Well, actually, you can't. It's one of the duties of the Ballet Master in Chief of big companies to create pieces d'occasion for the galas. (The French here is de rigueur, bien sur). Martins does his duty, but it seems to make him miserable. His classical "trifles" have often looked straitjacketed, the contemporary work dogged, and the popular pieces a sop to the narcissism of the wealthy … [Read more...]

So remember how, starting back in May and continuing into June, then again in September (see the archives), we were lamenting that dance is not as popular as opera--and trying to figure out why and what to do about it? In late September, reader Griffin suggested that dance do like the Met Opera and provide the movie theaters with high-definition simulcasts of sumptuous live shows. And now they're … [Read more...]

Among the many wonderful responses to Monday's post about what choreographers might do to clarify their vision, dance critic Lori Ortiz of the Gay City News, the Performance Art Journal, Attitude, and other publications reminds us of the European practice of dramaturgy: Hi everyone. I must pipe in to bring up one thing we are missing in our American dance, which is common in Europe: dramaturgy. … [Read more...]

Blogger Jolene of Saturday Matinee: Thoughts on Theater in the Bay Area has ignited a small storm of response with her relief that someone could clarify why a couple of ballets were duds: she thought the problem was her. A whole lot of issues have come up, such as: What responsibility does a choreographer have to the audience? Do certain methods of composition lend themselves to obscurantism? Is … [Read more...]

Ohad Naharin's "Three," performed by the Batsheva Dance Company at the BAM Opera House through Saturday, is what people like to call a "pure movement piece." It's an annoying expression in any case, as movement can never be wiped clean of history and metaphor (and why would you want it to be?), but it's especially off when applied to Naharin's gestural idiom. Still, other pieces by Israel's … [Read more...]

Blogger Jolene of Saturday Matinee: Thoughts on Theater in the Bay Area writes in about my post last week on the Elo and Millepied ballets at American Ballet Theatre: I completely agree with your interpretation of Elo's and Millepied's pieces. I just saw them this past Saturday at Berkeley and was a bit confused. Do the choreographers really think that their pieces are going to be memorable or … [Read more...]

Here is my Newsday review of the two world premieres at American Ballet Theatre this season, by Benjamin Millepied and Jorma Elo. I didn't like the ballets very much; neither did I hate them. Writing in short form with little time doesn't lend itself to that mezzo-mezzo state of mind, a brain stewing after it's been stewed. I've noticed that my colleagues and I tend to list to one side or the … [Read more...]

Many of the reviews of Julie Kavanagh's recent Nureyev bio have enshrined the author--they're not really reviews but mini hagiographies--while pillorying the artist himself. It's as if the reviewers--principally, Joan Acocella in the New Yorker, who thinks "Kavanagh gave Nureyev too many breaks" -- always wanted to get their revenge and now this bio has given them permission. Acocella goes so far … [Read more...]

Dance critic Judith Mackrell of The Guardian has written a post that credits "the Artsjournal dance blog" for "chatter" and "wishful thinking" in our hopes for an ambassador for dance on the model of Pavarotti. So does Mackrell go on to prove how stupid this whole topic is? No! She borrows it whole hog for her own column, after making it properly British. (She doesn't want an ambassador for dance … [Read more...]

For this preview in Newsday, I went to see Hernandez's Ballet Folklorico in the Bronx. Parts of it--the many parts with live music--were so beautiful and sweet, I wanted to cry. (So did a lot of the rest of the audience, it sounded like.) Anyway, the company is playing all up and down the East coast for the next two months (I mention only the local shows in my Newsday article), so for a treat, … [Read more...]