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All’s Well That Ends…

San Francisco Ballet
“Nutcracker” 
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House
San Francisco, CA
December 22, 2021

By Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano, 2021

Even if you are not that interested in Ballet, chances are you have seen “Nutcracker” at least once as a child, during an elementary school class visit, or even on a date, I have been told that those are popular as safe and pleasant. But then are those of us who go year for year, sometimes wondering whether it  is really worthwhile one more time. Usually, I  succumb because there is always something fresh to discover if only a surprising casting. Though partially driven by professional responsibility, I have yet to regret this yearly ritual.

At Long Last

"Serenade", "Angels' Atlas"
The National Ballet of Canada
Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts
Toronto, Canada
November 11, 2021

by Denise Sum
copyright © 2021 by Denise Sum

Having endured one of the longest lockdowns in the world, the pent up desire for connection and live performance in Toronto has been palpable. The National Ballet of Canada’s triumphant return to the stage after 20 months was cause for joyous celebration, an opening night like no other. The evening consisted of two great ensemble pieces: George Balanchine’s “Serenade” and Crystal Pite’s “Angels’ Atlas”. In lieu of an intermission, a 10 minute video interlude allowed the dancers just enough time for a quick change. The video was filmed during the pandemic for the NBoC’s virtual 2020-2021 season, featuring “Soul” by Toronto-based indigenous choreographer, Jera Wolfe. 

Kingly Dancers At Work

Alonzo King Lines Ballet
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
November 6, 2021
San Francisco, CA

By Rita Felciano
Copyright © Rita Felciano 2021

         It is rare to get a standing ovation half-way through an evening’s program. But the Alonzo King Lines Ballet dancers had it more than had earned with outstanding performances of excerpts of four King choreographies, the oldest going back to 2007.  The company had been on the road and, after two performances only, was about to take off again for a tour of Europe. The audience acknowledged Lines’ artistry with a rousing “welcome back.” King had lovingly entitled the selections Four Heart Testaments. The audience acknowledged Lines’ artistry with a rousing “welcome back.”

Womanspreading: Re-defining Butoh

 "Eternity 123"
Vangeline 
Triskelion Arts, Brooklyn 
October 30, 2021

--   By Tom Phillips 
Copyright 20231 by Tom Phillips

Butoh queen Vangeline describes her solo "Eternity 123" as a "symbolic journey of women's liberation across time."  I tossed the program note aside and watched the show with an open mind, with which the artist proceeded to play. 

Photo by Bryan Kwon

What Was, What Could Have Been

“Fandango,” “Bloom,” “Where We Dwell”
Roman Mejia, Tiler Peck and Herman Cornejo, Ayodele Casel
Fall For Dance – Program 5
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 23, 2021

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2021 by Marianne Adams

The last program of this year’s Fall For Dance Festival looked back in looking ahead. Alexei Ratmansky’s 2010 work “Fandango” was presented in a restaging on a male dancer form, Justin Peck’s new work “Bloom” drew heavily on George Balanchine’s iconic “Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux,” and the world premiere of Ayodele Casel’s tap extravaganza “Where We Dwell” looked to historically American themes in dance and music, adjusting them for the times.

Photo of Tiler Peck and Herman Cornejo in “Bloom.” Photo © Stephanie Berger.

Dance, (Un)interrupted

“Mapping Out A Sky,” “38109,” “Each In His Own Time,” “Meet Ella”
BalletX, Lil Buck, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, Caleb Teicher & Company
New York City Center
New York, NY
October 22, 2021

by Marianne Adams
copyright © 2021 by Marianne Adams

The Fall For Dance Festival never really left, considering the two programs it offered in a digital streaming format last year, but still its return to a live audience felt like a homecoming.  A bonus on the second night of Program 4 was the unscheduled appearance by Caleb Teicher and his dancers, rounding out the programming to the traditional four work count that each festival night usually offers. (This year the billing was tweaked to only include three works, and no intermissions.)

Photo of Adrian Danchig-Waring and Joseph Gordon in “Each In His Own Time." Photo © Stephanie Berger.  

