The Financial Times wanted a piece that explained the Pillow as well as reviewing the week's attractions for people not already in the know. A fun assignment, especially as it gave me an excuse (and the means) to go up there for the first time. I thought it was only California that you could drive in for miles and still be nowhere near the border.Here's a few paragraphs, taken from the middle of … [Read more...]
Merce: Gone
The first time I saw the company, with him still dancing strong, I was 14, it was 1978, and there, at Zellerbach in Berkeley --Sounddance. I leaned so far forward in my seat--drawn into the vortex of the dance--that I fell on the floor. On paper, in description, Cunningham's kind of dance wasn't what I thought would move me. I was a repressedly moony teenager--the kind of girl who reads Sons and … [Read more...]
BalletGate: Why Balletmaster Peter Martins’ reduced salary of $629,000 is still way too high
First, a few facts: New York City Ballet's Peter Martins is making about $629,000 a yearwhile 11 corps members are cut. To compare Martins' salary to other executives' NOT in the arts, as a couple of people have done on Ballet Talk fora here and here, is absurd. One doesn't go into dance to get rich. When Baryshnikov was head of ABT, he had an agreement with the Board by which his … [Read more...]
Winter mind from desert choreographer Emanuel Gat
So I debated whether to link to my latest review for The Financial Times--on the Emanuel Gat company, at the Lincoln Center Festival--because I may have bungled it (not for lack of trying, believe me). But perhaps you could click on the link and NOT read the review (dance never gets enough clicks)--and maybe, once explained, the bungles will make an instructive story--you know, for all of you … [Read more...]
Shout out to LA readers: David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy in “Romeo and Juliet” a must-see
For Los Angelenos trying to decide which American Ballet Theatre cast next week: the thing about Macmillan's ballet, like the play, is that it's the pair that counts. Half a pair of lovers amounts to none at all--and these two are fantastic together. David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy in Kenneth Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet. Photo by Rosalie O'Connor Hallberg is a swift stream of impulse and … [Read more...]
Diana Vishneva in Frederick Ashton’s “Sylvia” (with added insight from my friend Andy)
I review her debut as Sylvia for the Financial Times. In the cave with ogre Jared Matthews. (He might have bit into the part with more appetite: would have helped Vishneva's comic turn.) Photo by Gene Schiavone for ABT. It's really a delightful ballet--the delicious Delibes score as mercurial as the deus ex machina plot, sliding from trumpeting horns for huntress Sylvia and her cadre to lyric love … [Read more...]
Moon Walker (with added insight from Paul Parish and Brian Seibert, critic and tap historian. Scroll down)
A friend called Thursday night, and I was slow to pick up. When we finally caught each other, he quipped, "Yeah, I know, you've been busy mourning Michael Jackson." But I'd been mourning him for years. A young Michael Jackson (by Kate Simon, via the New Yorker) Every time I saw a photo of Jackson more bleached, more narrow-nosed, more hidden behind glasses and scarves, than ever, I felt incredibly … [Read more...]
Wild Thing
Diana Vishneva approaches her roles with a completeness of imagination that makes the usual day-after review--this worked, that didn't--feel especially meager. For example, in Swan Lake most ballerinas identify the swan queen Odette's creaturely gestures with her fear, her guardedness, her vulnerability--the feelings that Prince Siegfried's everlasting love promises to defuse. But last night at … [Read more...]
June doings while Foot rests (plus long ps. on the Ratmansky premiere at ABT)
Dear Reader, In order not to tempt me to write posts, when I have other, less tempting things to do, I am declaring a hiatus here for the next few weeks. But to not leave you completely high and dry, here are the dances in New York I would go see (and likely will go see) in these last weeks of the heavy dance season before the dog days (and the Lincoln Center Festival) set in. For modern and … [Read more...]
Frankie Manning, “Never Stop Swinging”
This just in: Tonight (Thursday) at 10:30 on WNET/Ch. 13, a documentary on Frankie Manning, the late King of Swing. Sorry for the late notice: I just noticed myself. It doesn't look like it's going to be broadcast outside of the New York area, but the above link says it will be available in streaming media after tonight. In case you're wondering who Manning is and why he's a big deal, read the … [Read more...]