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The DanceView Times, New York edition

Volume 1, Number 7  November 10, 2003            An online supplement to DanceView magazine

ABT's City Center Season

Letter from New York

10 November 2003.

American Ballet Theatre is winding up its fall season at City Center as I write, and although the company still looks imbalanced in favor of its men, it does seem to be trying to strengthen its repertory for the women, and one could discover a host of brilliant performances on both sides of the gender gap. To my eye, the most memorable ballerina triumph was Amanda McKerrow’s debut as Hagar in Tudor’s Pillar of Fire. McKerrow didn’t perform steps; she built a character. From the opening moments, sitting alone on the steps of her house, her limbs trapped shut as her face began to open, her dance-acting sustained a subtle tension and an animal intuition that gave the impression she was living the role. It isn’t clear how long McKerrow will stay with A.B.T.: she has publicly voiced dissatisfaction that she isn’t given enough to do there, and the programs bear her out. This season, in addition to two performances as Hagar, she danced one performance of the adagio from Tudor’s The Leaves Are Fading with her husband, former A.B.T. soloist John Gardner. (Tudor, himself, coached her in this role.) McKerrow is the finest stylist in the title role of Giselle the company has, yet she rarely gets to dance that at the Met, where A.B.T. programs its evening-length classics. At City Center, where it can take more chances with new works and older repertory that would be swallowed up in the vastness of the Lincoln Center theater, McKerrow’s name is still rare on the bill. Among recent guest choreographers, only Mark Morris, in Gong, has seemed willing to use her; he did so with insight, presenting her in a landscape of snowy reverence that showcased her meditative spirit and crystalline execution of the classical vocabulary. As her Hagar showed, McKerrow speaks more dance languages than that of pure classicism, however it is true that she has to be presented in a special context, where her silvery style and filament silhouette register as positive qualities. At this point, A.B.T. offers few ballets of any kind in which the aristocratic elements of McKerrow’s mastery wouldn’t get lost. Balanchine’s Theme and Variations and Ashton’s Symphonic Variations would seem obvious candidates. Both enjoyed marvelous productions this season, all casts triumphant. However, she wasn’t chosen for either of them. (For comments by A.B.T. ballet master Kirk Peterson, who restaged Theme and Variations for the company this past summer, please scroll down.)
read letter

past Letters by Mindy  Aloff

ABT Winds Down with Fireworks, But Dorian Still Seems Silly

Contemporary Works and Family Friendly Matinee
American Ballet Theater
City Center
New York, NY
November 6 and 9, 2003
by Eric Taub

You have to love kiddie matinees. At last Sunday's Family Friendly matinee (the last of ABT's very successful season at City Center), I couldn't help but overhear (along with half the people in my row) the tyke behind me exclaim to her mother as Marcelo Gomes danced the pas de deux in Fancy Free with Julie Kent, "Mommy, he's wearing a thong under his pants. I can see it!" During Gomes' rendition of the third sailor's rhumba, this budding dance critic delivered the verdict: "That's disgusting!" (Considering what kids are exposed to on TV every night, this seems a bit extreme.)

In Theme and Variations, Michele Wiles danced with the strength and generosity she's shown throughout this season. She's not a retiring waif, and this ballet calls for a dancer with presence and brilliant technique, both of which she has in spades, as shown in her big pas de chats and her emphatic stabbing of her toe into the stage in her second solo.
read review

[Reprinted from last week's midweek updates:]

McKerrow's Powerful Hagar, and an Extraordinary Debut

Master Works Program
Diversion of Angels/Symphonic Variations/Pillar of Fire/Raymonda
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
November 5, 2003
by Mary Cargill

The center piece of the ABT season is the revival of Antony Tudor’s Pillar of Fire, staged by Donald Mahler. Three Hagars shared the six performances, and Amanda McKerrow gave her first New York performance (and next to last one, too, if rumors of her retirement are true; she repeats the role Friday night) on November 5. McKerrow had worked extensively with Tudor on the part of the Younger Sister, so her performance was greatly anticipated by the eager audience. It was, I would suspect, one of the last chances to see a dancer who had actually worked with one of the great 20th century choreographers.
read review

ABT's Innovative Works Program is a Popular Hit

Innovative Works
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
November 4, 2003
by Eric Taub

