DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks – 3 RITES: Liberty – New York
★★★★✰ DELIRIOUS Dances / Edisa Weeks’ “3 RITES: Liberty” is a solo that graphically shows why the Declaration of Independence did not, & does not, mean “liberty” for many African Americans…
Some Memorable Performances of 2019 – New York
I don’t really believe in lists, but it’s admittedly fun to look back over the year and reflect on moments that have stayed with me. So here they are, in no particular order…
Marlene Monteiro Freitas – Bacchae: Prelude to a Purge – New York
★★★★★ What this Bacchae resembles most is a kind of carnaval, an ordered mayhem in which up is down, all inhibitions are shed, and madness reigns.
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.
Jerome Robbins / Luca Veggetti – Watermill – New York
★★★✰✰ I was happy to discover that, yes, in fact, something about this more intimate, immersive setting did alter the work’s energy and rhythm, its overall feel.
DanceAfrica Festival 2018 – New York
★★★★✰ DanceAfrica is a welcome reminder of the uniquely universal powers of dance and music.
James Thierrée / Compagnie du Hanneton – The Toad Knew – New York
★★✰✰✰ The best moments in The Toad Knew are comic, but there aren’t enough of them. Old-fashioned clowning is sprinkled throughout the production…
Malpaso Dance Company – Dreaming of Lions – New York
★★★✰✰ Dreaming of Lions …is an ambitious work, an hour-long, semi-abstract meditation on Ernest Hemingway’s tale of maritime endurance, The Old Man and the Sea.
Batsheva Dance Company – Last Work – New York
★★✰✰✰ Last Work is not unlike other Batsheva pieces which use an assemblage of vignettes, however it doesn’t hang together as cohesively as say, Sadeh21.
Lucinda Childs Dance Company – Available Light – San Francisco
★★★✰✰ Available Light is merciless, and in the best way…
Mark Morris Dance Group – The Hard Nut – New York
★★★★✰ Few alternative takes on tradition survive this long and The Hard Nut remains as subversive as it is satisfying.
Sounds of India Festival – Mark Morris Dance Group & Kerala Kalamandalam – New York
★★★★✰ This year’s White Light Festival, at Lincoln Center, has spawned a mini-festival of its own, Sounds of India, curated by the modern-dance choreographer Mark Morris. Why Morris? Because he has been going to India since the eighties…
Compagnie Yoann Bourgeois – Minuit – New York
★★★✰✰ Minuit is more of a meditation on the elegance of physical reality and how it can be manipulated in the name of artifice.
Shen Wei Dance Arts – Neither – New York
★★✰✰✰ The effect of Shen’s “Neither,” like that of the original opera, is decidedly muted.
The Holy Body Tattoo – monumental – New York
★★✰✰✰ There are times when you wonder if bones have been broken, or organs perforated. On the whole however, the hour and a half work is largely characterised by the violent, repetitive and neurotic gestures.
Youth America Grand Prix – Gala 2016 – New York
★★✰✰✰ Like all galas, this was quite a mixed bag. Over 200 students trooped on and offstage in a veritable tornado of activity before the veteran YAGP dancers stepped out for the showstopping stuff…
Mariinsky Ballet – A Tribute to Maya Plisetskaya, Program B – New York
★★✰✰✰ What’s going on in the head office at the Mariinsky Ballet?
Trisha Brown Dance Company – Set and Reset, Present Tense, Newark (Niweweorce) – New York
★★★★✰ “One of the things I admire most about these works is the degree to which men and women are interchangeable. Brown’s movement has no maleness or femaleness attached to it…”
Mark Morris Dance Group – The Hard Nut – New York
As with the Balanchine version, the Hard Nut’s success is a foregone conclusion.
Souleymane Badolo – Yimbégré – New York
What constitutes an African dance? What meaning lies behind the steps? Souleymane Badolo, born and trained in Burkina Faso and a resident of Brooklyn since 2009, has been exploring this question for years…
