I didn't do either in my review for the Financial Times tomorrow of the popular European choreographer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's Orbo Novo. There were other things, for which I felt distinct dislike, such as the dance's confusion about its stance towards its material (a woman entering nirvana by suffering--if that's even the right way to put it-- a stroke). It's okay for the choreographer to be … [Read more...]

After posting Foot contributor Paul Parish's eloquent and provocative outcry on the YouTube crackdown on user Ketinoa's large video collection, I received some illuminating information on copyright law from Marc Kirshner, of the newly formed Tendu TV. Here it is, filtered through the law-ignorant mind of moi: --In order to maintain their right to certain dances, organizations such as the … [Read more...]

So, in writing about this month's ridiculous, my big dilemma was whether to allot it one star or two in the Financial Times galaxy. The dancing might have warranted two, but the story the dancing was telling was so benighted.... I finally went with one. Here's the first few paragraphs of the FT review, which came out today: Another worldwide tango show has arrived in New York, in the sixth year … [Read more...]

To continue Paul Parish's incredibly smart discussion of why we--potential live-dance audiences, actual live-dance audiences, committed dance enthusiasts, dance scholars--all need video libraries like the Ketinoa collection on YouTube, here are two useful sources I dug up: --Novelist Jonathan Lethem's fantastic 2007 Harper's article, "The Ecstasy of Influence," on how artmaking necessarily … [Read more...]

While we're waiting for the New York Times to do some investigating on the Balanchine Trust's role in the shutting down of a 1300-video ballet archive on YouTube (nudge, nudge), here's Foot contributor Paul Parish, from the Bay Area: Hey Apollinaire -- I don't know how upsetting you find this action, but it's really big if you ask me. I went to that archive all the time and studied there for … [Read more...]

I think it's really exciting that American Ballet Theatre chose to do three premieres for their fall season: Bravo! And they even picked choreographers with solid--or better--track records: besides their new and cherished resident choreographer, Alexei Ratmansky, prolific 30something choreographers Benjamin Millepied and Aszure Barton. I've admired works by Barton and Millepied before, but these … [Read more...]

That would be Fall for Dance, which just finished its five-program, two-week run at City Center. Here's my Financial Times review of all but the final program, and here's a teaser for those not so sure they want to click: The all-ages audiences for City Center's Fall for Dance festival are a democracy's dream. People are so buzzed from having snagged the $10 tickets that sell out in a day that … [Read more...]

Emio Greco | PC's [purgatorio] POPOPERA is kind of a mess, but if you love movement --watching it created with the breath, thought about unusually--you should head over to the Joyce this week (through Sunday). And you could probably get in for $10. (The Joyce has "updated their pricing structure"--i.e. succumbed to recession specials. On Tuesday, there were a lot of empty seats and gleeful … [Read more...]

While my colleagues have admitted that something marvelous and strange is going on in Mark Morris's latest works, they've also been diffident. As Alastair Macaulay summed up in the New York Times upon the company's performances at the Mostly Mozart Festival last week, Both [premieres] are peculiar, imaginative, sincere... But [they] are almost impossible to love. I recognize that feeling, … [Read more...]

That's what we proved to be--we critics--when Tulsa Ballet hit town, with the governor, Tulsa mayor, secretary of state and members of the Ballet board in tow. I, at least, was hoping to love them--wouldn't it have been neat to find, far away from any of our dance capitols, that something great was stirring? It happens all the time in the other arts; take, for example, the Flaming Lips, from … [Read more...]