I suppose if I were running a big, world-class ballet company, I might be tempted to put on an evening much like ABT's "Innovative Works." Let's show the world that ballet isn't all tutus and tiaras, that ballet can be deconstructed, unconstructed and reconstructed to appeal to a "younger" crowd, preferably in settings that allow the dancers to show off how powerfully they can contort themselves, and how enticingly they can fill out a unitard. I might even succumb, and would that necessarily be a bad thing? The big, and very enthusiastic crowd at City Center Tuesday night wouldn't have thought so. As Kevin McKenzie has seemed so far quite intent on borrowing the Joffrey Ballet's very successful "old-new-borrowed-blue" repertory formula, I was a little surprised at the homogeneity of ABT's programming this season—all the slinky moderne works on one night, all the Old Masters on another, etc. This is clearly a departure from the Joffrey formula, yet, in an age where the three-ballet evening tends to be Programming Death, McKenzie might be onto something. Or perhaps anything works if you have enough guys who can jump and turn.
read review

Flying Panthers and Other Wonders

Family Friendly Matinees
American Ballet Theatre
City Center
New York, NY
November 1 and 2, 2003

by Eric Taub
copyright © 2003 by Eric Taub

There were so many big, dramatic stories last weekend at ABT it's hard to know where to begin. With Craig Salstein's wonderful last-minute substitution for an injured Angel Corella in Fancy Free, after having danced the difficult role of the Devil in Three Virgins and a Devil not once, but twice that day? With Ashley Tuttle bouncing back from a near-mauling at the hands of Herman Cornejo in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux with a strong and gutsy rendition of her solo? With Gillian Murphy settling down a skittish David Hallberg in his debut in Theme and Variations, and, perhaps not coincidentally, delivering the best performance I've seen from her in Theme? With Paloma Herrera's somnolent Theme, and her Aurora-like awakening in Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux with the pantherish (if panthers could fly) Carlos Acosta? Or perhaps with Irina Dvorovenko's never-to-be-forgotten send-up of every diva-ballerina-assoluta curtain call you've ever seen, dreamed or had a nightmare about, after a side-splitting performance of Le Grand Pas de Deux (about which I'm about to eat some crow) with Maxim Belotserkovsky?
read review

Quick links to previous reviews:

Opening night - Fall Gala by Eric Taub

First Master Works Program - Mindy Aloff

First Innovative Works Program - Gia Kourlas

Family Friendly Matinee - Eric Taub

Master Works - cast changes - Eric Taub

Contemporary Works Program - Gia Kourlas


Staging Martha Graham's Celebration

An Interview with Yuriko

By Mindy Aloff
Copyright ©2003 by Mindy Aloff

Among Barbara Morgan’s very greatest images of the Martha Graham Dance Company are the handful of her ensemble, rocketing in synch, from Celebration (given its première in 1934, photographed sometime between 1936 and 1941). Graham, herself, is nowhere to be seen; she never performed in the dance. Some of those who did, though, have recorded their experiences, which might lead one to think that the dance consisted of jumping from beginning to end. (Various estimates put the number of jumps in it at around 150.) “It was sensational because we jumped the whole time,” May O’Donnell told critic Tobi Tobias in 1981. In Robert Tracy’s Goddess: Martha Graham’s Dancers Remember, Pearl Lang recalls that “the technique is very difficult. They used to teach the difficult jumps from Celebration in class.” Jane Dudley, also interviewed by Tracy, remembered: “When I was asked to join Martha’s company, I had to learn Martha’s dance Celebration, which nearly killed me. The fact is, enthusiastic as I was, and with as well-endowed a body [as] I had, I wasn’t prepared for the stamina a dancer needed for Celebration.” An especially vivid account is Bonnie Bird’s, in her memoir Bird’s Eye View: Dancing with Martha Graham and on Broadway:

“In 1933 Martha choreographed Celebration, a marvelously energetic dance suggestive of atoms and molecules rebounding to and fro, being propelled in space. We ran backward with tiny steps on half-toe, knees straight, similar to bourrées, which created a feeling of vibratory momentum. I jumped in the center of the group until my legs ached. Others split off like frecrackers spewing out in different directions. The dance was impersonal, yet exciting, and we all loved it. The fact that we danced Celebration with impassive faces was puzzling to people in the audience. Martha had expunged smiling long before this.”
read article


[The following articles originally appeared in last week's midweek Extra edition and are republished here.]

Living History

A Lifetime in Dance; Frederic Franklin
Barnard College
New York, NY
October 22 and 26, 2003
By Dale Brauner

The preservation of choreography is still mostly dependant on the passage of information from one dancer to another. Ballets go in and out of fashion, sometimes disappearing from rotation after only a few performances for reasons other than the merits of the work. Choreographers have a habit of moving on to the next work and those who have seen forget or die. For this and many reasons, ballet is lucky to have Frederic Franklin.

