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The DanceView Times, New York edition

      Volume 1, Number 9  November 24, 2003            An online supplement to DanceView magazine

Letter from New York

24 November 2003.
Copyright ©2003 by Mindy Aloff

Last Sunday and Monday (November 16 and 17), the Works & Process series at the Guggenheim Museum presented an evening dedicated to the reconstructions of two “lost” Balanchine ballets—Le Baiser de la Fée (1937, American Ballet; staged for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo in 1940).) and Mozartiana (1945), both from Balanchine’s years as resident choreographer for the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo during and just after World War II. The program was organized by The George Balanchine Foundation, an archival organization that has devoted much of its considerable energy to reconstructing and filming Balanchine ballets long out of rep, as well as to filming original interpreters of familiar Balanchine roles, many now much changed over time, in the act of coaching young dancers from the point of view of what the first casts of Balanchine’s ballets actually were directed to do.
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past Letters from New York


Deep Waters

Moon Water
Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn, NY
November 20, 2003

By Susan Reiter
copyright © 2003 by Susan Reiter

When a theatrical experience is as mesmerizing and complete as Moon Water, the latest work brought to these shores by Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan, the afterglow resonates for days. The concept of creating a dance work drawing primarily on the movements of tai chi could have led to something insular—full of surface piety but distancing itself from an audience rather than communicating to it. But Moon Water was the most riveting 70 minutes I've experienced in a theater in a while, and the immensely focused, amazingly concentrated audience at BAM suggested that many were held equally rapt.
read article


Homage to St. Petersburg

St. Petersburg in New York: Ballet
St. Petersburg Through American Eyes
Celebration of the 300th Anniversary of the City of St. Petersburg
The Harriman Institute of Columbia University
November 6-16, 2003

By Dale Brauner
copyright © 2003 by Dale Brauner

St. Petersburg, Russia is to balletomanes what Wrigley Field is to baseball enthusiasts, Vienna is to music aficionados, and Rome is to Catholics. Many ballet lovers consider it the birthplace of the art form. St. Petersburg is the birthplace of George Balanchine, Anna Pavlova, Mikhail Fokine; the home of the Mariinsky Theatre and breeding ground to countless dance figures.

The city observed its 300th anniversary this year and events celebrating the “Venice of the North” are being held around the world. New York has the largest population of Russians living outside Russia, so it is only right that festivities have been staged here. The Harriman Institute of Columbia University presented “St. Petersburg Through American Eyes; Celebrating 300 Years of St. Petersburg." held from November 6-16. There were panels devoted to painting, music and literature, and also one devoted to ballet (moderated by Lynn Garafola, Professor of Dance at Barnard College).  Participants were noted teacher Suki Schorer ("Transformed by America: Balanchine and the Maryinsky Tradition"); author Tim Scholl (“The Sleeping Beauty and St. Petersburg"); and critic Elizabeth Kendall (“Passing on the Petersburg Legacy"), a session on coaching with American Ballet Theatre principals Irina Dvorovenko and Maxim Beloserkovsky.
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Reprinted from the Midweek edition:

SALVATION GOREYFIED

Riedel Dance Theater
Joyce SoHo
New York, NY
November 20, 2003

by Mary Cargill
copyright © 2003 by Mary  Cargill

Jonathan Riedel’s The Unsightful Nanny, based on Edward Gorey’s work and performed as part of last years Limón season at the Joyce, was one of the most unusual and mordantly funny works seen in sometime. So the news that Riedel had formed a company formed mainly from Limón dancers to present his own works, including a new Gorey piece, was exciting news. His company (making its Joyce debut) is performing at the Joyce Soho from November 20th through the 23rd.
read review

 

What's On This Week

November 24-30
Dance Cuba
Choreographer Lizt Alfonso premieres De Novo and other works that blend flamenco with ballet and live Afro-Cuban music.
New Victory Theater
209 W. 42nd St.
(212) 239-6200
www.newvictory.org/

November 24
Movement Research at the Judson Church

This week's forum for experimentation and works-in-progress features the work of Ursula Eagly, Ann Livingston Young, and Edisa Weeks.
55 Washington Square South
212-539-2611

