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The Pleasures of the New

"La Sylphide," "Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
February 17, 2016

by Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2016 by Carol Pardo

Debuts serve many purposes. They invigorate dancers and audience alike. They create expectations: met, not met or exaggerated. They can shed new light on a familiar work. Such was the case when Megan Fairchild took on the role of the Sylph in Peter Martins’ staging of Bournonville’s "La Sylphide" and when an almost entirely new cast danced Balanchine’s "Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2".

Connections

"Episodes", "Agon", "The Four Temperaments"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 26, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

The current tread of programming similar ballet together has its uses. "If you like one you will like them all", the marketing department seems to promise subscribers, but it does dilute the effect that contrast can offer and it is a shame that the idea of a program as a substantial meal has been lost. But the current "Balanchine Black and White" concoction does highlight interesting threads and combinations in the different works.

"Episodes" Photo © Paul Kolnik.

Danse Grave

“The Foster Suite: The Remains of Loss and Longing”

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company

Atrium

National Portrait Gallery / American Art Museum 

Smithsonian Institution

Washington, DC

February 28, 2016 at 2 PM 

 

by George Jackson

© 2016 by George Jackson

 

Listening to Stephen Foster’s songs, Dana Burgess hears dance melodies and rhythms. This isn’t the first time that Burgess has turned to Foster (1826 – 1864), a historic American composer. They share an inquisitiveness that is both keen and sensitive. The topic of “Loss and Longing” is death due to wartime combat, which also appears in the Portrait Gallery’s exhibition of Alexander Gardner’s photographs. Many of Gardner’s sepia pictures refer to America’s Civil War (1861 –1865), as do all the images in Burgess’s dance suite. Even though Burgess makes one believe that Foster composed waltzes and quadrilles instead of vocals like “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair”, he doesn’t disguise the anguish and grief that he has interwoven with the steps for this danse grave.   

 

Sarah Halzak and Kelly Moss Southall in Dana Tai Soon Burgess's “The Foster Suite: The Remains of Loss and Longing”, Photo by Jeff Malet.

 

Bringing Coals to Newcastle Would Be Easier

Pacific Northwest Ballet
“Square Dance,” “Prodigal Son,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto”
City Center
New York, NY
February 24, 2015

by Leigh Witchel
© 2016 by Leigh Witchel

Heading once more into the belly of the beast, Pacific Northwest Ballet opened its New York season with an all-Balanchine program. There's a lot for any company to prove when it brings Balanchine back to his home, but PNB acquitted itself well.

The evening began with a tight version of “Square Dance.” As when Miami City Ballet brought “Allegro Brillante,” “Square Dance” looked hemmed in on its original City Center stage. PNB’s setting, staged by Artistic Director Peter Boal, was punctilious; the repeated triple emboîtés were done with quick syncopation and a freeze-frame ending – one, two, SHOW - that emphasized the accuracy more than juicy phrasing.

Lesley Rausch and Jonathan Porretta in “Prodigal Son” Photo © Lindsay Thomas.

Patterns & Cuts

“Prism”, “State of Wonder”, “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”:

Director’s Cut 

The Washington Ballet

Eisenhower Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

February 25, 2016

 

by George Jackson

© 2016 by George Jackson

 

Introductions to this company’s programs have become performances in their own right. Usually the artistic director, Septime Webre, bounds on in front of drawn curtains and delivers his take on what we are about to see. Webre’s flair has been likened to a carnival barker’s even when the actual fare betrays a taste more subtle than his manner. This time, loud applause welcomed Webre before he said good evening. He executed a plié but seemed untypically daunted. The reason for the audience response and his subdued behavior was the recent announcement that Webre would be leaving the company at season’s end, after 17 years in charge. A new artistic director is to be named soon, but Webre’s remarks did not address this news. He proceeded to talk about the key piece on his Director’s Cut bill, William Forsythe’s 1987 “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”. No question but that this Forsythe has been influential, as the 2014 “Prism” by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa shows. The Forsythe was danced last on the program. Why not first?  

 

A group from William Forsythe’s “In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated”. Photo by Theo Kossenas.

 

 

Homecoming

"Square Dance", "Prodigal Son", "Stravinsky Violin Concerto"
Pacific Northwest Ballet
New York City Center
New York, NY
February 25, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

The Pacific Northwest Ballet returned to City Center with an all-Balanchine program, a vote of confidence, perhaps, by their director, Peter Boal, who obviously believes that his dancers can stand up to comparisons with the home company. This confidence was certainly justified and the company looked well-rehearsed, at ease and dynamic. Boal has inculcated a remarkable style, devoid of mannerisms and artifice, modest and rhythmically acute, all adjectives that applied to his dancing, and the audience, which included a number of current and former City Ballet dancers, applauded warmly.

