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Old Movement, Anew

“Raymonda Variations,” “Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir,” “DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY
September 22, 2019 (matinee)

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2019 by Marianne Adams

New York City Ballet could have presented any combination of works for its “Balanchine + Wheeldon” program, but the particular selection of George Balanchine’s “Raymonda Variations” and “Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir” and Christopher Wheeldon’s “DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse” worked to highlight Balanchine’s creative genius, while contextualizing Wheeldon.  Mr. B’s ballets were both around half-a-decade old, Wheeldon’s – a product of this century. Yet somehow it was Balanchine’s “Porte et Soupir” that seemed the most modern and in-your-face daring, with Wheeldon’s looking like a natural facet of the company’s expressive library. 

Photo of Maria Kowroski in “Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir.” Photo © Paul Kolnik

An Isadora Duncan Education

“Isadora Duncan”
Jérôme Bel
FIAF “Crossing the Line” Festival
Florence Gould Hall
New York, NY
September 25, 2019

by Martha Sherman
copyright © 2019 by Martha Sherman

The purity of Isadora Duncan’s simple, powerful movement and vision was represented with gentle ardor in Jérôme Bel’s framed portrait of the iconic dancer. “Isadora Duncan” was danced, in its US premiere, by Catherine Gallant, a long-time student of the Duncan technique, but the event was as much lesson as a performance. Using the program’s simple structure, Gallant offered the once groundbreaking work as a parade of metaphors. She danced movingly; and by evening’s end each audience member could interpret Duncan’s dances as if they had learned sign language or braille for the choreography – less mystery, more specific, flowing meaning. In its unadorned way, a century after its creation, the movement still speaks.

Catherine Gallant in "Isadora Duncan." Photo © Elena Olivo.

Room to Grow

“Jewels"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 21, 2019 evening

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2019 by Carol Pardo

George Balanchine's "Jewels" is now fifty-two years old. A hit from its first performance, it still reliably fills the house, for several reasons. It has sets (of varying degrees of success over three iterations) and costumes and lasts a full evening, all of which is counter to the generally held assumptions about the New York City Ballet's repertory. It has all the trappings of a "traditional" ballet except a plot. There is variety in the scores (Fauré, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky) the norm at NYCB, and, if one cares to see it, a lesson in ballet history and style with a nod to the places that sheltered and influenced Balanchine himself (France, America, Russia). But here, lesson learned was how a ballet can offer opportunities for dancers whether debutants, yearlings or veterans, and in consequence, not only survive but thrive.

Lauren King and Daniel Applebaum in 'Emeralds' George Balanchine's "Jewels" Photo credit  Rosalie O'Connor

MMM

“Mozart Dances”
Mark Morris Dance Group
Zellerbach Auditorium
CalPerformances
Berkeley, CA
September 20, 2019

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

Mark Morris gets justifiably praised for the depth of his musicality but he most certainly also keeps our attention with the breadth of his imagination. The three parts of “Mozart Dances”, set in 2006 to the Piano Concertos No. 11 and 27 and the Sonata for Two Pianos, offer an extraordinary insight into Mozart, above all as a genius of crystalline clarity of music as abstraction. The music is all about structure, and to some extent Morris’ work here is as well.

Mark Morris Dance Group in "Mozart Dances" photo: Stephanie Berger

A Choose Your Own Dance Adventure

National Dance Day at the REACH
Featuring "Fela! The Concert"
Main Stage at the REACH
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
September 21, 2019

by Arielle Ostry
copyright © 2019 by Arielle Ostry

In December of 2018, Netflix released a new interactive film called "Bander- snatch." The psychological thriller was inspired by choose-your-own-adventure novels, requiring the viewer to make decisions throughout the movie that fundamentally altered the plot of the story. This unusual type of viewing experience gained popularity rather quickly, as each person who encountered the film discovered a different story line, experiencing a separate chain of events. The Kennedy Center's National Dance Day celebration was — in many ways — the "Bandersnatch" of dance programming. Countless performances, classes, and informational events were free and open to everyone. With so many visual spectacles and music coming from just about every direction, this National Dance Day was not about being impressed by a single professional performance company. Alternatively, the festivities centered around how much dance one could see, learn about, and practice all in a single day.

Photo: Tiler Peck teaching the crowd at the Kennedy Center's National Dance Day. Photo by Jati Lindsay.

 

Surfeits

Dance Day at The Reach Festival

Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

September 21, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

An incredible amount of dance was performed in Kennedy Center’s formal and improvised spaces on Dance Day, September 21. From morning into the night it drew a huge audience. I was part of the crowd in the main building’s corridors and theaters, on the terrace overlooking the Potomac River and on the campus’ extension south with  its three blunt, new masonry blocks – buildings by the architectural firm of Steven Holl. I saw snatches of diverse dance on video screens placed theroughout the area, but attended only two entire performances, each about an hour long.

 

Audience members participating in National Dance Day at the Kennedy Center. Photo by Jati Lindsay.

Upended Expectations

“Raymonda Variations,” “Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir,” "DGV: Danse à Grande Vitesse"
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 18, 2019

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2019 by Carol Pardo

On paper, the first mixed bill of the New York City Ballet's fall 2019 read like a study in diminishing returns, increasingly anemic as the program progressed. But assumptions are made to be upended and so they were here. For the most compelling work fo the evening was the strangest, "Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir".

Sara Mearns and Daniel Ulbricht in  in George Balanchine's "Variations Pour Une Porte et Un Soupir" photo by Erin Baiano

A Ballerina Gives Us One for the Ages

“Jewels”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 17, 2019

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2019 by Michael Popkin

In “Diamonds,” at the New York City Ballet's fall opening performance of “Jewels”, Maria Kowroski was how you’d like to remember her. Not that she’s going anywhere. But by now the company’s senior dancer (she joined NYCB in 1995), she, along with her partner Tyler Angle, rescued opening night from lackluster performances of “Emeralds” and “Rubies” and made you forget about what came before. An incandescent performance, shot through with artistry, what was most surprising about her reading in particular was how frankly emotional she made it, and how she did it simply by being herself, by opening up to her partner without adding any overt or histrionic expression to her dancing. Also surprising was how, for a tall dancer who was all legs early in her career, she last night got the expression out of her upper body, back and arms.

Photo © Erin Baiano of Maria Kowroski and Tyler Angle in “Diamonds”

Getting Up Close at the Kennedy Center

The REACH Opening Festival
Featuring the Syncopated Ladies
Studio K at the REACH
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
September 8, 2019

by Arielle Ostry
copyright © 2019 by Arielle Ostry

Just outside of Studio K —  a new rehearsal and performance space recently minted as part of the Kennedy Center's REACH expansion project — hangs a sizeable, two-dimensional collage by Fred Tomaselli entitled "Flipper." Looping ellipses define the work, weaving in and out of one another, but these balanced optical designs only represent the bigger picture. If you walk up and get close enough to the art, you begin to notice that something concrete and ordinary makes up the intricate patterns of Tomaselli's work. You discover that what lies at the heart of his masterpiece is not abstract shapes offering little more than aloof, academic recognition. Instead, natural figures like dainty beads, delicate flowers, and a diverse array of hands all come together to form neat rows, making up the bigger picture that is so easy to casually admire. What does this random piece of wall art hanging on the lower level of the REACH's Skylight Pavilion have to do with The REACH Opening Festival, you might ask? I believe this in-depth, investigatory look at what art is, where it comes from, and how it develops, is what the REACH expansion and opening festival are all about.

Photo: Crowd at The REACH Opening Festival enjoying DJ Flying Lotus perform on the REACH's outdoor stage. Photo by Jati Lindsay.