This article originally appeared in the Culture section of Bloomberg News on October 20, 2005. Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) — Jerome Robbins’s exquisite 10-minute duet “Afternoon of a Faun” and a revival of Agnes de Mille’s exuberant 1942 “Rodeo” opened American Ballet Theatre’s three-week season last night, offering an auspicious start to the company’s fall run […]
BOY MEETS GIRL MEETS FAUN
This article originally appeared in the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times on October 16, 2005. THE first vision to greet viewers at the Oct. 19 opening of American Ballet Theater’s three-week season at the City Center will be what the program calls ”a room with a mirror.” It is Jean Rosenthal’s […]
DANCING AS FAST, AND AS TIGHTLY, AS SHE CAN
This article originally appeared in the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times on July 31, 2005. Montclair, N.J. SUSAN MARSHALL is putting the finishing touches on her new work, five brief dances sheltering under the umbrella title “Cloudless,” to have its premiere this week at Jacob’s Pillow. At least the rehearsal schedule […]
BEGINNING & ENDING
This will be my last word in SEEING THINGS, at least for now. Two new ventures have opened up for me, and I can’t afford to turn them down. I’ve become the New York-based dance critic for Bloomberg News, and I’ve begun contributing regularly to the Arts & Leisure section of the New York Times. […]
Big Apple Circus
Two beautiful solo aerialists soar high overhead like fearless angels–a young woman on a flying trapeze, twisting her pulchritudinous body into amazing configurations, and a daring young man masquerading convincingly as Peter Pan. Village Voice 11/14/05
Cisne Negro Dance Company
Vasco Wellencamp’s Canticos Misticos (to blaringly miked excerpts from Handel’s Messiah) contains several semi-abstract images that go right to the heart of the matter, many a pretty moment that confuses sentiment with deep feeling, and an unfortunate desire to cater to the dancers’ inner athlete that just about defines the company’s aesthetic. Village Voice 11/29/05
ACFDance
While some of Adrienne Celeste Fadjo’s dancers outclassed their material, the overall impression was that of work not yet at a professional level. Village Voice 11/23/05
MOVING AROUND NEW YORK
The Martha Graham Dance Company will be at the Joyce Theater, NYC, September 11-23, with a repertory that includes works central to the Graham canon. To me, though, the 1981 “Acts of Light,” which opens with a stylized version of a class in the Graham technique, comes nowhere near the grit and ecstasy of the real thing, described in the “Class” section of my essay “Moving Around New York.”
Joyce S. Lim & Paz Tanjuaquio
Two New York choreographers whose work is profoundly connected to southeast and eastern Asia paired up for a concert of striking contrasts. Village Voice 11/11/05
“Watching Ligeti Move: Three Ballets by Christopher Wheeldon”; “Rules of Engagement”
Any one of Christopher Wheeldon’s dances to Ligeti would confirm this choreographer’s astute craft and hint at an originality still struggling to emerge from a self-imposed tutelage under great masters. All three pieces proved that more can be less. The thrill of JoAnna Mendl Shaw’s Rules of Engagement lay in the danger one sensed–and the […]