Twyla Tharp Dance / Joyce Theater, NYC / July 28 - August 9, 2003 Forever reinventing her career in choreography, Twyla Tharp just offered New York a throwback to her past.Filling in at the Joyce Theater for the canceled season of Ballet Tech, her chamber-size dance group presented repertory items that ranged from three decades back to 2001—with entirely new personnel.The old hands are ferociously and stunningly at work in “Movin’ Out,” the all-dancing, no dialogue show to Billy Joel songs with which Tharp has attempted to … [Read more...]
JUST ASKING: ANSWERS
July 28, 2003 by
SEEING THINGS invited dancers and dance aficionados (as well as mere pedestrians) to respond to this question: Some would say that dancing is the cruelest profession, all but guaranteeing grueling work, physical pain, poverty, and heartbreak. Yet the field has always been rich in aspirants willing to dedicate their lives to the art. Why? MINDY ALOFF writes: People dance because it makes them feel whole. It's a heightened way to love life with everything one is. Frequently, when one is young, the systematic study of dancing supplies an … [Read more...]
Walkaround Time: Basic Steps In Mark Morris’s “L’Allegro”
July 23, 2003 by
Walking lies at the heart of dancing. One step after another, the steps identical and uninflected, moving the body across the surface it stands on, through the space it dwells in--this fundamental material need only be given rhythm and pattern to become a dance that vies with the most intricate and elaborate choreography. Given a meaningful context as well, it can stir a viewer profoundly. Dance Insider, Vignettes 08/23/02 … [Read more...]
JUST ASKING
July 18, 2003 by
Some would say that dancing is the cruelest profession, all but guaranteeing grueling work, physical pain, poverty, and heartbreak. Yet the field has always been rich in aspirants willing to dedicate their lives to the art. Why? Dancers and dance aficionados (as well as mere pedestrians) are invited to respond. If we gather enough eloquence, we will post it here. E-mail to ttobias@artsjournal.com. … [Read more...]
Crowning Glory: Hair & Hats Centerstage
July 16, 2003 by
Feminist doctrine, eager to dissuade us from giving over much attention to millinery and hairdos, cautions that what goes on inside a woman's head is far more significant than what's on it. A pair of feisty, engaging productions recently playing New York -- Jawole Willa Jo Zollar's "HairStories" and Regina Taylor's "Crowns," with choreography by Ronald K. Brown -- insist that the issue isn't so simple. Both works, generated by black artists, show that matters like hats and hair are far from being trivial or frivolous but, rather, harbor deep … [Read more...]
GOING FOR BROKE
July 14, 2003 by
Dance Theatre of Harlem / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / July 8-13, 2003 Ballet companies operate on the verge of insolvency. That’s a given. They depend on government support (generous abroad, but traditionally meager here in the States) and private generosity—from corporations and well-heeled, arts-minded individuals. They also depend on box office receipts, though to a lesser degree, because you could regularly sell out at a mega-venue like the New York State Theater (capacity 2700) or the Metropolitan Opera House … [Read more...]
Nancy “Bannon: “It’s a Cruel, Cruel Summer”; Henning Rübsam’s Sensedance
July 9, 2003 by
Nightswimming casts Limón veteran Nina Watt as-of all things-a tree viciously cut down. [The] exquisitely calibrated choreography details the disruption of the thrumming systems that constitute botanical life, while Watt embodies a mute consciousness of the fatal attack-a kind of biological shock and grief-that offered profound ramifications. (Bannon) [The] ambitious new Garden . . . set to traditional Iraqi music . . . does a good job of suggesting an intricate cultural community inhabited by tillers of the soil and odalisques, fiery demons … [Read more...]
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