Foot in Mouth

This winter, a deadline forced me to miss Janie Taylor in Balanchine's "La Valse" at New York City Ballet. I felt even more gloom than usual at missing her--I try to catch everything she does--because the reviews confirmed, as Alastair Macaulay, chief dance critic at the New York Times, wrote, thatno other recent interpreter... is so right for the heroine as the febrile, driven Janie Taylor. The … [Read more...]

About a year ago, a rough draft of Julian Barnett's "Sound Memory" at the La Mama Festival jumpstarted all sorts of memories for me, and now it's back in full: at Danspace Project this Thursday through Sunday. The esteemed Eva Yaa Asantewaa, irregular Foot contributor, has a half-hour interview with Barnett here on her blog, Infinite Body. I love Eva's interview style--her engagement and clarity, … [Read more...]

My friend Paul Parish, irregular Foot contributor, writes from the Bay Area: The world sure is looking unfamiliar -- not unrecognizable, just distorted and actually "on-the-morph." San Francisco Ballet's "Swan Lake" did unbelievable box office. Two million dollars in sales, biggest box office ever for SFB. High ticket prices, of course. Standing room's gone up to 20 bucks, and standing room was … [Read more...]

Earlier this season, worrying over the first-time Balanchine audience drawn by the $25 orchestra seats at New York City Ballet, I warned against the Short Stories program. My thinking: though Balanchine's genius for unleashing the comedy in such recognizable genres as the tale of a toy animated by real feelings or the twisty gangster thriller runs through "The Steadfast Tin Soldier" and … [Read more...]

I was just going to write about the lost heads and clichéd eyes of our women ballet dancers when The New Yorker's Joan Acocella came out with a Critic's Notebook, "All Smiles," that begins, An epidemic of flirtiness has attacked our ballet companies. The dancers woo us, grin at us, give us saucy looks. "I'm going to do something special," they say. Then they do it. Then they cock an eye at us as … [Read more...]