I think I first saw Ronald K. Brown’s Grace twenty years ago when it was brand new and performed by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company. Last week I saw it again, when it opened the 2019 SummerScape Festival at Bard College, this time performed by the choreographer’s own group: Ronald K. Brown/Evidence: A Dance Company. The work itself hasn’t changed much, but the context has. This year’s … [Read more...]
Dancing in the Green
It rained the day before the Jacob’s Pillow Gala. It rained the day after the Jacob’s Pillow Gala. Fortunately, the rain gods were too busy elsewhere to cause trouble in Becket, Massachusetts on Saturday the 15th of June at 5:00 P.M. Pink umbrellas hung on the chairs for the banquet in the gigantic tent, just in case, but the sunny landscape could rouse in your mind the refrain of Federico Garcia … [Read more...]
Tharp Times Three
American Ballet Theatre's Tharp Trio at Lincoln Center, May 30-June 3 Does anyone dare to call Giselle dated? I doubt it. It’s a centuries-old classic that’s had numerous facelifts. I don’t often wish myself back at its premiere in 1832. However, feeling a twinge of nostalgia for something in your own not-so-distant past can be enriching when contemplating it anew. I wrote my review of … [Read more...]
Together in a Shrinking Space
Lucy Guerin Inc performs Guerin's Split at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, October 13 through 15. Some European and American choreographers focus primarily on illuminating music, creating light-hearted romps, or re-envisioning beauty and nobility in tragedy (think Giselle, think Odette). However, impelled in part by Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and their contemporaries, others have probed … [Read more...]
De Keersmaeker and Bach Shake Hands
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's The Six Brandenburg Concertos at Park Avenue Armory, October 1 through 7. In 1721, Johann Sebastian Bach, then thirty-six years of age, sent the Margrave of Brandenburg some concertos that he had composed with the following message: “Your Highness deigned to honor me with the command to send Your Highness some pieces of my Composition: I have in accordance with … [Read more...]
Paul Taylor (1930-2018)
When Paul Taylor died of renal failure on Wednesday, August 29th, and I was coping with that news, I started to think not just of the 140 dances he made during his remarkable career, but of his connection to the great figures of 20th-century dance whose pantheon he joins. As a Juilliard student, he met many of them and appeared during the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in a piece … [Read more...]
Excavate, Reassemble, Create
Netta Yerushalmy premieres her Paramodernities at Jacob's Pillow What? My name listed in the Jacob’s Pillow program among the twenty-four people whom Netta Yerushalmy was gracious enough to thank for the “insights” they contributed to her Paramodernities? Quick search through my e-mail. Yes, in 2013, Yerushalmy (who had been a student in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when I was on its … [Read more...]
The Times Are Changing
Kyle Abraham's company, A.I.M., performs at the Joyce Theater. Kyle Abraham used to call his company Kyle Abraham/Abraham in Motion. Now it’s called A.I.M. Of course, if you want to visit the company’s website, you may find yourself at Associated International Management or Advanced Idea Mechanics, but I expect he knows that. The concise new name minimizes his position, as well as … [Read more...]
From Cuba with Fervor and Vigor
Some of us may remember Carlos Acosta, when he was appearing with England’s Royal Ballet or, more briefly, as a guest artist with American Ballet Theatre. Princely. Virtuosic. He performed with other major companies as well. But he returned to Cuba, the country where he was born and nurtured. There he established the Carlos Acosta International Dance Foundation and, in 2015, his own company, … [Read more...]
Breasting the Wave
The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company Celebrates its 50th Anniversary Season Once upon a time, most modern dance choreographers created companies named after them and starred in their own works. In 1958, Alvin Ailey was an exception. The José Limón Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company became repertory companies after the death of their founder. In recent years, Paul Taylor and later … [Read more...]