American Ballet Theatre / Metropolitan Opera House, NYC / May 18-July 11, 2009 Nina Ananiashvili in Alexei Ratmansky's Waltz MasqueradePhoto: Rosalie O'Conner Always an exceedingly star-conscious company, American Ballet Theatre opened its annual spring season (May 18-July 11, at the Metropolitan Opera House) with a pair that would be hard to beat: Caroline Kennedy and America's new First Lady, Michelle Obama, two of the gala event's Honorary Chairmen. Both made carefully prepared, mercifully brief, but urgently timely speeches emphasizing … [Read more...]

Martha Graham Dance Company: Clytemnestra / Skirball Center, New York University, NYC / May 12, 15, and 16, 2009 Genius though she was--as a dancer, as a choreographer, and as the inventor of the only Western dance technique apart from classical ballet capable of training a dancer fully to professional capability--Martha Graham produced more than her share of weak, empty works, some of which even qualify as unintentional self-parody. There's no question, though, that a cluster of her finest efforts belongs to what is known as her "Greek … [Read more...]

Trisha Brown Dance Company / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, NYC / April 29 - May 2, 2009 Trisha Brown's L'Amour au théâtre Photo: Stephanie Berger Trisha Brown, recently back at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, offered a show that indicates how she's moved from her beginnings to today, in a career that spans five decades. One of the most wonderful aspects of her early work was its plainness. If the Shakers had had progeny, they might have been her ancestors. In the 1960s, Brown was a hero of postmodernism, as it came to be … [Read more...]