All-Male Hula for $10, Tap Kick Off N.Y. Dance Season: Preview

This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on September 16, 2008.

Two San Francisco Ballet dancers perform during a routine. Photographer: Erik Tomasson/New York City Center via Bloomberg News

Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Ten dollars for any seat in the house at New York City Center? That admission fee to the Fall for Dance Festival, Sept. 17 to 27, may be the biggest bargain of the dance season about to launch. Now in its fifth year, the series operates on the something-for-everyone principle. Each of its 10 performances offers a look at four or five different dance styles from ballet to modern, from America's tap to India's Odissi to Hawaii's hula (with an all-male company). Veteran dance fans as well as newbies flock to the shows.

Plain old classical ballet -- ominously pronounced as ``over'' by advocates of the new and edgy -- still has its ardent fans, if largely among the older and more traditionalist audience.

American Ballet Theatre holds forth at City Center Oct. 21 to Nov. 2, its engagement highlighted by an Oct. 31 tribute to Antony Tudor, who was the all-time master at turning feeling into flesh. The company's roster of male stars continues to astonish.

The New York City Ballet opens with a gala repertory evening Nov. 28, then segues into the economically essential five weeks of ``The Nutcracker,'' which George Balanchine thankfully infused with poetry and food for thought. Does one dare go without a child? Yes, and the experience may be enlightening.

Christopher Wheeldon, until recently the City Ballet's resident choreographer, is first among the dance-makers determined to update classical ballet rather than abandon it. He has recently branched out with his own group, Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company -- an ambitious name for a newcomer still in the pickup stage -- which will play at City Center Oct. 1 to 5.

Real People

America's oldest professional classical company, the San Francisco Ballet, has become a national and international contender under artistic director Helgi Tomasson. The troupe will be at City Center Oct. 10 to 18, with no fewer than three different repertory programs. The choreographers range from Balanchine, with whom Tomasson danced so unforgettably, through Tomasson himself to Mark Morris, who makes dancers look like real people, and the take-no-prisoners Jorma Elo.

Among the talents representing the 20th-century evolution of modern dance will be Lar Lubovitch, who is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his troupe, and the inimitable Garth Fagan (``The Lion King''). They couldn't be more different. Lubovitch is a purist with a romantic heart. Early works of his, set to scores by Steve Reich and Philip Glass, will be shown at Dance Theater Workshop, Oct. 30 to Oct. 4; a program emphasizing later creations, at City Center Nov. 5 to 9.

Contrasting Genres

Fagan, at the Joyce Theater Nov. 3 to 9, is an earthier artist, whose semi-balletic concert-dance impulses are infused with contrasting genres, like jazz and Afro-Caribbean. The long, lean and gorgeous Norwood Pennewell is Fagan's perennial muse, and the other dancers, animating role after role, seem to embody a fantasy family that exists in the mind's eye of the choreographer.

Post-modern work (by the anti-Establishment folks from Merce Cunningham onward) will abound, in wildly different guises. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker favors the intellectual and minimalist, but she can make endless repetition with only the smallest variations as exciting as a brisk fall wind sweeping through town. Her program of works to Reich music is at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's (BAM) Howard Gilman Opera House Oct. 22 to 25.

Mixed Media

Eiko & Koma, at the Joyce Oct. 27 to Nov. 2, create eerie, slow-motion pieces that, like Butoh, are haunting reminders of death. Their latest effort, the evening-length ``Hunger,'' commissioned by the Joyce to celebrate its own 25th year, involves a pair of Cambodian painters in their hypnotic proceedings.

These days the ever more popular Bill T. Jones expresses his rage at injustice not only in words and movement, but also with a whole visual and musical cacophony. This mixed media for the new age should be evident in ``A Quarreling Pair'' at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Sept. 30 to Oct. 4.

Be there.

New York City Center is 131 W. 55th St. Information: +1-212-581-1212; http://www.nycitycenter.org.

Dance Theater Workshop is at 219 W. 19th St. Information: +1-212-924-0077; http://www.dancetheaterworkshop.org.

The Joyce Theater is at 175 Eighth Ave. Information: +1-212-691-9740; http://www.joyce.org.

BAM's Howard Gilman Opera House is at 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn. Information: +1-718-634-4100; http://www.bam.org.

© 2008 Bloomberg L.P. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.