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A Tribute to Jerome Robbins at Jacob's Pillow

Stars of American Ballet
Ted Shawn Theater
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Becket, MA
August 26, 2018

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2018 Gay Morris

New York City Ballet has spent much of 2018 celebrating the centenary of Jerome Robbins, who was long associated with the company as a choreographer and ballet master. It is not surprising, then, that Daniel Ulbricht, a principal NCYB dancer, would want to continue the celebratory mood when he took his concert group, Stars of American Ballet, on the road this summer. The fourteen dancers appeared this past weekend at Jacob’s Pillow in an all Robbins program that included some of the choreographer’s lesser known works, as well as “Interplay,” one of his most famous.

Photo: Daniel Ulbricht in Jerome Robbins' "A Suite of Dances." Photo by Christopher Duggan.

Bundles from Britain

"There Where She Loved", "Monotones I & II", "La Chatte", "Les Patineurs" (pas de trois), "Méditation from Thaïs", "The Two Pigeons" (final pas de deux)
Sarasota Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
August 18, 2018 matinee

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

Sarasota Ballet's Saturday program honored Sir Frederick Ashton on the thirtieth anniversary of his death with an all-British program, beginning with Christopher Wheeldon's "There Where She Loved", and continuing with Ashton's astounding "Monotones I & II", followed by four shorter works illustrating Ashton's wide range of styles, from the lighthearted "La Chatte", a tribute to Fanny Elssler, to the sweet-natured romanticism of "The Two Pigeons".  These short works were tantalizingly brief, and, one hopes, previews of coming attractions.

Victoria Hulland, Marcelo Gomes, and pigeon in "The Two Pigeons" photo © Frank Atura.

Choices, Choices

"Monotones I & II", "Symphony of Sorrows", "There Where She Loved"
Sarasota Ballet
Joyce Theater
New York, New York
August 14, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

The Sarasota Ballet, a small company run by the British dancer Iain Webb, has a rich and varied repertoire and is especially known for its commitment to the works of Sir Frederick Ashton, which they dance with admirable style and elegance.  But a company cannot exist solely on a historical legacy, and Webb has the same issues all directors face -- how to develop and balance the repertoire -- and, for the New York season, he needed both a varied repertoire and one that showed off as many of his fine dancers as possible.  The selection was also complicated by the Joyce's stage, since there is no room for an orchestra and Webb has an admirable commitment to live music.  The opening night program met the challenges well, with two ballets accompanied by live piano, and a ballet by Ricardo Graziano, the company's resident choreographer ("Symphony of Sorrows") and Christopher Wheeldon's "There Where She Loved", both of which had a number of featured roles.

Victoria Hulland, Ricardo Graziano, and Ricardo Rhodes in "Monotones II" photo © Frank Atura

“Paramodernities” at Jacob's Pillow

“Paramodernities”
NettaYerushalmy
Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival
Jacob’s Pillow, MA
August 11, 2018

by Gay Morris
copyright © 2018 by Gay Morris

Netta Yerushalmy’s “Para- modernities,” presented at Jacob’s Pillow on Saturday,  is a hugely ambitious work, a three-and-a-half-hour marathon of what the Pillow billed as a deconstruction and re-examination of works by six major modernist choreographers: Vaslav Nijinsky, Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Alvin Ailey, Bob Fosse, and George Balanchine. Taking on any one of these artists would be challenging, dealing with six seems a little mad. Yet Yerushalmy has done it with stunning success. Usually her programs include just three of the choreographers. Saturday was the first time she showed all six together, making it a Jacob’s Pillow world premiere.

Mark Morris at the Mostly Mozart Festival

Mark Morris Dance Group
“Love Song Waltzes, “I Don’t Want to Love,” “The Trout”
Mostly Mozart Festival
Rose Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
August 9, 2018 

by Gay Morris
copyright © 2018 by Gay Morris

Two of the three works being offered this weekend by the Mark Morris Dance Group for the Mostly Mozart Festival have to do with love: “Love Song Waltzes” from 1989 and “I Don’t Want to Love” from 1996. The third work, “The Trout” a world premiere set to Schubert’s “Trout” Piano Quintet in A Major, if not about love, per se, certainly is about companionship or the search for it. Morris’s work has long been known for its focus on community. In these days of turmoil and strife, I found “The Trout” particularly consoling.

Photo: Dallas McMurray, from left, Mica Bernas and Domingo Estrada, Jr. in Mark Morris's "The Trout." Photo by Stephanie Berger.