this soaked city. The sale figures, as the nightly newscasts keep telling us, are positive. And, of course, there is "Nutcracker", glorious everlasting, probably more because of Tchaikovsky than Petipa and Ivanov. So let's give thanks for that. In these parts we also have Michael Smuin's "The Christmas Ballet", his two-part tribute to music both saintly and secular. 'The Classical Christmas' and 'The Cool Christmas' have held each other in balance for the last twenty years. Close to fifty percent of the audience raised its hand when asked in one of these by-now inevitable pre-performance welcomes whether they had seen the ballet before. Good for them.

Erica Felsch in "The Christmas Ballet"
Photo copyright © by David Allen

Prismatic

“Chroma,” “Suspended Women,” “Revelations”
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater
New York City Center
New York, NY
December 12, 2014

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2014 by Marianne Adams

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s premiere of Jacqulyn Buglisi’s 2000 work “Suspended Women,” carefully wedged between the no longer new for the company “Chroma” and the classic “Revelations,” offered a moving glimpse of the atemporal elements of the female experience, and the evening’s program as a whole provided a perspective on the company’s artistic dimension.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in Wayne McGregor's “Chroma.”  Photo  © Paul Kolnik 

Home Base

"Don Quixote"
Mikhailovsky Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
November 23, 2014, matinee

by Leigh Witchel 
© 2014 by Leigh Witchel

Kitri and Basilio, Osipova and Vasiliev. The itinerant Russian stars were the money couple for the Mikhailovsky engagement at Lincoln Center; those roles made them #Vasipova, #Osiliev or your choice of hashtag. The performance was illuminating and sometimes poignant: the calculus of two careers.

The changes in the duo on the road from brash newcomers to seasoned pros were in small details and timing – keeping the dancing fresh more than reinterpreting. Technique was beside the point; neither of them need to concentrate on that during performance.

The Mikhailovsky Ballet in "Don Quixote." Photo © by Costas Cacaroukas

Private Sorrows

"Private Life"
Deborah Slater Dance Theater
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
December 11, 2014

by Rita Felciano
© 2014 by Rita Felciano

With the emotionally turbulent, but firmly shaped "Private Life", Deborah Slater stepped right smack into the middle of one of our society's most scandalous injustices. She created it to for her company's 25th anniversary. Slater has never been a slouch looking at difficult and complex subject matter that in her and her collaborator's hands reveal widening circles much the way the pebble does when thrown into proverbial pool. In the past she has made often searing work about hindsight and aging ("Night Falls"), the rage and grief of death ("A Hole in the World"), the destruction of the environment ("Men Think They are Better than Grass"), and being shipwrecked ("The Survival of the Fit Enough"). But with "Private Life" the choreographer has taken on an age-old but also topically painful issue of our own day. The question she raises, and provides no answer for is: What happens to our soldiers when they re-enter  civilian life, their bodies perhaps healed, but their souls crushed maybe beyond repair?

Derek Harris in "Private Life."
Photo © Pak Han

Seeing is Believing

“The Nutcracker”
Ballet West
Opera House
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
December 10, 2014
 
by Ashley McKean
copyright © 2014 by Ashley McKean

Some of the oldest holiday traditions are still worth keeping: Ballet West’s “The Nutcracker”— choreographed in 1944 by Willam Christensen as the first full-length “Nutcracker” staged in the United States—sparkled with freshness and vitality last week at the Kennedy Center. The company has valiantly preserved this timeless version of the holiday classic, adorning it with inviting sets by Ariel Ballif, exquisite costumes by David Heuvel, and Ballet West's own talented dancers. The Salt Lake City-based dancers infused Christensen’s elegant choreography with joyous warmth that transported the audience to the magical world created by Tchaikovsky’s well-known score.

Artists of Ballet West in Willam Christensen's "The Nutcracker". Photo © Luke Isley

To Each His Own

"New Dances: Edition 2014"
Juilliard Dance
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, NY
December 11, 2014

by Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2014 by Carol Pardo

To each choreographer his (or her) own class; to each class its own choreographer.  Every autumn, the Juilliard Dance Division invites four choreographers to create a world premiere for each class, this year Austin McCormick (first year students), Loni Landon (second), Kate Weare (third) and Larry Keigwin (fourth, class of 2015). The students get a taste of working with a choreographer on a professional level and a work that is all their own, the choreographers the opportunity to work with youthful talent and, if they want it, live music. The only obvious requirement is that each dance use every member of each class, a cast of about 25 dancers per piece. How each choreographer reacts to that formal challenge was front and center at "New Dances: Edition 2014".

Standing Still

“Still Current”
Russell Maliphant Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
December 10, 2014, 2014

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2014 by Martha Sherman

Russell Maliphant’s eponymous company had to perform without him in their current run at the Joyce. Due to an injury, Maliphant isn’t performing. The core elements of his work, though – the movement vocabulary, percussive scores, and lighting choices – are so consistent that he is hardly missed. This is both good news and bad news. Although each element was very high quality and beautiful to watch, there was very little to distinguish or advance the work. The five pieces presented all looked essentially the same.

Dickson Mbi and Carys Staton in” Still" Photo © Hugo Glendinning.

The Sylphide Abattoir

"La Sylphide"
The Royal Danish Ballet
Det Kongelige Teater
Copenhagen, Denmark
25 October and 6 Novembe, 2014

by Alexander Meinertz
copyright 2014 by Alexander Meinertz

[Editor's note: This article first appeared in the Danish online magazine, Doxa -- http://www.magasinetdoxa.dk/slagtebaenk-sylfiden.html -- and is reproduced here with Doxa's permission.]

It is the most powerful moment of the evening as well as the most difficult, both for Nikolaj Hübbe in the role of Madge and for me as a witness, a member of the audience: the ballet master arches his back like a furious, frothing animal. He raises his arms above his head in a cruel gesture, unfolds his hands as poisonous claws. His face contorts, his eyes nearly popping out of his head in a series of uncontrollable and conflicted emotions and expressions. He is a sick rapist, a yearning lover, a man who regains his sanity after committing a terrible deed: young James Ruben lies dead at his feet, destroyed and drawn of all life by Hübbe in a fatal, possessive vampire’s kiss.

The title figure of “La Sylphide” is long dead, and has been carried to the wings as a lifeless puppet by the evil manipulator’s henchmen: no longer the focus point and poetic incarnation of August Bournonville’s Romantic classic from 1836, but just a pawn in a devilish game where only Madge/Hübbe triumphs.

American Stories

"Preludes", "Homage to Edgar Allan Poe", "Are We There Yet?", "Frida"
Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble
The Theater at the 14th Street Y
New York, NY 
December 7, 2014, 3:00

by Mary Cargill 
© 2014 by Mary Cargill

The Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble presented a group of dances by modern choreographer Anna Sokolow with American themes; George Gershwin, whose music was used for her 1984 "Preludes" represented the cheerful, optimistic side, while "Homage to Edgar Allan Poe" (1986 and 1993) and "Frida" (1997) focused on the artistic struggles of two American artists.  This Americana was leavened with "Are We There Yet?", a duet by Alan Danielson danced by Jim May, the company's artistic director, and guest artist Clay Taliaferro.

Photo: Clay Taliaferro and Jim May in "Are We There Yet?"
Photo © Stern Weber Studio