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Small Space, Big Picture

Asian American Dance Journey

Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company

Flashpoint Gallery

Washington, DC

August 13 & 20, 2016

 

by George Jackson
© copyright 2016 by George

 

The immigrant experience, alienation and assimilation were themes of Burgess’s pair of lecture-performance programs at Flashpoint, an exhibitions and presentations gallery in Downtown DC. As invocation there was Michio Ito’s 1914 solo to Franz Schubert’s “Ave Maria”. It is almost a stepless dance. The arms are constantly, fluidly in motion. The body stretches, reaching up and up heavenward but also settles back down, a return to this world. The legs are lowered, one bending in a kneel and the other projecting backward, both actions sanctifying the ground. The performer’s face is attentive to a different life than the here and now. Sarah Halzak, new to this role, has the secret of the inward Da Vinci smile. Her performance was remarkable. Scenes excerpted from several of Burgess’s dance works followed, three on the first bill and a week later four more plus a repeat. Prior to each scene, Burgess spoke about the situations that prompted him to choreograph. Contrast among the excerpts was considerable in terms of drama, design and dance. Although space at Flashpoint is limited, the sum picture that emerged from the excerpts was bigger than that of any one of the complete works by itself. 

 

Photo at left:  "Leaving Pusan," from Burgess's Tracings. Photo by Mary Noble Ours.

 

The Cosmopolitans

Erasing Borders Dance Festival
Indo-American Arts Council

Schimmel Center for the Perfoming Arts (Indoors)
New York, NY
August 13, 2016

Wagner Park (Outdoors, as part of the Battery Dance Festival)
New York, NY
August 15, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

The heat gave sweltering Indian realness to the Indo-American Arts Council's “Erasing Borders” dance festival. Performances took place on two days, and if Saturday's indoor concert was more climate-controlled, Monday's had the consolation of a sunset view past the southern tip of Manhattan to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

Both performances were a mix of traditional Indian dances and fusion pieces – all interesting, though sometimes for what succeeded and what didn't.

Sooraj Subramanian in “Nocturne.” Photo © Darial Sneed.

Trooping Ashton

"Valses Nobles et Sentimentales," Divertissements, "Façade"
The Sarasota Ballet
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 10, 2016

by Leigh Witchel
copyright © 2016 by Leigh Witchel

By the third night – and second cast – of its New York run the Sarasota Ballet looked more like it does on its home turf. The company bought a jewel-box collection of uncommon Ashton to The Joyce. Tuesday night, it took several minutes before Ashton’s beautiful setting of Ravel’s “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” started to glow. But on Wednesday, Victoria Hulland was able to conjure the mood the moment she entered.

The Sarasota Ballet in “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales.” Photo © Yi-Chun Wu.

A Fine Night

"Valses Nobles et Sentimentales", "Tweedledum and Tweedledee", "The Walk to the Paradise Garden", "Friday's Child", "Sinfonietta/2nd Movement", "Façade"
The Sarasota Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
August 8, 2016

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2016 by Mary Cargill

"A Knight of the British Ballet", the title of the Sarasota Ballet's week-long Joyce program, refers to Sir Frederick Ashton, Britain's great choreo- grapher. Iain Webb, Sarasota's director, had danced in a number of Ashton's works as a member of the Sadler's Wells Royal Ballet (now the Birmingham Royal Ballet) and when he came to Sarasota in 2007, he felt that Ashton's elegant, musical, and deceptively difficult works could challenge the company, and he has added them gradually to the repertoire.  Almost by accident, the small company has become one of the leading champions of Ashton's choreography, as their glorious 2014 Ashton festival proved.  They now have 23 of his works, both familiar and rare.  The Joyce's all-Ashton program does not play it safe, and except for the closing "Façade" all of the ballets are comparative novelties, even to Ashton fans.

Company in "Façade". Photo © Frank Atura

Thank the Dancers

"Harbor Me," "Martha Graham Duets," "Helix," "On the Other Side"
L.A. Dance Project
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
July 28, 2016

By Carol Pardo
copyright 2016 by Carol Pardo

One hopes that Benjamin Millepied, artistic director of the L.A. Dance Project, thanks his ten dancers after every performance. For it is they who make this company worth watching, as they overcome, nightly, disappointing works and a flaccid sense of programming. The evening opened with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's "Harbor Me" which presented three guys (Aaron Carr, Morgan Lugo and Robbie Moore) dressed in Robinson Crusoe chic, riffing on the meanings of the word harbor: succor, a protected place, a body or water, an agitated hub, all always in motion, always in flux, but chained to the ebb and flow of the tide.

Lessons

Questioning “Giselle”, quizzing Liz Lerman, lamenting Glaciers, giving Classes and holding a Rehearsal.
Diverse locations.
July 2016.

by George Jackson
copyright ©2016 by George Jackson

 

Watching an embrace and a kiss is a different experience than encountering the word “love”. On stage, right after the start of the old ballet “Giselle”, we see what the hero Albrecht intends with the lovely village girl he has just summoned from her cottage. These two young people seem to be in love. Yet we know that isn’t all of the story. Albrecht is not being forthright. He is no villager, although disguised as one. We have that knowledge because we deduce it from the action and read it in the program notes. Moreover, our hero is betrothed to someone other than Giselle. How aware is he of his own duplicity? Is that left up to each dance actor in the Albrecht role or is there a cumulative performance tradition? 

 

Photo: Hug & Kiss – Jack Mitchell’s  iconic 1958 shot of America’s Martha Graham and Germany’s Mary Wigman at their re-encounter after World War 2.