Contrast Dance Theatre

Café Music For Piano Trio
Performed at Symphony Space
Reviewed on 04/10/05
by Celeste Sunderland

Dance performances that include live musicians are vastly more powerful than dance performances in which prerecorded music is transmitted through speakers. Similarly, music concerts that incorporate dance expand the experience by offering a visual stimulus, as well as a translation of the music through bodily movement. The chamber music group America's Dream Chamber Artists mixed mediums at their “Inaugural Season Finale” by inviting Contrast Dance Theatre artistic director Christopher Fleming to choreograph a new ballet to composer Paul Schoenfield's Café Music for Piano Trio. The chamber group performed Francis Poulenc's Sextet for Winds and Piano and Mozart's Concerto in C Major for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, K. 299, before a small table, topped by a red rose and a glass of wine, was dragged out onto the corner of the stage to give a hint of a restaurant setting for Café Music. Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim, cellist Arash Amini, and pianist Melissa Marse took their places by the table and, leaving behind Mozart's 18th-century Europe, launched into Schoenfield's 1980s America. As the trio played the jazz- and ragtime-infused piece, eight dancers bustled onstage in colorful, sequin-specked costumes. Performed in three short movements, the ballet lacked a clear narrative. It appeared to deal loosely with the relationships between men and women, but Fleming seemed more concerned with displaying his dancers' enthusiastic spirit than with communicating a message. Combining ballet, jazz, and modern dance, the performance featured a slew of saucy characters. One female dancer threw a leg up over a male dancer's shoulder as he picked her up and twirled her around; another was carried offstage kicking. Dancers en pointe, in second position, withered melodramatically like sun-stroked daisies. The sensational moments, such as when a man flipped a woman backwards over his shoulder, placed her down on the stage, then helped her into a one-armed back walkover, were interesting to watch, but the fantastic, high-energy choreography eventually highlighted a lack of precision. These dancers flowed over with pizzazz, but fell short when it came to classical technique. Still, the essence of a Broadway show gushed through each dramatic flip of the wrist, each sensational acrobatic stunt.

Artistic excellence? ***
Was it entertaining? ***
Was it inventive? **
Was it healing? **

(Updated on 04/28/06)

ABT

Performed at the City Center
Reviewed on 10/4/04
by Tamsin Nutter

American Ballet Theatre’s annual City Center season is upon us once again, a chance for the company to present a bevy of short works ranging from old to new (October 19–November 6). Last fall I saw the ABT dancers perform three works that seemed to offer a quick overview of the evolution of modern ballet: Balanchine’s Mozartiana, Christopher Wheeldon’s VIII, and Jiri Kylian’s Sinfonietta. Of the three, Kylian’s strange and lovely 1970s-era work seemed both the most contemporary, and the most timeless.

Balanchine’s Mozartiana preserves its graceful clarity and simplicity, an illustration of the unfussy charm of Mozart’s music. Veronika Part gave a ravishing, ecstatic performance of the “Preghiera” solo. That glowing interiority, however, served her less well in the “Theme and Variations” duet with Maxim Beloserkovsky, in which the pair exhibited little connection and Part looked down too much. The quick footwork, too, is not really her forte. Playful, precise footwork is exactly the forte of Herman Cornejo, however, whose joyous, sprightly performance of the “Gigue” solo was an unalloyed pleasure.

Today’s generation was represented by Wheeldon in VIII, an ambitious piece about Henry VIII (Angel Corella) and two of his wives, Katherine of Aragon (Paloma Herrera) and Anne Boleyn (Julie Kent). Although lacking the conceptual unity of the other pieces, VIII forays into an intriguingly surrealist, cinematic mode of storytelling, and Henry and each of his wives engage in some beautiful, strange partnering (although occasionally the contortions look undignified instead of interesting). Wheeldon gives the “modern” moments a shade too much emphasis, and his patterns remain staid. But the corps has some wonderful movement passages, organic and quirky, and it’s nice to see ballet dancers descend, even awkwardly, to the floor.

In the beautiful, plotless Sinfonietta, Kylian plays deftly with patterns and movement dynamics, and yet the result is wonderfully humanist. As befits a great work of art, movement, music, backdrop, and costumes feel indivisible. The orchestra’s brass section flanked the stage apron, so that Janacek’s spine-tingling music, a golden cacophony of trumpets and trombones, seemed to echo off the rolling hills of Walter Nobbe’s gorgeous backdrop. A swirling community of men and women ran, leaped, and hit the floor, punctuating the large-scale patterns with bewitchingly unexpected little gestures: a bow of the head, a hand drawn in slow motion across the eyes. The ABT dancers enjoyed themselves, but most were too soft or too blank; they needed a touch more angularity or harshness. But no matter. Sinfonietta is lushly romantic, yet skewed—familiar, yet strange—striking a perfect balance, it seemed to me, between ballet’s past and future.

