Samuel Humphreys in "The Dream" from Rooms2020, a re-imagining of Anna Sokolow's Rooms. Photo: Sam Waxman People dancing in their rooms, their legs grazing furniture, their possessions on view for all to see. People dancing in meadows, in parks, on rooftops, through empty city streets, by the ocean. They are sometimes masked and almost always alone. Only longtime mates can sweat together. It’s … [Read more...]
In Memoriam: Sally Banes (1950-2020)
The dance historian and critic Sally Banes died on June 14th. The last time I saw her was several years ago in front of the Joyce Theater. She was in a wheelchair, smiling at me and speaking in a gentle voice, after her husband, philosopher Noël Carroll, had discreetly mentioned my name to her. I reminded her that the necklace I was wearing had been made by her mother; she told me politely … [Read more...]
Viewing from Home
Performing in tight spaces. Daimy McInroe in an image drawn from the Hartt School students' Hartt from Home Even during a pandemic, I doubt that a pianist would send out a video link that encouraged us to watch him/her practice at home while wearing, say, a bathrobe. Would a soprano work on perfecting an aria from a fire escape? (I could, of course, be wrong.) Recently dance companies of all … [Read more...]
Paul’s Worlds
Paul Taylor by Jack Mitchell. Courtesy of the Paul Taylor Dance Company In today’s virtual world, I’m tempted by dance every day. On a hilltop miles away from the city I love, I can take an online ballet class, see parts of the many performances that had to be canceled because of Covid-19, or watch videos streaming from a dance company’s vault. Some times I’d have to make an appointment; … [Read more...]
Merce Cunningham Redux
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...]