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A Wobbly Creature

"Frankenstein"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
February 17, 2017

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano

San Francisco Ballet has commissioned two ballets from British choreo- grapher Liam Scarlett: "Hummingbird (2014)" to Philip Glass and "Fearful Symmetry (2016)" to John Adams. I had more than a few reservations about their choreography, yet Scarlett showed in them an admirable ability to elicit superb performances from the dancers. So in that respect SFB's American premiere of "Frankenstein", co-produced by the Royal Ballet where the work received its world premiere in May 2016, was a major success. The whole company danced well and seemed to enjoy their tasks. Based on Mary Shelley 1819 novel, her 21st century progeny unfortunately received a rather muddled interpretation, marred by a meandering trajectory and extended ensemble work that looked recycled. The work's strength could be found in the solos and pas de deux but that's not enough to keep a full-evening narrative ballet afloat. Scarlett may be barely thirty, but he is no beginner; for "Frankenstein" he needed a dramaturg.

San Francisco Ballet in Scarlett's "Frankenstein". Photo © Erik Tomasson

Two Sides of Her Coin

Program A: “Dark Meadow Suite,” “Ekstasis,” “Woodland,” “I used to love you,” “Maple Leaf Rag”
Martha Graham Dance Company
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 14, 2017

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2017 by Martha Sherman

As revolu- tionary as she was from the 1930s through much of the 20th C., Martha Graham’s stylized oeuvre might now come off as a dance dinosaur. Under the direction of Artistic Director Janet Eilber, though, this offering by the Martha Graham Company dodges every bullet. In the first of three mixed evenings at the Joyce Theater, the company offered a dramatic, beautifully danced program of Graham classics mixed with new works by well-chosen current choreographers to show off the discipline, intelligence, and flexibility of a troupe Graham would still be proud of, in work that still has something to say.

PeiJu Chien-Pott in Martha Graham’s “Ekstasis” reimagined by Virgine Mécène. Photo © Brigid Pierce.

Old and New, With Youthful Promise

“Birthday Offering,” “Kabalevsky Violin Concerto,” “Concerto Grosso,” “Chromatic Fantasy,” “Concerto,” “See The Youth Advance!,” “New Scarlett”
ABT Studio Company & The Royal Ballet School
NYU Skirball Center for the Performance Arts
New York, NY
February 10, 2017

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2017 by Marianne Adams

It’s fascinat- ing to watch young dancers, those just on the cusp of professional careers, as they feel their way through and experiment with various works. There is their exploration of what the work ought to look like, of course, but also, since these dancers are not yet set in their ways, the many expressions of their brewing individualities. In a performance by young artists from ABT Studio Company and graduates of the Royal Ballet School, the mixed bill program presented at the NYU Skirball Center offered a full menu of such expressions, in works ranging from classics by Frederick Ashton and Kenneth MacMillan to more recent creations, and even a world premiere. The more recent works fared better than the classics, with the dancers from both schoolings delivering an absolutely marvelous performance of a new ballet by Liam Scarlett to close the night. 

Photo of Sierra Armstrong and Jarod Curley of the ABT Studio Company in "See the Youth Advance!"  Photo © by Rosalie O'Connor 

Keeping It Beautiful

“Sleeping Beauty”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
February 9, 2017

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2017 by Marianne Adams

NYCB’s “Sleeping Beauty” remains a beautiful production, and the smartly chosen cast of veterans and debutants gave the season’s early performance a good balance of stability and risk. Not all went smoothly, but the high points of the evening, particularly Sara Mearns’s debut as Fairy Carabosse, struck a memorable chord.

Photo of Joaquin De Luz and Megan Fairchild. Photo © by Paul Kolnik

 

"Everything Has Changed": An Interview with Laura Peterson

-- By Tom Phillips 

Copyright 2017 by Tom Phillips and Laura Peterson  

Laura Peterson in "Failure"

“If your step has a name, keep working on it,” Laura Peterson tells her students. A dancer, teacher, and choreo- grapher of the 21^st century, she has created a whole vocabulary of steps without names, drawing on modern dance, ballet, sports, physics, animal behavior and pure play. Endurance and resilience are job requirements for her company, usually three women and a man, always including herself. Their moves are physical, fast, often punishing. Knee pads are essential. Stamina becomes style.                                

