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Catching Up with Adam Sklute, Artistic Director, Ballet West

April 2021
Salt Lake City, Utah 
by Marianne Adams

As most ballet companies around the world are slowly getting back to what once was normal, Ballet West has clocked in not one, but two live seasons since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. How they did it and what lies ahead were among the topics I was excited to explore in my conversation with Adam Sklute, the company’s Artistic Director.

Thank you to George Jackson, a Mainstay of this Site

April 29, 2021
Washington, DC
by Alexandra Tomalonis

When I posted George Jackson's most recent review, I noticed how many pieces he has written for DVT — not to mention its predecessors, Washington DanceView and DanceView. (He also has written regularly for the Washington Post, Dance Magazine, Dance Now, the German magazine  Ballett, and other publications.) 365 reviews -- 365!! just for this site! -- of ballet, modern dance, ethnic dance, and books as well. I was going to wait for a big birthday to write a piece like this, but then thought it might encourage others to write, and be active in dance during this horrible time, if they could read about how much this remarkable man has accomplished. He’s probably writing at this very moment.

Anticipation

Book: Francis Cunningham 
5 Continents Editions ($55)
March 18, 2021

reviewed by George Jackson

copyright 2021 by George Jackson

 

A magic moment sometimes at a performance is when the curtains have parted but nothing yet has happened. One's awareness is acutely that of the stage space. The dancers, if already present, are about to be in motion - which differs  from standing still.  Many of Francis Cunningham's paintings and drawings give me the feeling that what is depicted is a theater's stage when things are about to happen. There will be motion. Cunningham's space is pregnant and birth will occur, so be alert.

 

Plastic Fantastic Planet

"Plastic Harvest" Jody Sperling/Time Lapse Dance
"healing/trying" jillsigman/thinkdance
"Wake up and Smell the Coffee" Vangeline Theater 
Earth Day, New York City 
April 24, 2021

by Tom Phillips 
copyright © 2021 by Tom Phillips 

 

One problem in dealing with the world’s environ- mental crisis is that it’s composed of so many separate problems, most of them difficult to picture. Science does a lousy job of dramatizing climate change – so by the time people are forced to recognize it, their homes may be gone and their lives in danger.  So it falls to the arts to show us what business-as-usual is doing to us.  And Earth Day is an annual opportunity to seize the outdoor stage.   

Reading and ReReading

Balanchine Variations, by Nancy Goldner

University Press of Florida, 2008 & 2021 
April 22, 2021

 

by George Jackson 

copyright George Jackson © 2021

 

Books are selling in this era of the coronavirus quarantine, and University Press of Florida has republished critic Nancy Goldner's 2008 "Balanchine Variations" in which she admires, analyzes and annotates 20 ballets by George Balanchine (1904 - 1983), a  colossus among choreographers. Included in the works discussed are two of Balanchine's earliest surviving ones and also some of his last.

Back On Stage: If Cautiously, Relentlessly

Precious Gems: Precious Jewels Variations from “Alladin,” “Aria,” “Tarantella,” Solo from “Lambarena,” “Variations for Four,” Sicilienne from “Emeralds,” Duet from “Concerto Six Twenty-Two,” “Paquita”
Capitol Theatre
Salt Lake City, UT
April 15, 2021

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2021 by Marianne Adams

What would ballet look like on a theater stage, when it returns, has been a question plaguing most ballet lovers and insiders alike, and as one of the first companies in the world, and certainly in the United States, to bring its dancers back in front of a live audience, Ballet West confidently answered it with “resilient.”  The company’s spring 2021 season was its second time performing live since the Covid-19 pandemic began, following a brief season in November 2020, and the mixed bill program of mostly classically dance was a welcome reassurance that when it comes to dance, the pandemic shouldn’t rob us of much more than actual time lost.

Photo of Jordan Veit in "Aria." Photo © Beau Pearson.

Three for the Price of One

Jewels 
San Francisco Ballet
April 6, 2021
Streamed   

by Rita Felciano
copyright Rita Felciano © 2021                 

I only vaguely remember my first encounter with Jewels, Balanchine’s 1967 masterful triptych, supposedly influenced by the respective precious stones. Karinska’s costumes, most certainly, glittered and shimmered, almost excessively. I wish I could credit the company-it was not SFB that I saw it on. I recall being puzzled by “Emeralds”, almost laughing in delight at “Rubies” and taken aback by “Diamonds.” All were beautifully danced, but I kept wondering how those three “acts” related to each, other except for being Balanchine’s work.