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The DanceView Times, New York edition

      Volume 2,  Number 9    March 1, 2004           An online supplement to DanceView magazine

Letter from New York

1 March 2004.
Copyright © 2004 by Mindy Aloff

Anyone interested in the art of directing a dance company would benefit from seeing the Disney movie Miracle, about the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team—a group of young amateurs who, coached by a genius named Herb Brooks, came from apparently nowhere to fight their way to the top, en route beating the “unbeatable” Soviets in the semifinals, ultimately winning the gold medal, and thereby proving themselves heroes and agents of momentary yet profound joy to a country demoralized by economic recession, the hostage crisis in the Middle East, the sky-high cost of fossil fuel, and other assorted woes.
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read past Letters


A Bevy of Beauties at New York City Ballet

A Veteran and a Raw Talent

The Sleeping Beauty
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
February 24, 28, 2004

by Mindy Aloff

copyright 2004 by Mindy  Aloff
published 1 March 2004

This week, reviewing NYCB’s production of The Sleeping Beauty on his Saturday WQXR-FM radio spot (6 p.m.), Francis Mason observed that when Margot Fonteyn took New York by storm with her Aurora in The Royal Ballet’s production at the Old Met in 1949, she had already been dancing the role for ten years. It’s a point well taken. As Boris Lermontov observes in The Red Shoes, one cannot produce a rabbit from a hat if there is not already a rabbit in the hat. On the other hand, Ninette de Valois was producing an Aurora who, by a number of accounts, had the right sensibility and temperament for the role from the beginning.
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Heart and Soul

The Sleeping Beauty
New York City Ballet
New York State Theater
February 18, 29, 2004

by Mary Cargill
copyright 2004 by Mary Cargill
published 1 March 2004

If, as Walter Pater wrote, “all art constantly aspires to the condition of music”, then it seems that all Balanchine’s ballets aspire to the condition of The Sleeping Beauty, so it was fitting that the New York City Ballet performed it as the final offering of its Balanchine Heritage season. Peter Martins’ Beauty is not perfect, but it has many beautiful elements. However, it was set before the Kirov revived as much of the 1890 original as they could reconstruct. Their version, as close as this world will probably ever come to seeing the ballet that transfixed Balanchine, has a luxurious expansiveness, a rich variety, and a moral seriousness that later versions, however fine, lack.
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Kid Stuff

If You Go Down To the Woods Today
Cas Public
New Victory Theater
New York, NY
February 28, 2004

by Susan Reiter
copyright 2004 by Susan Reiter
published 23 February 2004

Performances such as this, which are designed for what's called the "family audience," are certainly best evaluated by attending with a child of the appropriate age. This 45-minute offering by the Montreal-based troupe Cas Public seems aimed at the eight-and-under set, and I did not have such a companion along whose reaction to gage. The matinee audience was loaded with kids who seemed eager and attentive, and laughed at the appropriate places. From an adult perspective, the piece was heavy on the talk and limited in its movement interest.
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What's On This Week?

Balanchine 100th Birthday Events:

March 2-March 7 (Opened December 6)
A Celebration of George Balanchine:
Selected Television Work
George Balanchine took full advantage of the advent of television, and many of his greatest works - and performances of his dancers - have been captured on video. In this 100th-year anniversary of the great choreographer's birthday, The Museum of Television & Radio presents a series of showings of some incredible footage. The ninth and final installment, shown from 3/1-7, is called, Collaborations with Stravinsky From programs telecast in 1982 and 1983, Orpheus (Martins, Lüders, von Aroldingen), Agon (Watts, Tomlinson, et al.), and Variations for Orchestra (Farrell); and a 1969 CBC telecast of Apollo (Martins, Farrell, Morris, von Aroldingen). (1969­83; 120 minutes) Screening Times: Tuesdays to Sunday at 12:30 pm Evening Screenings:
Thursdays at 6pm The Museum of Television & Radio 25 West
52 Street 212-621-6800

March 2-April 24 (Opened December 10)
The Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine
A multi-media exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Balanchine. It features photographs, designs, manuscript music and correspondence, costumes, set pieces, and models, along with showings of videotaped performances and rehearsals. On 3/4 at 6pm, Charles M. Joseph gives a lecture, Poetry in Motion: Stravinsky and Balanchine's Musical Bond.

The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Donald and Mary
Oenslager Gallery 40 Lincoln Center Plaza 212-870-1630

March 7-8
Works&Process

American Ballet Theatre and Pacific Northwest Ballet dancers perform excerpts from two George Balanchine ballets. Maria Tallchief coaches excerpts from Firebird and discusses how the ballet set a new standard for female technique. Melissa Hayden analyzes and coaches Donizetti Variations.
At 8pm.
Guggenheim Museum
5th Avenue at 89th Street
212-423-3587

Ballet and Dance Events:

March 1
Movement Research at the Judson Church

This week's forum for experimentation and works-in-progress features
Jennifer Monson and Guy Yarden, Renee Archibald and Daryl Owens, and Jeremy Wade. At 8pm
55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street
212-539-2611

March 1
Dancers Forum Meeting

A discussion titled How is Dance Taught and Learned Around the World? Dixon Place 258 Bowery between Prince and Houston Streets, second
floor

March 1-March 7
If You Go Down to the Woods Today

Cas Public
Five dancers provoke and protect one another in six different stories,
from the silly to the startling.
The New Victory Theater
209 West 42nd Street
646-223-3020

March 2-7
Armitage Gone! Dance

The punk rock ballerina from the 1980s,
Karole Armitage stages her evening-length work, Time, is the echo of 
the axe within a wood. This high velocity work deftly fuses languages of music and movement - ballet, yoga, improv and vogueing, with music of Bela Bartok, Gavin Bryars, Annie Gosfield and Charles Ives. David Salle did the design, Clifton Taylor the lighting and Peter Speliopoulos of Donna Karan the costumes. 3/2-5 at 8pm, 3/6 at 2pm and 8pm, 3/7 at 2pm and 7:30pm.
The Joyce Theater 175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St. 212-242-0880 www.joyce.
org

March 2-14
Paul Taylor Dance Company

One of the world's finest dance companies presents its annual season - two weeks of six decades of work by Paul Taylor, including the New York premieres of the Genesis-inspired In The Beginning and Le Grand Puppetier and revivals of such masterworks as Airs, Aureole, Piazzolla Caldera and Sunset. Also on the schedule are last year's hits Promethean Fire and Dream Girls. 3/2 at 7pm, 3/3-5 at 8pm, 3/6 at 2 pm, 8pm, 3/7 at 2pm, 6pm.

March 3, 4 and 12, 13
Karl Anderson and Kate Wear
e
A Picture and a Thousand Words
A shared double bill in which Anderson's Embracing Nothingness, Squint to Focus
and Intercourse (in a collaboration with Weare) is performed. Weare premieres three new works, a duet with dance partner Melanie Maar and two intertwined solos titled Dirt. At 7pm.
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues

March 3
Never End
Nicholas Leichter Dance
The 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Project continues with Leichter's Never End and Skin Diving - works that fuse contemporary modern dance with hip-hop, jazz and street dance. The Duke on 42nd Street 229 West 42nd Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenues 212-239-6200

March 4-March 6 (Opened January 15)
Wow Moves Dance Fest
The festival closes with three weeks of Slain, a multidisciplinary dance piece which explores female orgasm, hysteria, and being slain in the spirit. Dora Arreola choreographs and Andrea Assaf and Arreola co-direct this new work, conceived and created by Parker Pracjek. At 8 pm.
Wow Cafe Theater
59-61 East 4th Street between Bowery and Second Avenue
4th Floor
212-777-4280

March 4-6 (through March 13)
Streb SLAM
Elizabeth Streb and Action Faction will perform new and repertory
works. At 7pm.
51 North First Street
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-384-6491

March 4-7
Sally Gross and Company

An evening of three new works. A HA, a trio, has a sound score by Bruce Gremo based on a text by the choreographer. If They Were, a duet, will have music by Somei Satoh and a solo (untitled) will have a
score by Dan Evans Farkas. Dancing with Gross will be Jamie Di Mare, Tonya Meding and Gabriela Simon.
Joyce Soho
155 Mercer Street between Houston and Prince Streets
212-334-7479

March 4-7
Anita Cheng Dance

Open Order, an evening of work by Anita Cheng, features the premiere
of Truel and dancers Meg Harper and Victoria Lundell.
St. Mark's Church in the Bowery
Second Avenue at 10th Street
212-674-8194

March 5, 6
Barcelona in 48 Hours

A collaboration between choreographer David Zambrano, photgrapher
Anja Hitzenberger and composer Edward Ratliff. At 7pm.
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues

— 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

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