Mutant Storyboard remakes street dancing … [Read more...]
Mutant remakes street dance
On the occasion of Jonah Weiner's in-depth profile in The New Yorker on Brooklyn's most eccentric (and mesmerizing) street dancer, Storyboard P, I offer a review I wrote on his BEAT Brooklyn outing. Here are the first couple paragraphs:Almost everything that the otherworldly Brooklyn street dancer Storyboard P does defies expectations, especially if you're expecting straight-up … [Read more...]
Tuesday November 26
If crimes against humanity were theatre, what form would they take? … [Read more...]
Theatre of the Unjust
If crimes against humanity were theatre, what form would they take? That is the question African dance-theatre artists Panaibra Canda and Boyze Cekwana raise in "The Inkomati (dis)cord," at New York Live Arts as part of the Crossing the Line festival earlier this fall, and the question I consider in my review of the production for the Australian dance magazine Fjord Review. Here is a chunk … [Read more...]
Thursday October 8:
What counts as faithfulness in theatrical adaptations of literary works? Apollinaire considers on the occasion of Arthur Pita's adaptation of Kafka. … [Read more...]
Ballet Bug
In art as in life, there is no such thing as being faithful enough. Fidelity is an absolute. It cannot be measured in numbers of steps or scenes preserved any more than a romantic betrayal can be calibrated by the quantity of lovers taken on the side, though the numbers do tell some kind of story. Rather, faithfulness to a text, whether choreographic or literary, is a question of spirit. We want a … [Read more...]
Sunday March 3:
Purgatory at New York City Ballet … [Read more...]
Purgatory at the New York City Ballet
About a week ago, New York City Ballet announced its annual promotions. For those dancers moved up from the corps, it is impossible not to add worry to the elation. The problem this year is not what it sometimes is--that the dancers have yet to distinguish themselves. This crop--Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Megan LeCrone, Lauren Lovette, Georgina Pazcoguin, Justin Peck, Brittany … [Read more...]
Saturday January 19
Two sides of dance in New York heat up … [Read more...]
Uptown, Downtown
Dance in January is dizzying and divided even by New York standards. Uptown, New York City Ballet gets back to mixed programmes, almost always with a blast of Balanchine in the first week or two. This year, it's two weeks of Balanchine's Tchaikovsky, which may prove too much vastness of feeling mixed up with shimmery imperial pomp at a go. But every ballet lover should at least try … [Read more...]