Foot in Mouth

Because I won't have much new to offer in the next few weeks. u A feature and exclusive interviews with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Wendy Whelan, and Damian Woetzel on Jerome Robbins (April). u Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Akram Khan's "Zero Degrees"--a powerfully helpless melancholy in the face of a senselessly violent world (April). u War dances and a new inertia (May). u Julian Barnett's "Sound … [Read more...]

As I seem to have fallen into the mode of recommending (I'll fall out as soon as I can), let me recommend to you Edward Villella's lovely, engrossing Miami City Ballet, in Manhattan for the first time after decades in the far reaches of Long Island and New Jersey. (The last time MCB was nearby, the dances' magic competed with canned banter on all sides of me, as if my neighbors had dragged … [Read more...]

So, I made it to the big-screen screening (where, from the fourth row, all the talking heads were enormous) at the Dance on Camera festival last night and can attest to the doc's excellence. I've read both authorized biographies--the first and more dance-specific by Deborah Jowitt, the second, more biographically oriented, by Amanda Vaill, both wonderful--and certainly understand that Jerome … [Read more...]

About two and a half years ago, we were wondering here on Foot why opera is more likely to generate a buzz than ballet, its dance equivalent. Inevitably we ended up talking about dance recordings and whether they could ever be as good as opera recordings, with some of us feeling they couldn't and others of us feeling they basically could and a third feeling that if they were to succeed, it would … [Read more...]

(Corrected version: I was looking at a foreshortened calendar when I wrote out my recommendations--what a dummy! [Or at least tired to the point of dumbness.] I've added to the second paragraph a few programs I missed the first time out. New part in bold.) Fifty of them for each performance, starting now and continuing through March 1. I can't tell you how rare orchestra seats at this price are. … [Read more...]