![\"Dorrance](\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/AJ-Dorrance-A.jpg\")
<\/a>Dorrance Dance in Michelle Dorrance’s Myelination<\/em>: (L to R): Leonardo Sandoval, Megan Bartula, Christopher Broughton, Michelle Dorrance, Elizabeth Burke, Claudia Rahardjanoto, Warren Craft. Photo: Julieta Cervantes<\/p><\/div>\n Every autumn, as the leaves change color and begin to consider falling, Fall for Dance defines the verb differently: New Yorkers and savvy visitors buy bargain-price tickets and fall in love with dance\u2014or at least with some of the twenty companies, small ensembles, pairs, and soloists who fill five mixed-bill programs at City Center.<\/p>\n This year, dance fans and newcomers could see something as lushly athletic as Paul Taylor\u2019s Brandenburgs<\/em> and as possibly unfamiliar as Nrityagram\u2019s performance in India\u2019s Odissi style. They could thrill to the unlikely pairings of American Ballet Theatre\u2019s Herman Cornejo and Fang-Yi Sheu, a former member of the Martha Graham Dance Company, in a duet by Sheu; or NYCB principal dancer Tiler Peck performing with Bill Irwin (both these venturesome duets co-commissioned by Fall for Dance and the Vail International Dance Festival). A new piece by Doug Elkins! Boston Ballet performing a Pas de Quatre by the almost forgotten 20th<\/sup>-century Russian choreographer Leonid Jacobson!<\/p>\n What has often struck me about this annual horn-of-plenty season is how adroitly the dances are chosen and programmed. The one evening I was able to attend offered the New York premiere of Nrityagram\u2019s Shivashtakam<\/em>, a performance of Hans van Manen\u2019s Solo <\/em>by three principals of the San Francisco Ballet, Stephen Petronio\u2019s Locomotor<\/em>, and the world premiere of Michelle Dorrance\u2019s Myelination. <\/em><\/p>\n Shivashtakam<\/em> (An Ode to Shiva): Bijayini Satpathy (standing) and Surupa Sen of Nritygram. Photo: Julieta Cervantes<\/p><\/div>\n Shivashtakam<\/em> was inspired by the 9th<\/sup>-century poet Adi Shankaracharya’s verses about the Hindu god Shiva as both creator and destroyer.\u00a0Since Odissi is traditionally a solo form, a single dancer usually embodies him in those aspects, as well as conveying the gods and demons in his orbit and the metaphors that liken him to other creatures and elements. She also portrays herself as a devotee. Nrityagram\u2019s artistic director, the superb dancer Bijayini Satpathy, begins by flashing for our edification the relevant gestures and facial expressions, while an unseen voice recounts the words.<\/p>\n But while the dancing that ensues is traditional (the deep kneebends, wide stances, sinuous arms, hands that flick out fleeting visions of serpents or unloosing an arrow from a bow, eyes that widen into ferocity or soften amorously), the women of Nrityagram present their own structural innovations. The musicians playing Pandit Raghunath Panigrahi\u2019s composition (for bamboo flute, drum, violin, harmonium, and vocals) usher in Surupa Sen, who is also the choreographer for Shivashtakam. <\/em>Sometimes she and Satpathy perform exacting rhythmic footwork in unison, but they also separate into counterpoint. Often, one waits in a pose while the other performs. Shiva\u2019s attributes and accomplishments remain paramount, but embodiment becomes wonderfully slippery and multi-faceted, as open to transformations as the Hindu gods and goddesses themselves.<\/p>\n Joseph Walsh of the San Francisco Ballet in Hans van Manen’s Solo<\/em>. Photo: Julieta Cervantes<\/p><\/div>\n Three sterling men of the San Francisco Ballet demonstrate another kind of transformation in van Manen\u2019s 1997 Solo. <\/em>It\u2019s inevitable that Hansuke Yamamoto, Joseph Walsh, and Gennadi Nedvigin would eventually begin to overlap their onstage activities and eventually perform in unison. However, the pleasure of the work is watching the men succeed one another in what is, for the most part, one long solo set to the “Courante” and “Double” from J.S. Bach\u2019s devilish Violin<\/em> Partita\u00a0<\/em> No. 1 in B Minor.<\/em> The choreography, tailored to three individuals, is as virtuosic as the music, but although it draws on ballet, it avoids rules and conventions (I only counted one pirouette that began with a planted preparation).<\/p>\n The men perform with a kind of ease, as if they\u2019d slipped under the skin of the movement. Aside from indulging in van Manen\u2019s occasional jokey moment, they approach the often inventive and very attractive choreography as if it were a pleasant, if demanding task that they\u2019ve embarked on. No big deal, they seem to be saying as they loft and twist fluidly into movements that could qualify as very big deals indeed.<\/p>\n Stephen Petronio’s Locomotor<\/em>: (L to R) Jaqlin Medlock, Gino Grenek, Joshua Tuason, and Emily Stone. Photo: Julieta Cervantes<\/p><\/div>\n Van Manen\u2019s trio could be seen as warming us up for Petronio\u2019s 2014 Locomotor<\/em>, which opens with an uncanny performance by special guest Melissa Toogood. This is a solo that deserves to be called a soliloquy. As is often the case in a piece by Petronio, the dancer\u2019s arms, legs, body, and head can appear to be at odds with one another, bent on pursuing separate, three-dimensional paths, but they do so with serene yet sensuous composure. I wrote in my program \u201crearranging their bodies.\u201d Toogood is as alert as an animal. Changes in an unseen wind affect her, or a sound she heard in the distance that has nothing to do with Clams Casino\u2019s ferocious score. The way she pauses or lets a movement dissolve or gathers herself for a new attack give her dancing the image of a life being lived that very instant.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve written about Locomotor<\/em> before (https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2015\/04\/running-backward-looking-ahead\/<\/a> and https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/dancebeat\/2014\/04\/family-ties\/<\/a>. But every time I see it, something different strikes me. This time, Cori Kresge heroically took over Davalois Fearon\u2019s role on relatively short notice, so that affected the mix of terrific dancers. And I thought more and more about the tracks these eight human locomotives trace on stage with their feet. They often enter the stage running\u2014even leaping\u2014 backward, and it\u2019s easy to wonder whether this is a rewinding of a former rush forward, or vice versa. Sometimes, several of them will loop around to exit just a little further upstage than they entered. Do they have an elusive destination or are the encounters just pit stops on a never-ending journey of which we\u2019re seeing only a part?<\/p>\n The encounters are varied. I watch Toodgood and Joshua Tuason circling each other, Gino Grenek coming upon Barrington Hines and moving him around, nuzzling him, then dropping to sit on the floor while Hines exits. Jaqlin Medlock, for a second, makes me think of a little dog. I track the comings and goings of Nicholas Sciscione, Emily Stone, and Cresge. I hope Toogood will return and she does. Amid speed and endurance, moments of calm and tenderness spring up like dandelions beside a railroad line.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a>