New York City Ballet – Serenade, Summerspace, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2 – New York
★★★★✰ On the penultimate day of the fall season, I managed to catch a performance of New York City Ballet’s revival of Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace. The 1958 piece, which had its City Ballet premiere in 1966, was last performed here in 2000.
William Forsythe – A Quiet Evening of Dance – New York
★★★✰✰ The fascination with ballet is strong in Forsythe. After years of creating a form of dance theater in Germany, he has returned to his classical roots with a renewed energy.
Shantala Shivalingappa – Akasha – New York
★★★★✰ Everything in Shivalingappa’s style emphasizes clarity, shape, and intention. … a very satisfying evening of dance.
New York City Ballet – Dances at a Gathering, Everywhere We Go – New York
★★★✰✰ Robbins’ response to Chopin (in Dances at a Gathering) is also extraordinary: sensitive, simple, vulnerable, direct, un-fussy.
New York City Ballet – Fall Fashion Gala with The Shaded Line, Lineage, Symphony in C – New York
★★★✰✰ Kudos to Lovette for really going out on a limb… The Shaded Line feels truly her own, and it’s clear that she has much to say about her chosen profession…
Interview: Angelin Preljocaj, Choreographer and Director
Ballet Preljocaj are about to make their long awaited return to London’s Sadler’s Wells dancing “La Fresque” – Graham Watts talks to Angelin Preljocaj about the work itself and more widely about his creative life.
New York City Ballet – Balanchine + Wheeldon bill & Jewels – New York
★★★★✰ It makes a noticeable difference when Litton, music director of the company, is in the pit; the orchestra has presence and sings, providing a convincing counterpart for the dancing.
RB, ABT, NYCB & NYTB dancers at the Joyce Ballet Festival – Prog C, curated by Jean-Marc Puissant – New York
★★★★✰ Starwise, Bejart’s Wayfarer bumps this program from two stars to four.
RB, NBoC & ABT dancers at the Joyce Ballet Festival – Prog B, curated by Lauren Cuthbertson – New York
★★✰✰✰ 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…
Royal Ballet dancers at the Joyce Ballet Festival – Program A, An Evening of Solos and Duets – New York
★★★✰✰ 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.
Bijayini Satpathy at the Drive East Festival – Kalpana bill – New York
★★★★★ I’ve never seen a more vivid performer; her large eyes seem to touch each person in the audience…
Ulrik Birkkjaer and Royal Danish Ballet dancers – Bournonville Legacy bill – New York
★★★★✰ You can tell the Danes are in town by the fact that the Joyce Theater has been packed night after night this week.
Mark Morris Dance Group – Sport, Empire Garden, V – New York
★★★★✰ Mark Morris Dance Group are currently at the Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival performing a triple bill coupling a new work, “Sport”, to the much admired “Empire Garden” and “V”.
Savion Glover – Lady5 @ Savion Glover’s BaRoQUe’BLaK TaP CaFe – New York
★★★✰✰ 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.
American Ballet Theatre – The Sleeping Beauty – New York
★★★★✰ This production proposes that Sleeping Beauty is not really the story of a love quest – as it’s often depicted – but rather a fable about order and disorder, harmony and disharmony, the balance between good and evil.
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Junction, all at once, Promethean Fire – New York
★★★★✰ In her ‘all at once’, Tanowitz seems to have taken Taylor’s ‘Junction’ as her starting point. Like that work, it is a paean to awkwardness…
American Ballet Theatre – Manon – New York
★★★★★ As someone who cries easily, it’s a wonder that Manon remains a favorite ballet of mine… Misty Copeland and Cory Stearns were passionate and persuasive in their respective roles as Manon and Des Grieux.
American Ballet Theatre – Le Corsaire – New York
★★★★✰ Days after the performance, I cannot get James Whiteside’s Ali out of my head. Devon Teuscher’s Medora is charming and warm, pulling off triple fouettées turns and her Italian fouettées with aplomb…
Paul Taylor Dance Company – Brandenburgs, Rewilding, Cascade – New York
★★★★✰ One can only wish the Paul Taylor Company well in this period of change. The dancers, new and old, perform with a warmth and openness that is rare.
American Ballet Theatre – Jane Eyre – New York
★★✰✰✰ For all Marston’s qualifications, I found her Jane Eyre to be a dreary affair, theatrically dutiful and choreographically thin.
