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 […]
JUST ASKING: 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? MINDY […]
Walkaround Time: Basic Steps In Mark Morris’s “L’Allegro”
Viewers who noticed the importance of walking in the recent performances of Mark Morris’s “Mozart Dances”–here, most noticeably, a firm, heel-first stride–may recall that the tread is frequently a central element in Morris’s choreography. In an essay on the choreographer’s fertile masterwork, “L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato,” this simple act is the one I singled out.
JUST ASKING
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? Dancers and dance aficionados (as well as mere pedestrians) are invited to respond. If we gather enough eloquence, […]
Crowning Glory: Hair & Hats Centerstage
Feminist doctrine, eager to dissuade us from giving over much attention to millinery and hairdos, cautions that what goes on inside a woman’s head is far more significant than what’s on it. A pair of feisty, engaging productions recently playing New York — Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s “HairStories” and Regina Taylor’s “Crowns,” with choreography by […]
GOING FOR BROKE
Dance Theatre of Harlem / New York State Theater, Lincoln Center, NYC / July 8-13, 2003 Ballet companies operate on the verge of insolvency. That’s a given. They depend on government support (generous abroad, but traditionally meager here in the States) and private generosity—from corporations and well-heeled, arts-minded individuals. They also depend on box office […]
Nancy “Bannon: “It’s a Cruel, Cruel Summer”; Henning Rübsam’s Sensedance
Nightswimming casts Limón veteran Nina Watt as-of all things-a tree viciously cut down. [The] exquisitely calibrated choreography details the disruption of the thrumming systems that constitute botanical life, while Watt embodies a mute consciousness of the fatal attack-a kind of biological shock and grief-that offered profound ramifications. (Bannon) [The] ambitious new Garden . . . […]