She begins with a setting – sometimes outdoors, sometimes in, sometimes a combination, as when her company danced “Wooden” on a live lawn at the Here Arts Center in New York, or under a huge kite-like structure designed to collapse during their performance of “Failure.” (Above. All these constructions are made to order by her husband and long-time collaborator, Jon Pope.) Lately she has also been using her own abstract paintings, as a backdrop, a floor, or even a covering.

Anthemic and Glimmering

“Fearful Symmetries,” “The Shimmering Asphalt,” “The Times Are Racing”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
February 1, 2017

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2017 by Marianne Adams

With its winter New Combinations program, NYCB certainly saved the best for last.  Starting with the tepid Peter Martins’ ballet “Fearful Symmetries,” and progressing to the different and intricate new work by Pontus Lindberg, “The Shimmering Asphalt,” the program culminated with the explosive new Justin Peck ballet that was fun, liberated and fundamentally inclusive.

Photo of the company in Justin Peck's "The Times Are Racing." Photo © by Paul Kolnik

Speaking Truth to Power

"Antigona"
Soledad Barrio & Noche Flamenca
Z Space
San Francisco, CA
February 14, 2017

by Rita Felciano
copyright © 2017 Rita Felciano

We probably didn't need a supertitle declaring a newly appointed ruler's desire to "make Thebes great again" to hear echoes. Throughout its eighty minutes this re-conception of Sophocles' "Antigone" periodically sent shivers through Z Space, San Francisco's cavernous warehouse theater where wails and stomping feet disappeared into the surrounding vastness. Maybe only Jean Anouilh's 1944 version, created during the darkest days of France's Nazi occupation, called up more resonance. Yet female strength speaking truth to power is not exactly outdated history. Martín Santangelo's passionately envisioned, superbly performed "Antigona" has a few missteps in terms of length and in Haemon's (Juan Ogalla) weakly drawn character, his impressive, lengthy zapateado not withstanding.  (You can partly blame Sophocles for that). Still, this "Antigona," first presented in 2015, is a masterful realization of what might be seen as one extended cante jondo.

Noche Flamenco in "Antigona" Photo: Chris Bennion

 

Giving Voice to the Unspeakable

"Memory/Place"
Nancy Karp + Dancers
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
February 10, 2017

by Rita Felciano
copyright © by Rita Felciano 2017

Far be it from Nancy Karp, who has been making formally cogent dances without a thread of narration to them for thirty-five years, to plunge into the nightmare of the refugees who keep streaming into Sicily where she spends part of every year. Yet with the new "Memory/Space," she did. All of Karp's work is grounded in some kind of reality that she subsequently digests and muses over to then cull into expressions of space, time and shape. Karp also is a musically sophisticated listener and explorer, often of composers who work stands at the edge of contemporary music. She has in her repertoire compositions from Charles Amirkhanian to John Cage, Terry Riley to Paul Dresher. Much of the music she uses has been commissioned for specific dances. The hour-long "Memory/Space" may not have broken new formal ground for Karp, but it convinced by the clarity and individuality with which these very different dancers realized their tasks.

Nancy Karp's "Memory/Place" Photo: John Hefti

Smelling the Roses

"The Sleeping Beauty"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 12, 2017, evening

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill

Peter Martins' version of "The Sleeping Beauty" is a bit like the girl with the curl in the middle of her forehead -- when it is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad it is, not horrid certainly, but certainly disappointing.  Both aspects were on view Sunday night.  Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle as the Prince and Princess were in the very good column, though Peck did take an unfortunate tumble during her entrance.  She seemed to recover nicely, though this may have contributed to the sightly muted Rose Adagio.  She was musical, exact, and beautiful but not especially spontaneous and seemed to be acting young rather than being young.  There were certainly charming details, though, and I especially enjoyed her quick survey of the four suitors to choose which one got to lift her, and her pause to smell the roses before giving them to her mother.

Photo of the Garland Dance from "The Sleeping Beauty" © Paul Kolnik.

Dances in the Round

"Fast Forward", "Gravity", "Anna's Last Day", "Sunrise", "Dark Forest"
New Chamber Ballet
City Center Studio 5
New York, New York
February 11, 2017

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill

Miro Magloire's all-female six-member New Chamber Ballet performed five of his works in his usual home, the modest, informal Studio 5.  It has no wings, lighting, or sets, which allows the audience to get up close and personal with the dancers.  Magloire, as usual, introduced each piece, making it seem as if the audience were invited guests at a private performance; he had rearranged the seats so the audience was in a circle surrounding the dancers, so the audience got to watch each other watching the dancers, an interesting and lively experiment.

Miro Magloire photo © New Chamber Ballet