Letter from New York
13
October 2003
By Mindy Aloff
Copyright ©2003 by Mindy Aloff
The
Suzanne Farrell Ballet performed twice in the New York area this weekend.
Much to my regret, work prevented me from attending the Sunday performance
at Brooklyn College. It was a thrill and an honor, though, to be part
of the audience for the all-Balanchine evening on Saturday at the New
Jersey Center for the Performing Arts. A cherished honor, since the rich
variety of dynamic texture, the stylistic refinement, and the musicality
of the dancing in Divertimento No. 15 and in Apollo (presented
in the original New York City Ballet staging, which includes the birth
and childhood of the god, as well as Igor Stravinsky’s complete
score) are now superb and may be peerless. Despite the fact that certain
enchaînement may be textually questionable, the hearts
of the ballets are intact. Even the costumes, credited to Holly Hynes—the
current Director of Costumes for NYCB and the costume consultant for the
George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins trusts, as well as the resident designer
for the Farrell Ballet since the company’s inception in 1999—look
as if they’ve been slightly rethought since I last saw them.
full article
Cirque du MOMIX
Passion
The Joyce Theater
October 7-10, 2003
(MOMIX performed at The Joyce September 23-October 12, 2003)
By
Meital Waibsnaider
Copyright ©2003 by
Moses Pendleton,
Artistic Director of MOMIX, is no minimalist. His 75-miniute long
Passion,
set to Peter Gabriel’s score for Martin Scorsese’s film The
Last Temptation of Christ, exploded in a video, music, costume and
prop extravaganza. From behind a gauze-like screen that hung for the entire
production, Pendleton’s acrobatic dancers performed twenty-one pieces,
each corresponding to Gabriel’s expansive and mostly wordless songs.
Constantly changing images on the ever-present screen made it torturous
to decipher the dancers’ movements. We saw that they often wore
sleek unitards, over-sized capes or diaphanous cloths, and sometimes went
barely-clad, but most details were lost behind the dimly lit screen and
varying projected images, designed by Pendleton himself.
full
article
Remembering
a Hoofer
An
Interview with Donald O'Connor
By Mindy Aloff
Copyright ©2003 by
In
1979, Donald O’Connor visited Portland, Oregon, as the guest star
in a lavish high-school production of The Music Man. It was my
understanding at the time that he was beginning to ease his way back into
stage performing after a hiatus of many years. As the dance critic for
Fresh Weekly, the arts and entertainment section of Portland’s
Willamette Week, I asked to interview him. I knew nothing whatsoever about
his personal life then, and I know now only what I’ve read in the
various obits that were published following his death last month, on September
27th. What I knew, partially, were his movies and his television work.
I considered him then, and I still do, one of the finest all-around dancers
ever to perform in front of a Hollywood camera. He had style, speed, lightness,
elegance, rhythmic wit; he partnered his female co-stars with respect
and charm; his line readings were understated and droll; and, unusual
for many male Hollywood dancers apart from Fred Astaire, O’Connor
learned to care about port de bras: during the 1940s and ‘50s, he
visualized his entire dancing figure in the frame and paid attention to
how his entire body would read on the screen. Gene Kelly, his collaborator
and erstwhile nemesis, also cared about port de bras; however, despite
Kelly’s many sterling qualities, he couldn’t surpass O’Connor
in terms of allegro facility, offhanded elegance, or precision of stylistic
detail in complex footwork. (For anyone who would like to check this evaluation,
I’ve provided the O’Connor filmography that was published
with the interview.)
full article
Hit and Miss
The
Suzanne Farrell Ballet
New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Newart, New Jersey
October 11, 2003
and
Walt Whitman Hall
Brooklyn, New York
October 12, 2003
By
Eric Taub
Copyright
©2003 by Eric Taub
What a difference
a day makes! After seeing the Suzanne Farrell Ballet perform Saturday
night at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ, if someone
had asked me: is Suzanne Farrell were truly the inspired coach and Keeper
of the Balanchine Flame she's often been made out to be, my answer would
have been, probably not. Her dancers' performances were, for the most
part, conservative, flat and markedly free of the risk-taking which was
ever a hallmark of Farrell's own style. What can you say about a performance
of Divertimento No. 15 where the corps girls seemed more interesting
than most of the soloists? True, Peter Boal danced the greatest Apollo
I've ever seen, but he's, well, Peter Boal, and what else would one expect?
read
review
What's On This Week
October
13, 16, 23, February 18 and 21
Stravinsky Triple Bill
Metropolitan Opera
A triple bill of works by Igor Stravinsky. Le Sacre du Printemps,
with choreography by Doug Varone opens the program, followed by Le
Rossignol, a tale by Hans Christian Andersen, choreographed by Frederick
Ashton and danced by New York Cit Ballet's Damian Woetzel and American
Ballet Theater's Julie Kent. Oedipus Rex rounds out the evening.