Artistic excellence? ****
Was it entertaining? ***
Was it inventive? ****
Was it healing? ***

(Updated on 10/25/05)

Contrast Dance Theatre

Café Music For Piano Trio
Performed at Symphony Space
Reviewed on 04/10/05
by Celeste Sunderland

Dance performances that include live musicians are vastly more powerful than dance performances in which prerecorded music is transmitted through speakers. Similarly, music concerts that incorporate dance expand the experience by offering a visual stimulus, as well as a translation of the music through bodily movement. The chamber music group America's Dream Chamber Artists mixed mediums at their “Inaugural Season Finale” by inviting Contrast Dance Theatre artistic director Christopher Fleming to choreograph a new ballet to composer Paul Schoenfield's Café Music for Piano Trio. The chamber group performed Francis Poulenc's Sextet for Winds and Piano and Mozart's Concerto in C Major for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, K. 299, before a small table, topped by a red rose and a glass of wine, was dragged out onto the corner of the stage to give a hint of a restaurant setting for Café Music. Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim, cellist Arash Amini, and pianist Melissa Marse took their places by the table and, leaving behind Mozart's 18th-century Europe, launched into Schoenfield's 1980s America. As the trio played the jazz- and ragtime-infused piece, eight dancers bustled onstage in colorful, sequin-specked costumes. Performed in three short movements, the ballet lacked a clear narrative. It appeared to deal loosely with the relationships between men and women, but Fleming seemed more concerned with displaying his dancers' enthusiastic spirit than with communicating a message. Combining ballet, jazz, and modern dance, the performance featured a slew of saucy characters. One female dancer threw a leg up over a male dancer's shoulder as he picked her up and twirled her around; another was carried offstage kicking. Dancers en pointe, in second position, withered melodramatically like sun-stroked daisies. The sensational moments, such as when a man flipped a woman backwards over his shoulder, placed her down on the stage, then helped her into a one-armed back walkover, were interesting to watch, but the fantastic, high-energy choreography eventually highlighted a lack of precision. These dancers flowed over with pizzazz, but fell short when it came to classical technique. Still, the essence of a Broadway show gushed through each dramatic flip of the wrist, each sensational acrobatic stunt.

Artistic excellence? ***
Was it entertaining? ***
Was it inventive? **
Was it healing? **

(Updated on 04/28/06)

Big Apple Circus

Picturesque
Performed at the Damrosch Park, Lincoln Center
Reviewed on 10/23/04
by Tamsin Nutter

Autumn is upon us in New York, bringing crisp, bright days and the desire to bake apple pies. For New Yorkers of all ages, autumn also brings the Big Apple Circus, which each year raises the Big Top in Lincoln Center. This year’s show, Grandma Goes to Hollywood (October 20–January 8), promises to “bring the celluloid dreams of the silver screen into the circus ring!” If last year’s Picturesque is anything to go by, don’t miss it.

2003’s Carnevale, the theme of which lent itself well to exuberant movement, music, and costumes, linked its disparate acts very effectively. 2004’s Picturesque, which dedicated each act to a famous artist inspired by the circus (Picasso, Magritte, Toulouse-Lautrec, etc.), proved less thematically coherent, yet still offered plenty of laughter and thrills.

Big Apple Circus’s MVP remains Grandma, the inspired creation of clown Barry Lubin. Grandma, in pearls and a housedress, is like a gray-wigged Lucy Ricardo, eager to try anything, from juggling to playing the tuba. The kids adore her (and they’re not the only ones). Grandma’s opposite in both Carnevale and Picturesque was Vallery Serebryakov, a malign Dennis the Menace in a striped shirt. These two performers are worth their weight in gold.

That’s not to say the clowns carried Picturesque unaided. Notable among the show’s acts was the effervescent Picaso Jr., a man with a gift not merely for physical comedy, but for juggling five table-tennis balls at a time using just his mouth. Another highlight was Svetlana Shamsheeva’s trained animals. The dogs and birds were delightful, but the cats really brought down the house. An army of fluffy Persians—natural acrobats to a feline—rode on dogs, carried white doves, and shinned up thirty-foot poles on command. Also a hit was the Chinese vase balancing act of GuiMing Meng, who spun, balanced, and tossed increasingly enormous and heavy ceramic pots on and from his forehead.

The acrobatics were generally less exciting than in Carnevale. Safety ropes seemed all too visible, and I missed the storytelling aspect which made many of the previous year’s acts so delightful. The exception, for sheer awe-inspiring tricks, was the Kovgar Troupe. Chagall backdrops seemed quite unnecessary to people doing multiple flips while wearing stilts.

Some of the art-historical references, such as the strobe lights and industrial smoke of “Constructivist Trapeze,” did not suit the circus’s giddy aesthetic. And a recurring bit with ringmaster Dinny McGuire attempting to chat up some Degas ballerinas was too undeveloped (not surprisingly, since it’s a bit inappropriate for the audience) to be funny. But McGuire’s art history lecture turned (somehow) into Grandma lipsynching “Unforgettable” as a duet with an unfortunate audience member. Genius.

Artistic excellence? ***
Was it entertaining? ****
Was it inventive? ***
Was it healing? ***

(Updated on 10/25/05)

Myung Soo Kim

Arirang: Korean Ritual Solos
Performed at the Dance Theatre Workshop
Reviewed on 7/9/2005
by R.Pikser

Arirang, although an indefinable term, according to the notes accompanying Myung Soo Kim’s program of seven shamanic solos, represents feelings known to most people. It is the name of a hill with a sad history of deaths; it is the name of a song of farewell and separation; it is a feeling of arrival in a new place; and it represents the personal journey of Ms. Kim as conduit to the past and present-day persecuted political artist. (During most of the 1990s, Ms. Kim lived abroad as a political refugee because her visits to North Korea had violated South Korean law. The South Korean government pardoned her in 1998.)

The presentation of the evening was impeccable, the stage set with clouds of floating butterflies and pools of lotus flowers, all beautifully lit by Erik C. Bruce. Ms. Kim was seen through a narrow opening of the upstage black curtain sewing a costume which then flew into the air, where it hovered throughout the evening. She then lay down to rest surrounded by live trees arranged in delicate perspective. When she arose, she donned her first costume, privately singing to a recording, but in partial view. Ms. Kim returned to this semi-private world before each of the seven dances that composed the evening, and we could watch her don the many-layered costume for each dance, always accompanied by music.

