Angel Reapers, by Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry / Joyce Theater, NYC / November 29 – December 11, 2011 The oddest thing about Martha Clarke and Alfred Uhry’s Angel Reapers is that it has no plot. This despite the fact that Uhry is a widely respected American playwright, as his Pulitzer, Oscar, and Tony awards […]
By George!
New York City Ballet: The Nutcracker / David H. Koch Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 25 – December 31, 2010 God Is in the Details: George Balanchine, creator of the New York City Ballet’s The Nutcracker, coaching the smallest of the toy soldiers at a dress rehearsal Courtesy of the New York City Ballet […]
The Other Face of ABT
American Ballet Theatre / City Center, NYC / November 8-13, 2011 This season’s gala-event costumes for women of a certain income emphasize cascading ruffles in weak-willed pastels or glowing jewel tones. The men continue to sport black-tie mufti with almost no rakish variation on the theme. Expense is evident, as is the eternal question of […]
Promises, promises
Duŝan Týnek Dance Theatre / Tribeca PAC, NYC / October 27-29; November 3-5, 2011 Duŝan Týnek Dance Theatre Photo: Julieta Cervantes Seeing the Dušan Týnek Dance Theatre, recently at Tribeca PAC, in the second of the two programs it offered, made me wonder why the standing of its marvelous choreographer hasn’t graduated from “promising” to […]
More So Than Ever
Jonathan Burrows & Matteo Fargion / Danspace Project, NYC / November 3-5, 2011 Shadowplay: Jonathan Burrows (l.) and Matteo Fargion (r.) in their Both Sitting Duet Photo: Herman Sirgeloos When the presumably odd couple Jonathan Burrows (dancer and choreographer) and Matteo Fargion (musician and composer) played the Kitchen back in 2004 in their Both Sitting […]
Starting Over
Morphoses / Joyce Theater, NYC / October 25-30, 2011 Remember Morphoses, the ambitious start-up company Christopher Wheeldon cavalierly abandoned after just three years in 2010, leaving the troupe’s co-founder, Lourdes Lopez, to pick up the pieces? Last night, at the Joyce, it concluded the six-day run of its rebirth. If Bacchae, an hour-long piece by […]
Tasting Menu
Fall for Dance / City Center, NYC / October 27 – November 6, 2011 The price of just about everything is escalating–food, college, shoes, diamonds, you name it. Yet one thing in New York has kept to its bargain rate. Tickets to the annual Fall for Dance festival at the newly refurbished City Center are […]
Weathering
Necessary Weather / Baryshnikov Art Center: Jerome Robbins Theater, NYC / October 27-29, 2011 Light–silent and impalpable–is almost essential to theatrical dance. Jennifer Tipton has been its master for over four decades, creating atmospheric marvels for drama and opera as well. In 1994 she dared to ask herself, What if light were not just a […]
After You’re Gone
The Forsythe Company / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Brooklyn, NY / October 26 – 29, 2011 I’ve always shared George Balanchine’s idea that a dance should speak for itself. William Forsythe certainly doesn’t. At BAM last night The Forsythe Company, based in Germany, opened a four-day run of his enigmatically titled work I don’t […]
City Center’s Makeover
New York City Center Opening Night Gala / New York City Center, NYC / October 25, 2011 City Center renovated, view from house left Photo: © Aislinn Weidele / Ennead Architects Last night’s celebration of the renovation and restoration of the New York City Center assured the theater’s aficionados of dance, music, and drama that […]