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At the Beginning

"Serenade", "Tschaikovsky Pas de Deux", "Tarantella", "Symphony in C"
Miami City Ballet, The Mariinsky Ballet, The Royal Ballet, New York City Ballet
Balanchine: The City Center Years
New York City Center
New York, New York
October 31, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

When Mayor Fiorello La Guardia established the New York City Center 75 years ago, the current president Arlene Shuler's gracious opening speech reminded the audience it was New York's first performing arts center.  Several years later, in 1948, it became the first home of the New York City Ballet, and the Center is hosting a five-day festival of eight companies performing 13 of the ballets originally performed at City Center.  New York City Ballet, of course, joined the roster, along with Miami City Ballet and the San Francisco Ballet, both led by former Balanchine dancers. In addition, the eclectic Joffrey Ballet, and three international companies, the Mariinsky, the Royal Ballet, and the Paris Opera Ballet, represent Balanchine's universal appeal, (though, probably due to logistics, the American companies got the larger ballets and the foreign companies the pas de deux).

New York City Ballet in "Symphony in C photo © Paul Kolnik

Akram Khan's "Xenos"

“Xenos”
Akram Khan
White Light Festival
Rose Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 31, 2018 

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2018 by Gay Morris

Akram Khan has long been one of the UK’s most inventive dance artists. He is known for imaginatively combining classical Indian Kathak dance with contemporary western forms, and for his collaborative productions with important artists from varied genres. “Xenos,” presented as part of Lincoln Center’s White Light Festival, has to do with Indian soldiers who fought for Britain in World War I. As such, this hour-long solo may be one of Khan’s greatest challenges.

Akram Khan removing the strings of bells worn by Kathak dancers in his solo,  "Xenos." Photo: Jean Louis Fernandez.

A Peek Into the Dark

“Silhouettes”
Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
National Portrait Gallery
Washington, DC
October 30, 2018

by Arielle Ostry
copyright © 2018 by Arielle Ostry

Before photography was invented in 1839, silhouettes were pretty trendy. These simple, economical cut-outs of a person’s profile were easily available, so even people belonging to marginalized minority groups were able to get silhouettes made. As a result, those who study these underrated slivers of history are able to recognize America’s diversity. The concept of silhouette features the distinct difference between light and dark, and the National Portrait Gallery’s (NPG) new exhibit, “Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now,” is based on this simplistic art form, exploring the past versus present usage. All the while, Dana Tai Soon Burgess’s latest work, inspired by the “Black Out” exhibit, investigates the multiple abstract contrasts — good and evil, love and greed, remorse and empathy — occupying a person’s subconscious mind. The topic of silhouette provided a vast opportunity for subjective imagery and symbolism, and Burgess and his company capitalized on this chance to present an elaborate, revealing show.

Photo: from left to right, Joan Ayap and Christin Arthur in "Silhouettes." Photo by Matailong Du.

Balanchine's School, His Style, and His Aesthetic

“But First A School: The Making of a Balanchine Dancer” 
Studio 5 
New York City Center
New York, New York
Oct. 29, 2018

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2018 by Gay Morris

New York City Ballet’s first home was New York City Center, and as part of the Center’s seventy-fifth anniversary, it is featuring a George Balanchine celebration, which is going on this week in the main auditorium. Meanwhile, upstairs in Studio 5, a less formal celebration took place on Monday evening. It was a demonstration of how Balanchine sought to develop dancers, and how what has become known as the Balanchine style is instilled in dancers today.

Alternate Casts at ABT

"Symphonie Concertante", "Garden Blue", "Fancy Free" 
American Ballet Theatre 
David H. Koch Theater
New York, NY 
October 20, 2018 matinee

by Carol Pardo 
copyright © 2018 by Carol Pardo

At American Ballet Theatre, the dancing did the talking in a program that included a revival of Balanchine's "Symphonie Concertante" to Mozart, once considered lost; "Garden Blue" in which the production carried the day; and an unalloyed classic, Jerome Robbins' "Fancy Free" all with debuts in leading roles.

