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Something for Everyone

San Francisco Ballet
Program 1
"Serenade," "Raku", "Lambarena"
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
January 27, 2015

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2015

Why not start a new season with the best of the best, follow it with a blockbuster and close with a bow to cross-cultural communi- cation? For the balleto- mane, the triple bill that opened Helgi Tomasson's 30th year as Artistic Director offered the assurance of first class performances. They were not disappointed even though it was the blockbuster and not the best of the best that garnered the most applause.

Maria Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz in Balanchine's Serenade. Photo © Erik Tomasson

New Flocks, New Tricks

“Swan Lake”
Mariinsky Ballet
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
Brooklyn, NY
January 22, 2015

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2015 by Marianne Adams

Fielding a leading cast of two imports, the Mariinsky Ballet showed points of departure and a sense of new direction against the backdrop of its iconic tradition. Amidst the uneven performances from the Perm ballet school trained Oxana Skorik and the Royal Ballet school trained Xander Parish in the main roles, you could see glimpses of emerging interesting new styles, and their imperfections kept them from monopolizing the viewers’ focus, letting the audience enjoy all of the company’s dancing.

Photo of Oxana Skorik. Photo © Natasha Razina

Mind Mechanics

American Realness Festival
Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY
January 2015

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2015 by Martha Sherman

Ben Pryor, founder and curator of the American Realness Festival, makes no secret and needs no excuse for his edgy taste in dance and performance art. As idiosyncratic as his choices are, the sub-categories of post-modern work that appeal to him are also fairly predictable. He often includes the work of powerful women, who eschew soft edges. Two of the artists in this year’s festival who fit that bill were Karen Sherman and Liz Santoro.

Get Real

American Realness Festival
Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY
January 2015

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2015 by Martha Sherman

Miguel Gutierrez

• “Age and Beauty Part 1: Mid-Career Artist/Suicide Note or &:-/,” January 10, 2015; Gibney Dance at 280 Broadway.
• “Age and Beauty Part 2: Asian Beauty@the Werq Meeting or The Chroeographer & Her Muse or &:@&,” January 17, 2015, Abrons Arts Center.

The American Realness Festival, in its sixth year and now firmly established in the January festival firmament, continues to stand at the gritty edge of contemporary dance. Miguel Gutierrez and Jack Ferver are two artists who use themselves as mirrors, and in their works for this year’s festival, each dug deeply into fears of aging and death, balanced against the sustenance of relationships.

Photo: Mickey Mahar and Miguel Gutierrez in “Age and Beauty Part 1.” Photo © Ian Douglas.

In the Jungle

luciana achugar
“OTRO TEATRO: The Pleasure Project,”
American Realness Festival
Abrons Arts Center
New York, NY
January 17, 2015

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2015 by Martha Sherman

luciania achugar’s dark dance world is primordial. In “OTRO TEATRO: The Pleasure Project,” presented as part of the American Realness Festival, there is no beginning or end, and the space is filled with strange sounds and mottled light. The movement oozes, without boundaries or rules. Everything feels alive, and a little scary.

Cast in “OTRO TEATRO: The Pleasure Project” photo © Ian Douglas

Glorious Glamorous Gala

"Infinite Romance"
San Francisco Ballet
January 23, 2015
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA

by Rita Felciano
copyright © by Rita Felciano

Watching the gowned and tuxedoed gathering in the City's Beaux Arts Opera House during SFB yearly Gala inevitably recalls French aristocrats in hoop skirts and wigs who socialized in the corridors of Versailles. The idea was to look and be seen with a whiff of power in the air. Of course, they also came to watch ballet. In San Francisco's case, the effort -- and expense -- paid off magnificently. Starting his 30th year as Artistic Director, Helgi Tomasson once again pulled together an elegant, beautifully shaped program around a sampler drawn from the heart of classical ballet -- the Pas de Deux.

Joseph Walsh and Frances Chung in Wheeldon's Borealis. © Erik Tomasson

Nature Red in Tooth and Claw

“Symphonic Dances,” “The Cage,” “Andantino,” “Cortège Hongrois”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 21, 2015

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2015 by Michael Popkin

The second night of New York City Ballet’s winter season (a program of ballets to Russian music marketed by the company as “Hear the Dance:  Russia”) opened with a well-rehearsed performance of a poor ballet by Peter Martins and closed with a poorly rehearsed performance of a good ballet by Balanchine. In between Lauren Lovette – the company’s rising ballerina – provided thirteen minutes of riveting drama in a show-stopping debut in Jerome Robbins’ “The Cage.” But as “The Cage” was paired with “Andantino” - a saccharine Robbins’ composition – the audience had to make do with those thirteen minutes in what was otherwise a long night at the theater.

Sara Mearns in “Cortège Honrgois.” Photo ©Paul Kolnik.

NEW!!! DanceView Blog now up!!!

As many readers know, danceviewtimes was begun as the online reviews supplement to DanceView magazine. DanceView ceased publication with its October issue, and I wrote to subscribers that we would add a blog at danceviewtimes that would include articles appropriate to the magazine.  These will include commentary, interviews, features, historical articles and the like.

I'm very pleased to announce that Tom Phillips has written a piece about the New York City Ballet that seemed the perfect way to begin this new online publication. Here's a link to the DANCEVIEW blog (listed in the DVT Blogs at right).  You'll find Tom's piece, Heart and Spleen: Confessions of a Strike-breaker (click the link to go to that piece directly) there.

Bournonville Unplugged

Royal Danish Ballet: Principals and Soloists
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
January 17, 2015

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2015 by Leigh Witchel

The production for the touring band of principals and soloists from the Royal Danish Ballet was bare bones: no sets, minimal costumes. Nothing but good dancers and the choreography of the company’s greatest ballet master, August Bournonville. But that’s more than enough for a great performance, and when the stars align – and they did – a miraculous evening.

Ida Praetorius and Andreas Kaas in the pas de deux from “Flower Festival in Genzano” Photo © by Yi-Chun Wu

Some Natural Tears They Dropp'd

"Cinderella"
Mariinsky Ballet
Brooklyn Academy of Music
New York, New York
January 17, 2015

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2015 by Michael Popkin

Alexei Ratmansky’s 2002 production of “Cinderella” for the Mariinsky Ballet made a belated New York premiere Saturday night and proved a black comedy with undertones of menace.  (While new to New York, the Ratmansky ballet debuted in St. Petersburg in 2002 and was seen at the Kennedy Center as early as 2005).   Danced by the incomparable Diana Vishneva, the fairy tale heroine of this production negotiated a louche post-Soviet Union urban world and ended up anxious. Her prince, portrayed with a combination of tongue in cheek aplomb and superb dance power by Konstantin Zverev, entered the ball looking like Liberace in a white tuxedo and proceeded to act like Harpo Marx.  After a trip round the world where he was first accosted by hookers and then by a group of gay men on the make, he finally discovered his princess. But in a radical departure from most productions’ happy ending, the couple here at the conclusion looked depressed and issued forth like Adam and Eve cast out of Eden at the end of “Paradise Lost.”  

Photo © by Jack Vartoogian (Left to Right) Margarita Folova, Yekaterina Kondaurova, and Yekaterina Ivannikova as the Stepmother and Stepsisters in “Cinderella”