Franklin, now 89, was both witness to and participant in ballet history. Known for his 30-year association with the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo and his partnership with prima ballerina Alexandra Danilova, the Liverpool, England-born dancer not only performed almost all the prestigious roles in ballet, but was there at the creation of works by Leonide Massine, George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Agnes de Mille and Bronislava Nijinska. Franklin’s talent was such that 45 principal roles were created on him, including the Baron in Gaite Parisienne by Massine and the Champion Roper in Rodeo by de Mille.
read review

What's On This Week

November 10
The Hungarian Folk Ensemble

The Central European group presents For Old Times Sake, an evening of dancing and music from the "Old Country."
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway
212-865-1414

November 10 and 17
Movement Research at the Judson Church

This week's forum for experimentation and works-in-progress features the work of Allison Farrow, Kathy Westwater, Netta Yerushalmy, Daniel Lepkoff, David Hurwith.
55 Washington Square South
212-539-2611

November 10-November 30 (opened October 30)
Noche Flamenca

One of Spain's most successful flamenco companies performs for five weeks. Soledad Barrio, winner of a Bessie Award in 2001,
performs.
Lucille Lortel Theatre
121 Christopher Street
212-239-6200

November 11-16
Ballet Hispanico

The premiere of the evening-length Nightclub.
Jack H. Skirball Center for Performing Arts
566 La Guardia Place, at Washington Square South
(212) 992-8484

November 11-23
Garth Fagan Dance
Fagan stages the world premiere of Dancecollageforromie. Also on the bill during the run are Translation Translation, Griot New York, Passion Distanced and Prelude.
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
212-242-0880
www.joyce.org

November 11
Fresh Tracks

DTW's longest running signature series of new dance and performance features works by emerging choreographers and performance artists. Work by Linas Phillips and John Wyszniewski, Pascale Wettstein, Melinda Ring, Renee Archibald and Daryl Owens, Ivy Baldwin, Anne Gadwa are showcased.
Dance Theater Workshop
219 W 19th St.
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org

November 12-15
Anna Teresa de Keersmaeker

The Belgian choreographer's company, Rosas, perform the American premiere of Rain, set to Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians.
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave.
718-636-4100
www.bam.org

November 13
Barnard Dances at Miller

The dance department at Barnard College stages Martha Graham's Celebration, Lew Christensen's Con Amore, Alwin Nikolais' Tensile Involvement and a new work by Lila York.
Miller Theatre
116th Street and Broadway
212-854-7799

November 13-15
SplitStream

Three chorographers present their works: Pat Cremins - Choke Go Up;
Nichole Canuso - Better I'd Stayed Up; Yanira Castro - Beacon.
Dance Theater Workshop
219 W 19th St.
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org

November 13-15
RoseAnne Spradlin Dance:
Rearrangement, under/world
Post-performance discussion: November 13 (Thu) Concept and Choreography: RoseAnne Spradlin
Dancers: Walter Dundervill, Athena Malloy, Tasha Taylor
Music: Gavin Bryars, Kenneth Atchley Fetishism, ménages à trois, and autoeroticism-RoseAnne Spradlin continues to overtly explore sexuality and body politics with the premiere of Rearrangement and the restaging of her 2002 trio under/world.
The Kitchen
512 West 19th Street
212-255-5793 ext. 11

November 13-16
Alan Danielson

Danielson presents trans/form, cave; here; and are we there yet? - all world premieres.

November 13-16
Molissa Fenley and Dancers

A program featuring two ensemble works - the United States premiere of Kuro Shio, Water Courses and Waiting for Rain, a solo performed by Fenley.
Joyce Soho
155 Mercer Street, betwen Houston and Prince
212-431-9233

November 14-16
Evon Arts performs Coming Together.

