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Something Old, Something New

"Valse Fantaisie", "Confianza", "And So It Goes...", "Tessellations", "Spring Waters", "Suite Saint-Saëns"
Joffrey Ballet Concert Group
New York Live Arts
New York, NY
May 26, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

The Joffrey Ballet Concert Group is made up of pre-professional students form the Joffrey School in New York, and the dancing was polished, detailed and stylish. The program ranged from the swirling romanticism of Balanchine's "Valse Fantaisie" to three premieres and the style from classical ballet to modern floor work. The quality of the works did vary, but all were danced with a fearless and joyful attack.

Shaina Wire and Sergio Arranz in "Valse Fantaisie" Photo © Lucas Chilczuk.

Burning

 

Paul Taylor Dance Company

“Arden Court”, “Beloved Renegade”, “Promethean Fire”

Eisenhower Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 

Washington, DC

May 26, 2016

  

by George Jackson
© 2016 by George Jackson

 

Paul Taylor plays with the casual and the formal as if these were twin concepts and not opposite poles. His kaleidoscope of patterns, so decorative at first, so deliberately circumspect, can suddenly acquire meanings, suggest feelings, express moods that make one wonder about being, about life. Even so, having watched five of Taylor’s dances on the two programs shown in Washington, I wasn’t prepared for the sixth and last piece, “Promethean Fire”. Everyone in it, all seven men and eight women, is dressed in what the 1940s termed overalls. These overalls were are not just black but velvety black and marked with cresting lines that reflected a dull gold glow. That combination of simplicity and sumptuousness by designer Santo Loquasto matches Taylor’s choice of music – a toccata and fugue plus a prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach as orchestrated cinescopically, surrealistically by Leopold Stokowski. Bach wasn’t a totally new soundscape for Taylor when “Promethean Fire” was “first performed in 2002” but Stokowski’s arrangement preserves the music’s persistent pulse and gives it internal space for turmoil, struggle and triumph. Taylor leaves no doubt that Prometheus’s flame is the light of human love. He makes sure we get his point by quoting Shakespeare in the printed program. Then he illustrates the idea using as his materials motions and positions that depict agony, resolve and capacity. There is, too, placement that show the body surpassing itself, and yet the choreography’s economy is remarkable.

 

 

Bursting with Life

"Mercuric Tidings,” “Polaris,” and “Esplanade”
Paul Taylor Dance Company
Eisenhower Theater
J.F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
May 25, 2016

by Alexandra Tomalonis
copyright 2016 by Alexandra Tomalonis

Much contemporary choreography depends on novelty: here’s something new, push aside the old, it seems to be saying. Paul Taylor, the last great Modern Dance choreo- grapher, and a true rebel if ever there was one, does something better. His finest mid-career works – some revolutionary in their day, others merely great – have deepened and become richer over the years, and his current company dances them with a ferocious passion. The company’s four-day run at the Kennedy Center this past week was not only filled with excellent dancing, but it looked like a renewed version of the troupe in its greatest days – a real modern dance company, focused on movement and music rather than technical purity. (It’s interesting, too, to note that the company was billed here as simply Paul Taylor Dance Company; in New York, it’s Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. PTAMD includes works by other choreographers; the six dances shown in Washington were all by Taylor.)

Photo: Eran Bugge and Michael Trusnovec in "Esplanade."

The Merry Widow

"La Fille Mal Gardée"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 25, 2016 matinee

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

The Widow Simone's first entrance in Frederick Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardée" is rarely greeted with the same storm of applause as that of her daughter, but the Wednesday matinee's Widow was the revered dancer Marcelo Gomes, trying out his clogs for the first time. I did see Stanley Holden, the original Widow, who danced it like an old-time, well-loved music hall performer, sharing the joke with the audience slyly, with a quiet wink, not with a brusque elbow to the ribs. Gomes had that same approach; he didn't try to disguise his features and feminize his movements, while putting the story first; this was Jack Lemmon in "Some Like it Hot", not a burlesque comedian. He seemed to be having a wonderful time both as Gomes and the Widow, and the audience lapped up this double approach, loving the sight of Gomes spanking Gillian Murphy or lifting Cory Stearns in a huge bear hug, while being gripped by the story he was telling with so many fussy, funny details. It was a performance to savor.

Gillian Murphy and Cory Stearns in "La Fille Mal Gardée" Photo © Rosalie O'Connor.

Cock-a-doodle-do

"La Fille Mal Gardée"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 24, 2016 

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

There was much to crow about in ABT's revival of Sir Frederick Ashton's "La Fille Mal Gardée", including the fact that after 13 long years ABT is finally dancing it again.  It tells an old story -- poor girl, ambitious parent, lowly suitor, rich looser -- with wit, humanity and charm, and, as in all good comedies, love wins out.  (As Oscar Wilde would say, "That's why its called fiction.")

