Letter from New York
20
October 2003
By Mindy Aloff
Copyright
©2003 by Mindy Aloff
Mindy Aloff's Letter will return next week. Read her review of ABT's Master Works Program, or catch up on past Letters you may have missed.
ABT City Center Season
Week One
(Reviews of the Fall Gala, Master Works Program and Innovative Works Program ran as daily reviews last Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively, and are republished here for those who may have missed them)
Fancy Free, and a Friendly Matinee
Family
Friendly
American Ballet Theatre
City Center, NYC
October 25 matinee, 2003
by
Eric Taub
copyright ©2003 by Eric Taub
ABT's
Family Friendly series is a nice mixture of old and (somewhat) newer ballets,
and seemed to please the many voluble kiddies in the audience Saturday
afternoon (as well as their parents). I did wonder a bit about the effect
of some of the stories presented, as I overheard a mother reassuring her
little girl that the noisy trips to Hell taken by the title women in Three
Virgins and a Devil were just "pretend." Similarly, in
this day and age one has to wonder how kids might react to the encounter
between the three sailors and the first girl in Fancy Free, where
it can sometimes seem less playful and more threatening. Certainly it's
not Politically Correct. In any event, the children in the audience (at
least the ones who surrounded me) seemed anything but bored.
read review
Innovative
Works Program
by Gia
Kourlas
copyright ©2003 by Gia Kourlas
It is far
too easy to criticize the name of American Ballet Theatre's Friday-evening
program: Innovative Works, but I can't resist. It's all marketing. Aesthetically,
there was one such ballet—William Forsythe's wonderful workwithinwork.
Framing it were two pieces so bereft of a creative spark that instead
of pushing the form in a new direction, they only served to flatten it
to choreographic mush. Nacho Duato¹s Without Words, a vapid
dance created for the company in 1998, costumes four couples in unflattering
nude bodysuits (Duato's design), boasting intricate partnering that rambles
into mind-numbing mediocrity. It is not so much a piece as an exertion—mindless
toil for the audience as well as the dancers. The closer, Within You
Without You: A Tribute to George Harrison, wouldn¹t even cut
it as choreography for a music video. The only thing Without Words
and Within You have in common with Forsythe's mysterious gem
is the word WITH in the title.
read
review
Master
Works Program
by
Mindy Aloff
copyright ©2003 by Mindy Aloff
For
its three-week City Center season this fall, ABT has divided
its repertory into four categories, each represented by one program of
three or four dances: “Master Works,” “Family Friendly
Works,” “Innovative Works,” and “Contemporary
Works.” Surely, the packaging is intended to appeal to audiences
who don’t know much about ballet, would like to try it, and need
some guidelines. What those audiences are going to make of the fact that
a ballet entitled Three Virgins and a Devil is on the “Family
Friendly” program would require a disquisition by Dr. Ruth; but
let that pass. What matters is that the company is attempting to get people
into the theater—perhaps with the hope that the dancing and the
choreography will win them over to the point that they can begin to think
independently, to question, for instance, why some dances by living choreographers
are considered “innovative” while others are considered merely
“contemporary,” or why innovation is so decisively separated
from mastery, or why families with small children who have been exposed
to countless acts of violence and mayhem in Saturday morning cartoons
should require “friendliness” in their ballets. These questions
touch on some core preconceptions about the art and culture of our time,
of course, and it is to ABT’s credit that it is not only willing
to raise them but also that it would do so indirectly, through its marketing,
using what used to be called reverse psychology.
read review
Fall
Gala
by
Eric Taub
copyright ©2003 by Eric Taub
It's
always a happy occasion to welcome American Ballet Theatre back to NYC,
in this case for its fall City Center season. The program showed the great
range of ABT's repertory, focusing on works celebrating the upcoming centennials
of Sir Frederick Ashton and George Balanchine in 2004. The evening promised
well for the next three weeks—especially once the dancers start
dancing as well as they've shown us they can. Unfortunately, last night,
despite some fine moments, there were times when it looked as if everyone
needed a good jolt of caffeine.
read review
Motion Tabled
Sleeping
Beauty and Other Stories
Susan Marshall & Company
2003 Next Wave Festival
BAM Harvey Theater, Brooklyn, N.Y.
