Shanghai Ballet – Swan Lake – New York
★★★★✰ It’s comforting to know that at even my advanced age I can still be confounded even by hoary old Swan Lake.
Anne Teresa De Keersmaker / Rosas – Mitten Wir in Leben Sind – New York
★★★✰✰ The dance is spare and pedestrian, as is De Keersmaeker’s way, and lasts two hours, without intermission. And yet it’s not really a challenge to experience it all in one sitting.
New York City Ballet – Classic NYCB I including Haieff Divertimento & Episodes – New York
★★★★✰ The four ballets make for a slightly over-long evening (both Episodes and Rodeo are substantial works). But it’s a small price to pay for seeing these rarities back onstage.
Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker – Cāo Sem Plumas – New York
★★✰✰✰ 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…
New York City Ballet – Voices (new Ratmansky), and New Combinations bill – New York
★★★★✰ There was always something new around the corner, a surprising shape, a witty step, an unlikely transition. It’s clear that Ratmansky felt liberated by the unusual structure and soundscape…
New York City Ballet – All Balanchine: Allegro Brillante, La Source, Firebird – New York
★★★★✰ How is the company looking? …the company looks good so far.
New York City Ballet – Stravinsky & Balanchine bill – New York
★★★★✰ New York City Ballet is off to a fine start when it opens the winter season with a very well-danced all Balanchine, all Stravinsky program.
Gregory Maqoma – Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Boléro – New York, Joyce Theater
★★★★✰ 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.
Gabrielle Revlock – SEX TAPE, Nuptial Blitz – New York
★★★✰✰ Revlock “is a dance-maker whose work often depicts complicated but relatable interpersonal relationships using a vocabulary that embraces the pedestrian, abstracted by degrees.”
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…
Faye Driscoll – Thank You For Coming: Space – New York
★★★✰✰ A sense of very controlled chaos accumulates. I’m sometimes reminded of the videos and installations of the artist Bruce Nauman. Her actions and interactions, including snatches of willfully, wonderfully contorted dancing…
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – Busk, Ode, Ounce of Faith – New York
★★★★✰ Jamar Roberts’ Ode was the centerpiece and the highlight of the company’s performance, which also included Aszure Barton’s Busk (a company premiere) and Darrell Grand Moultrie’s Ounce of Faith (a premiere).
Dormeshia – And Still You Must Swing – New York
★★★★✰ 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.
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance – Gala including new Kyle Abraham – New York
★★★★✰ As a special one-off, Michael Trusnovec, now a guest artist, danced the solo from George Balanchine’s spiky and ascetic Episodes which he made for Paul Taylor in 1959.
Martha Graham Dance Company – Appalachian Spring, The Auditions – New York
★★★★✰ This season, as part of the 75th anniversary of Appalachian Spring, Martha Graham Dance Company invited Troy Schumacher to create a new piece to be danced alongside the iconic work…
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.
Black Grace – Kiona and the Little Bird Suite, As Night Falls, Crying Men, Method – New York
★★★★✰ The dozen dancers brought a fierce energy to the stage, performing four works of astonishing speed and athleticism.
Houston Ballet – The Letter V, Come In, Reflections – New York
★★★★★ Houston Ballet is a prime example of what a 21st century ballet company should look like: diverse, dynamic and accomplished.
Maya Beiser + Wendy Whelan + Lucinda Childs + David Lang – The Day – New York
★★★✰✰ The pairing of prestigious participants does not always guarantee success – a lesson learned again and again in the theater.
American Ballet Theatre – New Romantics: New American Romance, Garden Blue, A Time There Was – New York
★★★✰✰ The emphasis here was on new. This was a night to check in on the creative efforts of two emerging voices on the ballet scene – Gemma Bond and James Whiteside.
