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Forty-five and Going Strong

ODC/Dance
"Going Solo," "I look vacantly at the Pacific...though regret," "Walk Back the Cat"
"Giant," "Dead Reckoning"
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
March 17 and 24, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016

Change is in the air midway towards ODC/Dance's fiftieth decade though the company is still in the hands of founding artists Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada. All three had a piece on this year's two programs. Yet of the three world premieres one of them was by Kate Weare, the first time ODC has presented a work from outside its ranks. Private Freeman returned after a seven year hiatus; Corey Brady is leaving after twelve seasons, and half of the company joined within the last two years. In a pre-performance interview Way talked about trying for an endowment that would ensure the health of the institutions -- both ODC Commons and ODC Theater-- that have become integral to the Bay Area's dance environment. What was as expected--excellent performances of fine choreography--did not disappoint. ODC is vibrantly alive -- whatever changes are in the air.

ODC/Dance in "Walk Back the Cat." Photo © Amy Thompson

James’ Closet

"La Sylphide"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 6, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

It’s approach-ing two centuries since James grabbed his tam and followed the Sylph into the woods. Since then, the world has changed, changed again, and changed some more. We look at the protagonists of the great Romantic ballets as both heroes as well as anti-heroes. But there was no way to look at Dawid Trzensimiech’s James in except as a hero. His James was driven not by lust, but a discovery of his own identity.

Photo:  Dawid Trzensimiech

Promethean Craft

“Spindrift,” “Images,” “Promethean Fire”
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
March 19, 2016 (matinee)

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2016 by Marianne Adams

It is but a truly extraordinary artist who can produce remarkable art decade after decade without the creative aquifers running dry, and Paul Taylor’s works, time and time again, prove him to be one of them. With “Spindrift" (1993), “Images" (1977) and “Promethean Fire" (2002), the choreographer’s recently reincarnated company, Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance, offered performances rooted in history, emotion, and melody, but also presented the promethean quality of the choreographer’s creative genius that has persisted throughout the decades of his artist life. 

Photo of the company in "Spindrift."  Photo © by Paul B. Goode

In Transition

“Glacial Decoy,” “Big Daddy (Deluxe),” “MiddleSexGorge”
Stephen Petronio Company
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
March 8, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

Stephen Petronio is looking to keep his company from being a one-man show. Along with a new work and a revival of one of his bedrock dances, 1990’s “MiddleSex-Gorge,” his group mounted a landmark work of Trisha Brown. Excellent karma, as he was her first male dancer and her own troupe is now in transformation after her retirement.

Emily Stone and Cori Kresge in “Glacial Decoy.” Photo © by Yi-Chun Wu.

Bournonville, From New York

"Bournonville Divertissements" and “La Sylphide”
The New York City Ballet
Opera House
JFK Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
March 6, 2016 (Sunday matinee) 

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2016 by Alexandra Tomalonis

An all-Bour- nonville program isn’t what one expects from the New York City Ballet, but Bournon- ville, along with Petipa, is an artistic ancestor of George Balanchine. Both Bournonville and Petipa studied with Auguste Vestris, the magnificent late 18^th century star and great teacher in Paris at the beginning of the 19^th century. One of Bournonville’s pupils, Christian Johansson, came to St. Petersburg and was an honored teacher there. Johansson died in 1903, just before Balanchine was born, and his influence must have still been felt.

Balanchine himself had a connection to the Royal Danish Ballet, the company whose aesthetic and style was formed by August Bournonville. Balanchine worked there briefly in the 1930s and again in the 1950s. He invited Stanley Williams, a noted teacher with the RDB, to come to New York, and while Williams was not a Bournonville teacher per se, he brought much of what he had learned at home. Balanchine was quoted, to explain why he felt that “ballet is woman,” that one reason was because “boys don’t have a speedy leg.” But Danish male dancers do, and Balanchine coveted it, inviting several noted Danish men to dance at the NYCB. One of whom, of course, is Peter Martins, now the director of the NYCB.