October 24, 2003
By
Nancy Dalva
Copyright
©2003 by Nancy Dalva
The pivotal prop in Susan Marshall’s Other Stories is a table. A table sets the scenes, a table, moved hither and yon, is the scenery. A real case of deja vu all over again: Just a few weeks ago, there was a whole raft of tables on stage in Brooklyn when the Frankfurt Ballet danced William Forsythe’s One Flat Thing, reproduced. Tables! Tables are the new chairs. And plot is hot.
Or vestiges
of plot. Marshall’s Sleeping Beauty, which precedes Other
Stories, is a metaphor about a metaphor—an interpretation or
meditation on the idea of a beauty, asleep (or locked away) and resistant
to rescue. The narrative is vague, if full of clues. The fairy tale itself,
of course, not only submits to all sorts of deep analysis (spindle, pricked
finger; hello, Dr. Bettelheim! Hello, Dr. Freud!) but also provides superficial
pleasures and satisfactions, among them romance and charm. Marshall strips
away these latter qualities. The ideal response to her dance would be
emotional, visceral, swoony; the least desirable would be to sit there
thinking “It’s beautiful, and I’m asleep.” But
the choreographer does have a predilection for beautiful, low lit torpor.
If this dance and the audience were buddy breathing (perhaps on a deep
sea dive for meaning), the dance would be taking more than its fair share
of air.
read review
If you missed last week's issue, click here for Nancy Dalva's review of Merce Cunningham Dance company at BAM: Chances Are
What's On This Week
October
27
Gotta Dance! - A Dance Tribute to Hollywood
Career Transition for Dancers' 9th annual gala highlights dance on film.
Highlights include Bebe Neuwirth, Ann Reinking and Elizabeth Parkinson
doing the "Big Spender" number from Sweet Charity, a tribute
to Carmen Miranda, the Royal Ballet's Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg
dancing the pas de deux from Swan Lake, and appearances by George Chakiris,
Cynthia Gregory, Robert Osborne, Jane Powell, and dancers from Les Ballets
Grandiva, Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, National Dance Institute, New York
City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre's Ashley Tuttle and Angel Corella.
City Center
55th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves.
212-581-1212
www.citycenter.org
October
27
Franklin on Film
Footage of ballets by Leonide Massine, George Balanchine and Frederick
Ashton are shown as ballet legend Frederick Franklin discusses his career.
Barnard College - Julius S. Held Lecture Hall
304 Barnard Hall, Broadway at 116th St.
October
27
Movement Research at the Judson Church
This week's forum for experimentation and works-in-progress features the
work of Melanie Maar, Luis Lara Malvacias, Renata Ferreira.
55 Washington Square South
212-539-2611
October
27
Under Exposed
This series provides a venue for choreographers who are either at the
beginning or evolving in their careers a chance to show their works while
in development. Ivy Baldwin, Joshua Bisset, Catlin Cobb and Margo Grib,
and Colleen Hooper take part in this month's showcase.
Dixon Place at University Settlement
184 Eldridge Street
212-219-0739
October
28-November
Nikolais Dance Theatre
The collaboration between Nikolais/Louis Foundation and the
Ririe- Woodbury Dance Company will showcase a vast aray of Nikolais' output
- from Noumenon made in 1953 to Blank on Blank created in 1987. "Each
of his works is their own complete multi-media theater of abstraction
for which he designed projections, sound, lighting, choreography and costumes-making
the dance a visual and kinetic art."
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
212-242-0880
www.joyce.org
October
28-November 1 (opened October 22)
Reggie Wilson/Fist & Heel Performance Group
Black Umfolosi, Noble Douglas Dance Company
Dance Theater Workshop, Bessie Schonberg Theater New York-based choreographer
Reggie Wilson/Fist and Heel Performance Group joins forces with Trinidad's
legendary Noble Douglas Dance Company and the a-cappella world music stars
Black Umfolosi from Zimbabwe in the world premiere of "Black Burlesque
(revisited)."
