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“Wordplay,” “Vigil,” “Solitaire,” “Tranquil Night, Bright and Infinite,” “The Trilling Wire,” “Charge,”
Claudia Schreier & Company
Joyce Theater Ballet Festival
New York, NY
July 22, 2017

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2017 by Martha Sherman

Claudia Schreier, a choreo- grapher who came to notice in Damien Woetzal’s “Vail Dance Festival,” has stepped whole- heartedly into the classical tradition and into the limelight. Festivals like Vail's and the Joyce’s walk a fine line: they need to take a risk on new voices, but not be too risky in the execution, to hold and please audiences that also need to be cultivated. With excellent, diverse live musicians accompanying several pieces, as well as dancing star power, the evening was very satisfying as entertainment, but Schreier played it safe, and the jury is still out about the depth of her choreography, and her staying power.

Photo: Unity Phelan and Zachary Catazaro in "Solitaire." Photo © Erin Baiano. (At the Vail International Dance Festival.)

Roy Assaf Dance and Aakasha Odedra at Jacob's Pillow

Roy Assaf Dance
July 15, 2017
Aakash Odedra, “Rising”
July 23, 2017

Jacob’s Pillow
Beckett, MA

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2017 by Gay Morris

Both Aakash Odedra and Roy Assaf were making their first appearances at Jacob’s Pillow this month. Assaf is an Israeli modern dancer who brought his company to the Pillow in two works, while Odedra is a kathak dancer from the UK, who offered four solos created for him by four different choreographers under the general title, “Rising.”

Odedra, bearded and slight in build, is an extremely refined dancer trained in Indian kathak technique. He began his program with a kathak dance of his own making called “Nritta.” For it he wore a simple white tunic and trousers, rather than the elaborate traditional costume. This eliminated any element of exoticism from the dance, allowing him to emphasize the complex rhythms of kathak footwork and the variety and dynamism of its vocabulary. It is usually the stamping footwork, delivered at lightnng speed, that is kathak’s most notable feature. Although Odedra’s footwork is impressive, his arms are what really rivet attention. His gestures are silken yet strong and elegant.

Photo above: Aakash Odedra in"Nritta" by Brooke Trisolini.

"Jewels" at the Lincoln Center Festival

“Jewels”
Paris Opera Ballet, Bolshoi Ballet, New York City Ballet
Lincoln Center Festival
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
July 21and 22, 2017

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2017 by Gay Morris

George Balanchine’s “Jewels,” which he made for New York City Ballet in 1967, is considered the first full evening plotless ballet. It also is known, not only for the specific jewels each of its three sections represent, but also for the nationalities each of the three suggests. So the first section, ‘Emeralds,’ is often thought of as French; the second, ‘Rubies,’ American; and the third, ‘Diamonds,’ Russian. This gave the Lincoln Center Festival the interesting idea of celebrating the ballet’s 50^th anniversary by having each section danced by French, American and Russian companies, in this case the Paris Opera Ballet, New York City Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. Somewhere along the line, though, it was decided to give the Bolshoi the opportunity to dance the ‘Rubies’ section and New York City Ballet, ‘Diamonds.’ This was the casting for Friday’s performance.  

Photo:  Olga Smirnova and Semyon Chudin in 'Diamonds' from George Balanchine's "Jewels.' Photo by Stephanie Berger. Choreography by George Balanchine © The George Balanchine Trust. 

Tchaikovsky Does the Honors

"Mozartiana",  "The Nutcracker (Act II Pas de Deux)", "Souvenir d'un lieu cher", "AfterEffect"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 6, 2017

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2017 by Carol Pardo

No composer is more identified with ballet than Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. So it is not surprising that after seven weeks of full-evening ballets, the powers that be at American Ballet Theatre used his name to lure patrons to mixed bills, often a hard sell in the cavernous Met, even more so during the box office doldrums that surround the Fourth of July. Under the rubric "Tchaikovsky Spectacular", the company mixed and matched eight works by Balanchine, Ratmansky and (a whiff of) Petipa, with some novelties thrown in for good measure. On this program, that translated to Balanchine's "Mozartiana", the act two pas de deux from Ratmansky's "Nutcracker" as well as his "Souvenir d'un lieu cher" (to the eponymous score), and ended with "AfterEffect" choroegraphed by company stalwart Marcelo Gomes to the composer's "Souvenir de Florence". The results, for various reasons, were not as spectacular as one might have hoped.