Each of the costumes was specific to its dance, several of which involved the exorcism of evil spirits, and another, prayers for prosperity. The program notes were filled with information on the history and meaning of each dance, yet, to the untrained eye, the dances were similar in movement. This probably stems from their very shamanic origins. Dance meant to transform the dancer/shaman, or to relate that dancer/shaman to the powers of the universe, is not necessarily presentationally interesting. Ms. Kim has worked hard to undercut this problem. The degree to which she has succeeded depends on the viewer. What is not viewer-dependent is the importance of Ms. Kim in maintaining these ancient traditions and bringing them to Korea, North and South, and to the rest of the world.

Artistic excellence? *****
Was it entertaining? ***
Was it inventive? ****
Was it healing? ***

(Updated on 10/20/05)

New York City Ballet

An American in Paris
Performed at the New York State Theatre
Reviewed on 5/10/2005
by Celeste Sunderland

Little girls dressed like Madeline scurried after a nun, Tour de France bikers dashed across the stage, and young lovers in bright green and purple satin coquetted all through Christopher Wheeldon’s new ballet An American in Paris. The New York City Ballet Orchestra splayed the bombastic, jubilant, pomp of George Gershwin’s score against a backdrop of Parisian apartment buildings tilted askew, as principal dancers Damian Woetzel, Carla Körbes, and Jenifer Ringer festooned the ballet with a big dash of Hollywood glam.

Ringer danced with cheerful innocence, perfectly portraying a lovelorn ingénue of the 1950s. The splashy scenery and frenzied cross-stage movement, as townsfolk dashed here and there, distracted from the individual excellence of the dancers. But Ringer and Woetzel’s duets gleamed with the free-spirited, eager ambition of young love.

Though the short ballet lacked the emotional depth and dramatic undercurrents of a lasting work, Wheeldon provided a sweet, happy piece that offered a glimpse into the Technicolor vibrancy of post-war Paris.

Earlier in the program, Peter Boal and Wendy Whelan danced a riveting Distant Cries, choreographed by Edwaard Liang, that gushed with pure grace. The dreamlike piece began with Whelan alone downstage, in a filmy light-blue costume that flowed around her body with every movement. As the notes of a flute sounded, Boal ran out from the darkness and lifted her. The duo danced together with the passion of illicit lovers, releasing their inhibitions as privacy protected them.

Darci Kistler, Sofiane Sylve, and Miranda Weese all fawned about Jock Soto as the retiring principal, renowned for his partnering, had his pick during the new Peter Martins ballet Tala Gaisma. Peteris Vasks’s music for violin and string quartet rushed around the modernly outfitted dancers as the choreography nudged them into gorgeous poses that bragged of extreme flexibility and precision. Moving through the brisk, fiery passages, the women resembled flames, as the strip of red in their flesh-colored costumes coiled around their bodies during streams of chainé turns. As Soto paired up with each female dancer in turn, he seemed unaware of all else while the duet lasted.

A mirror to Tala Gaisma, both in personnel and with its theme of the male hero, George Balanchine’s Apollo, with music by Igor Stravinsky, opened the evening. With simple, all-white costumes, and stark, civil choreography, the piece was a solid anchor to a night of new works. Nilas Martins, Alexandra Ansanelli, Ashley Bouder, and Rachel Rutherford danced with the gracious bravado of Greek gods.

(Updated on 9/20/05)

Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company

The 35th Anniversary Celebration Performance
Performed at The Kaye Playhouse
Reviewed on 3/31/2005
by Celeste Sunderland

An abundance of characters flashed through the Saeko Ichinohe Dance Company’s performance last March at the Kaye Playhouse, the most endearing of which bore human traits but were strangely foreign in one way or another. They represented concrete ideas through abstract expression, much like Ichinohe’s choreography as a whole.

Celebrating the company’s 35th anniversary, Ichinohe celebrated the present, with the premiere of a new piece for four female dancers, Pearl; the past, with the performance of five pieces from her repertoire; and the future, with a new work by the American choreographer Jeff Moen.

Though Pearl, “a prayer for peace and harmony in honor of those who have lost their lives by terrorist attack and by natural disasters,” succeeded in its embodiment of serenity, it lacked dynamic variation. Simplicity remained a force throughout the piece. Often accompanied by a lone violin, the dancers, in fluid white costumes, moved cleanly and classically, occasionally resembling the three graces.

In contrast to Pearl, Fire-Eating Bird, which premiered in 1966, excited with vibrant costuming and dramatic choreography. Dancer Katie Higham-Kessler appeared on stage like a stealth lizard, serpentine in a fantastic bodysuit from which a strip of red fabric streamed from her neck down her torso and spilled out in accordion pleats between her legs. Transforming into a speed racer, she crouched low, long limbs outstretched, while jagged electronic music shattered around her.

In the fascinating Head, from 1984, four dancers became mutilated creatures residing in a surreal world. They moved with angular, disjointed motions; shoulders popped in and out awkwardly, resembling the movements of chickens. One dancer’s hip seemed stuck for a moment, as she grabbed her thigh and hobbled about. A visually stunning ending occurred as dancers ambled out with their backs to the audience, heads bowed, and placed their wrists against the crowns of their heads so that a hand seemed to grow from the neck. Ichinohe’s Duet from Yuki (Snow) and Dew of Hagi were also performed as part of the section denoting the past.

