The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company presents a trilogy (through November 6th). Bill T. Jones has always liked to talk on stage—while dancing or when not dancing. Sometimes he wants to get across ideas too complex to be expressed in movement alone; sometimes the movements expresses what was churning beneath the words, and sometimes the words hold the movements in check. Years ago, sitting … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2016
Moving Architecture
American Ballet Theatre presents ballets by Tharp, Lang, and Millepied. Goethe once wrote this: “Music is liquid architecture; architecture is frozen music.” For Havelock Ellis—one of the writers on the arts that Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey found inspiring early in the twentieth century—dance and architecture were the sources on which the visual arts were built. Watching one of … [Read more...]
When Is a Climax Not One?
The Yasmeen Godder Company from Israel mingles performers and spectators. When I last saw Yasmeen Godder’s choreography at the Kitchen in 2010, the dancers in her Singular Sensation often eyed the audience—challenging us, appraising us, flirting with us. However, a few feet of empty space separated even the front row of seats from their violent, messy world. Recently, Godder, based in … [Read more...]
Past, Present, and Future Meet in a Whirlpool
Imagine that you’re watching a group of workers assembling a large, complex object. So skillful are they that you can see what they are achieving, although you can’t always tell how they are bringing the object to life. You watch them fascinated—aware that rules, protocols, practices, and relationships govern their every move but not feeling deprived by your lack of knowledge. This what I … [Read more...]
Welcome to. . .Where Are We?
Danish Dance Theatre comes to the Joyce Theater, October 13-16. Help! I’ve been sucked into a nightmarish world known only to people who’ve seen too much dance. Its inhabitants seem familiar; they can thrust a leg sky-high, twist themselves into knots, and hurtle to the floor. They’re not afraid to look awkward or ugly and look wonderful—even virtuosic— doing that. They know that we’re … [Read more...]
Colliding Ideas
Tere O'Connor Dance appears at the Joyce Theater in the second week of NY Quadrille. It’s no secret that Tere O’Connor wants the dances he makes to be about themselves. He reveals this on his website, in his program notes, and in interviews. He puts it more eloquently than I can, stating that over his decades-long immersion in dance, “I’ve discovered that traits such as inference, essence, … [Read more...]
City Flock
Jennifer Monson/iLAND performs in tow in St. Mark's Church. Improvised dance performances, however they are structured, have something in common. Performers keep a sharp eye out for one another, whether they’re moved to join a comrade, pursue a solitary investigation, instigate a change, or draw on some prearranged material. Sitting in St. Mark’s Church watching Danspace Project’s … [Read more...]