Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce Theater, February 14 through 26. I’ve already written about the three new works that the Martha Graham Dance Company has acquired (http://www.artsjournal.com/dancebeat/2017/02/the-martha-graham-dance-companys-new-visions/). Of the remaining pieces programmed for the company’s season at the Joyce Theater, one is Nacho Duato’s 2013 Rust for five of the … [Read more...]
Inauguration, Dreaming, Rebelling
Ruth Patir's I dream of the elections at Danspace and Isadora Duncan in the 21st Century at the 92 Y Harkness Dance Center. In troubled times, we do strange things and see familiar ones differently. On Thursday night, January 19, 2017, I enter Saint Mark’s Church through the “wrong” door, because of construction work on the main entrance. From this small room, where occasionally during past … [Read more...]
Past Hits and a New Dance from Abroad
The Alvin Ailey America Dance Theater at City Center, November 30-December 31. Not long after its beginnings in 1958, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company broke an unspoken rule for modern dance companies. Most of those had a single choreographer, who also starred in almost every work; dancers wishing to perform leading roles had to found their own groups. But Ailey created a repertory ensemble, … [Read more...]
Marching Forward, Sometimes on Tiptoe
The Martha Graham Dance Company performs at City Center Erick Hawkins once claimed that he never knew that Martha Graham, his partner, lover, and onetime wife was fifteen years older than he. She knew it, however (and habitually chopped several years off her age when documentation was needed). In 1946, a period when he and she were temporarily on the outs, she choreographed Cave of the … [Read more...]
The Old and the New Dancing Together
Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance continues its Lincoln Center run through April 3. In a program essay by Susan Yung for the Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance season (through April 3), guest choreographer Doug Elkins mentions that Taylor’s Esplanade was the first dance he ever saw on PBS’s “Dance in America” and acknowledges its influence on him. Not that you’d guess it at the opening … [Read more...]
Paul Taylor’s Dancers on an Adventure
Paul Taylor's American Modern Dance presents it New York season, March 15-April 3. Last year inaugurated the transformation of the Paul Taylor Dance Company into Paul Taylor’s American Modern Dance. During that season, Shen Wei’s Rite was performed by his own company, and the José Limón company danced Doris Humphrey’s Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor. During the company’s current two-week … [Read more...]
Anna Sokolow’s Dark Spirit
Sokolow Theatre/Dance Ensemble revives three Anna Sokolow works. I’ve told this story before, but it slid into my mind again as I left the 14th Street Y after seeing the Sokolow Dance/Theatre Ensemble perform works by Anna Sokolow dating from 1968. About a decade earlier, I, a newly minted member of Juilliard Dance Theater with a knee problem, was watching Sokolow choreograph a piece for … [Read more...]
Alwin Nikolais’ Works Revived
The Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company performs at the Joyce Theater through February 14. The man sitting behind me at the Joyce Theater was enthralled by the Alwin Nikolais Celebration. He mentioned a possible connection to Blue Man Group, and dancegoers over the years have seen Nikolais’ influence on Pilobolus, Momix, and the Swiss Group Mummenschanz. But Nikolais (who died in 1993) was a … [Read more...]
The Ailey Dancers Welcome In the Holidays
The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater opens its City Center run, December 2 through January 3. During the curtain call at City Center that followed the world premiere of Robert Battle’s Awakening, the twelve members of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater joined the audience in clapping enthusiastically for him. Sweaty, their faces alight, their hands slamming together, they showed their … [Read more...]
70 Years of History Brought to Life
The José Limón International Dance Festival at the Joyce, October 13-25. José Limón was choreographing right up to the end of his life. His last dances, Orfeo and Carlota, premiered in 1972, the year of his death at 64. Those two works are included in the Limón Dance Company’s 70th anniversary celebration, now entering its second week at the Joyce Theatre. So is one of his earliest … [Read more...]