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danceviewdc The
DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition |
Volume 1, Number 12 An online supplement to DanceView magazine
| Strangers On a Train D.C.
9th International Improvisation Plus+ Festival
By Lisa Traiger "Come
ride the Red line with us … we're CatScratch Theatre," whispered
a woman after slithering across a cement bench in Union Station. She handed
me a business-sized card and snuck up to the next unsuspecting customer.
Sometimes riding along with the unexpected makes for a serendipitous hour
or two, as it did on Saturday. The CatScratch dancers and a small cohort
of assistants—a flag carrier and one or two who lugged bags of cold
weather layers—began stealthily, hard to spot in their wool caps
and winter coats. But soon slight, ponytailed Stephen Clapp instructed
us to board the next Red Line train bound for Shady Grove. Along the way
we disembarked at pre-planned stops at Gallery Place, Metro Center and
Dupont Circle before finishing up with a game of follow the leader at
Friendship Heights that took us to the door of the Jack Guidone Theater.
Classical Showcase The
Winter Performance Recitals
by the Universal (formerly Kirov; originally Universal) Ballet Academy
have gained a reputation for classical purity and professional polish
that is matched by few other schools around the world. These showcases
occur two or three times a year just before breaks in the academic schedule
and they are long, lasting sometimes three hours or more. This year's
winter performance was relatively brief, just two and a half hours. Often
the starting number is a demonstration class but this time it was Classical
Composition by Nadig to Glinka music that served as a classroom based
entrée for six young women. There followed 32 other numbers, 18
of them by (or after) Marius Petipa. All the Petipa selections were classical,
not from his character dances, for arguably even Raymonda's solo is upper
class at its core with the folk ingredients elegantly, imperially transformed
(An Na Yung had the requisite authority). Among the dancers lit up by
Petipa were Ian Lindeman (in the Paquita trio), Emily Bicks (in
a Don Quixote Act 3 solo, and very finished for someone so young),
long limbed Sae Hyun Kwon (in the Vestalka solo to music presumably
by Gasparo Spontini and not Sposini; although M. Ivanov is listed as composer
for Petipa's ballet on the Vestal Virgin topic, this could have been from
the Spontini opera), Kenya Nakamura (in the Giselle Peasant Boy
variation), Brooklyn Mack (powerful in a Le Corsaire solo and
partnering lyrical Sofia Dahlgren in the duo), Sasha De Sola (another
Corsaire variation), Mikayla Williams (simple, fresh and elegant
in a Sleeping Beauty Prologue solo) as well as Mara Thompson,
Emily Drexler, April Giangeruso and Hee Kyung Bae. The dancers in Petipa
ensembles struck the right balance between individuality and uniformity.
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What's On This Week Dec.
18-21 Dec. 20 Dec.
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