Falling for dance again
PROGRAM 1: Yi-Jo Lim Sun Dance Company,
Dutch National Ballet,
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company,
Trisha Brown Dance Company,
Pennsylvania Ballet
by Tom Phillips
If the aim of City Center’s season-opening program was to present as wide a range of dancing styles as possible, it succeeded right off the bat. Before the first intermission, we had witnessed a Korean harvest dance in floor-length traditional costumes, a topless European couple in the throes of estrangement, and a naked Christ-figure, at a Last Supper on a red tablecloth decorated with giant dice. It was a bracing start to the third annual Fall for Dance Festival. READ MORE
Fall for Dance Starts Off Kicking
PROGRAM 2: Stephen Petronio Company; nathantrice/Rituals; Coleman Lemieux & Compagnie; Compagnie Franck II Louise; Paul Taylor Dance Company
by Susan Reiter
For the first time, the Fall for Dance Festival includes matinees (each Sunday afternoon offering a repeat of the Saturday evening program), and City Center was filled with plenty of very young audience members as well as a representative sampling of every other age group. This second program was notably “in your face,” offering plenty of dance that was fast, fierce, wild — even extreme. Toe shoes have yet to put in an appearance on the first two programs, but with New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre coming up on the next two programs, that should be amended shortly. READ MORE
Flowers That Bloom in the Spring
"The Peony Pavillion"
by Paul Parish
"The Peony Pavilion has been billed as a restoration of the old values of the Kunqun (pronounced Kyung-chun) opera, the lyrical predecessor to Peking Opera, which had almost been killed off in Maoist times, especially during the Cultural Revolution, when the artists were turned out of the theaters and set to work in the fields. (There they took stock of their memories and wrote down all they could remember before it was too late). The tradition was nearly broken, and until this production, in recent times all the performers of a love-drama like "Peony Pavilion" were the old masters, artists in their 60s — this is the first time in living memory that young beautiful performers have embodied the roles of the young lovers in the tale. READ MORE
The Dance Actor
The Royal Danish Ballet in "The Lesson" and "La Sylphide"
by Eva Kistrup
The Danish ballet tradition is a male tradition. The star of the company tends to be the leading male dancer rather than the ballerina, and the repertoire gives the leading male dancer a broad spectrum of opportunities to dance and act. The two greatest male roles in the Bournonville repertoire demand an equal amount of dancing and acting. READ MORE
Individuality
The Art of the Solo
by George Jackson
The importance of the solo for modern dance is hard to exaggerate. Not only is the solo a declaration of the independence of the individual, but it is practical too, a crucial consideration for an artform that started as something done by outsiders. While it is one thing to look back and recognize the historical role of the solo, it is quite another to put on 13 “old” ones by almost as many different choreographers. That is risky. Nevertheless, it is what Mino Nicolas did on this program. Just contemplating the prospect raises all sorts of questions. Where to find authentic sources for the dancing, costuming and music? Will so many different visions co-exist or cause confusion? Who to cast and how — by type or, irrespective of type, by survival of the fittest? READ MORE
San Francisco Letter No. 15
Kathak at the Crossroads
by Rita Felciano
For three days, rustling saris and colorful kurtas replaced the customary black-black-black of Yerba Buena’s Forum theater. Dancers, scholars and students gathered for what was announced as the largest gathering of Kathak practitioners outside India. Organized by the Chitresh Das Dance Company, the festival was supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India’s national academy of music, dance and drama. At one point its director was even persuaded by the irrepressible Chitresh Das to put down his briefcase, take off his shoes, roll up his sleeves and perform a Kathak solo. READ MORE
Minutiae
Shen Wei Dance Arts
by Leigh Witchel
A pinch of salt, one perfect rose, a single line on a canvas. Small things have immense power when the contrast is right. In his company’s season at the Joyce, Shen Wei is a master of the small gesture. As the score of “The Rite of Spring” careens to the climax of the first tableau, the dancers stand immobile in the front of the stage with their eyes closed, dreaming. One man flicks his hand as if shooing a fly away that landed on him in his sleep; the entire audience’s focus is on that movement. READ MORE
Cross-cultural explorations
Big Dance Theater
by Lisa Traiger
A century ago, the West gazed eastward besotted of all things Oriental. Décor, fabrics, spices, fashion, painting, calligraphy, music and dance from then-far-off lands enchanted Americans and Europeans, who invited brocades and umbrellas, quickening brush strokes and new scents and flavors into their lives as they left the Victorian era behind. Today our Western regard of the East is of an entirely different sort, rife as it is with politics, diplomatic interchange, trade imbalances and continued misunderstandings of cultural distinctions. READ MORE
Once more into the pool
Noemie LaFrance's "Agora II"
by Tom Phillips
On the corner of Lorimer and Meeker Streets under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway early last Friday evening , a gaggle of confused Manhattanites and a couple of visitors from Wisconsin were wondering how to get from the subway to the McCarren Park Pool, the empty relic that is the setting for Noemie LaFrance’s new spectacle, Agora II. Along came an eleven-year-old girl on a scooter. “Follow me,” she said, “I’m in the show.” READ MORE
Finding his stride
Take Dance Company
by Susan Reiter
Takehiro Ueyama, who was a memorable robust and buoyant presence in the Paul Taylor Dance Company from 1995 to 2003, is now on hits own choreographic path, having founded a troupe three years ago. This program, his second substantial showcase in New York, radiated an admirable seriousness of purpose, and the dancers veered more toward cautiousness than boldly individual statements. Reviews of earlier performances suggest Ueyama has created some humorous, even goofy works, but there were none of those in evidence on this evening. On view were lessons being learned and absorbed, music being given serious consideration, and an admirable resistance to any overreaching. READ MORE