Beautiful choreography that brought to mind images of nature made up Dreams Wandering Over a Withered Field, a new work by the American choreographer Jeff Moen. Inspired by the Japanese poet Basho, Moen’s dreamlike movements resembled sea grass billowing beneath the ocean; the dancers appeared as if in a trance. A magnetism exuded from the stage, as dancers seemed lured to a mysteriously enthralling staff that filled everyone who touched it with bliss.

(Updated on 9/20/05)

Contrast Dance Theatre

Café Music For Piano Trio
Performed at Symphony Space
Reviewed on 4/10/2005
by Celeste Sunderland

Dance performances that include live musicians are vastly more powerful than dance performances in which prerecorded music is transmitted through speakers. Similarly, music concerts that incorporate dance expand the experience by offering a visual stimulus, as well as a translation of the music through bodily movement. The chamber music group America’s Dream Chamber Artists mixed mediums at their “Inaugural Season Finale” by inviting Contrast Dance Theatre artistic director Christopher Fleming to choreograph a new ballet to composer Paul Schoenfield’s Café Music for Piano Trio.

The chamber group performed Francis Poulenc’s Sextet for Winds and Piano and Mozart’s Concerto in C Major for Flute, Harp, and Orchestra, K. 299, before a small table, topped by a red rose and a glass of wine, was dragged out onto the corner of the stage to give a hint of a restaurant setting for Café Music. Violinist Cyrus Beroukhim, cellist Arash Amini, and pianist Melissa Marse took their places by the table and, leaving behind Mozart’s 18th-century Europe, launched into Schoenfield’s 1980s America. As the trio played the jazz- and ragtime-infused piece, eight dancers bustled onstage in colorful, sequin-specked costumes.

Performed in three short movements, the ballet lacked a clear narrative. It appeared to deal loosely with the relationships between men and women, but Fleming seemed more concerned with displaying his dancers’ enthusiastic spirit than with communicating a message. Combining ballet, jazz, and modern dance, the performance featured a slew of saucy characters. One female dancer threw a leg up over a male dancer’s shoulder as he picked her up and twirled her around; another was carried offstage kicking. Dancers en pointe, in second position, withered melodramatically like sun-stroked daisies. The sensational moments, such as when a man flipped a woman backwards over his shoulder, placed her down on the stage, then helped her into a one-armed back walkover, were interesting to watch, but the fantastic, high-energy choreography eventually highlighted a lack of precision. These dancers flowed over with pizzazz, but fell short when it came to classical technique. Still, the essence of a Broadway show gushed through each dramatic flip of the wrist, each sensational acrobatic stunt.

(Updated on 9/20/05)

Richmond Ballet


Performed at The Joyce Theater
Reviewed on 4/05/2005
by Joan Musaro

In her 25 years as artistic director, Stoner Winslett has forged the Richmond Ballet into an organization that brings classical ballet to the state of Virginia, enriches the lives of children through outreach programs, and fosters new choreography while preserving ballet’s classics. For their first appearance in New York, the troupe, Virginia’s designated state ballet company, offered programs of works created on the Richmond Ballet and never before seen in New York, an ambitious venture by any standards.

From the first bars of the familiar tango music of Astor Piazzolla, it was clear why the company has attracted choreographers. The artists are accomplished both technically and theatrically, displaying charm, sophistication, and beauty. Nuevo Tango, by choreographer William Soleau, who has several ballets in Richmond’s repertory, captured the drama, sensuality, and playfulness of Piazzolla’s music while still using the style and technique of classical dance. Soleau’s pas de deux evoked the tango, rather than attempting to have ballerinas literally do the tango en pointe, a trap too many choreographers fall into. The brightly lit stage, glowing with reds and oranges, became a nightclub; the dancers manipulated barstools into various lines and configurations, incorporating them into their dances, suggesting the atmosphere of an Argentine dancehall. This piece proved a good introduction to the skills and charm of the dancers.

Jessica Lang’s A Maiden’s Hymn, set to Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” string quartet, followed. This work presented Richmond Ballet’s dramatic skills as the familiar story of the music was enacted through dance. A young woman, too soon chosen by death, mourns her fate as her friends and beloved try to protect and save her. She is comforted and helped to make the transition from this life to the next, but Death proves determined. Jenna McClintock was touching and strong as the maiden, showing us her torment and sorrow at leaving her sweetheart behind, and her male colleagues offered excellent support. Ms. Lang told the story well within a minimal setting through movement alone.

The best was saved for last as the punked-up dancers, in street clothes, combat boots, tattoos, and wild hair, danced in the streets in Streets and Legends, an athletic display of ballet and hip-hop meant as a salute to contemporary Scotland. The music of Alistair Fraser and Ashley MacIsaac combines modern electric fiddle rock with hints of traditional Scottish music and provides English choreographer Colin Connor with the perfect sound for his salute to the spirit, heritage, humor, and defiance of Scottish youth. The dancers were ferocious, able to let loose and throw themselves into the modern ballet movements. This was a rousing end to a terrific display by very accomplished and entertaining dancers.

(Updated on 9/20/05)

Photo: KPMAssociates

Les Ballets Grandiva


Performed at Symphony Space
Reviewed on 4/14/2005
by Joan Musaro

In the theater world, an ancient history exists of men performing female roles. In recent times, audiences have come to appreciate the spectacle of men dancing as female prima ballerinas, complete with tiaras, tutus, and toe shoes. Les Ballets Grandiva is “built” in this tradition: serious students of dance performing traditional ballet choreography, en pointe or not. Like their more familiar colleagues the Trockaderos, many of these men are quite accomplished in female roles, and many simply look like football players in drag—and that is half the fun.

