Montclair State University’s Peak Performances hosts Douglas Dunn’s Aubade, January 24-February 1. Between the last moments of Douglas Dunn’s new Aubade and the swell of applause, the woman sitting next to me in Montclair State University’s Alexander Kasser Theater turned and said, “It’s so sad!” And yes it was, and no it wasn’t. As Dunn remarked in an interview, an aubade is a song to the … [Read more...]
Jewels in the City’s Crown
The New York City Ballet performs Balanchine's Jewels. To see George Balanchine’s 1967 Jewels again at its first performance during the New York City Ballet’s winter season is to be delighted all over again. In choreographing its three separate but united ballets, Balanchine absorbed and brilliantly interpreted three diverse musical styles, the threads of narrative and atmosphere that clung … [Read more...]
Three by Three by Three
Eleanor Bauer brings her work from Brussels to Manhattan. Who are these three women? We potential audience members have been milling around in the Abrons Art Center lobby, chatting and wondering when the doors to the theater will open, and when they do, we enter a zone of empyrean mystery. The women in Eleanor Bauer’s Midday and Eternity (the time piece) sit in a row at the front of the … [Read more...]
Ending in Darkness
Compagnie Philippe Saire brings Black Out to LaMama Black Out, a creation by Philippe Saire, mates choreography with visual art in ways calculated to disturb us. He is frank about his mission, describing Black Out as “A work that contemplates the randomness of mortality in a world of genocide, disease, epidemics, and senseless violence.” In it, three collaborating members of Compagnie … [Read more...]
Three Choreographers Grace a Busy Week
Vicky Shick, Doug Elkins, and Joanna Kotze show work in an event-filled January week. Every January without fail, New York offers a smorgasbord of dance. The Association of Performing Arts Presenters (APAP) convenes in town, and the table is laid for it in every available performing space. The first two weeks of the month are also a time when dancers, choreographers, and dance enthusiasts … [Read more...]
Collapsing Three to Make a Fourth
Tere O'Connor's Bleed, premiering on BAM's Next Wave Festival, is built on the bones of three previous works. Writing about Tere O’Connor’s work is always a challenge (he himself does it very well). Watching his marvelous new Bleed in the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Fishman Space is akin to recalling a night of dreaming. In it, as in dreams, events pour into one another, places morph into … [Read more...]
Pina Bausch Returns to Juilliard
Juilliard students appear in premieres by Takehiro Ueyama, Brian Brooks, and Darrell Grand Moultrie, plus a reconstruction of a work by Pina Bausch. Every winter, the Juilliard School presents its dance students in four new works. All its dance students. Although—since some pieces are double cast—you might have to attend two performances to see every single talented dancer on stage. This … [Read more...]
Just What Are We Celebrating?
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater premieres Aszure Barton's Lift at City Center. Any choreographer invited to make a piece for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater must come to the first rehearsal with both elation and trepidation. The Ailey dancers are like racehorses—sleek, swift, eager, ablaze with temperament. What can you feed them? How do you groom them? Are you up to the … [Read more...]
Fire Burning at Both Ends
Donna Uchizono Company premieres Fire Underground at New York Live Arts. The title of Donna Uchizono’s harrowing new work is Fire Underground. The words evoke flames smoldering, unable to break through. Fire under the skin. Fire heating up the brain. Anger that has to be restrained. Uchizono makes no secret of the dance’s source. She spent twelve years adopting a child in Nepal and … [Read more...]
Dissecting Pop Culture
Susan Marshall & Company turn music videos inside out in Play/Pause Did it begin with the advent of the remote? Mute the commercial from the comfort of your easy chair. Push the buttons; surely there’s something on another channel that’s better than the something you’re watching. Fast forward through a video. Oops, did the cat knock something over? Press pause. Bored during intermission … [Read more...]