Susanna Sloat talks to Ayodele Casel and Torya Beard, co-curators of NY's Little Island Dance Festival, about the festival and their wider work in and around dance.
Tag - Joyce Theater
★★★★★ One of the most riveting things I’ve seen in a long time.
★★★★★ Within the four walls of the Joyce Theater, magic has been brewing. We, the public, only get to see it in virtual form, but the magic is real. The creator of spells is the tap dancer and choreographer Ayodele Casel...
Amy Pearl's lockdown has been defined by NDT who she saw in NY just before lockdown and just caught up with again as they danced live at their home theatre for the first time and streamed the show to the world - a show which included a world premiere by Medhi Walerski and work by Crystal Pite...
★★★★★ Dormeshia’s And Still You Must Swing is the first online dance that made me want to write about it. I knew it would be good...
★★★✰✰ Lasting 75 minutes the Che Malambo show is quite spectacular, if unevenly so...
★★✰✰✰ At times the striking images and lithe, hyper-flexible dancers are enough to seduce the eye. But Cāo Sem Plumas is a frustrating piece, in which the live dancing is overshadowed by film...
★★★★✰ The dance style is a fusion of many elements of South African dance, other African and African diaspora influences, and modern and postmodern dance. It can be both liquid and percussive and has a complexity that is hard to take apart.
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…
★★★★✰ Some have called Dormeshia the greatest tapper of her generation. I’m wary of such titles, but what I can say is that she is a dancer of enormous sophistication, finesse, variety, and subtlety.
★★★★✰ The dozen dancers brought a fierce energy to the stage, performing four works of astonishing speed and athleticism.
★★★✰✰ The pairing of prestigious participants does not always guarantee success – a lesson learned again and again in the theater.
★★★★✰ Everything in Shivalingappa’s style emphasizes clarity, shape, and intention. ... a very satisfying evening of dance.
★★★★✰ Starwise, Bejart's Wayfarer bumps this program from two stars to four.
★★✰✰✰ I hadn’t seen much of the well-regarded Cuthbertson, so I was looking forward to this chance to get to know her (she appeared in four of five pieces), as well as the not-always-dubious introduction to new works by new choreographers...
★★★✰✰ Program A consisted of a string of solos and duets representing a slice of the company’s choreographic trajectory, from Frederick Ashton through Kenneth MacMillan to Liam Scarlett, Wayne McGregor, and Charlotte Edmonds.
★★★★✰ You can tell the Danes are in town by the fact that the Joyce Theater has been packed night after night this week.
★★★✰✰ Light on tap and heavy on concept, the show is inspired by an imaginary conversation between Glover and Gregg Burge – a multi-talented artist lost too young (23 years ago this 4 July) to brain cancer.
★★★★✰ I can’t recall ever leaving a theater after seeing a Trey McIntyre work, and not feeling better about things.
★★★★✰ The choreographer Camille A. Brown has a rare talent – the ability to make you understand a situation or state of mind through dance.