Metropolitan
Opera House
Columbus Ave. and 64th St.
(212) 362-6000
www.metopera.org
October
13-18 (opened October 1)
Tere O’Connor Dance
O'Connor performs his new multimedia work, LAWN, which concerns
itself with environmental issues and the poetics of dance.
Dance
Theater Workshop, Bessie Schonberg Theater
219 W 19th St.
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org
October
13 – 17 (opened October 10)
Tuscan Dance in Movement
Five Tuscan contemporary dance companies.
John Jay College Theater
899 Tenth Ave. between 58th and 59th Streets
http://johnjay.jjay.cuny.edu/theater/nowplaying.asp
October
16-18 (company benefit on October 14)
Merce Cunningham Dance Company
Merce Cunningham celebrates the 50th anniversary season of his company
with a program that includes the world premiere of Split Sides,
a work set to original music by alternitive rock bands Radiohead and Sigur
Rós, both playing live on opening night. Also on the program is
the the New York premiere of Fluid Canvas.
Brooklyn
Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. at Ashland Pl. Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
October
14-19
Akram Khan Company
A
London favorite, Akram Khan offers his company's first full-evening work
"Kaash," the Hindi word for "if." Khan blends contemporary
dance and the Indian classical dance form Kathak to explore "Hindu
Gods, black holes, Indian time cycles, tablas, creation and destruction."
Joyce
Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
212-242-0880
www.joyce.com
October
15-19
Ballet Nacional de Cuba
Former
ballerina Alicia Alonso brings her well-schooled and spirited company
for two programs: the full-length Don Quixote and a romantic
repertory program of Antonio Gades' Blood Wedding, Alonso's staging
(after Ivanov and Petipa) of Swan Lake, Azari Plisetski's Canto
Vital set to Gustav Mahler, and a classical pas de deux.
City
Center
55th St. between Sixth and Seventh Aves.
212-581-1212
www.citycenter.org
October
16-18
Kathleen Dyer's KDNY
Kathleen
Dyer's female troup performs While at the Left Breast, Moerae, and
Flowers on the Table by the Open Window" with live
accompaniment by percussionist PJ Merola and soprano, Laura Pfortmiller.
Performed by Teresa Chapman, Theresa Duhon, Brooke Fries, Heather Kemp,
and Ashley Wells and featuring Kinneely Rose Azzopardi.
Joyce
Soho
155 Mercer St. between Houston and Prince Sts.
212-334-7479
October
16-19
Heather Harrington
Heather
Harrington Dance Company will be performing a full evening length dance
work based on Macbeth called Imitations of Drowning.
Danspace Project at St. Mark's Church in-the-Bowery
East 10th St. at Second Ave.
212-674-8194
www.danspaceproject.org
October
16
Noemie Lafrance Noemie Lafrance's Bessie Award-winning Descent"
is a homage to New York created since the terrorist attacks of September
11. It is performed over 12 floors of stairway with a score by Brooks
Williams.
City
Court Building Clock Tower
108 Leonard St. between Broadway and Lafayette St.
212-868-4444
October
16
Merian Soto Dance and Performance
Award-winning
choreographer Merian Soto presents excerpts from La Maquina del Tiempo,
her latest work celebrating salsa through an eclectic mix of dance and
music, and "Pelea de Gallos," an exploration of political, cultural,
racial and gender tensions in contemporary Puerto Rico.
World
Financial Center, Winter Garden
West St. between Liberty and Vesey Sts.
212-945-0505
October
16, Gala Benefit Performance
October 17-19
More
than 80 choreographers-dance companies and over 300 dancers will participate
in a dance extravaganza.
2003
Dumbo Dance Festival
White Wave Performance and Rehearsal Space
25 Jay St. at John St., Dumbo, Brooklyn
718-855-8822
www.whitewavedance.com
October
16-19 (opened October 9)
Urban Ballet Theater
UBT
Artistic Director Daniel Catanach shows off his company of classically
trained dancers in Disillusioned, with guest artist Danny Tidwell,
Trouble, and El Hambre/The Hunger, a duet for Carla
Korbes and Amar Ramasar of the New York City Ballet.
Harry
De Jur Playhouse - Abrons Arts Center
Henry Street Settlement
466 Grand St. at Pitt St.
212-598-0400
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