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Dorrance Dance

“Lessons in Tradition,” “Harlequin and Pantalone,” “Jump Monk,’ “SOUNDspace”
Dorrance Dance
New York City Center
New York, NY
March 28, 2019

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2019 by Gay Morris

It would be hard to imagine a more joyful choice for a celebration than Dorrance Dance, which opened New York City Center’s seventy-fifth anniversary season Thursday evening. Michelle Dorrance’s tap concerts seem made to lift the spirits. Much of this has to do with Dorrance, herself, a whirlwind of motion who appears to delight in every move she makes. But she is far more than a virtuoso tapper. She is also an innovative choreographer and imaginative artistic director who attracts outstanding dance talent. Each of her fourteen company members is a virtuoso in is or her own right. Dorrance also collaborates with important guest artists, in this case Bill Irwin and Kate Davis, who joined forces with her on Thursday.

Photo: Michelle Dorrance, Kate Davis, and Bill Irwin in Dorrance and Irwin's "Lessons in Tradition."  Photo: Stephanie Berger.

Over Again

Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Company of New York Live Arts

Analogy Trilogy – Dora:Tramontane

Eisenhower Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

March 28, 2019

 

by George Jackson

© 2019 by George Jackson

 

What has become of yesterday’s rebels? In the instance of Bill T. Jones, this dancer remains a choreographer true to his Castor and Pollux vision of companionship with the late Arnie Zane (1948 – 1988).  Jones made “Dora” in 2015, basing it on oral interviews he conducted with Dora Amelan, a French/Belgian nurse who was Jewish and bravely, adventurously survived Nazi Germany’s domination of her countries. It has a cast of 9 dancers. Much of the time, one or more of the dancers talks into a microphone. The narration is not totally audible even to audience members with very sharp ears.

The Next Generation

The 13th International Competition for The Erik Bruhn Prize
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 23, 2019

by Denise Sum
Copyright © by Denise Sum 2019

The Erik Bruhn Prize is a unique competition, geared towards young dancers between the ages of 18 and 23 who are already dancing professionally. Established by Bruhn in his will to recognize emerging talent, participants come from companies with which he was affiliated during his distinguished career. Each company's artistic director selects one male and one female dancer to compete. Because of the small number of participants, the event feels more like a gala showcase. In 2009, a Choreographic Prize was added. Since then, each work in the contemporary round is a newly commissioned piece. Unlike the dancer age requirement, the choreographic competition does not stipulate specific criteria for who can participate, except that the choreographer must be affiliated with one of the participating companies. This thirteenth competition was hosted by principal dancer Harrison James. In both the classical and contemporary portions of the evening, the young dancers showed tremendous talent and range. 

Siphesihle November. Photo by Karolina Kuras. 

Live Dance, Live Music

“Simple Symphony” “Another Time” “Like an Ox on the Roof” “Concerto Grosso”
Mark Foehringer Dance Project/SF
Cowell Theater, Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture
San Francisco, CA
March 23, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

Though partially raised in Brazil, and having performed with Brazil’s Cisno Nero Company for a decade, Mark Foehringer has been a respected local educator and choreographer for close to a quarter of a century. Some years ago, he choreographed “Diadorim”, a sprawling full-evening length work, based on a popular Brazilian epic. Its quasi-operatic ambition and production costs probably doomed its chance for longevity. But at a time when audiences seem to be eager for story ballets, and the paucity of dance with Latin American roots is so evident, “Diadorim” might deserve another chance. Today Foehringer is primarily known for his wonderfully crafted mini-holiday “Nutcracker Sweets”, performed to live Tchaikovsky by a mini-orchestra.

Logan Learned and Sarah Cecilia in "Like an Ox on the Roof"
Photo: Matt Haber

 

"How Puzzling All These Changes Are"

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" 
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
March 7, 2019

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2019 by Denise Sum

The National Ballet of Canada's winter season coincides with March break and as usual presents a crowd favourite meant to attract families and new audience members, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Christopher Wheeldon's brilliant version, a co-production with The Royal Ballet, has been a hit since its premiere in 2011. While the plot twists and spectacular special effects are most impressive on its first viewing, it continues to provide reliable revenue for the company and the dancers seem to have a lot of fun with the whimsical choreography and theatrical elements. 

Jillian Vanstone with Artists of the Ballet in "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Photo by Bruce Zinger.