The evening began with several old “war-horses,” traditional showstoppers from the classical repertory. Company director Victor Trevino staged Le Grande Pas De Quatre, after Perrot. To the familiar strains of Pugni, the Grandivas reinterpreted the roles originated by four of Romantic ballet’s most famous dancers: Taglioni, Cerrito, Grisi, and Grahn. Natalia Macabre (Brian Norris) struck just the right haughty tone as Taglioni, who, due either to seniority or a bad back, held herself above the others. The billowing skirts and appearance of lightness achieved by the Romantic ballerinas were approximated by these dancers as best they could, each trying to upstage the other to win audience approval.

The great bravura display that is Le Corsaire followed. This work, popularized in the west by Fonteyn and Nureyev, enabled the leading ballerina of the troupe to shine. Tatiana Deblockova is sensational. Looking every muscular inch a ballerina, her technical assurance and aplomb were brilliant as she executed the difficult choreography perfectly; she was well matched in the traditional steps by her partner, Momchil Mladenov. Ms. Deblockova’s alter ego, Bart De Block, has developed the ability to dance en pointe to such an extent that pointe roles have been created for him in traditional dance companies.

On a lighter note, the quaint humor and mischief of commedia dell’arte was enjoyable in Harlequinade. Tetsushi Segawa and Palomina Carrera (Camilo Rodriguez) demonstrated their technical assurance and understanding of the playful humor and romance of the period.

The pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet to the familiar Prokofiev score and the solo danced to Saint-Saëns’s The Dying Swan were less successful. The general technical ability of these dancers to perform en pointe is not as fully developed as it will be, and their attempts at humor were too heavy-handed in these pieces.

Finally, what made this evening unique and special was the world premiere of a new work, Semi-Precious Stones. This ballet takes its inspiration from the world of semi-precious gems, but emulates Balanchine’s Jewels, which had already claimed Emeralds, Rubies, and Diamonds. This dance is therefore left to celebrate the special beauty of Peridot, Garnets, and Zirconia. This alone is hilarious, and the dance itself is ingenious, often echoing the original with Balanchinian “walking” steps in “Peridot,” jazzy hip rotations in “Garnets,” and regal imperiousness setting the tone in “Zirconia.” The knowledgeable audience registered its approval as it recognized these key attributes. The dancers, because they performed the material with sincerity, were in general excellent, and the jokes, inherent in the choreography, were extremely well done. This is inspired work by choreographers Trevino, Marcus Galante, and Peter Anastos respectively and is destined to become a company classic.

(Updated on 9/16/05)

Photo: Members of Washington Reflections Dance Company. Photo courtesy of the Dance Institute of Washington.

Washington Reflections Dance Company


Performed at Dance Theater Workshop
Reviewed on 6/25/2005
by R. Pikser

Fifteen years ago, Fabian Barnes, a former soloist with Dance Theatre of Harlem, founded the Dance Institute of Washington, an organization serving inner-city children. The DIW has been celebrated by Presidents Bush I and Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, CNN, and the Today Show, and the list of Mr. Barnes’s board members and supporters shows how well connected he is in the D.C. arts world. It was all the more disappointing, then, to see the low level of choreography chosen by Mr. Barnes for the talented dancers of the DIW’s professional company, Washington Reflections, to perform.

Of the six pieces presented, only the two by the gifted Thaddeus Davis showed disciplined work on the part of the choreographer. Mr. Davis, in addition to his ample creativity, appears to have studied composition; he knows how to place his dancers on the stage, how to move them from place to place, and how to juxtapose groups and have them interact. He also makes, or perhaps allows, his dancers to look good.

The final ballet of the evening, Spoken Word, choreographed by company member Derrick Spear, was an example of the need for mentoring. Mr. Spear, pastiching snippets of speeches by the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and laying these over or under the music by Arvo Pärt, seemed to understand neither the import of the words, beyond the most literal meaning, nor their historical context. One has to question the depth of his knowledge as to why Dr. King is celebrated. Surely, with some help from a trained and experienced choreographer, Mr. Spears could do better. The same must be said for the other choreographers on the program.

(Updated on 9/13/05)

Joyce Soho Presents


Performed at Joyce Soho
Reviewed on 5/6/05, 5/13/05, 5/20/05
by Tamsin Nutter

Emerging-choreographer showcases can range from hideous to sublime, yet they're also one of the great things about living in New York-a feeling of possibility, of discovery, makes the grab-bag exciting. In May the Joyce Soho held a three-weekend series of young choreographers that even turned up a few gems.

Technology, that alluring but tricky partner, informed several offerings, most notably in Abby Man-Yee Chan's enchanting, nightmarish Spectrum. The standout piece of the series, Spectrum was full of astonishing optical illusions (for which Akiyoshi Kitaoko is credited) and tiny, quirky gestures of Chan's expressive fingers, toes, and hips, magnified and defined by light and shadow. As Chan frolicked and made shadow pictures in the strange, fearsome world of Kevin Wu's video, a red bar shot across the screen, then pressed menacingly closer like a torture device of Dr. No's. Our heroine in white shrank away in terror-to awake in a path of digital moonlight. Other pieces dealt less successfully with Joyce Soho's low-tech environs, in particular Kiyoko Kashiwagi's endearingly weird but too elliptical Metamorphosis. Kashiwagi is a gifted mime, yet required more than Kazuhiro Soda's simple video to create an environment for her goggled, black-hooded character's antics. Nicole Wolcott's Render had the opposite problem: Here Bruna DeAraujo and Andrew Personette's digital visuals overwhelmed performer Naoko Kikuchi, so that her simple motions seemed in the end incidental.

