Paul Taylor Dance Company / City Center, NYC / February 22 – March 6, 2011 Year after year, Paul Taylor can be counted on to create a pair of new dances–one light (such as the luminous Aureole, from 1962) and one dark (like the 1985 Last Look, which portrays the human race at the horrifying […]
On the Steps: Personal Indulgences No. 20
FIRST MEMORY My first memory of steps dates back to my childhood–extreme infancy, to be exact. Science tells us we don’t remember the earliest part of life, and no one I know has ever claimed to. So what makes me think that I can remember–actually feel again–the slow bump, bump, bump as my beloved Aunt […]
Show Biz
New York City Ballet: Susan Stroman’s For the Love of Duke / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / January 28, 30M, February 3, 4, 5M, 6M, 2011 For reasons that still remain unfathomable to me, New York City Ballet commissioned yet another piece from Susan Stroman, the choreographer who has won every award […]
Custodial Care
New York City Ballet / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / January 22, 2011 Prayer: New York City Ballet principal dancer Wendy Whelan with SAB students in George Balanchine’s Mozartiana Photo: Paul Kolnik On January 22, the 107th anniversary of George Balanchine’s birth, the New York City Ballet marked the occasion with two […]
Looking Backward
Works & Process: Pacific Northwest Ballet: Giselle Revisited / Guggenheim Museum, NYC / January 9 (2 performances) & January 10, 2011 Works & Process, holding forth since 1974 at the Guggenheim Museum on New York’s Upper East Side, has been, at heart, a lecture-demonstration series–Show & Tell for adults attracted by the arts. The programs […]
Mining the Past
Trisha Brown Dance Company: Works by Brown from the early 1970s, presented in conjunction with the exhibition On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century / Museum of Modern Art, NYC / January 12, 15, & 16 (2 performances), 2011 Trisha Brown has been choreographing for half a century; from today’s vantage point her development can […]
Winter Solstice No. 4: “The Nutcracker” According to Ratmansky
American Ballet Theatre: The Nutcracker / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Lincoln Center, NYC / December 22, 2010 – January 2, 2011 A tree grows in Brooklyn–with a vengeance. At BAM’s Howard Gilman Opera House, American Ballet Theatre’s brand-new Nutcracker, by Alexei Ratmansky, followed on the heels of the Mark Morris Dance Group in The […]
Winter Solstice No. 3: “The Nutcracker” According to Morris
Mark Morris Dance Group: The Hard Nut / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn, NY / December 10-19, 2010 For all the rigorously classical attributes of his work, Mark Morris, celebrated for his choreographic chops, has a distinct renegade streak. The Hard Nut, his version of The Nutcracker ballet, gives his iconoclastic outlook every opportunity […]
Winter Solstice No. 2: “The Nutcracker” According to Balanchine
Even after my daughter, a School of American Ballet student, outgrew (literally–the costumes have to fit) a string of kiddie roles in Balanchine’s Nutcracker–Angel, Soldier, Polichinelle, Candy Cane–I still made many a trip to Lincoln Center for New York City Ballet’s annual offering of the holiday production. As a dance critic, I’ve found the ballet […]
They Lost It at the Movies
Black Swan / Opened December 3, 2010 Surely The Red Shoes, created by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is the most beloved ballet film of all time. My innocent eyes and heart were ravished by it shortly after its premiere in 1948. Shot in fabulous color–it glowed like a handful of precious jewels–the movie was […]