219 W 19th St.
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org
October
28-November 9 (opened October 22)
American Ballet Theatre
ABT's three-week fall season showcases four programs that include
classics such as George Balanchine's "Theme and Variations"
and Jerome Robbins' "Fancy Free", the return of Frederick Ashton's
"Symphonic Variations," Anthony Tudor's "Piller of Fire,"
and Agnes De Mille's " Three Virgins and a Devil," and company
or world premieres by Jiri Kylian, Robert Hill, and William Forsythe.
The company also previews its new production of "Raymonda."
And Cuban superstar Carlos Acosta makes his second appearance with troupe.
City Center
55th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves.
212-581-1212
www.citycenter.org
www.abt.org
October
29-November 2
Dance Anonymous
This modern dance company performs Harry Mavromichalis' In
the Borders of Ignorance.
The Duke on 42nd Street
229 West 42nd Street
212-239-6200
http://www.danceanonymous.com/calendar.asp
October
29-November 2
Isabel Gotzkowsky and Friends
Performances of Unframed Portraits, an evening of dance
theater with Isabel Gotzkowsky, Sasha Soreff and Jon Zimmerman.
Williamsburg Art Nexus
205 North 7 Street
Brooklyn
718-599-7997
October
30
Noemie Lafrance
Noemie Lafrance's Bessie Award-winning Descent is a homage to
New York created since the terrorist attacks of September 11. It is performed
over 12 floors of stairway with a score by Brooks Williams.
City Court Building Clock Tower
108 Leonard St. between Broadway and Lafayette St.
212-868-4444
October
30
Trisha Brown: Dance and Art in Dialogue, 1961-2001
This exhibit, which opened on October 10 and runs through January 25,
2004, features a performance called Trisha Brown Live on Broadway. The
Trisha Brown Dance Company performs Spiral, Group Primary Accumulation,
Accumulation, "Brooms" from Astral Converted, Spanish Dance,
and Floor of the Forest.
6:30 to 8:00
New Museum of Contemporary Art
583
Broadway
(between Houston and Prince Streets)
New York, NY 10012
October
30, 31, November 1, 2
Regina Nejman & Co.
In Leave Yourself at the Door, Please! Ms. Nejman creates
a bizarre dream world inhabited by five red-haired kinetic cyclones who
clash with invisible forces. Original music by Mio Morales and Anders
Nilsoon is interwoven to the music of Brazil."
Joyce Soho
155 Mercer St. between Houston and Prince Sts.
212-334-7479
www.joyce.org/sohofawin03.html
October
31, November 1
New York Theatre Ballet
Dance on a Shoestring
This chamber ballet company, known for its children's programs and revivals
of Antony Tudor, holds its fifth annual in-house series Dance on a Shoestring.
Works by Tudor, Sallie Wilson, Keith Michael, Nicolo Fonte, James Sutton
will be performed.
The Dance Gallery
30 East 31st Street - 5th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212-679-0401
www.nytb.org
November
1
An Evening of Premieres
New Jersey Ballet
This classical company, led by Carolyn Clark, performs an evening
of new works.
The Community Theatre
Morristown, New Jersey
973-539-8008
www.njballet.org
October
30-November 30
Noche Flamenca
One of Spain's most successful flamenco companies performs for
five weeks. Soledad Barrio, winner of a Bessie Award in 2001,
performs.
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher Street
212-239-6200
November
2
The Dance Conservatory Performance Project
Former Bolshoi and New York City Ballet ballerina
Valentina Kozlova performs the title role in her own production
of Medea, with Samuel Barber's music played by the Metro Chamber
Orchestra. The program will also feature Kozlova's Lament for Phaedra
by Tavener, the aria "Mi Tradi" from Don Giovanni, sung by soprano
Therese Panicali, the Mozart Symphony no. 29 in A major, and the Shubert
Symphony no. 5 in B flat major.
La Guardia Drama Theater
64th St and Amsterdam
212-245-0050
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