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The DanceView Times, Washington, D.C. edition

       Volume 1, Number 9    An online supplement to DanceView magazine

Revamped in Red

The Kennedy Center Opera House is Back in Action

Opera House Preview Performance
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, DC
Wednesday, November 19, 2003

Reviewed by George Jackson
copyright © 2003 by George Jackson

[ The Opera House at Kennedy Center closed for major refurbishing in December 2002. It reopened 11 months later for this performance, which Michael Kaiser, the Center's president, referred to in his introductory remarks as a "test". Kaiser said of the renovation that it was "nearly completed", and he also emphasized that a major goal was to make the Opera House more accessible. An organization for "promoting the creative power in people with disabilities", VSA Arts, was co-presenter with Kennedy Center of the three part program. ]

Thinking of the Kennedy Center's Opera House in its original guise, what comes to mind first and foremost is red. It was a very red theater when it opened in 1971 and neither time nor wear and tear altered that. The red was medium in tone, and the cloths that bore the color covered walls, ceiling, seats and floor. The stage curtain, on which a golden yellow pattern seemed woven into the red background, looked texturally festive. The other red fabrics didn't.
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"Look at How Gypsy I am!"

Bailes Ineditos
An evening of Flamenco
at the Jack Guidone Theater
Joy of Motion

Washington, D.C.
Saturday, 22nd November 2003

Reviewed by Tehreema Mitha
coyright © 2003 by Tehreema Mitha

If you wanted an evening of quality entertainment this Saturday, you could have sauntered across to the modest Jack Guidone Theater at Friendship Heights, DC. The audience gathered there was in an excited expectant mood and the opening number to this evening of Flamenco dance did not disappoint.

Anna Menendez and Edwin Aparicio make a handsome pair on stage. They meld well, equal in their art, with a rapport that is so necessary to a coupling on stage. Menendez comes to life the minute she takes up the traditional Flamenco stance. Her arms become sinuous, strong yet effortlessly undulating, mesmerizing. She is full of constrained sensuousness. Aparicio’s stance makes the most of his packed frame. He dances as if born into this form, no unintended tensions apparent in the structure of the torso.
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Flying into the Unknown

Crossing, Stories of Gravity and Transformation
Project Bandaloop
Eisenhower Theater
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
Washington, D.C.
November 21, 2003

Reviewed by Clare Croft
copyright © 2003 by Clare Croft

Until Friday, I was an aerial dance virgin. After Friday, I am an aerial dance enthusiast. On the West Coast, there are many dancers and choreographers experimenting with hanging from ropes, but for the East Coast, Project Bandaloop’s Crossing, Stories of Gravity and Transformation was a welcome change of pace. Artistic Director Amelia Rudolph’s piece part performance, part documentary featured dancers in the air and on the ground. Projections from footage shot in the Sierra Nevadas, where the company enacted eighteen days of site-specific work, appeared on a giant trampoline that covered the back of the stage. Another trampoline covered the stage’s left wings. The piece as a whole suffered from a lack of cohesion, but when the choreography was beautiful, as it was when the dancers took to the air, it was a revolutionary experience.
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What's On This Week?

There's no dance this week in D.C. (none that we could find, at any rate)

However, coming up:

The Suzanne Farrell Ballet will be at the Kennedy Center's Eisenhower Theatre beginning December 2nd.

The Kirov Ballet will dance at the refurbished Opera House (Nutcracker opens December 23rd; Swan Lake the following week).

9th Annual DC International Improvisation Plus+ Festival kicks off the weekend of December 5th.

The first weekend will feature international artists Eszter Gal and Istvan Grensco from Hungary; New York-based Jennifer Nugent with Bessie-award winning performer Paul Matteson— both members of David Dorfman's company; Seattle-based artists Cyrus Khambatta, Sean Ryan and KT Niehoff; and Maida Withers.

The second weekend celebrates the local community: Cathy Paine, who founded ran the New Dance Improvisation Festival and Beth Davis, who runs Glen Echo Park's Hall of Mirrors, along with Daniel Burkholder and Jennifer Lee Clark Stone, both of whom have improvisation based companies; Sharon Mansur—well known for her use of improvisation in her work—as well as Jane Jerardi and Brian Buck, founder members of the Monday Night Improv Laboratory.

There will also be two FREE site-specific works, one on the Metro, and one at the Friendship Heights Borders.  More details next week!


A public service announcement:

Be part of the process. Nominate for the 2004 Metro DC Dance Awards today.
To make a nomination, and for information about the awards, visit
www.metro-dc-dance-awards.com

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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

Clare Croft
George Jackson
Jean Battey Lewis
Sali Ann Kriegsman
Tehreema Mitha

Alexandra Tomalonis (Editor)
Lisa Traiger

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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DanceView is published quarterly (January, April, July and October) in Washington, D.C. Address all correspondence to:

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last updated on October 27, 2003 -->