When Paul Taylor died of renal failure on Wednesday, August 29th, and I was coping with that news, I started to think not just of the 140 dances he made during his remarkable career, but of his connection to the great figures of 20th-century dance whose pantheon he joins. As a Juilliard student, he met many of them and appeared during the American Dance Festival at Connecticut College in a piece … [Read more...]
Excavate, Reassemble, Create
Netta Yerushalmy premieres her Paramodernities at Jacob's Pillow What? My name listed in the Jacob’s Pillow program among the twenty-four people whom Netta Yerushalmy was gracious enough to thank for the “insights” they contributed to her Paramodernities? Quick search through my e-mail. Yes, in 2013, Yerushalmy (who had been a student in NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts when I was on its … [Read more...]
Happy Hours Aren’t Always Happy
Monica Bill Barnes and Anna Bass perform Happy Hour at Jacob's Pillow, 7/26-28 and 8/2-4. The first time I saw Monica Bill Barnes’s Happy Hour, it took place in a long, narrow studio at Gibney Dance, 280 Broadway. In that re-purposed old building near City Hall, it was easy to imagine Barnes and Anna Bass—clad in hats, suits, and ties, their hair slicked back into puny buns—coming from … [Read more...]
Make Them Fall, Help Them Stand
Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui/Eastman performs at Jacob's Pillow Ten years ago, I began my review of zero degrees, the duet that Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui created and performed with Akram Khan, like this: “The audience leapt to its feet,” noting that I couldn’t remember ever seeing such an eruption before at New York City Center. Now it has happened again. When the curtain came down on Cherkaoui’s 2015 … [Read more...]
A Gala and Denmark in the Berkshires
Members of the Royal Danish Ballet Come to Jacob's Pillow, as it celebrates its 86th anniversary. Art, time, and money can squirm and slip around one another in unexpected ways. This year’s Gala at Jacob’s Pillow in the Berkshires made some people open their pockets on the spot and made others wish they could. The mood was jovial, and the weather responded with sunshine (perhaps the gods … [Read more...]
Refreshing an Old Story
American Ballet Theatre premieres Alexei Ratmansky's remounting of Harlequinade. It’s almost two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon, and I’m casing the audience that’s gradually filling the Metropolitan Opera House, where American Ballet Theatre is holding its spring season. Most of us, I’d guess, are either over 65 or under 12. More of us appear to be female than male. And, as Alexei … [Read more...]
The Times Are Changing
Kyle Abraham's company, A.I.M., performs at the Joyce Theater. Kyle Abraham used to call his company Kyle Abraham/Abraham in Motion. Now it’s called A.I.M. Of course, if you want to visit the company’s website, you may find yourself at Associated International Management or Advanced Idea Mechanics, but I expect he knows that. The concise new name minimizes his position, as well as … [Read more...]
Building Community, Skin Against Skin
Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods, working in both Brussels and Berlin, visits NYU Skirball The first time I try to access the website of Meg Stuart/Damaged Goods (based in both Brussels and Berlin), the screen says only “try to explode;” when I enter it again later, it tells me, “you have to embrace accident.” I think I’ll try the second now and save the first until later. Seeing Stuart’s 2015 … [Read more...]
New York City Ballet Celebrates Jerome Robbins
I lived with Jerome Robbins for six years. (Forgive the startling opener; he was dead at the time, but liked a joke). During those years, I read his diaries and his letters, talked with his family, friends, and those he worked with. Since recovering from writing a book about him and his choreography, I haven’t attended many performances of his ballets. Now the New York City Ballet, for which he … [Read more...]
How Many People in a One-Woman Show?
I love going to shows at Joe’s Pub for Dance Now’s Dance-mopolitan’s Commissioned Artist Series. But doing so takes a kind of expertise that I may lack. Did I manage to cut the sticky burrata that topped my little salad while keeping clean the blank paper on which I intended to take notes? Check. Did I really order a second beer? Yes, I did. Did I actually take some notes on top of previous notes … [Read more...]