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Romantic into Classicism

"La Baydère"
Marinsky Ballet
Cal Performances
Zellerback Hall
Berkeley, California
October 30, 2019

by Rita Felciano
copyright 2019 by Rita Felciano

What a magnificent, somewhat cumbersome fantasy “La Bayadère” is. In the recent Mariinsky Ballet performance at Cal Performances with a cast of, apparently, two hundred, and an orchestra that just about spilled out of the pit, the dancing was superb, the story telling clear and beautifully spaced, the mime large and much welcome. So there were few a missteps, a couple of errant balances; that is and was expected in a live performance. Yet it was so much fun to see the transition from the Romantic story ballet to the pure Classicism of the Ballet Blanc in the same evening. The story ballet just about dissolved in what is here the last act. We entered the realm of pure beauty.

But for all its fantasy, just like in its model “Giselle,” ”Bayadère” also embodies a dose of hard-nosed reality. It’s only in fairy tales that the poor boy gets the princess. In life the peasant girl on the assembly line doesn’t marry the factory owner’s son. Maybe in 1877 the implicit critique of corruption in religious and secular powers – the High Brahmin and the Rajah — also could be downplayed as “it’s just a story.” But we live in a more skeptical age.

 

Maria Khoreva in "La Bayadère". Photo: Natasha Razina

 

Nearly Neighbors

“Increasing”, “Little Prince”, “Its Not a Cry”, “Switch Phase” Duo, “Last Glass”

BalletX for Damian Woetzel’s Demo

Terrace Theater

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts

Washington, DC

October 25, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

Although the two cities are close on the map, Philadelphia and Washington have dance scenes that pretty much remained strangers. The Pennsylvania Ballet, which is at home in Philadelphia, did visit Washington in the past. Yet the  “other” troupe in Philadelphia – BalletX -  had not been seen in DC until now, when Damian Woetzel made it his business to introduce that “contemporary classical” company to audiences in the capital. There are 10 dancers in BalletX, and there was one guest artist for this visit – Robbie Fairchild, formerly of New York City Ballet. Three of the program’s five dances were choreographed by Matthew Neenan. He was one of the principal reasons for founding a “second” ballet troupe in Philadelphia. Neenan uses the dancer’s total body and often deploys it as a unit, as a whole. His choices of music range from a Franz Schubert quintet to folk melodies to dramatic film scores. Something always seems to be happening in Neenan ballets.

 

Ballet X in "The Little Prince." Photo by Teresa Wood.

Ambitions

“Défilé" “Reverence”, “Delusional Beauty”, “Racecar”

The Washington Ballet’s Next Steps Program

Harman Hall

Washington, DC

October 24, 2019

 

by George Jackson

copyright 2019 by George Jackson

 

The next steps danced are not necessarily new ones. Instead, they can stir memories. This program began with silent video clips of dance and short messages before the company’s director, Julie Kent, stepped in front of  the curtains to welcome her audience. The former ballerina looked trim on high platform shoes with tight, light trousers and a top that resembled a feather duster. The audience had been expecting three new ballets but not a fourth, the opener – Kent’s own défilé for 25 young pupils of The Washington School of Ballet, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary. This ballet’s title, of course, derives from the Paris Opera’s historic défilés, or filings by, in which the dancers walk, just walk, over the stage. Also, Kent may have been prompted to mount her work by the recent hit made by 20 children from Russia’s Vaganova Academy in the Mariinsky Ballet’s “Paquita”. Our local kids, girls and boys, hadn’t the polish and push of the Russian pupils yet presented more than just promise. Their persistence in skipping, jumping and keeping order created an awesome mood as pianist Glenn Sales supported them with Leo Delibes music. The next ballet, Jessica Lang’s “Reverence”, seemed to have evolved from défilés.

 

Butoh a la Vangeline

"Hijikata Mon Amour"
Vangeline
NY Butoh Institute Festival 2019
Theater for the New City, New York
October 26, 2019

by Tom Phillips
Copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips                                               

Japan and France have long been yoked together by their mutual obsession with each others' elegant style. The US and Japan are connected forever by the atom bomb. "Hijikata Mon Amour" is a bridge connecting those three cultures, and -- in the subversive, twisted way of Butoh -- an attack on each of them.

Photo: Michael Blase

Fluent Dancing

“Dance Me,” “Blanc,” “The Running Show,” “Chronicle”
Fall For Dance Festival - Program 5
Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal, Sara Mearns & Taylor Stanley, Monica Bill Barnes & Company, Martha Graham Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 13, 2019

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2019 by Marianne Adams

The most welcome part about the somewhat somber fifth program of the Fall for Dance Festival was that it was best absorbed as an experience, rather than as a source of deep meanings. The world premiere of the specially commissioned drama-ballet “Blanc,” by Kim Brandstrup, the soft launch of Monica Bill Barnes’s “The Running Show,” and Martha Graham’s time-tested “Chronicle,” all offered accessible and gratifying art. The best though, was the opening work – Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal’s poignantly moving “Dance Me,” to a selection of songs by Leonard Cohen, which set the tone for the program and left a soft echo even as the other works offered their delights.

