danceviewtimes

Romance, Hard Times and Comic Relief

"Paz de la Jolla", "The Man in Black", "Cacti"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
June 13, 2018

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2018 by Denise Sum

The NBoC closed their 2017-2018 season with a triple bill of 21st century works featuring the company premiere of Justin Peck's sunny 2013 creation, "Paz de la Jolla". This is the first ballet by the NYCB wunderkind to enter the NBoC's repertoire. Joined by James Kudelka's country-infused "The Man in Black" and Alexander Ekman's cheeky "Cacti", this mixed program had a little bit of everything.   

Harrison James and Hannah Fischer in "Paz de la Jolla". Photo by Aleksandar Antonijevic. 

 

Royal Danes at Jacob's Pillow

Royal Danish Ballet
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Beckett, MA
June 20, 2018
by Gay Morris

copyright© 2018 by Gay Morris

The Royal Danish Ballet, founded in 1748, calls itself the third oldest ballet company, but its August Bournonville repertory gives it something like eternal youth. Bournonville’s village girls and boys breathe a freshness that exists nowhere else. Fortunately for audiences, a good deal of Bournonville choreography was included in the program a group of dancers from the Danish company offered for the opening of the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. There were excerpts from “Napoli,” “A Folk Tale,” “La Sylphide” and “The Kermesse in Bruges. The eleven dancers were nearly all principals, so this was very much a “stars of” program with numerous duets.

Photo: The Royal Danish Ballet in "Napoli." Photo by Christopher Duggan.

Vintage 1894

"Coppélia in HD"
Bolshoi Ballet
Empire 25 Theater
New York, NY
June 10, 2018

by Carol Pardo
Copyright ©2018 by Carol Pardo

There was no more joyous place to be in New York on a gray damp Sunday than inside a standard issue (vertical) multiplex in wildly overcrowded Midtown. The reason? Sergei Vikharev's staging, for the Bolshoi in 2009, of "Coppélia" based on that of Marius Petipa and Enrico Cecchetti for the Imperial Russian Ballet in 1894. The production is -- even on film -- proof of the magic of the theater. For, before anyone has danced a step, the music and sets have transported the audience to the world of Swanhilda, her beau Franz and the dollmaker Doctor Coppélius.

 

Photo: The Bolshoi Ballet in "Coppélia" dance the Mazurka.

Dancing on Federal Land

"Ritmo" "Ambiguous Dance" "Laughing Frame" "We are all Dragons in Drag" “Tableaux 2017” “Divine Conversations”
San Francisco International Arts Festival
Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA
May 31-June 3, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano, 20118

This year’s San Francisco International Arts Festival offered a line-up similar to the one it has since 2013. That means Circus, Comedy, Music, Performance, Theater and Video, the vast majority from the Bay Area. Given the “international” in the name, the Festival disappoints almost every year. For a time, it was, apparently, difficult to get visas for foreign artists but those issues, according to Executive Director Andrew Wood, appear to have been resolved. Now -- no surprise here — the primary challenge is financial. Despite the meager presence of artists from abroad, the  Festival offers opportunities to catch up in one place with unfamiliar local dance and companies not recently seen. This year, during SFIAF’s second week, I managed to see six ensembles; their performances delighted, puzzled and disappointed. The Festival's home at Fort Mason Center, a former military installation with a number of difference performance venues now part of the National Parks System, works well enough.

Ambiguous Dance
Photo:Courtesy of KMP Artist Management 

Movements that are drawn

"Frame by Frame"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
June 1, 2018 

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2018 by Denise Sum

When the National Ballet of Canada announced a full length commission from Guillaume Côté, some may have had their doubts. Côté is a brilliant performer, but his work as a choreographer has been uneven. His 2016 adaptation of "Le Petit Prince" did not instil much confidence in his ability to craft a coherent narrative work. Furthermore, this new commission is an homage to the life and work of Scottish Canadian filmmaker and animator Norman McLaren (1914-1987), not exactly straightforward ballet material. Yet through collaborating with renowned Quebecois filmmaker, playwright, director and actor Robert Lepage, "Frame by Frame" is an innovative landmark work for the company. The artistic team included Ex Machina, Lepage's multidisciplinary production company, as well as the National Film Board of Canada. "Frame by Frame" successfully combines a varied dance vocabulary with innovative digital media techniques to create a ballet that is distinctive to the company and true to the ethos of McLaren's oeuvre. Devoted balletomanes, first time balletgoers, and cinemaphiles alike will find something meaningful and memorable in this work.  

