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A Long Winter's Night

"The Winter's Tale"
National Ballet of Canada
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
July 29, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

Shakespeare's "The Winter's Tale" is a play about jealousy, madness, grief, regret, and redemption, combined with a complicated plot and questionable geography (the sea cost of Bohemia plays an important role). The National Ballet of Canada, as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, appeared in Christopher Wheeldon's 2014 co-production with the Royal Ballet and Canadians; the choreographer tells the story with imagination and verve.  The sets (by Bob Crowley) and the special effects (by Basil Twist) are stunning, while the music (by Joby Talbot) is effective as a cinematic score, reinforcing the moods and story without revealing any depths, though the very long folkish music of Act II ambles along with few hints of rhythm or melody. Talbot is no Minkus.

 Corps in Act II of "The Winter's Tale".  Photo © Karolina Kuras.

The Tune Your Bones Play

“N.N.N.N.,” “Second to Last (excerpt),” “A Picture of You Falling,” “Waxing Moon,” “Solo Echo”
Hubbard Street Dance Chicago
Jacob’s Pillow: Ted Shawn Theatre
Becket, MA
July 14, 20016

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2016 by Martha Sherman

The dancers of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago are powerful movers who can master any combination. In a five-part program at Jacob’s Pillow, the company danced work by four distinctive choreographers, but, oddly, managed to choose work that called on many of the same movement skills. In each piece, whether witty or heartbroken, the choreography required crisply differentiated movement fragments, almost disembodied limbs and muscle groups working in opposite directions or layering to create visually arresting combinations. The emotional territory spanned by the works was a roller coaster; the movement – all beautifully danced – eventually seemed repetitive, surprising for a troupe known for its adventurousness and wide breadth of repertoire.

Photo: clockwise from far left: Emilie Leriche, Michael Gross, Florian Lochner, Andrew Murdock, Jacqueline Burnett, Kellie Epperheimer, foreground, and Jesse Bechard. Photo by Todd Rosenberg

Signature Sokolow

Anna Sokolow’s “Magritte Magritte”,

“From the Diaries of Franz Kafka”, “Dreams”

Dakshina Dance Company

Dance Theater, 

Clarice Smith Center

The University of Maryland 

College Park, Maryland

July 16, 2016

 

by George Jackson

copyright © 2016 by George Jackson

 

The way Anna Sokolow (1910 – 2000) seems to have worked was to build small scenes, distinct cells of drama on stage and tie them together into necklaces, bracelets or rosaries. She hadn’t large numbers of dancers at her disposal, so she avoided group architecture on a big scale and cumulative symphonic constructs. No single technique, as there is in Martha Graham’s choreography, joins Sokolow’s dances. Yet clarity of action and economy of means are typical of each cell, of every Sokolow vignette, no matter how multiple may be its means and meanings.  

 

Photo: The veiled ballroom dancers (Helen Marie Carruthers and Daniel Phoenix Singh) in Anna Sakolow’s “Magritte Magritte”, photo by Stephen Baronovics.

 

 

Stepping Outside Your Comfort Zone

“With Alacrity”, “Cigarettes,” “Instructions” “4 In the Morning (An Entertainment”
Amy Seiwert’s Imagery
Cowell Theater at Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA
July 8, 2016

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2016

Amy Seiwert's Imagery's recent concert was the sixth iteration of Seiwert's splendid summer series for which she invites choreographers to set works on her company, based on a theme chosen by her. For the first one, she had invited women colleagues; others have been built around music, limitations and collaboration. For each she asked the artists to go beyond their own skill sets and explore new ways of making dance. The Sketch 6 choreographers were asked to use — what not all that many years ago would have been unthinkable — text. Use Your Words yielded three world premieres and a reprise from 2011 by a newcomer, two mid-career artists and a highly experienced one. They made for a tightly structured, excellently balanced and thoroughly enjoyable evening of Midsummer Nights dance.

Sarah C. Griffin and James Gilmer in "Instructions."Photo by David DeSilva

 

Ferver for Dance

Jack Ferver
“I Want You to Want Me”
The Kitchen
New York, NY
July 1, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

If “The Red Shoes” had a threesome with “A Dancer’s World” and “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom,” we might end up with “I Want You to Want Me,” Jack Ferver’s gothic horror comedy ballet. Ironically enough, it would have been better with a lot less dance in it.

Jack Ferver, Reid Bartelme, Carling Talcott-Steenstra and Barton Cowperthwaite in “I Want You to Want Me.”  Photo © Paula Court.

She Shall Have Music

"The Sleeping Beauty"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, NY
June 28, 2016 and June 29, 2016, matinee

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

The charming moment when the 16-year-old Aurora celebrates her birthday by dancing along a line of violin-holding pages has, over the years, become a technical tour de force with Aurora rising on point, rolling down through her foot into a series of unsupported arabesque penchées while beaming at the audience. Alexei Ratmansky has returned the diagonal to a more intimate movement by having Aurora lean on the little pages as if listening to their musical offerings, turning this into a gracious and warmhearted gesture to her court. This is just one of the many generous little details that give Ratmansky's (and he would add, Petipa's) ballet emotional richness. ABT danced it with a vivid, gleaming commitment and a coherent style, full of soft torsos, épaulement, demi pointe, and lowish extensions (though they do seem to be creeping higher).

Cassandra Trenary in "The Sleeping Beauty". Photo © John Grigaitis.