Marina Harss is a free-lance dance writer and translator in New York. Her dance writing has appeared in the New Yorker, The Nation, Playbill, The Faster Times, DanceView, The Forward, Pointe, and Ballet Review. Her translations, which include Irène Némirovsky’s “The Mirador,” Dino Buzzati’s “Poem Strip,” and Pasolini’s “Stories from the City of God” have been published by FSG, Other Press, and New York Review Books. You can check her updates on Twitter at: @MarinaHarss
Under are the articles written for DanceTabs. Reviews on Balletco
American Ballet Theatre – Gala with The Seasons premiere + Ratmansky Trio bill – New York
★★★★✰ It’s impossible not to be impressed by the range of these works, from introspective and conversational (Symposium) to brilliantly classical (The Seasons) to dramatic (Dnieper).
American Ballet Theatre – Harlequinade – New York
★★★★★ To my eye, this Harlequinade may be the most well-rounded of Ratmansky’s historically-minded stagings of Petipa.
New York City Ballet – All Balanchine quad bill including Scotch Symphony – New York
★★★★✰ There’s a reason why New York City Ballet doesn’t do George Balanchine’s Scotch Symphony very often. It’s a strangely disjointed ballet…
New York City Ballet – Spring Gala: Bright, Bartók Ballet, Tchaikovsky Suite No. 3 – New York
★★★✰✰ In Bartók Ballet, which coexists but does not comment on the music, the dancers explore a huge range of steps and quotations…
Kalanidhi Dance and Sujata Mohapatra – Dancing the Gods Festival – New York
★★★★✰ We’re lucky in New York to get as much classical Indian dance as we do. Several festivals return year after year, including, in the spring, Dancing the Gods, curated by the dancer and scholar Rajika Puri…
New York City Ballet – Pictures at an Exhibition, Oltremare, Rodeo: Four Dance Episodes – New York
★★★★✰ There is a palpable sense of hope among the dancers; again and again, they rise to the occasion. The opening-night program reflected this resilience and gave reason for hope.
Merce Cunningham Trust – Night of 100 Solos, Centennial Event – New York
★★★★✰ What impresses overall is the clarity of the technique; the precision and control it requires. And the way it enlarges the dancers, distilling their strengths, stretching them to the limit.
Natalia Osipova – Pure Dance bill – New York
★★★✰✰ So, is Pure Dance a success? It depends on what you’re looking for. Osipova is as exciting, and as powerful, a dancer as ever. Among the commissions, only Valse Triste and Flutter are worthy of further exploration…
Dorrance Dance – Jungle Blues, Basses Loaded bill – New York
★★★✰✰ Dorrance is a darling of festivals, presenters and audiences, and has recently crossed over into the realm of ballet. But how much crossover and reinvention is too much?
Sarasota Ballet – Apparitions, Stars and Stripes – Sarasota
★★★★✰ As if an Ashton rarity weren’t reason enough to catch this program, there was also the presence of Marcelo Gomes, former much-admired principal dancer from American Ballet Theatre, to recommend it.
5 Questions to Pepperland designer Elizabeth Kurtzman about collaborating with Mark Morris
With Pepperland about to tour the UK for 6 weeks we talk to designer Elizabeth Kurtzman about her striking costumes and what it’s like working with Mark Morris…
New York City Ballet – Prodigal Son, Liebeslieder Walzer – New York
★★★✰✰ Liebeslieder Walzer is one of the most precious of all Balanchine’s ballets; within its fifty-minute span it seems to contain a world of emotion, both profound and infinitely civilized.
Farruquito – Farruquito flamenco bill – New York
★★★★✰ What’s most compelling about the show, really, is its sense of freedom, combined with a strong family-feeling.
Camille A. Brown & Dancers – ink – New York
★★★★✰ The choreographer Camille A. Brown has a rare talent – the ability to make you understand a situation or state of mind through dance.
Interview: Thinking About Petipa – A Conversation with Alexei Ratmansky
Marina Harss talks to a legend about another legend and the greatest classical choreographer of them all – Marius Petipa. Full of interesting insights…
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker / Rosas – Verklärte nacht – New York
★★★✰✰ The piece is strenuous, filled with running and partnering that, at first, verges on violent, and eventually turns rapturous, but never beautiful – De Keersmaeker never cedes to the lure of beauty…
New York City Ballet – Apollo, Orpheus, Agon – New York
★★★★✰ Nothing revives a repertory like new casting. So we can be grateful to the interim leadership at New York City Ballet for reconsidering who gets to dance some of the company’s most elemental repertory: Agon, Apollo, Serenade.
New York City Ballet – Apollo, Orpheus, Agon – New York
★★★★✰ There has been a generational shift at New York City Ballet, that much was clear last night in a program of Stravinsky ballets that included two major débuts and several smaller ones…
Martha Graham Dance Company – Graham Deconstructed: El Penitente, Hérodiade – New York
★★★✰✰ Both El Penitente and Hérodiade are from the 40’s, a period when Graham was transitioning from exploration of American and Native-American themes to a more mythical mode.
Some Memorable Performances of 2018 – New York
Other years have been more exciting, I think, but this one has had its share of remarkable performances, including a few thrilling ones. Here, in no particular order, are the ones that really stood out, for one reason or another.