Other promising voices included Cid Pearlman, the duo of Ori Flomin and Antonio Ramos, and Sunhwa Chung. Pearlman's Strange Toys was an off-kilter duet for Liz Hoefner and David King, to music by Kronos Quartet alumna Joan Jeanrenaud. The piece was a little too cute, and Pearlman seems more creative with gesture than with large movements, yet Strange Toys was also intriguingly disjunctive in quality-as if the dancers were reacting to things that hadn't happened, or that we couldn't see.

Flomin and Ramos, both veterans of the companies of Stephen Petronio, Kevin Wynn, and Neil Greenberg, performed the freaky Lost Before Found, accompanied by Jane Gabriels's mad, breathy spoken word, and almost dominated by Sam Glassman's psychosexual-Edward-Gorey set and costumes. The two men, clean, chunky movers both, shared an angry, sexual connection in their tense and tenuous partnering. Meanwhile, Gabriels waved her gauntlets with long twiggy fingers and moaned, half-laughed into the microphone, “I found you! We were lost a long time, but I found you…” The piece seemed an enticing snippet of still stranger journeys to come.

And Sunhwa Chung's It Doesn't Matter. It Already Happened proved disappointing simply because its first section was so good. Under a bamboo-patterned spotlight, Claire Malaquias, in long dark coat and knee-boots, executed a flurry of fierce, ritualistic gestures that seemed half martial arts, half hip-hop isolations. Her tai-chi precision and the clanging music, like a gamelan of pots and pans, sent chills up the spine. The following two sections, while handsome enough, were considerably less riveting.

All of the pieces presented had something to recommend them, even those that were less successful. Daniel Linehan's solo Digested Noise was briefly amusing-to hear an adult humming, gasping, sucking, and making a host of other noises in public-but the gimmick quickly palled given the paucity of the movement content. Stephanie Batten Bland's polished A little Piece of A part was too spatially weak to survive its affected air of apocalyptic ennui. Yet the piece, notable for its handsome, stylishly dressed band of Paris-based dancers, ended in an exceptionally lovely group structure. And while group sections were an unoriginal mess in Todd Williams's balletic Halfshadow, the beginning and end had nice moments-Williams, a veteran of both NYCB and Petronio, opened the piece with a solo of soft, attentive clarity.

Some dances displayed a gap between intention and present ability. Breezy Berryman's ambitious but repetitive Widow's Walk will doubtless be stronger when the dancers make it more their own. Near the end, Berryman did create chills as the women lifted the stiffly outstretched men shoulder-height; the men slid to the floor, and the women stood desolate as if over an open grave. In contrast, Sharon Estacio's well-rehearsed duet Undergrowth, an excerpt, was altogether smaller in scale yet nicely put together. Estacio and Lena Gilbert curled and swung lusciously across the floor, their siren-like slithering punctuated by tricky partnering and surprising twists. (One cavil: The any-old-thing costumes.)

The series ended with another piece setting itself a high benchmark, and almost hitting it: Janice Lancaster's frantic St. John's Wort, in which six brightly dressed dancers mugged it up to klezmer music. The piece needs tightening, but Lancaster does a lot of things well here. She deploys her dancers well in space, and she exploits beautifully klezmer's loopy, slightly sinister, and deeply infectious rhythms, melodies, and unexpected tempo changes. The dancers are a strong ensemble, even if some are presently better comedians than others. Well, comedy is hard. And it's always great to see choreographers and dancers unafraid to go after it.

(Updated on 8/4/05)

Photo: Marianne Leach

Ballet Builders
Ballet Builders 2005

Performed at
Reviewed on 4/10/05
by R. Pikser

Ballet Builders provides aspiring and more established choreographers with a venue in which to practice their craft and be seen. Six of the seven choreographers presented this year were experienced, and it was two of the most experienced who showed the freshness and spirit of exploration that one expects from this series.

Bonnie Scheibman's opener, Slow Dance, performed by a nervous Lydia Walker and a charmingly attentive Stephen Straub, blended ballroom and classical dance in a pleasingly classical structure. The piece was not groundbreaking, but well crafted and proportioned. Ms. Walker is lovely, but she should try to focus her eyes as she looks up and out as she has apparently been coached to do. At the moment, she tends to look a little lost.

Paul Vasterling, artistic director of the Nashville Ballet, presented Efimero, to a movement of Bach's Keyboard Concerto #3. Sadie Harris and Jon Upleger, simply and effectively costumed by Audrey Hyde, performed with a cool restraint, almost a detachment, that created a dramatic tension between their seeming lack of affect and the hyperemotional movements with much arching and flinging. The work could have done with a bit more dynamic structuring on the part of the dancers, but was still quite interesting, even disturbing.

Gina Patterson's No Defense was the gem of the evening. Ms. Patterson has a very personal rhythmic sense, so that movement attacks and transitions are slightly out of synchronization with what is normally done, yet not at all awkward. The movement itself, also just a little strange, demands attention and that we reconsider our expectations. The full range of dynamics is employed, whether in “Ship Without a Sea” in which a couple breaks up, or in “King & Queen,” juicily performed by Margot Brown with the able assistance of Jim Stein in a sort of Joys of Sex duo. Interestingly, “The Silent Night,” in which Ms. Patterson herself performed with Eric Midgley, was the least specific in its movements and, although the dancing was beautiful, the least memorable choreographically.

Ballet Builders has once again provided dance fans with some things to look at, some things to consider, and an opportunity to look at dance with fresh eyes, stimulating artistic sensibilities that may have become too comfortable.