November 24-November 30 (opened October 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 25
New York City Ballet
The company kicks off its big celebration of the centennial of co- founder George Balanchine's birth with its Winter Gala. Serenade, the first ballet Balanchine choreographed in American, opens the evening. The work was created for students and dancers from the affiliated School of American Ballet will take part on this occasion, along with one of the last dancers coached by Balanchine still dancing - Kyra Nichols. The only performance Balanchine's 1963 take on asian exotica, Bugaku, will take place. Symphony in C, which was on the program for the first performance of the New York City Ballet in 1948, closes the evening.
New York State Theatre
Lincoln Center
212-8705570

November 25
Laban/Bartenieff Institute of Movement Studies

The 25th anniversary celebration of LIMS concludes with a gala performance with works by Claire Porter, Eva Marie Blashke, Marie- Cristine Georghiou and Regina Miranda.
St. Mark's Church
131 E. 10th St.
(212) 643-8888.

November 25-30
Maria Benitez Teatro
This company of highly respected choreographers and dancers present a program of classical Spanish repertory and flamenco. Among the news works is a dance to the music of Isaac Albeniz, an elegant Spanish classical dance, and flamenco to live music.
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
212-242-0880
www.joyce.org

November 28-30
New York City Ballet

The seemingly endless Nutcracker season begins with the one which made it a family tradition in New York, George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. A family tradition, Act I is still a treat and Act II contains some of the finest classical choreography. Het Nationale Ballet of the Netherlands ballerina Sofiane Sylve, who guested with the company last winter, is back as a principal dancer and makes her debut as the Dewdrop this week. Also check out Miranda Weese or Maria Kowroski as the Sugar Plum, Ashley Bouder as Marzipan, and former ABT soloist Joaquin de Luz as Tea.
New York State Theatre
Lincoln Center
212-8705570

November 28-30
Niles Ford Urban Dance Collective
A Dream Deferred, a work dedicated to Rod Rogers, will be performed.
Performance Space 122
150 First Ave. at Ninth St.
(212) 477-5288.

November 29-30
Dance Theatre of Harlem

Arthur Mitchell's troup performs St. Louis Woman: A Blues Ballet, which garnered mostly strong reviews when it was shown last summer at the Lincoln Center Festival. The choreography is by Tony and Emmy Award-winner Michael Smuin, set to a score by the songwriting team of Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. The program also includes George Balanchine's Serenade.
Prudential Hall
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Newark
(888) 466-5722
www.njpac.org

— Dale Brauner


 

 

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This weeks' articles

 

DanceViewNY
Mindy  Aloff's Letter from New York

The Balanchine Celebration
New York City Ballet:
A Veteran and a Raw Recruit
by Mindy Aloff

Heart and Soul
by Mary Cargill

Kid Stuff
Cas Public's If You Go Down To the Woods Today
by Susan Reiter

DanceViewWest
San Francisco Ballet:
New Wheeldon (Rush)
by Rita Felciano

New Tomasson (7 For Eight)
by Paul Parish

Possokhov's New Firebird for OBT
by Rita Felciano

Moscow Festival Ballet and Scott Wells
by Paul Parish

DanceViewDC
Hamburg Ballet's Nijinsky:
Nijinsky—Lost in the Chaos
by Clare Croft

NijinskyMadness and Metaphor
by Alexandra Tomalonis

Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes
by George Jackson

Batsheva: Breaking Down Walls
by Lisa Traiger

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence
by Clare Croft

Choreographers Showcase
by Tehreema Mitha

Zoltan Nagy
by George Jackson

 

 

 

 

Writers

Mindy Aloff
Dale Brauner
Mary Cargill
Nancy Dalva
Gia Kourlas
Gay Morris
Susan Reiter
Alexandra Tomalonis(Editor)
Meital Waibsnaider
Leigh Witchel
David Vaughan

DanceView

The Autumn DanceView is out:

New York City Ballet's Spring 2003 season reviewed by Gia Kourlas

An interview with the Kirov Ballet's Daria Pavlenko by Marc Haegeman

Reviews of San Francisco Ballet (by Rita Felciano) and Paris Opera Ballet (by Carol Pardo)

The ballet tradition at the Metropolitan Opera (by Elaine Machleder)

Reports from London (Jane Simpson) and the Bay Area (Rita Felciano).

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last updated on November 3, 2003 -->