Merce Cunningham at his Westbeth studio in 1972. Photo: James Klosty James Klosty’s Merce Cunningham Redux is a big book in several ways (try lugging it to a sunny spot; it weighs about six pounds). Published late in 2019 by Brooklyn’s powerHouse Books and selling for $75, it first came into the world as Merce Cunningham in 1975 (Saturday Review Press) and reappeared in paperback with a new … [Read more...]
Merce in Three Dimensions
The cover image announcing the new film by Alla Kovgan Merce Cunningham (1919-2009) didn’t want to tell spectators how to look at his dances or how to interpret them. To him, the stage space was an open field, often busy with activity; we could look at whatever drew our gaze. His dances didn’t “go” with the music the way those of other choreographers did. Whether the scores that accompanied … [Read more...]
In Memoriam: Tobi Tobias (1938-2020)
Tobi Tobias passed away on February 13th after a long illness. She leaves her husband Irwin, her children, John and Anne, and four grandchildren. Those are bleak words, unlike any that usually come to mind when I think of Tobi and the wonderful, illuminating dance criticism she wrote for decades. I’ve just been re-reading with delight some of the pieces she posted on her artsjournal.com blog … [Read more...]
From Belgium to New York
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind. Cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras and (L to R) Michaël Pomero, Bošjan Antončič, and Julien Monty. Photo: Anne Van Aerschot When I think about the works by the brilliant Belgium-based choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker that I’ve seen over the years, I realize how the different New York spaces in which they were performed affected not just … [Read more...]
Dancing with J.S. Bach
Pam Tanowitz + Simone Dinnerstein New Work for Goldberg Variations. L to R: Christine Flores, Netta Yerushalmy, Simone Dinnerstein, Jason Collins, and Maile Okamura. Photo: Erin Baiano Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlink, so the story goes, had trouble sleeping at night in 18th-century Leipzig. So the amiable Johann Sebastian Bach composed thirty variations for harpsichord that his … [Read more...]
Once Upon a Time There Was Romance
American Ballet Theatre dancers in James Whiteside’s New American Romance. Photo: Erin Baiano, courtesy Vail Dance Festival Do you ever wonder how choreographers choose their titles? After seeing James Whiteside’s New American Romance on the last day of American Ballet Theatre’s fall season at the former New York State Theater, I spent some time pondering that. The five women in its cast … [Read more...]
Noh Transformations
Karole Armitage's You Took A Part of me. Sierra French (L) and Megumi Eda. Photo: Julie Lemberger Anyone who has seen a Japanese Noh play will not forget it easily. The poetic speech, the masked characters and their slow, ceremonious behavior, the tiny details that expose a world. Karole Armitage has studied and thought about the form for many years, perhaps while performing in Merce … [Read more...]
Fashion and Dance Get Married
The New York City Ballet's Fall Gala Lauren Lovette's The Shaded Line. New York City Ballet's Georgina Pazcoguin flanked by from left, Davide Riccardo, Mary Thomas MacKinnon, Gilbert Bolden, Unity Phelan and Jonathan Fahoury. Credit Photo: Erin Baiano You can discover online a photo of Sarah Jessica Parker, swirling the yards of fuschia material in which designer Zac Posen had garbed her for … [Read more...]
Martha Over the Years
Martha Graham's Appalachian Spring. One of the Jacob's Pillow casts (L to R): Leslie Andrea Williams, Anne Souder, So Young An, Laurel Dalley Smith, Marzia Memoli, Jacob Larsen, and Charlotte Landreau. Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefeld When Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, stepped through Jacob’s Pillow’s front curtain to introduce the group’s performance, she … [Read more...]
A Ballerina Adventures in Postmodern Worlds
Sarah Mearns in Martha Graham's Ekstasis. Photo: Grace Kathryn Landefeld It wouldn’t be entirely fair to call Sara Mearns a force of nature, given her discipline, her skills as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, and her interest in exploring new possibilities. However having seen her perform August 14-18 in Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theater, I’m strenuously tempted. The … [Read more...]