(Updated on 8/4/05)

Photo: Damir Yusupov

The Bolshoi Ballet
The Pharaoh's Daughter

Performed at Metropolitan Opera House
Reviewed on 7/30/05
by Joan Musaro

In 1862, Marius Petipa presented The Pharaoh's Daughter, an exotic, five-hour extravaganza for over 400 dancers, at the Maryinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. A sensation, the ballet established Petipa's choreographic career. This summer, the Bolshoi Ballet chose to close their New York season with Pierre Lacotte's reconstruction of The Pharaoh's Daughter, premiered in Moscow in 2000. They saved the best for last.

Lacotte, a French dancer and choreographer, has made a career of reconstructing “lost” ballets. By researching original material, either written or first-hand accounts, he has succeeded in bringing many ballets back to life, perhaps most notably Taglioni's original La Sylphide. Petipa, another Frenchman who from 1869-1903 served as choreographer and ballet master of the Maryinsky Theater, left only sketchy notes on the choreography and designs for The Pharaoh's Daughter. Fortunately, one of Lacotte's teachers was Lubov Egorova, a dancer in the Russian Imperial Ballet during Petipa's time. She taught Lacotte all she remembered about the great master: how he taught and choreographed, how he wanted the arms to look, even a few variations. Lacotte decided to rechoreograph the ballet based upon his various sources of information, cutting its length and reshaping Pugni's score.

The results are spectacular. One can imagine how overwhelmed the ballet-going public must have been in 1862 by the Pharaoh's court, the mummies and tombs, the exquisite underwater scene, and the exotic jungle beasts. Lacotte also designed the Egyptian-motif sets and costumes, using the remaining documentation as a guide. The grand scale of the current production allows us to fully appreciate the grand, large-scale dancing and performance qualities of the Bolshoi artists. The processions, charming dances for children, and sustained classical variations for the men, women, and corps demonstrate their clear footwork, exquisite jumps and strong dramatic expressiveness. The choreography throughout is musical and inventive, exploiting the power of the dancers through meticulous, precise dancing, not simply bombast.

The women in the company are outstanding (the men are not as uniformly good). All have great placement, with wonderfully articulate feet and beautiful arms and hands. As, Aspicia, the Pharaoh's daughter, Svetlana Zakharova was exquisite. The beautiful woman with gloriously arched feet and sky-high extensions we first knew from the Kirov Ballet is now a creamy-smooth ballerina of great musicality, clarity, line, and touching dramatic depth. Ekaterina Krysanova, Ekaterina Shipulina, and Olga Stebletsova were magnificent in their respective solo variations as the rivers Guadalquivir, Congo, and Neva, with each receiving the appropriate ethnic and geographic accompaniment, perhaps the precursors of the national dances we have come to know in Petipa ballets. This was the entire Bolshoi at its expressive best. Bravo! Here's hoping the company returns soon.

(Updated on 8/3/05)

Sarah Edgar
Photo: Brian Novatny

Courtesan
Sarah Edgar/Dance

Performed at: Soundance at The Stable
Reviewed on 5/22/05
by R. Pikser

Sarah Edgar is a beginning choreographer, and like other beginners, she could do with a guiding hand. The idea for her work, Courtesan, is quite interesting: to explore the demi-monde of 18th- and 19th-century Europe using music of the time. The opening “Forlana,” danced with enchanting precision and nuance by Joy Havens and performed to Bach, was a reconstruction by Ms. Edgar of a baroque dance. The next piece, “Les caractères de la Boudoir” (sic), Ms. Edgar's own choreography to music of Rameau, was supposed to be titillating, as two women seduced each other, quarreled, then gave themselves to each other. Though certain gestures suggested the theme, most of the dance movements were generalized, repetitive, and neither sexy nor seductive. This criticism applies to the rest of the program. Ms. Edgar herself relies on her expressive eyes and face to the exclusion of the use of her body, except when she is performing actual baroque dances, when she is lovely. In her choreography, she relies on one or two gestures and has not learned to apply the precision and structure that baroque music and dance should have taught her during her time with the New York Baroque Dance Company. She has done her historical research. She has some interesting ideas. Now she needs to apply some choreographic discipline so that she and her dancers will shine consistently, rather than in brief flashes.

(Updated on 6/22/05)

Hecuba
The Royal Shakespeare Company


Performed at: The Brooklyn Academy of Music
Reviewed on 6/22/05
by Joan Musaro

War is hell. This was as true thousands of years ago as it is today. Euripedes play, Hecuba, written 2,500 years ago, describes the aftereffects of the Trojan Wars. British poet Tony Harrison wrote and directed this adaptation of the play, and the Royal Shakespeare Company gives a stark, minimal presentation that focuses on the presence of Vanessa Redgrave in the title role.

Hecuba, once Queen of Troy, loses everything. She survives and becomes a prisoner, with her surviving daughter, Polyxena. Without a husband and sons and no longer a queen, she is horrified to learn that the victorious Athenian army wishes further revenge by sacrificing her daughter too. Agonized, Hecuba must stand by and watch as her daughter willingly goes to her death preferring that it be her choice. Wracked with grief, Hecuba plots her revenge upon her captors.

Es Devlin’s set and costumes contribute an evocative atmosphere. The rows of tents that ring the stage serve as sentinels giving witness to the stark realities of life in a prison camp. The women of Troy, living in the tents and held captive with Hecuba, tell their story through sung recitation of the events that took place: the gory battles they witnessed, the pain, their suffering and the treachery that is war. It is clear immediately that the ancient tale still speaks loudly to a modern audience all too familiar with war.