 Lauren King and Anthony Huxley in August Bournonville’s Bournonville Divertissements.  Photo credit: Paul Kolnik

Too Many Cooks Making the Same Broth

"Rising"
Aakash Odedra Company
NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
New York, NY
March 4, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

Aakash Odedra’s concert, “Rising,” looked great on paper, and when it came to dancing, he delivered. But he kept delivering the same thing. His show last fall at the Barysh-nikov Arts Center beefed up the content of a one-man performance with two long, theatrical works, the first making ink tracks of his movement, the other spiraling in a hail of paper. “Rising” was closer in structure to an Indian solo concert we might see in New York: an endurance test of four concentrated solos, the first by Odedra, the others by a distinguished trio of dance-makers.

Aakash Odedra in “Nritta.” Photo © by Ian Douglas.

One Last Time

Platform 2016: “A Body in Places”
Eiko
Danspace Project
New York, NY
February 17 – March 23, 2016

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2016 by Martha Sherman

Some day, people who love movement art will say “Were you at the Eiko Danspace Platform in 2016?” And for those who are lucky enough to answer “Yes,” it will be as if they’d been at Woodstock as hippie teenagers in the 1960s. This series of artistic ideas and events have enhanced the entire dance community. Eiko’s vision and her own breathtaking artistry are memorable and transformative. On the last day of the five weeks of solos and events of “A Body in Places,” Eiko offered two performances, one of them in community (“Talking Duets”) and one, a final midnight solo.

Eiko in "A Body in Places." Photo Courtesy of Danspace Project.

Fluidity is the Name of the Game

Trajal Harrell
"The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai"
Zellerbach Playhouse,
Berkeley, CA
March 18, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

If you care about live performance and the hopes you bring to it; are intrigued by the muddled area between make believe and reality; and/or relish slithering between stage, clock and memory time, Trajal Harrell’s “The Ghost of Montpellier Meets the Samurai,” may be for you. However, if you are not willing to check expectations at the door, you may be in for a rough ride that nonetheless offers some real pleasures such as an infectious sense of irreverence, some stunningly beautiful performances and a hiccupping perspective on what dropping the fourth wall can offer. “Ghost” was fascinating, frustrating and fun but ultimately failed the test of what a performance should offer—that you wanted to see it again. However, it was intriguing enough that it made you wonder where else Harrell could take this free swinging, partly playful but also dead serious approach to dance theater making.

Thibault Lac and Stephen Thompson Photo Orpheas Emirzas

Angels on High

"Diversion of Angels", "Three Dubious Memories", "Spindrift"
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance
New York, New York
March 23, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

Paul Taylor's recent decision to sprinkle other choreo- graphers' works into his company has rewarded the audience with Martha Graham's 1948 "Diversion of Angels". Graham's exploration of love looked fine on the Taylor dancers -- they do share a heritage. Laura Halzack and Michael Trusnovec were the more mature, serene couple. Halzack, tall and beautiful in white, projected a calm radiance and quiet resignation, though she had to fight an ultimately losing battle for that final majestic balance.

Laura Halzack in "Diversion of Angels". Photo © Whitney Browne.

That's the Sound of the Men Working on the Chain Gang

“Snow White,” “Profiles,” “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder,” “Esplanade”
Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance: Paul Taylor Dance Company, Dayton Contemporary Dance Company
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
March 22, 2016

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2016 by Michael Popkin

Sam Cooke’s 1960 song might have told a generation “[t]hat’s the sound of the men working on the chain gang,” but the year before Cooke issued his top ten hit Donald McKayle gave America a boundlessly emotional experience of those men in the form of modern dance. That 1959 work, “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder,” danced most powerfully on Tuesday night at Lincoln Center by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company to beautifully rendered live music, felt like an enduring American classic. While (in addition to the Dayton ensemble) the Taylor Company itself also danced a trio of repertory works on the program (among which “Profiles” in particular got a fascinating rendition), “Rainbow” provided a high point, not just for the evening, but for the entire first eight days of Taylor’s Modern American season.

Photo © Paul B. Goode of Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in “Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder”