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.
read letter
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.
read review
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.
read review
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.
read review
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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 Weare
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
|
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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