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covering
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Majestic
Harmony from a Different Time
reviewed
by Paul Parish
It's
hard to believe there are readers of DanceviewWest
who aren't familiar with l'Allegro, il Penseroso,
ed il Moderato, but I ran into so many people I
knew outside Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley last Thursday
night, where the Mark Morris Dance Company opened the
Cal Performances season with a revival of this great
and famous work, who had never seen it before that I
suppose I'd better believe it. They had stars in their
eyes, as I did back in 1994 when we first saw it on
the West Coast.
It's
a big show: two hours worth of dancing, with a big cast
of dancers (24, which is a lot for modern dance), the
Philharmonia Baroque orchestra in the pit, the University
Chorus, and five virtuoso soloist-singers performing
Handel's great oratorio the ballet is named for, amidst
a phenomenal set of sliding scrims and drops in ravishing
jewel-toned colors, which descend and rise in a dance
of their own that makes a play of color which hurries
away the soul.
The
moving pictures Morris has set to Handel's music remind
me most of Disney's Fantasia. I mean that in
the nicest possible way: he respects all the talents
involved, as Handel has respected Milton's great pastoral
odes which he set to music, indeed very much in the
same spirit as Handel. L'Allegro is admiring,
even worshipful, without being at all fawning. From
beginning to end, what's going on in the music reflects
what's going on in the text, and what's going on in
the dance is a glad response to the score.
full
article
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A
Dark Look at a Dark World
reviewed
by Rachel Howard
If
the revival of L’Allegro lulled us with known
comforts, the world premiere one week later caught us
off-guard with its foreignness and risk, and broken
violin strings proved the least of its treacheries.
All Fours, set to Bartok’s disturbing fourth
string quartet, is very unusual for Morris. So much
of Morris’ work carries the pedigree of high modernism,
and yet this new piece seems to channel the early 1930’s
classic modernism of Graham and (as far as I can deduce
not from first-hand viewing but from photos, reading,
and videos) especially Humphrey. An eight-person chorus
in black buzzes anxiously about the stage, stalking
like birds of prey, raising hands in desperate prayer
above heads. They are not, as in so many Morris dances,
a group of individuals, but a mass, the faceless force
of society itself. Their echelons and their faintly
beatnik attire and especially the way they strike strident
poses on the music’s harsh chords—arms held with clenched
fists, one hand covering ear with the other held as
if to keep an evil force at bay—speak from a different
age.
full
article
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Shapeshifting
from Siberia
International
Arts Festival
in conjunction with the San Francisco World Music Festival
Ancestors
of Siberia, part one
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Friday, September 12, 2003
reviewed
by Ann Murphy
It
ís rare to be sent hurtling over distant grasslands
and vast mountain spaces during a performance, but Friday
nightís quietly sublime, deeply humble concert,
Ancestors of Siberia (part one), tossed
the audience into a world of open land, forests, volcanoes,
and a menagerie of animal life. Like any serious cross-cultural
experience, it echoed back to us how particular our
own cultural expressions are. Ballet,or the hip hop
festival taking place next door at the Forum, are our
folk art, the echoes underscored, and although they
go by other names, we too have shamans. We call them
therapists.
The shamans Friday came from Tuva, Kamchatka, Altai
and other places scattered around the vast Asiatic lands
of Siberia, which extend from Ural Mountains to the
Pacific Ocean. But as much as geography linked them,
it was their shared relationship to nature, from the
weight of snow and mud, to the wind and the spirit of
animals, which bound them far more deeply than their
joint inclusion in the land north of China.
.
. .As only Meredith Monk can do in song and virtually
no contemporary dancemaker does in dance in the West,
these artists recreated the natural world as both a
place of human and animal habitat and a realm of large,
mysterious and animate spirit forces.
full
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copyright
2003 by danceviewwest
page last
updated on
October 8, 2003
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what's on this week
September 15-21 |
SEPT 17:
QUASAR DANCE COMPANY
The San Francisco International Arts Festival presents
this Brazilian company, led by choreographer Henrique
Rodovahlo, in “Lend Me Your Eyes,” an exploration of
grief.
Sept. 17, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater,
700 Howard St., San Francisco, (415) 978-2787, www.SFIntlArtsFest.org.
SEPT 18: AKRAM KHAN COMPANY
The San Francisco International Arts Festival powers
onward with the Kathak-trained Khan, from Britain. His
company dances “Kaash” (“What If”), bridging contemporary
and classical Indian dance.
Sept. 18, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater,
700 Howard St., San Francisco, (415) 978-2787, www.SFIntlArtsFest.org.
SEPT 18: THE RED SHOES
Film critic David Thompson introduces a special screening
of the classic ballet film starring Moira Shearer.
Sept. 18, 7:30pm, Castro Theater, 429 Castro St., San
Francisco, (415) 621-6120.
SEPT 19: COMPAGNIE SALIA NI SEYDOU
The San Francisco International Arts Festival
doesn’t let up. Tonight, this West African company gives
the Bay Area premiere of “Figninto” (“The Torn Eye”),
drawing on traditional African music and dance as well
as contemporary choreography.
Sept. 19, 8pm, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater,
700 Howard St., San Francisco, (415) 978-2787, www.SFIntlArtsFest.org.
SEPT 20-21: CIRCO ZERO
Another SF International Arts Fest presentation, this
time of local talent. Keith Hennessy, once a key member
of Sara Shelton Mann’s Contraband, has run away to a
very different kind of circus. His troupe marries the
spectacle of aerial arts, acrobatics, and other stunts
with serious social, political, and emotional themes.
Their new show is titled “A Cabaret of Danger and Compassion.”
Sept. 20, 8pm, Sept. 21, 7pm, Yerba Buena Center for
the Arts Forum, 701 Mission St., San Francisco, (415)
978-2787, www.CircoZero.org.
—Rachel
Howard
Calendar
Listings source courtesy of IN DANCE, a FREE monthly
publication of Dancers' Group at http://www.dancersgroup.org
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