Photo of Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in “Dance Me.” Photo © by Paula Lobo

Back to Back at ABT

“Theme and Variations", "A Gathering of Ghosts", "The Seasons"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
October 19, 2019 evening

“Apollo", "Some Assembly Required", "Let Me Sing Forevermore", "Deuce Coupe"
American Ballet Theatre
David H. Koch Theater
New York, New York
October 20, 2019

By Carol Pardo
copyright © 2019 by Carol Pardo

Balanchine, Tharp, Ratmansky at night with Balanchine and Tharp anchoring a quadruple bill the next afternoon had all the makings of a choreographically rich weekend at American Ballet Theatre. "Theme and Variations", made for the company in 1947 is — or should be — their Balanchine calling card."Apollo" too has a long history at ABT, here with the birth scene and ascent to Parnassus intact. A Tharp premiere, "Deuce Coupe" the grand-daddy of crossover ballet, now forty-six years old, which brought the matinee to  close, changed ballet forever. Would her new work, "A Gathering of Ghosts" have the same force? New last season, Ratmansky's "The Seasons" looked distant and dwarfed on the cavernous stage of the Metropolitan Opera. What, if anything, would be revealed by seeing it elsewhere? The performances would be rounded out by Clark Tippet's "Some Assembly Required" now thirty years old, and "Let Me Sing Forevermore" made to be performed at the Erik Bruhn Competition earlier this year by two of the company's most promising soloists, Aran Bell and Catherine Hurlin while simultaneously demonstrating the company's interest in presenting works by female choreographers, here Jessica Lang, whose "Garden Blue" and "Her Notes" are already in the repertory.

Sarah Lane and Joseph Gorak in  "Theme and Variations" ©The George Balanchine Trust. Photo: Gene Schiavone

"Have K(NO!)w Fear"
Ase Dance Theatre Collective
ODC Theater
San Francisco, CA
October 17, 2019

by Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2019

A dance artist’s most difficult task (besides nailing down the money) is to find a framework that can house and support expressive content Some rethink and reshape established formats — Ballet and Flamenco. Others become more radical–dance theater, installations. Adia Tamar Whitaker called her “Have K(NO!)w Fear ” for her Ase Dance Theatre Collective a “Bluessical”, for which she choreographed, wrote lyrics, composed music and danced in. It is a breathtakingly beautiful evocation of what some have called America’s “original sin,” slavery and its seemingly ever present after effects.

Ase Dance Theater Collective in "Have K(NO!)w Fear Phto: Tracies Williams

Miami City Ballet Opens 2019-2020 Season with "Slaughter"

“Stravinsky Violin Concerto,” “Mercuric Tidings,” “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue"
Miami City Ballet
Adrienne Arsht Center
Miami
October 18-20, 2019

by Sean Erwin
copyright© 2019 by Sean Erwin

Miami City Ballet’s 2019-2020 season-opener “Slaughter on Tenth Avenue,” debuted October 18-20 at the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. All three performances shared exceptional contributions from the men (many new to the company), inspired contrasts between the works, and a depth of talent where first and second casts forwarded equally strong performances.

George Balanchine’s “Stravinsky Violin Concerto” headlined the program, which – like last season’s “Duo Concertant” – premiered at the 1972 Stravinsky Festival organized to recognize the composer’s death. Stravinsky’s score stems from the 30s collaboration in Paris between the composer and violin virtuoso, Samuel Dushkin.  The ballet opens with a Toccata followed by two Arias composed of a pas de deux danced by two different couples; it then closes with a Capriccio for the entire cast. Violinist Mei Mei Luo’s solo here was exceptional and the dancing, inspired.

The Love Suicides at Sonezaki

Sonezaki Shinju (The Love Suicides at Sonezaki)
Sugimoto Bunraku Puppet Theater
Rose Theater, Lincoln Center, New York
October 19, 2019

by Tom Phillips

copyright 2019 by Tom Phillips 

"The Love Suicides at Sonezaki," which opened Lincoln's Center's tenth annual White Light Festival, tells the tale of a young Osaka shop clerk and a teenage prostitute who kill themselves rather than face life apart. It was banned in Japan in 1723 after a wave of copycat love suicides, and not performed again until 1955. The US premiere of this production showed us nothing so much as the chasm between the worlds of 18th-century Japan and 21st-century America.

Where Butoh Lives

"Void and Vessel," "Mogari," "Hildergardis”
The New York Butoh Institute Festival 2019
Theater for the New City, New York
October 19, 2019

by Tom Phillips
copyright  2019 by Tom Phillips 

Butoh is an art form that rose from the ruins of the atom bombing of Japan -- an event that recalled the Big Bang at the beginning of time, and presaged the Resurrection of the Dead. Both were evoked last night at the second annual New York Butoh Institute Festival.

This year’s festival features 14 performers, all female, from all over the world. While Butoh is a Japanese art form, it lacks the strict formal traditions of Kabuki or Noh theatre. Instead it has a spirit, available to any culture that has survived destruction. New York, which constantly destroys and rebuilds itself, is a perfect venue.