Royal Danish Ballet / Royal Theatre, Copenhagen / September 20 & 21, 2003 Copenhagen Nearly two centuries after August Bournonville’s birth, the ballets of this peerless Romantic-era choreographer and the unique style in which they are danced still define the profile of the Royal Danish Ballet. The Bournonville heritage calls for dancing that is both […]
Dancenow/NYC; Treaders in the Snow: “Seraphita”
Where is it written that dancing requires a clear, well-lighted space? (Dancenow/NYC); The Treaders, a female trio of New York-based dancer-choreographers born and initially trained in Japan . . . are all expert performers in the hypersensitive vein that reminds you of creatures sensing their world through quivering antennae. (Treaders in the Snow) Village Voice […]
SEATING ARRANGEMENT
While I’m in Denmark, you can be too. . . . Though it centers on dancing, SEEING THINGS means to look at other food for the eye as well. Here’s some that’s available at a mere click: http://www.kunstindustrimuseet.dk/kim.htm. From the menu in the left hand column, choose “Design after 1900,” then scroll down and click […]
DARK DAYS
Summer used to be the season of doldrums in the dance world. Not so anymore on the New York dance scene, though this is clearly contrary to nature. We need a rest before the jam-packed fall season. We need a laid back stretch of time in which we watch dancing, if at all, in the […]
Pilar Rioja
At 70, the Spanish dancer Pilar Rioja has a figure women half her age might envy and, more important, a carriage that comes from decades of embodying pride in all its guises: joyous, disdainful, enraged, malevolent, erotic, and undaunted by grief. Village Voice 08/27/03
Young, Dressed Up, And Dancing
This article originally appeared in Tutu Revue. Years and years ago, I asked Bill Carter — a demi-caractère dancer with American Ballet Theatre, a flamenco dancer manqué, and one of the most soulful artists I’ve ever known — if his vocation had already been evident in his childhood. “Oh, yes,” he reminisced, “I was always […]
The Ballerina — A Swan Song?
This article originally appeared in Tutu Revue. Every spring, America’s two grandest classical ballet companies play a long annual season — most of May and June — opposite each other at Lincoln Center. American Ballet Theatre holds forth at the Metropolitan Opera House, while the New York City Ballet dances at the New York State […]
JUST ASKING: MORE ANSWERS
SEEING THINGS invited dancers and dance aficionados (as well as mere pedestrians) to respond to this question: Some would say that dancing is the cruelest profession, all but guaranteeing grueling work, physical pain, poverty, and heartbreak. Yet the field has always been rich in aspirants willing to dedicate their lives to the art. Why? The […]
SUMMER SESSION
Mark Morris Dance Group, Mostly Mozart Festival / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / August 4-6, 2003 Adding dance to Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival for the second year in a row, the Mark Morris Dance Group performed four works from its repertory—nothing new, but most of it pretty damned wonderful. Of the […]
WHAT NEXT?
Twyla Tharp Dance / Joyce Theater, NYC / July 28 – August 9, 2003 Forever reinventing her career in choreography, Twyla Tharp just offered New York a throwback to her past.Filling in at the Joyce Theater for the canceled season of Ballet Tech, her chamber-size dance group presented repertory items that ranged from three […]