{"id":551,"date":"2008-07-13T22:28:50","date_gmt":"2008-07-14T05:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp\/2008\/07\/_i_know_foot_has\/"},"modified":"2008-07-13T22:28:50","modified_gmt":"2008-07-14T05:28:50","slug":"_i_know_foot_has","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/2008\/07\/_i_know_foot_has.html","title":{"rendered":"Jerome Robbins’ “Goldberg Variations,” back and front"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know, I know, Foot in Mouth has been experiencing a time warp lately. Here, for example, are some thoughts on a ballet I saw
\nmore than two weeks ago. <\/o:p><\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

In his “Goldberg Variations,” to the complete Bach score, Jerome
\nRobbins concludes most of his own variations with a flock of dancers rushing in from the wings as
\nthe dancers already there finish up. It’s a nice touch, a little joke about the dance’s tag-team
\nstructure, which works kind of like the camera in Richard Linklater’s “Slacker,” tracking one person (and story) around a corner only to take off after somebody else. Bach’s variations
\ndon’t point to a theme, as in the conventional theme-and-variations
\narrangement, so much as backwards and forwards to one another, and Robbins aims
\nto do the same. <\/font><\/p>\n

Depending on your point of view, <\/font>the result is ballet ad nauseum or ballet ad
\ninfinitum. Critics have been divided on this
\nquestion since the dance’s debut in 1971. Arlene Croce
\ndubbed the New York City Ballet work “ninety minutes of hard labor”; other critics, including me, have
\nexperienced it as waves on waves of delicious invention. When the performance
\nis good, each time the dancers arrive from the wings I am excited–and grateful–for more. Only the middle of “The Goldberg Variations” sags. <\/font><\/p>\n

But the piece’s power to sustain attention and delight
\ndepends on the dancers knowing how to fill the space–front and<\/i> back. In
\nrecognition of Bach’s architectural splendor, the choreographic configurations–circles
\ninside of circles, folk dance lines, zigzags, and many walking formations–count
\nfor at least as much as the individual steps. Negative space is especially
\ncharged. In one number, a group advances from the wing upstage while another
\nfaces them as they walk backwards into the opposite wing downstage. The dancers may move almost
\nas casually as people on the street, but the courtliness of the occasion is palpable:
\nthe regal advance, the gracious retreat, and the electricity of the space between.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"goldbergcrowd.jpg\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/font><\/p>\n

Except for the three romantic pas de deux in the dance’s second
\nhalf, the steps are plain throughout. But for plain not to devolve into meager or dull–for
\nthe movement to animate the space as Bach has animated
\ntime in linking past variation to future–the dancers need to
\nrelinquish the customary forward pitch of the body that Balanchinean speed demands and feel <\/i>their backs from
\ncrown to foot: the heel’s pressure against the floor, the flex of the haunches,
\nthe expansive shallow in the upper back, the tautness of the stalk of neck.
\n<\/font><\/p>\n

In one of the short archival videos introducing each Robbins
\nevening this season, we see the choreographer working with a young Damian Woetzel on
\nthe rumba solo in “Fancy Free.” At one point, the dancer goes from being curved
\nto the floor in profile to upright facing front. Woetzel makes
\nthat transition like the sun rising from the ocean. Robbins tells him to unfurl
\nthe spine like a fern. He wants the drama not along the horizon
\nbut up and down. He often wants that. <\/font><\/p>\n

If the “Goldberg” dancers imagined themselves floating belly
\nup in cool water on a hot day, the submerged skin taking on its own temperature and character, or riding a bike fast enough to feel the breeze blowing off their backs, they’d
\ndo better by this dance, which is only really alive when the back is. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

The New York City
\nBallet will perform “The Goldberg Variations” once more this year, on Tuesday
\nJuly 22 at the Saratoga Springs Performing Arts Center upstate. Longtime
\nVillage Voice critic Deborah Jowitt will present a pre-performance talk at 7
\npm. (Performance at 8 pm.) Visit the SPAC website<\/a>
\nfor more info.<\/font> <\/o:p><\/i><\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n

Photo by Paul Kolnik for the New York City Ballet. <\/font><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know, I know, Foot in Mouth has been experiencing a time warp lately. Here, for example, are some thoughts on a ballet I saw more than two weeks ago.   In his “Goldberg Variations,” to the complete Bach score, Jerome Robbins concludes most of his own variations with a flock of dancers rushing in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-551","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/foot\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}