On Water Flowing Together, Gwendolen Cates’s film biography of Jock Soto: “There’s an honesty about it that is both innocent and powerful. Like Dan Geller and Dana Goldfine’s 2005 Ballet Russes, this film is fueled by simple truths about what it is to be human.”
On Soto’s partnering class at the School of American Ballet: “Without words, he hoists one of the girls–a bantam-weight, granted–to his shoulder, where she sits, elegantly poised in the air while he walks forward, as if on a stroll in the park. Then he lowers her slowly, seemingly handling a fragile, otherworldly creature, until her feet touch the earth. Continuing, still in silence, he demonstrates a brief, beautiful phrase with her, then summons the rest of the students to take it up, traveling down the diagonal two by two. Every girl becomes a princess in her own imaginary kingdom, thanks to her trusty, Soto-bred cavalier.”
The full article appeared in Voice of Dance (http://www.voiceofdance.org) on January 2, 2008. To read it, click here.