Leta Biasucci and Benjamin Griffiths in "Square Dance". Photo © Lindsay Thomas.

Halfway Done

"Diana and Acteon" "Glow-Stop" "Prism" "Minus 16"
Silicon Valley Ballet
San Jose Center for the Performing Arts
San Jose, CA
February 21, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016

"Director's Choice," the third program of Silicon Valley Ballet's current season, showed the company in fine mettle, one that was heartily appreciated by this matinee audience. The dancers had just returned from a three-week tour of Spain, and it had been decided that they would show what they had taken abroad. The fact that both Jorma Elo's "Glow-Stop" and Ohad Naharin's "Minus 16" had been seen as recently as 2014 was a little disappointing. But then, with Annabelle Lopez Ochoa, SVB introduced to the Bay Area to what I believe to be the first work by the prolific Belgian/Colombian choreographer. "Prism" is a fine work with an appealing trajectory weaving through the remarkable recording of the first section of Keith Jarrett's spacey The Koln Concerto. But the evening's heart warmer came from two Corps members' classical dancing in the competition favorite "Diana and Acteon." SVB may still have some way to go to find its footing -- financial and artistic -- but the evident skill and commitment which these two dancers brought to a tradition makes one hope that for the company's future.

Lahna Vanderbush and Ihosvany Rodriguez in Prism. Photo by Alejandro Gomez

Resonance, Ravishment, Revival

“Raymonda”

The Mariinsky Ballet

Opera House

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

February 23, 2016

 

by George Jackson

© 2016 by George Jackson

 

Lush symphonic music, troops of performers plus a treasure trove of dances: “Raymonda” has been called “Russia’s last grand ballet of the 19th Century”. That was apparent Tuesday night as a good portion of the Mariinsky Ballet from St. Petersburg  together with local children and supers opened a week’s run of the much mulled over but seldom seen classic. What “Raymonda” hasn’t is a story that resonates. Just about everyone in 1898 as well as today seems to agree that no compelling theme results from the heroine’s encounters with two competing suitors. Moreover, redundancies occur in the way the story is told yet there are also gaps. People have tried to fix those problems and two philosophies vie with each other about how to proceed. One way would be to stick as closely as possible the 1898 original, hoping that some type of hidden intent and sense of cohesion can be uncovered. The Mariinsky’s current way is to update, sort of.  

Yuri Smekalov as Abderakhman in the Mariinsky Ballet's "Raymonda." Photo by Natasha Razina.

 

Because of This One

"Swan Lake"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 19, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016

In 1988, on the occasion of Helgi Tomasson's first "Swan Lake" -- three years after beginning his tenure as the company's Artistic Director -- the San Francisco Performing Arts Library and Museum (now the Museum of Performance and Design) hosted a conference on this iconic ballet, "Why A Swan?" Of course, there were as many answers as participants, and absolutely no agreement on whose ballet, Siegfried or Odette's, it really is. In 2009 Tomasson presented his latest version, retaining some of his and the historic choreography,but also allowing British designer Jonathan Fensom to place the narrative into a post-catastrophic environment which has made love and faithfulness much less likely. The problem with the concept is that the choreography and the setting jar, particularly if we have seen more traditional versions. But this tension infuses into the fairy tale a note of what, it seems to me, very contemporary pessimism. No wonder that in the current version, when the lovers return on the horizon at end, arms around each other--new this year -- they look like plastic figurines on a wedding cake.

Photo: Yuan Yuan Tan and Tiit Helimets in Tomasson's "Swan Lake"

Art Night and the New Crowd

“Polaris,” “The Blue of Distance,” “Common Ground,” “Estancia,” “The Most Incredible Thing”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 9 and 11, 2016

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2016 by Michael Popkin

From the moment Andy Warhol put his name on a soapbox and showed us how an artist could get rich by turning consumer packaging into museum art, the contemporary arts have struggled with the conflation of the high and the low. Jeff Koons’ monumental Christmas tree ornaments are today’s high sculpture and Chuck Close’s paintings in what look like photo dots are its fine art portraiture. So as New York City Ballet’s latest “Art Series” program packed the theater in mid-February with a twenty-something crowd, attracted (in addition to the ballet) by free beer, an art installation and a DJ on the theater’s mezzanine after the performance (Marcel Dzama, who also designed Justin Peck’s new ballet, designed the installation), it should perhaps have come as no surprise that the five works on stage faithfully reflected the art world’s low brow/high brow aesthetic confusion.

Photo © Paul Kolnik of Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle in “Estancia”