Dracula does Paris
by Marc Haegeman
“Nosferatu sinks his teeth into the flesh of the Opera. An attempt to let blood flow through dance… not as in war but as in life… and to see if the vampire’s kiss brings any part of us back to life.” With these ominous lines French choreographer Jean-Claude Gallotta introduces his “Nosferatu”, created for the Paris Opera in 2001 following a commission by dance director Brigitte Lefèvre, and given a second run at the Théâtre de la Bastille this season. READ MORE
Oh, boy. Seduction, and betrayal. William Forsythe knows just how to get to a girl. His concepts for “Kammer/Kammer” are complicated. In fact, the work is a ferrago of notions and ideas, and is quite interesting to read about. As I understand it from from walking into the theater to observe the company faking a live pre-rehearsal or taping situation, at the opening of this work we are supposed to think that what we see is real. And that what follows is “art. That’s the major set up.
The Spring Gala for NYCB was mostly home-grown this year. It included
A virtue of strong programming is to provide useful contrasts between works, but contrasts, when too extreme, can also disrupt the continuity of a theatrical experience; the transitions you are asked to make can be jarring. Saturday night at City Ballet, when Jerome Robbins’ “Mother Goose” was substituted at the last minute (for the originally programmed “In the Night”) as the opening ballet on a program that included Mario Bigonzetti’s “In Vento” and ended with George Balanchine’s “Symphony in C,” was an example of just such extreme shifts of mood and impression.