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writers on dancing

Volume 4, Number 41 - November 20, 2006

this week's reviews

Rambert
by John Percival

José Limón: Vital History
by Lisa Rinehart

José Limón: After Limón
by Leigh Witchel

Royal Danish Ballet
by Eva Kistrup

Lionel Popkin
by Nancy Dalva

Nejla Yatkin
by George Jackson

San Francisco Letter No. 18:
Keith Hennessey

by Rita Felciano

Axis
by Paul Parish

Ballet Hispanico
by Susan Reiter

Letters and Commentary

San Francisco Letter No. 15
Kathak at the Crossroads: Innovation within tradition

by Rita Felciano

Letter from New York
Lincoln Center Festival: A Tale of Two Beowulfs

by Nancy Dalva

Letter from New York
Lincoln Center Festival: San Francisco Ballet

by Nancy Dalva

Back to Bangkok —
A Letter about Puppets and People

by George Jackson

did you miss any of these?

Dutch National Ballet
by John Percival

3 Reports on Austrodance Festival 2006
by Naima Prevots:
Austrian dance on screen
Willie Dorner
Dana Tai Soon Burgess
by Rita Felciano

Doug Varone
by Susan Reiter

Joe Goode
by Paul Parish

Images of Isadora
by George Jackson

Roseanne Spradlin
by Leigh Witchel

Garth Fagan
by Susan Reiter



Getting it wrong
by John Percival

Fidget, fidget, fidget — that's what we get in Rambert's new London programme. They pretend to be celebrating the company's 80th birthday — but that's reckoning from when Marie Rambert made her pupil Frederick Ashton try his first apprentice choreography as a number added to a revue. More rationally, the company's real starting date was four years later, 1930, with its first seasons. Anyway, I've been watching them for 62 of those 76 or 80 years, and I can say that this programme is the worst I've ever seen from them. And Clement Crisp, who likewise has observed the company since schooldays, came to the same conclusion in his review for the Financial Times. READ MORE


Two reviews of the José Limón Dance Company
Vital History
by Lisa Rinehart

Attention all choreographers: if you want to get better, go see the Limón Dance Company. The company is thriving 60 years after its founding by José Limón and Doris Humphrey, and thanks to artistic director Carla Maxwell, there's no sign of a slow down. By keeping Limón and Humphrey's work polished, reviving forgotten pieces, and commissioning new works, Maxwell is ensuring that the Limón company remains vibrant for new audiences.READ MORE

After Limón
by Leigh Witchel

The Limón Dance Company, which opened its 60th anniversary season at the Joyce on Tuesday night, has spent more years without its founder than with him. As with many other companies, it has had to grapple with the dilemma of what to do after its guiding forces have departed. The opening night program was a reflection of its approach in microcosm; presenting works by its original directors, José Limón and Doris Humphrey, and “Recordare”, made last year for the company by Lar Lubovitch. READ MORE


Royal Danish Ballet: the next generation
by Eva Kistrup

On November 14, I counted eight interpreters of the coveted Sylph in "La Sylphide" in the Royal Theatre, three in the audience and five on stage. The eight dancers were Anna Lærkesen, Lis Jeppesen, Mette-Ida Kirk, Mette Bødtcher, Rose Gad, Silja Schandorff, Gudrun Bojesen and the debutante Sylph of the night young Christina L. Olsen in her first major role. Seeing the past and present sylphs brought the recognition that there is neither a physical nor an interpretive prototype for the Sylph. It also became very clear that Christina L. Olsen (not to be confused with principal and former sylph Christina Olsson) was handed so much more than a plum role. READ MORE


Art into landscape
by Nancy Dalva

On a rain soaked Thursday night, Los Angeles-based choreographer Lionel Popkin debuted his “Miniature Fantasies” in the beautiful white-washed sanctuary of St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, the home of Danspace Project, one of the commissioners of the piece. The space, as its frequenters know, is lofty and open, with pillars around three sides of the church supporting narrow balconies. Along the sides are carpeted risers, usually set with folding chairs. Popkin chose to use the risers along one side as part of his stage space, seating his audience across from him. READ MORE


Alone with friends
by George Jackson

Nejla Yatkin doesn’t disappear for an instant, not within a role and not under the impact of movement. She’s a performer inside and outside, from a piercing gaze to expressive shoulder blades and from the coils of her long black hair to her finger tips and toes. As a dancer, she measures on a major scale, thanks to a strong, long body and the amplitude she sustains. Watching her can become hypnotic, even off stage. READ MORE


San Francisco Letter No. 18
Manifesti-val: Dance Brigade’s Festival for Social Change

by Rita Felciano

Keith Hennessey is not for the faint of heart. His work is raw, sexually explicit and violent. It’s also optimistic, romantic and naïve. Hennessey, or his theatrical persona, believes that shamanist practices, the ones that dig so deep that they scare us out of our complacency, can bring about social change. At the very least, he sure is going to try. If that means exposing himself — physically and emotionally — to a level of vulnerability that is painful to watch, so be it. READ MORE


Home Season
by Paul Parish

Axis's concert last week in Oakland seemed a dingy little affair — until we saw the dancing. Their theater in the Malonga Casquelourde Center for the arts is unwelcoming; it divides the crowd up into separate packages facing a sprawl of red curtain, and in any case, the audience was small, with many of the usual suspects. But the dancing drew us in, and by the finale, which was the world premiere of a new piece by Margaret Jenkins, the evening was coruscating with brilliant dancing, and there was no place on earth I'd rather be. READ MORE


Ballet Hispanico
by Susan Reiter

Ramón Oller clearly created “Corazón Al-Andaluz,” the major premiere of Ballet Hispanico’s season, with sober intentions and an interest in cross-cultural possibilities. His program note identifies the work's impetus and setting as a period in Andalusian history, from the eighth through the fourteenth centuries, when Muslim, Jewish and Christian cultures coexisted and enriched each other. READ MORE

 

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