An Occasion

AN OCCASION

Opening of the 2021/2022 Season

The Washington Ballet

National Building Museum

Washington, DC 

October 21, 2021

 

reviewed by George Jackson

copyright 2021 by George Jackson

 

This opening program was not what the publicity had led people to expect. It was an evening of divertissements, some classic, some new and others somewhat familiar. "Flames of Paris". a 1932 extravaganza by Vassily Vainonen from Soviet Russia that promulgates revolution but not necessarily democracy, wasn't attempted in its entirety. Only the well known, acrobatic, neoclassical  pas de deux was shown. There were standard duos "after " Marius Petipa such as "Diana and Acteon" and "Don Quixote". Brand new was DC choreographer Andile Ndlovu's "B1"  to Ape Chimba music. The ballroom balletics of Twyla Tharp's "Sinatra Suite" were passionately presented by long time favorites Sona Kharatian and Tamas Kizsa, New as well as familiar performers appeared in the first item, Jessica Lang's "Reverence" octet to Schumann music. Silas Farley's "Lament" was to a Kyle Werner composition. 

“Deep Blue Sea”

“Deep Blue Sea”
Bill T. Jones
Drill Hall, Park Avenue Armory New York, New York
October 3, 2021

By Gay Morris
Copyright 2021 by Gay Morris

When, on Sunday, the audience entered the Park Avenue Armory to see Bill T. Jones’ latest work, “Deep Blue Sea,” Jones was already there. He slowly moved through various patterns, as people flowed past him. Then he shifted to another part of the enormous space of the Drill Hall to go through more patterns, actions which he continued to execute in different parts of the space as the lights went down. Jones is nearing seventy, but he still moves with cat-like grace, and as “Deep Blue Sea” testified, he has lost none of the forceful energy for calling out racism that he exhibited in his early dances more than forty years ago.

Massive and Weighty

Book: "No Fixed Points. Dance in the 20th Century."

by Nancy Reynolds and Malcolm McCormick 

Yale University Press, 2003 and recently reprinted

 

reviewed by George Jackson

copyright 2021 by George Jackson

 

This book hits readers like a space rock, all 907 pages of it. Its authors, Nancy Reynolds and the late Malcolm McCormack (1927 - 2018) were dancers and have proven themselves to be scholars. My only real objection to the current edition is the difficulty of holding such a thick book in one's hands or even resting it in one's lap. It should have been issued in two or even three volumes. 

 

The authors start the story of 20th Century performance dance by focusing on what was new in 1900, what was causing history's pages to turn. They argue that it was principally body movement as presented by American women - Loie Fuller, Isadora Duncn, Ruth St. Denis, Maud Allan. Their best audiences, though, were European. Other historians you may read ascribe the invention of modern dance to a Frenchman, the  singer and actor Francois Delsarte (1811 - 1871) and his American disciples, Steele McKaye and Genevieve Stebbins. Still others nominate Britain's Emma, Lady Hamilton and her embodyments of human figures, way back around 1787. 

Two Premieres at New York City Ballet

“Sky to Hold,” “Suspended Animation,” “Western Symphony”
David Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
October 2, 2021

by Gay Morris
copyright 2021 by Gay Morris

Last week, New York City Ballet premiered two works that pointed toward an expanding
reach into the twenty-first century. It is a healthy sign in a company that often seems to
have settled into a narrow repertory that looks to the past in works dominated by Robbins and Balanchine, and choreographers influenced by Balanchine or the Russian school.

Both “Sky to Hold,” choreographed by Andrea Miller, and “Suspended Animation,” by Sidra Bell, challenged what some undoubtedly consider the company’s duty to the old guard. For this, one can only thank directors Jonathan Stafford and Wendy Whelan. Whelan in particular was adventuresome in pursuing new dance avenues after leaving City Ballet as a principal in 2014. With her return as associate artistic director in 2019, the repertory is being shaken up a bit. This is not to say a revolution has occurred. It is hardly that, but new directions are being explored, and they are welcome.

 

Domestic vs, Foreign?

Domestic vs, Foreign?