Any appearance on the stage of Vanessa Redgrave is an occasion. Literally a larger than life figure, she is a tall woman with a shock of white hair and as Hecuba, is dressed in rags. Looking tired and haggard, her appearance is quite literally shocking. Figuratively too she is overwhelming, her suffering is palpable. However, the actress delivered her lines with a cadence that made them sound sung, and therefore, not necessarily logical. The accents in her speeches did not fall naturally, where they might have if merely spoken. Perhaps it was Mr. Harrison’s decision, as writer and director, to have sung verse be the method for the chorus of women and Ms. Redgrave to speak their lines. The evil men in the production did not do so, though one actor did have the distinct lilt of a Brooklyn accent. The disastrous consequences of war on women and children are starkly demonstrated, but the singsong quality of the performances undercut the emotional impact of the message. With Ms. Redgrave, the stilted way she delivered her lines also often rendered her inaudible. One looks to The Royal Shakespeare Company for exemplary spoken performances, and so this aspect of an otherwise effective production was a disappointment.

Artistic excellence? ***
Entertainment? ***
Inventiveness? ***
Healing power? ***

(Updated on 9/16/05)

photo: Het Laagland's production of King A

King A
The New Victory Theater


Performed at: The New Victory Theater
Reviewed on 5/13/05
by Joan Musaro

Inez Derksen, director of Holland’s Het Laagland Theater production of King A, believes that the spirit and nobility that guided the fabled knights of Arthurian legend live to this day in anyone who takes a stand, upholds a principle, and chooses to do the right thing. Yet the tale of King Arthur, his knights, and the affair his wife had with Sir Lancelot is not exactly a child’s fairy tale. To appeal to higher ideals of personal courage, sacrifice, loyalty, and pride was a good way to symbolically bring the meaning of the story to the many children in the audience.

To establish historical perspective for the story, the actors, all men plus one woman (girls can be knights too), carried and waved giant flags representing the symbols of the period, the heraldry and drama of royalty and battle. When not carried, the flags served as minimal scenery in the background. The only other scenery was a number of the small wooden chairs that any child who has attended nursery school knows well. These chairs were stacked, manipulated, and placed in a circle to represent the legendary round table. This minimal approach was creative and set the scene well. However, the troupe’s efforts had varying degrees of success.

First, the good parts: All the actors had terrific energy, running and jousting, climbing the chairs, swordfighting, and making speeches with conviction and skill. The characters were introduced through monologues, their roles named, personalities described, and relationships clarified. King Arthur is reluctant to take power, although elected by his peers to be in charge. Once king, he seeks to involve his knights in governing decisions and will not do battle unless it is for the common good—more lessons for the children. The noble ideals of community improvement and civilized decision-making were explored. However, the actors often spoke very fast, and while they are fluent in English, their Dutch accents were difficult to understand. The guidelines for moral behavior that they were describing, important but sophisticated concepts for children to understand, were thus made even more obscure.

All the actors were highly skilled. Vincent Rietveld was good as the king, if not especially dashing. Anke Engles, as Guinevere, literally held up the standard for girls to be proud, and Maarten Smit was bold and courageous as Lancelot. This production was inventive but a bit too mature in presentation for the young audience in attendance.

Artistic excellence? ***
Entertainment? ***
Inventiveness? ***
Healing power? ***

(Updated on 9/16/05)

Photo: Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

Batman Begins




Reviewed on 6/19/05
by Kathleen Scheiner

With the typical superhero movie, the character's motivation for donning tights comes early in the film, is usually only a couple of minutes long, and is shot in soft focus. It's become part of the formula for this formulaic genre. Batman Begins smashes this convention by obsessively dwelling on what makes Bruce Wayne, Batman's alter ego, want to put on a black, rubberized costume to fight crime. The result is a darker vision than the usual superhero fare, but it is much more satisfying.

The credentials are heady for this fifth installment of the Batman franchise, and it’s hard not to expect something monumental from the team assembled. Christopher Nolan, who blew critics away with Memento in 2000, directs this production and kicks in help with the screenplay as well. The cast is loaded with heavy hitters, including two Oscar winners in supporting parts, such that relative newcomer Christian Bale, in the role of Batman, seems in danger of being outshone. Happily, Bale holds his own, showing range as he goes from would-be murderer to flippant playboy to avenging bat.

The other Batman movies have taken off with the fully formed Batman, but this film fills in the blanks between normalcy and superhero. Young Bruce Wayne, born to privilege, loses his parents during a robbery gone wrong, after the family is placed in a precarious position brought on by Bruce himself. Wayne’s wealthy parents were humanitarians with a penchant for reforming Gotham, and this influence leaves its mark on their son. As Bruce Wayne grows up, the constants in his life are his butler, Alfred (Michael Caine), and the Wayne manor, symbol of everything the boy has lost. (Much like Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio, Alfred often serves as the conscience for Bruce Wayne/Batman.) The young man is wracked with guilt over his parents’ deaths; when his feelings find a deadly outlet, Wayne flees Gotham and becomes an apprentice to the martial-arts outfit League of Shadows. After a falling out with his mentor, Wayne returns to Gotham, and Batman is born out of guilt and phobias.

Bruce Wayne is an impressive physical specimen, but he has a harder row to hoe than many of the superheroes who receive their powers from the blessings of the gods or a science experiment gone wrong. Wayne gets help from a member of the family business, Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman), who outfits Batman with the necessary accoutrements to complement his brawn.

This movie towers head and shoulders over the other Batman films, and the leads of Batman Begins have already committed to doing another installment, promising more great entertainment to come.

Artistic excellence? ****
Entertainment? ****
Inventiveness? ***
Healing power? ****

(Updated on 9/14/05)