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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”

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”

Speaking in Tongues

“Scotch Symphony,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Divertissement Pas de Deux from ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’” “The Four Temperaments”
San Francisco Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Joffrey Ballet
Balanchine, The City Center Years
New York City Center
November 2, 2018

by Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2018 by Michael Popkin

City Center’s 75th anniversary celebration of Balanchine ballets was a rare example in today’s arts world – routinely long on hype and short on substance – of a festival that focused on a worthy subject and actually delivered. A far cry from the empty gala spectacles at New York City Ballet or American Ballet Theatre that have recently obscured the dance horizon here, it was thought provoking and beautiful to see these Balanchine ballets and pas de deux danced by other companies associated with his opus, on the stage the works were made for, or, in the case of “The Four Temperaments” (which debuted in 1946 at New York’s Central High School for the Needle Trades), the stage at least where it was danced most early and often. Most aesthetically surprising was how, if Balanchine came to City Center in 1948 as it were speaking the language of the Imperial Russian Ballet with an American accent, three of these four performances offered a series of translations: back into contemporary Russian, French, and a Midwestern vernacular heavily inflected with Modern Dance.

Photo Copyright © Erik Tomasson of San Francisco Ballet in “Scotch Symphony”

Women's Work

“Le Jeune,” “Dream within a Dream (deferred),” “In the Upper Room”
American Ballet Theatre
Fall Gala
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
October 12, 2018

by Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2018 by Michael Popkin

Is there something specifically female in the content or experience of a ballet by a woman, besides the fact that a woman created it? In programming a Fall Gala exclusively of works by women at the start of its brief fall season at Lincoln Center, American Ballet Theatre implicitly put this question on the table. In a brief and beautiful work at the start, Lauren Lovette - the youngest of the three choreographers whose work was seen that night (she’s also a principal dancer at New York City Ballet in her day gig) - gave the answer, yes. On an evening where Michelle Dorrance’s major new commission fell flat and the revival of Twyla Tharp’s “In the Upper Room” was poorly cast and often poorly danced, Lovette’s offering was the best thing on the bill.

Photo copyright © Marty Sohl of ABT Studio Company in “Le Jeune”

Friday Night LIghts

“Concerto Barocco,” “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux,” “Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” “Symphony in C”
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
September 21, 2018

by Michael Popkin
Copyright © 2018 by Michael Popkin

The first Friday night of the Fall season at New York City Ballet felt like a breath of fresh air. Not that everything was perfect -- far from it, the principal dancing in particular alternated tours de force in some ballets with slack efforts or curious interpretations in others. But taken as a whole and particularly at the level of the soloists and corps de ballet, the company danced its core Balanchine repertory with a verve and attack that haven’t been consistently seen here in years.

Photo © Paul Kolnik of Tiler Peck in “Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux”

The Giselle for Our Time

“Giselle”
American Ballet Theatre
Metropolitan Opera House
New York, New York
May 18, 2018

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2018 Michael Popkin

Every generation hopes for dancers who bring iconic roles to life. In 2005, when Natalia Osipova suddenly emerged from the Bolshoi corps de ballet dancing as if shot from the proverbial canon as Kitri in “Don Quixote,” she did it for that role. Thirteen years later, dancing alongside David Hallberg at ABT last Friday night in “Giselle” (her only New York performance this year), she confirmed that she’s done it for this role too. To the likes of Margot Fonteyn, Lynn Seymour, Natalia Makarova and Gelsey Kirkland, iconic Giselles of the 60’s and 70’s, add Osipova’s name today.

Photo © Rosalie O’Connor of Natalia Osipova and David Hallberg in “Giselle”

The Heart Has its Reasons

“Carousel”
The Imperial Theater
New York, New York
May 10, 2018

By Michael Popkin
© 2018 by Michael Popkin

Any good production of “Carousel” is noteworthy and the current Broadway revival is better than good. Beautifully directed by Jack O’Brien, strongly cast, sung, and acted throughout, the new production appeals to a general Broadway audience. But with dances by Justin Peck, designs by Santo Loquasto, and appearances in major roles by New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar and soloist Brittany Pollack, there’s particular interest for the dance aficionado.

Photo © Julieta Cervantes of Amar Ramasar and ensemble in “Carousel”

Running the Gamut

“Set and Reset,” “Dances of Isadora,” “Esplanade”
Trisha Brown Dance Company, Sara Mearns, Paul Taylor Dance Company
Paul Taylor Modern American Dance and The American Dance Festival
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
March 18, 2018

by Michael Popkin
Copyright 2018 © by Michael Popkin

On the second Sunday evening of its Lincoln Center season, Paul Taylor showcased the rebranding of his organization as Paul Taylor American Modern Dance. While the program called Icons – also sponsored by the American Dance Festival – started in cool Zen mode with the Trisha Brown Dance Company presenting a revival of its 1983 “Set and Reset,” the program built steadily in energy and force. New York City Ballet’s superb ballerina Sara Mearns was then unforgettably dramatic performing barefoot in a series of dances that claimed to be recreations of works by Isadora Duncan, before the Taylor company – as the home team - wound things up with a rendition of “Esplanade” of more startling attack than anything seen here for years in that particular work.

Photo © Darial Sneed of Sara Mearns in “Dances of Isadora”

The King is Dead, Long Live the Company

“Divertimento No. 15,” “The Four Temperaments,” “Chaconne”
New York City Ballet
The David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
January 24, 2018

by Michael Popkin
copyright © 2018 by Michael Popkin

New York City Ballet entered its interregnum this week dancing two straight all Balanchine programs. Programmed by Peter Martins before his resignation, they now serve to emphasize continuity between the reigns in a way Martins probably didn’t imagine. It’s neither the new world (and won’t be until a replacement for him is named) nor the old. But between the two, we saw some of the company’s enduring strengths in real time.

Photo of Ashley Laracey in Divertimento No. 15 © Paul Kolnik

It's His Company Now

“Songs of Bukovina,” “Symphonic Variations,” “Other Dances,” “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium”
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
October 21, 2017 afternoon

Copyright © 2017 by Michael Popkin

The two ballets by Alexei Ratmansky on the program, including his newest work, were vibrant and full of life. Meanwhile iconic works by Ashton and Robbins were more or less dead on arrival. On Saturday afternoon at ABT, if you needed proof positive that it’s Ratmansky’s company now, the dancers his, their contemporary techniques molded primarily for his material, you needed but open your eyes.

Photo copyright © Marty Sohl of ABT in “Songs of Bukovina”