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One Good Thing About Arizona. . .

February 29, 2012 by 3 Comments
The women of Ballet Arizona in Ib Andersen's Play. Photo Kyle Froman

Ib Andersen didn’t move to Phoenix in 2000 to become artistic director of the Arizona Ballet. According to a recent interview, when he took on the job he was already in Arizona—loving the clear light, open sky, and sere landscape, and painting in his spare time. He may not have much spare time these days. During his tenure, the company debt has been erased, the board has labored to raise money, and the number of donors has grown, along with the company’s repertory and the level of its dancing. In August Ballet Arizona and its school will … [Read more...]

02/29/12 11:02 AM | filed under: ballet |

To Dance in the Sky

February 22, 2012 by 2 Comments
Pat Catterson's To Lie in the Sky, Jesse Dunham (foreground,Timothy Emmett Ward (leaping). Photo: Steven Schreiber

At the very end of Pat Catterson’s gentle, beautifully crafted new dance, To Lie in the Sky, a voice recites the plangent opening lines of May Swenson’s “The Question”— “Body my house/ my horse my hound/ what will I do when you are fallen.” Catterson took her title from that poem’s penultimate query: “How will it be/ to lie in the sky/ without roof or door/ and wind for an eye.” These are not thoughts a young person might be drawn to. Catterson—whose piece was shown at La Guardia High School’s Little Flower Theater, … [Read more...]

02/22/12 12:45 PM | filed under: Postmodern New York |

Take Them Disappearing

February 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Amanda Loulaki laboring in her Untitled. Photo: Paula Court

What are we seeing? We’re seeing a woman kneel beside a large potted tree, and root around in its soil; she is nicely dressed in black pants, a ruched white top held up by tiny black straps, and high-heeled, little brown boots. That was an easy question. But, wait. How are we seeing it and through how many possible layers of meaning? (Is she cultivating the soil a bit, hunting for something—maybe a lost ring, or a memory?) How will this relate to other actions she may perform? Or consider this. A man, clearly the choreographer, tells a … [Read more...]

02/15/12 8:24 AM | filed under: Postmodern New York |

Traveling The Upward Path

February 12, 2012 by 2 Comments
The cast of Akram Khan's Vertical Road. Photo: Laurent Ziegler

The sound of distant dripping fills the darkness. Lights gradually, dimly, reveal a barely discernible standing figure. Suddenly the person plunges forward against what turns out to be a translucent curtain that stretches from one side of the stage to the other. Whenever his hands or his scribbling finger or his head presses against the flexible membrane separating him from us, that part comes instantly into sharp focus, while the rest of him remains blurry. His last thrust brings blackness again, and the sound of wind. This is the stunning … [Read more...]

02/12/12 5:01 PM | filed under: New Dance from Abroad |

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