How Great It Is

"Sleeping Beauty"
San Francisco Ballet
War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
March 9, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

Why do we keep going back to see “Sleeping Beauty” when we can almost hear the music’s next section before it hits the air? Of course, this is Tchaikovsky's greatest ballet score, here sensitively conducted once again by Martin West. Yet we may have seen the ballet many times, sometimes live, sometimes on screen. Some of us even make a point of seeing different casts of any one production. Those are the kinds of questions which floated in my head in anticipation of this year's reprise of Helgi Tomasson’s 1990 (slightly altered) version. Though it was most recently seen last season, here is a welcome back to an exemplary work of classical dance, particularly one as cohesively and well presented as Tomasson’s tribute to Petipa and Tchaikovsky.

Carlo Di Lanno and Sasha De Sola in Tomasson's "Sleeping Beauty"
Photo: Erik Tomasson

 

"World's On Fire"

"World's On Fire"
ODC Dance
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
San Francisco, CA
March7, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright Rita Felciano © 2019

Every arts institution, particularly one over forty years old, has to face the future. Most of them do it rather later than sooner. ODC Dance, still under the leadership of its founding members Brenda Way, KT Nelson and Kimi Okada, is planning more openly than any other I can think of. Currently, Oakland-born Kate Weare now heads her thriving Kate Weare Dance in New York. She has also been a local presence for some years; she's now ODC’s first Choreographer in Residence. For the new “World’s on Fire,” Way and Weare signed as co-directors and Weare as choreographer. The Crooked Jades with whom Weare had already worked for her “Bright Land” offered inspiration (I didn’t see the work when it came through town on tour.) The musicians agreeably performed on stage; periodically ODC’s fine dancers participated in the music making.

Tegan Schwab and Brandon Freeman in "Worlds on Fire"
Photo: Margo Moritz

 

Debuts on a Double Bill

"Prodigal Son", "Liebeslieder Walzer"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
Lincoln Center
New York, New York
March 2, 2019 matinee

by Carol  Pardo
copyright © 2019 by Carol Pardo

"Prodigal Son" is one of Balanchine's most robust ballets; it turns ninety this year and has rarely been out of the New York City Ballet's repertory since being revived for Edward Villella in 1960. There have been always male dancers, willing, able, even eager to take on the title role and a stable of tall long-legged women to embody the Siren.

 "Liebeslieder Waltzer", made in 1960, is one of Balanchine's greatest but most fragile ballets, disappearing from the repertory all too frequently. Casting is crucial, for "Liebeslieder" makes exceptional and unfamiliar demands on its dancers. It is a ballet with a 19th century European, rather than 20th or 21st century American, sensibility. It is a ballet of reticence, restraint, good manners, domesticity. The dancers are neither super-human nor divine as is so often the case with Balanchine, neither vessels of abstraction nor characters in a narrative but somewhere in between, but human, identifiably like us. And these people dance for themselves rather than presenting themselves to us; the audience is a privileged witness to the interactions of this small community.

Holy Ground, Dirty Dancing

"One. One & One"
Vertigo Dance Company 
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
March 6, 2019

by Tom Phillips 
copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips 

Except for a neat row of dirt at the front of the stage, the opening section of “One. One & One” by Israel’s Vertigo Dance Company looks much like the closing elegy of George Balanchine’s “Serenade.” It’s a solemn communal idyll, to sonorous cellos in a minor key, with a motif of dancers leaning on each other for balance and support. They seem to be a close-knit group, working out complex tasks together –- as when three men braid the hair of a woman while she uses her long tresses to pull them across the stage. 

Photo by Stephanie Berger.

A Noble Memento Mori

"Xenos"
Akram Khan Company
Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances
Berkeley, CA
March 2, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

When last Saturday night the stage went dark at the end of Akram Khan’s “Xenos,” nobody moved in the near-capacity audience of the 2,600-seat Zellerbach Hall. The silence was deafening. Finally, a small, dirt-covered figure walked downstage, and the hall exploded. “Xenos” supposedly, is Khan’s last solo performance. With his first-rate collaborators he created a haunting meditation on what it means to be human in an inhuman world. A letter from an Indian soldier conscripted into World War I proved part of the inspiration for this very fine work. “This is not war,” the man had written, “It is the ending of the world.” The sentence resonates throughout “Xenos.”

Akram Khan in "Xenos"
Photo: Jean-Louis Fernandez