Royal Danish Ballet: Bournonville Festival / Royal Theatre, Copenhagen / June 3-11, 2005 Having boldly opened its Bournonville Festival with two new productions—of Kermesse in Bruges and La Ventana—the Royal Danish Ballet devoted its second night to a traditional staging of Napoli, the ballet it accurately terms its calling card. The curtain went up on […]
TOTAL IMMERSION: THE BOURNONVILLE FESTIVAL, NO. 2
Tyl & Trikot—Bournonvilles Balletkostumer / Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen / May 14-June 12, 2005 An essential part of the Bournonville Festival now under way in Copenhagen is the plethora of exhibitions mounted all around town—and in some outlying, Bournonville-associated, districts as well. These shows complement the thrill, the rush, and the essentially ephemeral nature of the Royal […]
TOTAL IMMERSION: THE BOURNONVILLE FESTIVAL, NO. 1
Royal Danish Ballet: Bournonville Festival / Royal Theatre, Copenhagen / June 3-11, 2005 As dead geniuses go—especially those whose work, being in dance, is essentially ephemeral—August Bournonville (1805-1879) has done pretty well. The legacies of George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Martha Graham—all a century younger than the Danish choreographer—are eroding at an alarmingly faster rate than […]
Les Ballets Grandiva
The boys of Les Ballets Grandiva, more than equal to many a classical practitioner playing it straight, are back at Symphony Space, on New York’s Upper West Side, April 12-17.
Chunky Move
Tense Dave’s neighbors (or fantasies) include an elegant sadist, a nightgowned damsel with extravagant suicidal impulses, a languid lady given to enacting the scenarios of Victorian bodice rippers, and a creepy fellow who does nasty things to small creatures in his spare time. Village Voice 5/31/05
Momix
The ever-popular Momix, an offspring of the even more popular Pilobolus, is at the Joyce again, May 22 – June 10, featuring a program of its Greatest Hits. Two years ago I had this to say about their antics.
THE BOURNONVILLE FESTIVAL, LOOKING BACK
2005 is the 200th birthday of August Bournonville, the dancer, choreographer and ballet master who gave the Royal Danish Ballet its distinctive profile. To mark the occasion, the company has organized the 3rd Bournonville Festival, which will take place in Copenhagen, June 3-11. All of the Bournonville ballets that are still danced today will be […]
Nrityagram Dance Ensemble; Andrea E. Woods/Souloworks
Dare I say that the show sometimes seems unreal in its surface perfection, as if the irregularities and ambiguities that make art and life profound had yielded to Disneyfication? (Nrityagram); Andrea E. Woods may be essentially a solo performer–as Souloworks, the punning title of her enterprise, indicates–but she has a steady partner in the rhythmically […]
STAYING POWER
Jock Soto retires from the New York City Ballet’s stage on June 19 at the age of 40, after 25 years with the company. For the latter part of that period he has been extolled as a partner—as if that were his main (even sole) virtue, as was, essentially, the case with the company’s Conrad […]
ON WITH THE NEW!
New York City Ballet / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / April 26 – June 26, 2005 One way or another, gala programs must be striking. This season, the New York City Ballet’s boldly shunned both Balanchine and Robbins, the guys who give the company its raison d’être, for five new additions to […]