Book: "Todd Bolender, Janet Reed, and the Making of American Ballet"

by Martha Ullman West

University Press of Florida, 2021

388 pages with black/white photos

 

by George Jackson

copyright ©2021 by  George Jackson

The noisiest individual about nationality in dance in the America of the 20th Century was Lincoln Kirstein - sponsor, writer, would-be patriot. Never mind that the choreographer he admired the most, George Balanchine, was from Russia by way of Serge Diaghilev's international Ballets Russes. Kirstein advocated against what he considred the "superficial" Americanism of choreographers such as Leonide Massine in ballets like "Union Pacific". In contrast, to represent the beginnings of American ballet, the two individuals our author West has chosen are neither the most likely nor the least likely. Todd Bolender (1914 - 2006) began as a modern dancer. Janet Reed (1916 - 2000) was often classified as a balletic soubrette. Bolender and Reed did not even meet until the fall of 1939. Mrs. West might instead have picked the dramatic Nora Kaye or one of the explorative Littlefield sisters and a Christensen brother or Eugene Loring to represent America ballet. But she is unwavering that Bolender and Reed serve history best. These two met again in the 1940s, and became occasional dance partners but lifelong friends. Bolender was a prolific choreographer in the USA, Germany and Turkey. Reed was a prominent dancer with such major companies as (American) Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet. The book by Mrs. West details the course of their careers and the growth of American ballet. 

Resurrection Time

Denishawn
Dances by Ruth St. Denis & Ted Shawn 
The Theatre at St. Jean's, New York  
October 2, 2021

-- By Tom Phillips 
Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips 

Ted Shawn and Ruth St. Denis are known as the "mother and father of American Modern Dance,"  but the works they choreographed and performed have been lost for years.  All that remained were dusty photographs and flickering, black-and-white films.  It was a case study in the ephemeral nature of dance--- until it all began again. 

New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center

“Amaria,” “Opus 19/The Dreamer,” “Russian Seasons”
David Koch Theater, Lincoln Center
New York, New York
September 25, 2021

by Gay Morris
copyright © 2021 by Gay Morris

New York City Ballet is at last back at Lincoln Center, and a cause for celebration it is, after eighteen months of virus induced absence. The fall season, which began September 21, continues through October 17. Yet, it seems no gain can come without loss these days, and so we learn that by the end of May six senior principal dancers will have left the company. Among them is ballerina Maria Kowroski, who will retire in October after twenty-six years with the company. On Saturday evening she was featured in the premiere of a pas de deux by Mauro Bigonzetti entitled “Amaria,” dedicated to her in both title and dance. Her partner was Amar Ramasar, another of the principals who will leave in the coming year. The costumes, also by Bigonzetti, consisted of a dress for Kowroski in a rich green, and subdued grey t-shirt and pants for Ramasar, as if to stress the fact that this dance was hers.

Edge of the Universe

Kyle Marshall Choreography
"Stellar" 
Baryshnikov Arts Center, New York
June 7-21, 2021 (online) 

-- By Tom Phillips
Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips  

Which comes first, music or dance?  In Kyle Marshall's choreography, it's neither.  Music and dance are two sides of one art form, improvising against each other.  Friction, ignition, liftoff, jazz.  Marshall's new  "Stellar" knits together city streets with the loneliness of deep space, and grounds them in the earth of Mother Africa.  All in little more than twenty minutes.  

Pleasure and the Pandemic: LaMama Moves! Outdoors

Shared Program: LaMama Moves! Dance Festival 2021
Jasmine Hearn/ Songs from Pleasure Memory
Sugar Vendil/ Test Sites
Outdoors at Downtown Art/Alpha Omega, New York City
May 23, 2021

-- By Tom Phillips 
Copyright 2021 by Tom Phillips 

Jasmine Hearn Photo by Steven Pisano

Sixty years after the Sixties, The East Village can still feel like the most sensuous part of New York.  Like their spiritual forebears, people in this low-rise, low-rent district live for pleasure – erotic, psychedelic and aesthetic.  So it felt right that a graffiti-scarred vacant lot on East 3^rd Street was the scene for a revival of live experimental theater in the dying days of the pandemic.