Tobi Tobias passed away on February 13th after a long illness. She leaves her husband Irwin, her children, John and Anne, and four grandchildren. Those are bleak words, unlike any that usually come to mind when I think of Tobi and the wonderful, illuminating dance criticism she wrote for decades. I’ve just been re-reading with delight some of the pieces she posted on her artsjournal.com blog … [Read more...]
From Belgium to New York
When I think about the works by the brilliant Belgium-based choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker that I’ve seen over the years, I realize how the different New York spaces in which they were performed affected not just my eyesight, but my feelings. That idea slid into my brain last week, when I was watching—experiencing—her and four members of Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker/Rosas perform her 2017 … [Read more...]
Dancing with J.S. Bach
Count Hermann Carl von Keyserlink, so the story goes, had trouble sleeping at night in 18th-century Leipzig. So the amiable Johann Sebastian Bach composed thirty variations for harpsichord that his precocious and gifted pupil, 14-year-old Johann Gottheim Goldberg, might play at night to relax the insomniac. It is hard to imagine Bach’s Goldberg Variations helping anyone to get some shut-eye; … [Read more...]
Once Upon a Time There Was Romance
Do you ever wonder how choreographers choose their titles? After seeing James Whiteside’s New American Romance on the last day of American Ballet Theatre’s fall season at the former New York State Theater, I spent some time pondering that. The five women in its cast of eight wear dark blue, swirling, ankle-length tutus (provided by Primadonna). The music to which Whiteside set his ballet, … [Read more...]
Noh Transformations
Anyone who has seen a Japanese Noh play will not forget it easily. The poetic speech, the masked characters and their slow, ceremonious behavior, the tiny details that expose a world. Karole Armitage has studied and thought about the form for many years, perhaps while performing in Merce Cunningham’s company or being the resident choreographer for the Ballet de Lorraine (among many other … [Read more...]
Fashion and Dance Get Married
The New York City Ballet's Fall Gala You can discover online a photo of Sarah Jessica Parker, swirling the yards of fuschia material in which designer Zac Posen had garbed her for the New York City Ballet’s Fashion Gala (she was one of six Gala chairpeople). The September 26th event— the eighth of its kind for NYCB— garnered 2.6 million dollars and occasioned the premieres of two new ballets: … [Read more...]
Martha Over the Years
When Janet Eilber, artistic director of the Martha Graham Dance Company, stepped through Jacob’s Pillow’s front curtain to introduce the group’s performance, she mentioned that this was the 94th year of the MGDC, which made it the oldest dance company in the United States. Actually Graham’s history travels twistily backward even further, when she and the Pillow’s founder, Ted Shawn, danced … [Read more...]
A Ballerina Adventures in Postmodern Worlds
It wouldn’t be entirely fair to call Sara Mearns a force of nature, given her discipline, her skills as a principal dancer with the New York City Ballet, and her interest in exploring new possibilities. However having seen her perform August 14-18 in Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theater, I’m strenuously tempted. The program titled “Sara Mearns: Beyond Ballet” features her in five works. … [Read more...]
Borne on the Winds
The tall, robust, gray-haired man standing outside Jacob’s Pillow’s Ted Shawn Theater during intermission is explaining his reaction to Andrea Miller’s Boat to two attentive listeners. The members of her company, Gallim, he says, never stand still! He can’t get over that. It’s not entirely true, of course. The eight marvelous dancers who make up Gallim do pause in their dancing or stand and … [Read more...]
What Stands May Fall
I didn’t read Maura Keefe’s program essay while sitting in Jacob’s Pillow’s Doris Duke Theater, waiting for the day to start. I didn’t read the program note by the versatile and highly regarded cellist Maya Beiser. I didn’t read the spoken text that was part of David Lang’s score. And, once the piece began, I didn’t identify one of the projected slides as showing Santiago Calatrava’s … [Read more...]