New York City Ballet: The Nutcracker / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 28, 2003 – January 4, 2004 The Nutcracker, in George Balanchine’s (for me) definitive version, danced by the New York City Ballet, opens November 28 at the New York State Theater for a run of six weeks. I know […]
Garth Fagan Dance
Cultivating their unique beauty and dignity, Fagan makes each member of his company look like a god in the pantheon of his imagination. Village Voice 11/26/03
SPEAKING OF BALANCHINE
New York City Ballet / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / November 25, 2003 The George Balanchine Foundation: Videotaping of Violette Verdy coaching George Balanchine’s Emeralds / Samuel B. and David Rose Building, Lincoln Center, NYC / October 27, 2003 Works & Process: Balanchine’s Lost Choreography / Guggenheim Museum / November 16 & […]
Hubbard Street 2; “The Ballerina Fanny Elssler”
The second company of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, may be chamber-size, but its young dancers possess enough exuberance to fill a stadium. (Hubbard Street 2); No reference here to the legendary Elssler’s sensuous allure. No nod even to the lush waltzing that’s the national dance of Straussville. (The Ballerina Fanny Elssler) Village Voice 11/19/03
POST-MOD WEATHER REPORT
Rosas (Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker) / BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, NYC / November 12-17, 2003 Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rain, performed by her Belgium-based company, Rosas, draws upon defining devices of early postmodern dance—the inventions and innovations of the late 1960s and the 1970s—and gives them a sleek, forceful theatricality. Indeed, it makes them […]
Noche Flamenca; “Black Burlesque (Revisited)”
Flamenco dance is flourishing on New York’s stages. Soledad Barrio remains the incarnation of the form.
DANCE TO THE PIPER
George Piper Dances / Joyce Theater, NYC / November 4-9, 2003 George Piper Dances, at the Joyce through November 9, is named for the conjoined moniker-in-art of Michael (middle name: George) Nunn and William (Piper) Trevitt. The pair of Brits with charm to spare and an unexpected taste for austere, ostensibly cerebral choreography are also […]
PATCH WORK
American Ballet Theatre / City Center, NYC / October 22 – November 9, 2003 American Ballet Theatre’s annual fall season at City Center, now expanded from two weeks to three, looked foolish even before the curtain went up. A new marketing ploy organized the repertory being offered into four set programs. The most misguided of […]
KISSING COUSINS
Susan Marshall & Company / BAM Harvey Theater, New York City / October 21-25, 2003 In our current climate of branding, dance concerts must have titles. The choreographer Susan Marshall, already branded as a genius by her copping a MacArthur Fellowship 2000, slyly called her latest program, part of BAM’s Next Wave series, Sleeping Beauty […]
STAR TREK
First Sight: The Performance An extraordinary dancer doesn’t need to be discovered. He’s apparent. I had my first, startling, sight of Danny Tidwell last spring in one of the Guggenheim Museum’s show-and-tell Works & Process programs. The subject of the evening was ballet competitions. American Ballet Theatre, which harbors many a medalist, sent a bunch […]