The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company presents a new work. In October, almost a year ago, I wrote about one of two pieces that the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company premiered at the Joyce Theater. Lance: Pretty AKA The Escape Artist told through movement, speech, music, movable set pieces, and props the story of Lance T. Briggs, a nephew of Bill T. Jones, who began as a promising ballet … [Read more...]
Archives for 2017
Leaves Fall, Dancers Rise
New York City Ballet presents its annual Fall Gala at Lincoln Center. “Practice makes perfect” may be a mantra for dancers and choreographers. It also describes how smoothly and fleetly the New York City Ballet’s 2017 Fall Gala—its sixth pairing choreographers with fashion designers—leapt onto and off the stage at Lincoln Center during the second week of the company’s season. Last year five … [Read more...]
From Belgium, A Love Supreme
A Love Supreme by Salva Sanchis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/ Rosas comes to the U.S. Overtures are rare at New York Live Arts. You get your ticket, visit the restroom, maybe buy a drink. The creators of A Love Supreme, Salva Sanchis and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, warm us up in a more intimate way for what is to follow. A half hour before the performance is due to start, saxophonist Tony … [Read more...]
Deciphering Codes, Or Not
Sarah Michelson premieres a new work at Bard College's Richard B. Fisher Center. If a friend tells me he or she is going to see a particular choreographer’s new work, I nod my head; I have a vague idea of what it’ll be like. But suppose the choreographer named is Sarah Michelson. That’s a whole other story. I’ve walked into downtown New York theaters such as The Kitchen and P.S. 122 to see … [Read more...]
Twyla Tharp Dances Again
Twyla Tharp Dance appears at the Joyce Theater, September 19 through October 8 What do I admire—love— about Twyla Tharp’s best choreography? Its scrappiness, its heroism, its tenderness, her masterly way with form and dynamics. She knows how to make a tight, punchy barrage of little steps erupt into a slow soar, how to turn a canon into a fugue, how to let unison slide into diversity and … [Read more...]
Bausch Reborn
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch returns to the Brooklyn Academy of Music (through September 24). Pina Bausch made a wise decision in 1984 when Tanztheater Wuppertal— the company she headed in that park-studded, industrial German city—made its New York debut at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: she introduced us to her stylistic preoccupations gradually. Between graduating from the … [Read more...]
Homeward Bound
Jonah Bokaer Choreography at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. August 24, 2017. It’s one of Manhattan’s best summer days—hot enough to encourage many of its citizens to don amazingly skimpy outfits, but graced by a balmy breeze. This is the last day that Jonah Bokaer performs site-specific solos in the garden of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. I’m disoriented from … [Read more...]
Are You Certain?
John Heginbotham and Maira Kalman premiere a collaboration at Jacob's Pillow. Do I see an acknowledgement or a warning? My destiny maybe? The seats in Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Studio Theater haven’t paid much attention to me until now, when I’m about to sit in one to watch the world premiere of The Principles of Uncertainty by choreographer-director John Heginbotham and … [Read more...]
Dancing on Water, Making Waves Onstage
The Trisha Brown Dance Company performs at the Clark Art Institute and at Jacob's Pillow. I’ve never watched a work of Trisha Brown’s without saying to myself, “How did she ever think of that?” I still marvel that an artist so rigorous could be so playful. I’ve envied her rambunctious way with words too. Yesterday, feeling foggy-headed, I went to the refrigerator and screwed the cap off a … [Read more...]
Home, Where the Heart Is
Kyle Abraham/Abraham.In.Motion at Jacob's Pillow, August 2 through 6 Kyle Abraham has always treated his own life and times as soil on which to build dances: his family, the Pittsburgh he grew up in, racism, gender bias, politics. Hip-hop introduced him to dancing; ballet, modern, and postmodern styles followed. Film and text clarified ideas. Yet his works have never seemed didactic—partly … [Read more...]