San Francisco Letter 25
Company Vincent Mansoe, Yin-Mei Dance, Shen Wei Dance Arts
by Rita Felciano
Artists who choose, for one reason or another, to live and work outside their cultures of birth carry something with them that imprints itself on their creations though they breathe air which is so very different from that of their formative years. They will never be at home again in their place of ancestry nor will they be quite as rooted anywhere else. Three of these immigrant/émigrés artists recently showed dance in the Bay Area that could only have come about by having a foot in two worlds. READ MORE
Letter from Copenhagen
Nikolaj Hübbe to take over his parent company
by Eva Kistrup
The NYCB Principal Dancer Nikolaj Hübbe returns to his native Copenhagen as Ballet Master [Artistic Director] for Royal Danish Ballet in mid-2008.Eight years ago, Hübbe was the favorate to become Ballet Master at the Royal Danish Ballet, but was passed over in favour of surprise choice Aage Thordahl-Christensen. His reaction to the answermail message from CEO Michael Christiansen is captured in the portrait-film made by ballet dancer turned film maker Ulrik Wivel. History unfortunately proved that the appointment of Thordahl-Christensen was just another in a long list of failed management choices. READ MORE
Yerevan and Vienna: Viewings
by George Jackson
Yerevan, Armenia’s capital, is no exception: there as elsewhere the Soviets saw to it that their cities had subway trains and a theater for opera and ballet. Fortress-like, the “Operahouse” is one of Yerevan’s dominant structures. Built in 1935, its central oblong rises above the surrounding trees of a park and boulevard setting. On both long sides are galleried semicircular projections. The one facing north is the entrance, lobby hall and auditorium of the Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall. The one facing south, towards the city’s center, is similarly part of the lyric theater — the Alexander Spendiarian National Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. READ MORE
Contrasts at the Washington Ballet
by Naima Prevots
This was an evening of contrasting approaches to choreography. Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses emphasized abstraction and lush minimalism, while Septime Webre’s Carmina Burana played itself out in the arena of grand spectacle. The dancers showed their versalitity and virtuosity, and live music for both pieces significantly enhanced the performances. Wheeldon is a master of dynamics, spatial exploration, and poetic, sweeping movement phrases, while Webre sometimes falters in his search for grand statements and visual pyrotechnics. Wheeldon’s abstraction captured the imagination with its consistency and clarity, while Webre’s spectacle had a tendency to wander in excessive action and fragmentation. READ MORE
Eliza Miller's "O Death"
by Susan Reiter
There was a stately dignity as well as an intriguing oddness about the modern-day requiem that Eliza Miller shaped to a powerful, often surprising score by Ben Bettison. Blending somber ritual and fluent, grounded movement, “O Death” avoids the specific but alludes to the elemental and primal cultural touchstones marking death and loss. READ MORE
Special spaces
by George Jackson
Entering a theater, even an empty one, arouses feelings in me that others have on walking into a house of worship. Somehow the place seems sacrosanct. If I actually get to step onto the stage, and it is an old one, the shades of great performers who have held audiences rapt there begin to crowd into my thoughts. If the house is new, I wonder what will be happening at this site a hundred years from now. READ MORE