Merce Cunningham Dance Studio
55 Bethune St
212-691-9751 ext. 30

November 14-30
Dance Cuba

Choreographer Lizt Alfonso premieres De Novo and other works that blend flamenco with ballet and live Afro-Cuban music.
New Victory Theater
209 W. 42nd St.
(212) 239-6200
www.newvictory.org/

November 15
Krasnoyarsk National Dance Company

This Siberian troup is astonishing for its artistry in Russian folk dancing and the verve of its virtuosity.
Lehman Center for the Performing Arts
250 Bedford Park Blvd. West
Bronx
718-960-8833

November 15
Bharata Natyam Dance of India

Shobana & Commpany
Dancer and actress Shobana performs South India's classical dance. Joining her on the program called, Sampradaya - From Myths to Modernity, will be four dancers and musicians on vocals, violin, veena and mrdangam.
Symphony Space
2537 Broadway
212-865-1414

November 16 and 17
Balanchine's Lost Choreography

The Guggenheim Museum's program, Works & Process, welcomes ballet legends Frederic Franklin and Maria Tallchief, who will recreate lost choreography from two ballets by George Balanchine, Mozartiana (1933) and Le Baiser de la Fee (1937). Nancy Reynolds, the director of research at The George Balanchine Foundation, will lead a discussion with the participants and New York City Ballet dancers will perform.
Guggenheim Museum
5th Ave. at 89th St.
www.worksandprocess.com

Through November 23
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

— Dale Brauner


Ice Moves

Ice Theatre of New York
Sky Rink at Chelsea Piers
New York, NY
November 7, 2003
By Susan Reiter

Usually it is a premiere that attracts primary critical interest, but on the occasion of Ice Theatre of New York's 2003 Home Season, it was a 25-year-old work that was the most notable, successful and newsworthy item on the briskly-paced hour-and-a-half program.

Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux created Ice Moves for John Curry's 1978 "Ice Dancing" program, a forerunner of the John Curry Skating Company, the full flowering of his vision that existed for two brief, magical years, 1984-85. Ice Theatre of New York was founded by Moira North in the same year as Curry's troupe, with a shared aim of extending the artistic possibilities of figure skating.
read review


The Ballet Boyz:

Athletic Dancing, Thoughtful Dances

George Piper Dances
The Joyce Theater
New York, NY
November 7, 2003
by  Eric Taub

It is hard not to sigh a bit reading of the vast success of Michael Nunn's and William Trevitt's venture after they left their careers as principals with the Royal Ballet to strike out on their own just a few years ago. In addition to launching their own ballet troupe, George Piper Dances (there is no George Piper--it's a combination of both men's middle names), they produced two seasons of a "video diary" for the BBC, as the "Ballet Boyz." I arrived at the Joyce Theater a bit envious of a country where any sort of dance series could be a hit on network television (or even get on network television), and a bit apprehensive of just what sort of popularized panderings to the Great Unwashed Nunn and Trevitt might be presenting.

Not, as they say, to worry. Although one might quibble with one part or another of the program, it was an evening of mostly lively and thoughtful choreography, superbly danced by Nunn and Trevitt, as well as Oxana Panchenko, Monica Zamora and Hubert Essakow, extremely capable dancers all.
read review

 

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This weeks' articles

 

DanceViewNY
Mindy  Aloff's Letter from New York

The Balanchine Celebration
New York City Ballet:
A Veteran and a Raw Recruit
by Mindy Aloff

Heart and Soul
by Mary Cargill

Kid Stuff
Cas Public's If You Go Down To the Woods Today
by Susan Reiter

DanceViewWest
San Francisco Ballet:
New Wheeldon (Rush)
by Rita Felciano

New Tomasson (7 For Eight)
by Paul Parish

Possokhov's New Firebird for OBT
by Rita Felciano

Moscow Festival Ballet and Scott Wells
by Paul Parish

DanceViewDC
Hamburg Ballet's Nijinsky:
Nijinsky—Lost in the Chaos
by Clare Croft

NijinskyMadness and Metaphor
by Alexandra Tomalonis

Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes
by George Jackson

Batsheva: Breaking Down Walls
by Lisa Traiger

Ronald K. Brown/Evidence
by Clare Croft

Choreographers Showcase
by Tehreema Mitha

Zoltan Nagy
by George Jackson

 

 

 

 

Writers

Mindy Aloff
Dale Brauner
Mary Cargill
Nancy Dalva
Gia Kourlas
Gay Morris
Susan Reiter
Alexandra Tomalonis(Editor)
Meital Waibsnaider
Leigh Witchel
David Vaughan

DanceView

The Autumn DanceView is out:

New York City Ballet's Spring 2003 season reviewed by Gia Kourlas

An interview with the Kirov Ballet's Daria Pavlenko by Marc Haegeman

Reviews of San Francisco Ballet (by Rita Felciano) and Paris Opera Ballet (by Carol Pardo)

The ballet tradition at the Metropolitan Opera (by Elaine Machleder)

Reports from London (Jane Simpson) and the Bay Area (Rita Felciano).

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