Isabella Boylston and Jeffrey Cirio in "La Fille Mal Gardée" Photo © Rosalie O'Connor.

In My End Is My Beginning

Pennsylvania Ballet
“Serenade,” “Asphodel Meadows,” “Archīva”
Academy of Music
Philadelphia, PA
May 15, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

Even though the season had not finished, Pennsylvania Ballet’s “A Program of Firsts” felt as much like a program of endings – with the clearest portrait of the company at the final curtain.

New Artistic Director Angel Corella was constrained by union rules last season; this season he embarked on a slash and burn through the company’s ranks, with 12 dancer contracts not renewed and 17 total leaving. The newer dancers favored in casting gave a portrait of what the company he’s planning will look like.

Lillian DiPiazza and Arian Molina Soca in “Asphodel Meadows.” Photo © Alexander Iziliaev.

Gala Fare

New York City Ballet
Spring Gala
“‘Rain’ from The Concert,” “American Rhapsody,” “Mothership,”“Concerto DSCH”
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
May 4, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

It’s hard to imagine a dull version of Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.” Alas, Christopher Wheeldon showed us it was possible.

His new “American Rhapsody,” which bowed at New York City Ballet’s spring gala, felt more like a com-mercial for his current Broadway hit “An American in Paris” than a ballet. Wheeldon reunited with the musical’s star, Robert Fairchild, and with Rob Fisher, who adapted Gershwin’s score, in hopes of recreating the Broadway success.

Sara Mearns and Tyler Angle in “Concerto DSCH.” Photo © Paul Kolnik.

Remembering Lawrence

“Keen” (Part 1)
Ivy Baldwin Dance
The Glass House
New Canaan, CT
May 22, 2016

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2016 by Martha Sherman

Breathtaking. The site of Ivy Baldwin’s “Keen (Part 1)” – the Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, CT – is both the setting and outline of Baldwin’s evocative dance meditation about loss, ritual, and recovery. In its four distinct movement sections, “Keen” explored the vistas, forests, ponds and pools; the walkways, meadows, and hills; and – of course – the magical, exposed house that is at the heart of Johnson’s land. By situating herself in this place, Baldwin has created a powerful mourning meditation, a reminder of a fabled Hasidic dichotomy on the nature of being human: “You are but dust and ashes. And for your sake, the world was created.”

Photo (front to back): Eleanor Smith, Anna Carapetyan, Katie Workum in "Keen (Part 1)." Photo ©Andy Romer

On The Way

"21 Fully Realized Incomplete Thoughts"
Robert Moses' Kin
Z Space
San Francisco, CA
May 19, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

Even after twenty years, Robert Moses succeeds in surprising us, not so much for his movement language -- high speed, densely layered, embracingly fierce -- as by the formal questions that he asks of himself. He has explored myth and history, urban culture and family life. In “Draft” he invited colleagues to work with his dancers in order to get a fresh perspective on them. Collaboration with a blues musician, a writer and a folk/activist singer evolved into “NEVABAWARDLDAPECE.” For last year’s “Silt” he created an elaborate installation, purposefully designed to prevent our ability to see all that was going on. For this season's premiere, “21 Fully Realized Incomplete Thoughts,” Moses has said that he went back to ideas that he had collected over the years but had never acted upon. He listed them in the program, including among others: I will always be Mista for someone else; Noble Idea-Wrong Time; The Judas (“peeping”) Hole; The Ecstasy of Nuance; The Clowns Are Armed. But like any good work, it's not so much the "what" than the "how" that draws us into Moses' world. For "21" I followed at first with some hesitation, but soon more than willingly.

Robert Moses' Kin in "21 Fully Realized Incomplete Thoughts". Photo © Victor Talledos

Accent on Ashton and Alexei

American Ballet Theatre
Spring Gala
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
May 16, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

You could quibble that American Ballet Theatre’s gala wasn’t very American, but with the debut of a new ballet by Alexei Ratmansky and a preview of a season heavy with substantial works both by him and Ashton, who could feel xenophobic?

Still, it began rocky. Even though they’d just come off a week of “Sylvia,” the corps de ballet looked rough in the hunt scene, as if no one had warned them they were doing it that night. Maria Kochetkova did actually have to step in, subbing for an injured Gillian Murphy. Kochetkova had no trouble with the triumphant, slicing virtuosity of her entrée, but she’s small and accurate. It takes work for her to be Amazonian.

American Ballet Theatre in “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium.” Photo © Rosalie O'Connor.