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Character and Destiny

“Sleeping Beauty”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 21, 2019

By Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2019 by Michael Popkin

“Sleeping Beauty” is many things to a ballet lover. One of Tchaikovsky’s greatest scores, the ballet laid the foundation for the post-World War II ballet boom when Ashton’s staging for the Royal Ballet, starring Margot Fonteyn, took the Euro-American stages by storm with its Rose Adagio and famous balances. But first and foremost, the debut of young Indiana Woodward as Princess Aurora on Thursday night at New York City Ballet, opposite Anthony Huxley as Prince Désiré, reminded us that “Beauty” is still an absorbing drama. It’s a rare performance that shows you this, but the young dancers’ knack for stringing the ballet’s iconic moments together with a dramatic line brought it to life.

Photo © Erin Baiano of Megan LeCrone, Indiana Woodward and Anthony Huxley in “The Sleeping Beauty”

Find Help--Or Try To

"Divining"
little seismic dance company
ODC Theater, San Francisco
February 16, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright @ Rita Felciano, 2019

The first time I saw Katie Faulkner’s choreography was when, as a member of AXIS Dance Company 2003-2007, she set “Decorum” on three dancers, a wheelchair and a sofa. It was one of those “where did she come from?" moments. For her own little seismic dance company, she has since made and performed dance films, solos on herself and for small groups. She also created the onsite choreography,“We Don’t Belong Here” for twenty professional dancers on San Francisco’s Union Square, Now, she has created her first full-evening, sixty-minute work for a quartet of women: Alex Carrington, Chinchin Hsu, Tara McArthur and Suzette Sagisi. And what a fine endeavor,“Divining” is.

Alex Carrington, Tara McArthur, Chinchin Hsu, Suzette Sagisi in "Dvining"
Photo: Stephen Texeira

Together to the End

“To Create a World”
Gallim
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
February 13, 2019

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2018 by Martha Sherman

It takes some chutzpah “To Create a World.” Choreo- grapher Andrea Miller, along with the Gallim dancers, had good reason to attempt the feat, in the premiere of their new work. On a stage of swirling, contorted bodies bathed in deep color and harsh swipes of light and dark, Gallim inhabited a place apart, in a community of unique movement and connection.

Allysen Hooks and Gary Reagan in "To Create a World." Photo by Yi-Chun Wu ©2019.

Another Triple -- Variety Triumphs

"The Fifth Season," "Snowbird," "Etudes"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco
February 14, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

The third season program again showed the SFB in fine mettle with Helgi Tomasson’s darkly hued “The Fifth Season,” the heart-breaking “Snowbird” by Cathy Marston, and one of the oddest works in Ballet repertoire, Harald Lander’s “Etudes”, first performed by SFB in 1998. For that one the dancers ought to have been given a bonus for the sheer stamina and focus they had to bring to this demanding endeavor.

Jennifer Stahl, Ulrik Birkkjaer, Mathilde Froustey in "Snowblind"
Photo: Erik Tomasson

 

La Belle aux Bois Mourant

“Sleeping Beauty”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
February 13, 2019

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2019 by Michael Popkin

Nearly 15 months after Peter Martins’ resignation from New York City Ballet, where an interim artistic team continues to run things during the search for his successor, his elaborate production of “The Sleeping Beauty” went back on stage Wednesday night for the first of fourteen performances. Yet with a full house and Martins himself in the audience, the opening night was anything but a success. As a spectacle, the staging looked dated. Its contraction of the story from four acts to two with a single intermission, by means of making the action continuous and using scenic projections to cover the changes of era, combined with certain Walt Disneyesque elements in the décor and costuming to make the ballet feel closer to a Broadway musical like “Cats” or “The Lion King” than the ravishing Margot Fonteyn-Royal Ballet experiences of yesteryear.

Photo © Paul Kolnik of New York City Ballet in the Garland Dance from “The Sleeping Beauty”

A Trio — Well Chosen, Well Performed

"Divertimento No 15" "Appassionata" "Hurry Up, We're Dreaming"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco, CA
February 12, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

Superb, intriguing, inviting is a good as tag I can come up with for San Francisco Ballet’s second 2019 Season program. Attending with a friend who grew up on New York City Ballet in its seventies, it was amusing to see at how stunned he was with the quality of the SFB dancers. The program, indeed, was very much worth beating the rain to the Opera House. Opening with the best of all, Balanchine’s “Divertimento No 15”, it was followed by the local premiere of Benjamin Millepied’s oddly chosen “Appassionata” to a fine dramatic performance by Mungunchimeg Buriad. The evening closed with a crowd pleaser from last spring’s Unbound Festival, “Hurry Up We’re Dreaming” by no-longer newcomer Justin Peck.

San Francisco Ballet in "Divertimento No. 15". Photo: Erik Tomasson

Youth Has Its Evening

"Interplay", "In the Night", "N.Y. Export: Opus Jazz"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
February 5, 2019

by Carol Pardo
copyright ©2019 by Carol Pardo

Youth must be served, as the old saying goes, and no choreographer served youth as assiduously as Jerome Robbins. He admired the audacity of the young Twyla Tharp, using Central Park as a performance space, and was often the first to spot -- and spotlight -- young talent at the New York City Ballet, particularly among the male dancers. And, above all, youth and young people were a favorite subject of his ballets from "Fancy Free" on. Youth permeated this all-Robbins triple bill (filled with debuts), excessively so by the end of the evening.

New Combinations

“Herman Schmerman,” “Principia,” “The Runaway”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater,
New York, New York
February 3, 2019

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2019 by Gay Morris

Under the rubric, “New Combinations,” New York City Ballet brought together a premiere by Justin Peck, a new ballet from the fall season by Kyle Abraham, and a ballet by William Forsythe that hasn’t been seen in full since 1994. It proved to be the kind of imaginative programming that makes elements and associations visible that might not otherwise be apparent.

Photo:   Taylor Stanley and company in Justin Peck’s "Principia." Photo: Erin Baiano. 

 

Not Quite, But on the Way

"Impact"
Kristin Damrow & Company
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Forum
San Francisco, CA
January 31, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright© Rita Felciano 2019

Every once in a while a piece of information pops up in my computer that intrigues more than others. Such was the case when the Kristin Damrow & Company announced the premiere of “Impact,” at Yerba Buena Center’s Forum, a large non-proscenium space that has challenged many a choreographer. Brutalist architecture, apparently, influenced this piece by an artist unknown to me. Since we live with some prominent examples of these accumulations of stressed concrete—a cathedral, museums, hotels and a jail—the idea of pitting the human body against such monolithic strength sounded promising. Even though Damrow’s work was not completely successful, it showcased a choreographer with a fine sense of spatial deployment. It also impressed with the evident care and competence that went into the design of Damrow’s concept. It made me want to see where else this company is going. 

Anna Greenberg with ensemble in Kristin Damrow & Company's "Impact."
Photo by Robbie Sweeny.

It’s All in the Music

“Serenade,” “Mozartiana,” “Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
January 26, 2019 (matinee)

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2019 by Marianne Adams

You cannot go wrong with the music of Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky or the choreography of George Balanchine, and so in some ways New York City Ballet’s “All Tschaikovsky/ Balanchine” program, a fairly regular staple of the company’s seasons, was set up for success. The many debuts in two of the bill’s works wouldn’t have made or broken the overall impression of this performance, but as it happened mostly delighted with fresh but faithful interpretations.   

Photo of Lauren Lovette and Ask la Cour in “Serenade.” Photo © Paul Kolnik