Dylan Tydaldi with Artists of the Ballet in "Frame by Frame." Photo by Karolina Kuras.

Moods and Shapes

"What Counts", "This, and My Heart Beside...", "Trio Sonatas", "Undercurrent"
Lydia Johnson Dance
The Ailey Citigroup Theater
New York, New York
June 7, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

Lydia Johnson's chamber ballet troupe presented one premiere ("Under- current") and three recent works in its New York season.  She has a great respect for music, shown by the detailed credits; unlike many programs, hers included both the composer and the title of the work, as well as the specific recording which was used, so it was not surprising that the dancers were musically nuanced.  They also had a clear emotional undercurrent, though, unlike some of her older works, the drama was more oblique.  It was an evening of hints and suggestions rather than straightforward narrative.  Her dancers are ballet trained, with a clear and articulate line, but without the recent X-treme ballet exaggerations -- there were no nose whacking extensions or feel used as weapons and she blends ballet's positions harmoniously with a soft, natural carriage and everyday gestures.

Sara Spangler and Katie Martin-Lohiya in "This, and My Heart Besides..." photo © Nir Arieli.

Small Is Beautiful

"Snap" "Homing" "The Old Child" "Jardi Tancat"
SF Danceworks
Cowell Theater
San Francisco, CA
June 8, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © by Rita Felciano

Good choreography, well performed. What else could you want? If this formula includes new and contemporary choreography by a group of independent dancers whose sense of ensemble is excellent, you get an intelligent, challenging evening of dance that makes you look forward to what else is coming down the line. Such again was the impact of the now three-year old SF Danceworks whose founder James Sofranko now is starting a tenure as the Artistic Director of Grand Rapids Ballet. Choreographer /dancer Danielle Row has been appointed Associate Artistic Director while Sofranko remains Artistic Director. Premieres by Sofranko and Row were bracketed by the reworked “Snaps” by Peggy Saunders and Nacho Duato’s evergreen “Jardi Tancat.”

Garrett Anderson and SF Danceworks dancers in "Homing"
Photo: Alexander Reneff-Olson 

A Glimpse of the Future

"La Source", "In Creases", "Circus Polka", "Western Symphony"
School of American Ballet
Peter Jay Sharp Theater
New York, NY
June 1, 2018 matinee

by Carol Pardo
copyright ©2018 by Carol Pardo

One of the consistent attractions of the School of American Ballet Workshop is the opportunity to be swept up by the talent, joy, enthusiasm, discipline and dedication demonstrated by these student performers at a decisive moment in their lives. A further attraction of this workshop, the 54th, was the program itself, in its dance challenges and in the glimpse of the future offered to those on both sides of the footlights.

 

Naomi Corti (center) in "La Source". Choreography by George Balanchine.

Photo by Paul Kolnik, Choreography by George Balanchine  © The George Balanchine Trust

A New, Young Cast Delights in "Harlequinade"

“Harlequinade”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York
June 6, 2018

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2018 by Gay Morris

American Ballet Theatre is offering four casts in eight performances of Alexei Ratmansky’s reconstruction of Marius Petipa’s “Harle- quinade” this week at the Metropolitan Opera House. The cast I saw was particularly interesting because nearly all the major roles were taken by dancers from the company’s lower ranks. This gave them a chance to prove themselves, and they more than met the challenge. Harlequin was portrayed by corps de ballet member, Gabe Stone Shayer, while his love, Columbine was soloist Cassandra Trenary, and Pierrot was soloist Blaine Hoven. The only principal dancer in the cast was Christine Shevchenko as Pierrot’s wife, Pierrette.

Hop To It

"Harlequinade"
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
June 5, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

The Petipa/ Ratmansky soufflé "Harlequinade" has many ingredients, chief among them the older terre à terre style, with its sharp, fast footwork; making lace with their feet is a frequent description of those Imperial ballerinas.  Columbine, the heroine of the comic ballet, has choreography packed with these terre à terre moves, as she hops almost continually -- slow hops, fast hops, backwards, forwards, in circles, even little jumps behind the back of the kneeling Harlequin.  Those Imperial dancers had ankles of steel.  Despite one slight slip, Sarah Lane, the second night Columbine, was a very fine lacemaker, especially in her second act solo where she had series of slow hops on point with rond de jambes, pausing for arabesques, as her upper body opened easily outward, signaling her complete happiness.

ABT corps in Act I of "Harlequinade" photo © Marty Sohl.