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The DanceView Times, New York edition

      Volume 1, Number 14     December 29, 2003            An online supplement to DanceView magazine

Letter from New York

29 December 2003.
Copyright ©2003 by Mindy Aloff

I first saw Donald McKayle’s 1959 Rainbow Round My Shoulder, a staple of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, very close to its early-1970s Ailey première. Although I always admired it and have watched several generations of powerful dancers in it, I’ve never seen a performance to rival the one at the matinee on December 21st, during the company’s annual New York season at City Center. The seven men in the Chain Gang, their arms braided by the choreography into a taut line of linked woe, erupted in fury and crumpled in grief with such precision of timing, kinetic discipline, and variety of emotional texture that an onlooker was simultaneously pulverized by the misery of the work songs and plaints that impelled them and delighted by the brilliance of the dance action that prompted the feeling. I’ve been at performances of Rainbow where the Chain Gang didn’t seem very far removed from a chorus line; this was quite something else—a messianic embodiment of historical imagination.
read letter

past Letters from New York


Sheer Delight

Improvography
Savion Glover
Joyce Theater
New York, NY
December 19, and December 28, 2003

By Susan Reiter
copyright © 2003 by Susan Reiter

Savion Glover crooning songs associated with Fred Astaire and Frank Sinatra? Tapping to Christmas melodies? In some ways, it is a mellower, more engaging Glover holding forth, in great style, at the Joyce Theater for three weeks. His Bring in Da Noise baggy hip outfits have been replaced by casually elegant apparel credited to Armani, DKNY and Phat Farm. He sports a beard, but his hair is pulled back, and we can see more of his face than in the days when his intense, hunched-over posture and dreadlocks obscured it much of the time. During most of his thrilling two-part program, that face is beaming with pure delight, as he takes evident pleasure in the exquisitely sophisticated exchanges he performs with a terrific five-piece jazz ensemble.
read review

What's On This Week?

December 29-January 4
New York City Ballet

George Balanchine's The Nutcracker continues its residence at the New

York State Theater.
12/29 at 6pm, 12/30 at 6pm, 12/31 at 7pm, 1/2 at 8pm, 1/3 at 2pm, 1/3
at 8pm, 1/4 at 3pm
New York State Theater
Lincoln Center
66th Street and Broadway
212-870-5570
www.nycballet.com

December 30-January 4 (opened December 3)
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

The company concludes its New York visit that celebrated its 45 years of existence. The season features new productions of Judith Jamison's tribute to Alvin Ailey, Hymn, and Donald McKayle's Rainbow Round My Shoulder. Four new ballets will be added to the company's repertory: Bounty Verses by Dwight Rhoden, Footprints by Jennifer Muller, Heart Song by Alonzo King, and Juba by Robert Battle. Ailey's masterpiece, Revelations, also will be programmed, along with other repertory favorites.
12/30 at 8pm, 12/31 at 8pm, 1/1 at 8pm, 1/2 at 8pm, 1/3 at 2pm, 1/3 at
8pm, 1/4 at 3pm, 1/4 at 7:30pm
City Center
55th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
212-581-1212
www.citycenter.org

December 30-March 7 (Opened December 6)
A Celebration of George Balanchine:

Selected Television Work George Balanchine took full advantage of the advent of television, and many of his greatest works - and performances of his dancers - have been captured on video. In this 100th-year anniversary of the great choreographer's birthday, The Museum of Television & Radio presents a series of showings of some incredible footage. The second installment - NBC Opera: The Magic Flute - runs from December 30-4. The 120-minute 1956 broadcast is Balanchine's staging of the Mozart opera, sung in English by Leontyne Price, William Lewis, John Reardon and Laurel Hurley.
Screening Times: Tuesdays to Sunday at 12:30 pm Evening Screenings: Thursdays at 6pm
The Museum of Television & Radio
25 West 52 Street
212-621-6800

December 30-April 24 (Opened December 10)
The Enduring Legacy of George Balanchine

A multi-media exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of George Balanchine. It features photographs, designs, manuscript music and correspondence, costumes, set pieces, and models, along with showings of videotaped performances and rehearsals. Lectures will begin in January.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
212-870-1630

December 31-January 4 (opened December 16)
Savion Glover
In an exhilarating evening, Tony Award winner Savion Glover and his group make their Joyce Theater debut. The tap dance great blends jazz, hip-hop, rock-n-roll, funk, thythm and blues into his own personal style.
12/31 at 8pm, 1/1 and 1/4 at 7:30pm
The Joyce Theater
175 Eighth Ave. at 19th St.
212-242-0880
www.joyce.org

January 3
Dances by Very Young Choreographers
This presentation will consist of nine solos, choreographed and performed by children 8-16 years old that study dance and choreography with Ellen Robbins at DTW.
Dance Theater Workshop
219 W 19th St.
212-924-0077
www.dtw.org

January 3-22
Dance On Camera Festival 2004

The Dance Film Association brings its showing of dance related films and videos to New York for its 32nd annual showcase. The event kicks off with a dance photography exhibit on January 3 at The Puffin Room.
435 Broome Street, Soho
(212) 343-2881, free (contributions welcomed)
Gallery open: Wed-Sun, 12-7pm

— Dale Brauner

 

 

 

 

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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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