Passing it On

The Balanchine Woman
Studio 5
New York City Center
New York, New York
October 25, 2018

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2018 by Mary Cargill

The New York City Center is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and to salute the Center's crucial role in the development of the New York City Ballet has arranged an impressive array of Balanchine ballets to be performed by several companies, a glorious mini-festival celebrating the choreographer.  The intimate, innovative Studio 5 series started the party with a presentation by the former NYCB dancer Heather Watts on "The Balanchine Woman".  Since his hundreds of ballets have varied and fascinating roles for women, there was a myriad of choices and it turned out that the ballets discussed had only a glancing relationship to those listed in the program.  Thus the evening had a wonderfully impromptu feel, as if the audience were sitting in the large living room of a spontaneous, gracious, and generous hostess.

Photo of George Balanchine from the New York City Center website

A Mermaid from Korea

Song of the Mermaid
K'Arts Dance Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 20, 2018 evening

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2018 by Carol Pardo 

 
"Song of the Mermaid", choreo- graphed by Sunhee Kim, has as its source Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid". The Mermaid, the youngest of six daughters of the King of the Sea, falls in love with the prince she has saved from drowning. To act on her love, she seeks help from a Blanket Octopus who covets her father's throne. Her wish is granted. In exchange for her voice (here the ability to play a coral pan pipe) she will grow legs making her look human. The bargain is struck with the understanding that failing to win the prince's love will be fatal.The Mermaid cannot know that her nemesis has stacked the deck. Just as her dream is about to come true, the Blanket Octopus marries her prince off to a princess from a neighboring land. Her sacrifice was for naught.

K'Arts Dance Company in "Song of the Mermaids

Watermill

“Watermill”
BAM Fisher
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, New York
October 24, 2018 

by Gay Morris
copyright© 2018 by Gay Morris

Jerome Robbins created “Watermill” for New York City Ballet in 1972. It was staged for what was then known as the State Theater, now the David H. Koch Theater, a proscenium theater of opera house proportions. Choreographer Luca Veggetti has re-imagined the work for the intimate BAM Fisher, and the ballet benefits greatly from it.

Joaquin De Luz as the central character in Jerome Robbins' Watermill," surrounded by bobbing lights on flexible poles manipulated by other dancers. Photo: Rebecca Greenfield.

Dig Dance

“Viva Vivaldi (excerpts),” “Aureole,” “Gamelan (excerpts),” “Party Mix”
Dig Dance, Taylor, Joffrey, Arpino: Deliciously Alternative Classics
New York Dance Project, Taylor 2 
92nd St Y
New York, NY 
October 19, 2018

by Carol Pardo
copyright © 2018 by Carol Pardo

When it comes to dance, particularly 20th century theatrical dance with a classical or neoclassical bent, words can be, if not dangerous, certainly misleading, paving stones on the road to disappointment. This has little to do with the quality of the dancers or dancing but rather with expectations raised and unmet.

Sloan Pearson, Irving Amigon, Amanda Stevenson and Rei Akazawa of Taylor 2 in Paul Taylor's "Aureole". Photo © copyright Liz Schneider-Cohen.

An Extraordinary Ordinary

“Körper”
Sasha Waltz & Guests
Zellerbach Hall, Cal Performances
Berkeley, CA
Oct, 20, 2018

by Rita Felciano
copyright © Rita Felciano 2018

If the body is both the object and the subject of Dance, you can stop worrying about Sasha Waltz’s “Körper” being dance or not, because it is. Waltz made her reputation for making work about the ordinary, the everyday, and she makes us look at it through a prism that enlightens and entertains simultaneously. The human body is about as basic an object to become the subject of inquiry for a choreographer. In ninety minutes Waltz examines, dissects, muses on and questions the human body through the human body, and they way it has established itself in our consciousness. A brilliant set of moving images shifted our awareness, reconsidered common knowledge, questioned our perceptions, our memory and treatment of this most quotidian and yet most personal part of our lives. “Körper” started out as an anatomy lesson but became a meditation on what being human can and sometimes does entail.

Sasha Waltz & Guests in “Körper” Photo: Bernd Uhly