Souvenirs

"AfterEffect", "The Nutcracker pas de deux", "Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher", "Mozartiana"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 8, 2017, matinee

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill

The final Saturday matinee's all-Tchaikovsky program was a real souvenir program, with a ballets set to the composer's "Souvenir de Florence", his "Souvenir d'un Lieu Cher", his "Nutcracker", with its cosy memories, and his "Mozartiana", his salute to the earlier composer. But it was also a souvenir for the audience, as Veronika Part gave her final performance and the audience got a last glimpse of that unique and glorious artist. "Mozartiana" had been tactfully reprogrammed to end the performance to allow for the curtain calls.  This did mean that the audience had to sit through some rather derivative pieces, but they were rewarded with Balanchine at the end.

Veronika Part's farewell, photo © Kent G. Becker.

Tchaikovsky, Spectacular or Not

"Mozartiana", "Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux", "The Nutcracker Pas de Deux", "Aurora's Wedding"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
July 5, 2017, evening

by Mary Cargill 
copyright © 2017 by Mary Cargill

American Ballet Theatre's final week of the spring season showed off its dancers in a welcome mixed bill, entitled, somewhat aspirationally, "Tchaikovsky Spectacular".  Each performance has a different combination of ballets choreographed to various compositions by the composer. The performance I saw opened with Christine Shevchenko and David Hallberg's debuts in Balanchine's "Mozartiana", which he choreographed for Suzanne Farrell and Ib Andersen, two special and unique dancers. Shevchenko's straightforward classics and Hallberg's cool majesty are nothing like the gifts of the original artists, but man ballets have survived the loss of their first casts, and "Mozartiana's" intricate and fascinating choreography does too.

Cassandra Trenary in "Aurora's Wedding" photo © John Grigaitis.

New and Traditional

Inaugural Performance

Mignon Furman Ballet

Dance Theater Lab, Performing Arts Center

State University of New York at Purchase

July 4, 2017

 

by George Jackson

© 2017 by George Jackson

 

Long experience in the corps de ballet teaches dancers that ensemble work is creative, an activity to be relished. However, those who are new to corps work often see it as a stepping stone to soloist and principal roles. Most of the cast for this debut of the Mignon Furman Ballet consisted of young dancers drawn from recent recruits to the corps of a big, established company - American Ballet Theatre. Nearly everyone seemed eager  for the spotlight. The new company is a part-time organization named in memory of Mignon Furman, a dance teacher (of ballet, ballroom and Victorian) as well as an educator who came to the USA from South Africa in the 1980s and founded what became the prominent summer school - American Academy of Ballet. Furman impressed many who met her as one of the grand dames of the dance world.

 

Anabel Katsnelson as Diana in the “Diana and Actaeon” duo. Photo by Costas.

 

NYCB Moves at Bard

“Dances at a Gathering,“ “Duo Concertant,” “In Creases”
New York City Ballet Moves
Fisher Center for the Performing Arts
Bard College
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
July 1, 2017

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2017 Gay Morris

When a ballet company appears in new surroundings, it can reveal elements not otherwise apparent in both the performers and the works performed. This past weekend New York City Ballet was at Bard College’s Fisher Center, an attractive theater that is smaller than the company’s home at Lincoln Center, but large enough to maintain the illusion of effortless magic that ballet seems to need. And, indeed, the change of venue did produce new elements, beginning with the programming. As part of Bard’s SummerScape festival, which this year focuses on Fryderyk Chopin, the entire NYCB program featured piano scores. It is unlikely that such a program would be presented at the company’s less intimate New York home.

The performers, too, were a little different from those we usually see, in that this group is billed as New York City Ballet Moves. Although still under the direction of Peter Martins, it is made up of a small section of the 90-plus member company. The twenty dancers in NYCB Moves range from corps members to principals, and the company also includes four musicians.

Sara Means in Jerome Robbins’ "Dances at a Gathering," by Paul Kolnik. 

 

Trust those over Thirty

Excerpts from “Grace”, “Rambler”,“Wonderboy”and 
“Remembering the Pool at the Best Western”
“Nobody Lives Here Now”
Joe Goode Performance Group
June 24, 2017
Yerba Buena Center for Arts
San Francisco, CA

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2017

More than anything, Joe Goode’s thirtieth anniversary concert was a love feast for an artist and dance innovator who changed the way we think about, look at and talk about dance. The two-hour performance took an assured look at the past and a somewhat wobbly one into the future. At a time when so many choreographers turn to the spoken word –- more often than not mumbling through it -- it’s difficult to remember just how daring Goode’s defying of tradition was. Thematically, he took on the pain of what it meant, and still means, to be an outsider; he then transformed this awareness into carefully crafted dance theater works that made you smile even as they drew tears. Goode has that rare gift, an insistent personal voice that has little to do with that seductive plaint with which he colors everything.

Andrew Ward and Joe Goode in "Nobody Lives Here Now. Photo Yvonne Porta