DanceNow at DTW, 10/27/08

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Chances are that if you live in New York, there aren’t enough hours in the day. If you’re into culture, you have a to-see wish list a mile long. Even dance, which tends to have less events nightly than other genres such as music, theater, art and film, has so much to offer that you can pick from a half-dozen at a time.

The DanceNow festival now at DTW can help. Founded by Robin Staff and Tamara Greenfield, over the course of six programs it offers 65 choreographers and 40 new works. The emphasis is on younger artists working in modern or hybrid forms, rather than more traditional non-modern genres. But it doesn’t exclude older artists; there are two 40Up programs plus four “Base Camp” showcases. Each night features twelve artists contributing short works; tickets are a reasonable $20 in advance and $25 at the door.

There are also several 10th Anniversary Project artists, whose older and new work will be presented: Cherylyn Lavagnino, John Heginbotham, Robert Battle, andMonica Bill Barnes. It’s a good context for these hard-working artists, recognizing their persistence while potentially introducing new eyes to their work.

Hadid, Chanel, and Art in Central Park, 10/27/08

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Chanel's art project housed in Zaha Hadid's sculptural pod

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No, a UFO has not landed in Central Park. It’s just Mobile Art, Chanel’s Contemporary Art Container plopped on Rumsey Playfield. It is Zaha Hadid’s first edifice in New York, a swooping futuristic nautilus that feels like a sci-fi movie come true. Chanel commissioned a group of contemporary artists to create work taking the company’s famous boxy 2.55 handbag as a starting point, which some did literally, some conceptually.

When the Mobile Art project was conceived a while back, and even when it bowed in Hong Kong in February 2008, it was likely incomprehensible that the state of the national and world economies would be where they currently are. Some visitors may view it as if it were a year ago – as a celebration of a top purveyor of luxury leather goods enshrined in a similarly haute setting by one of the world’s most admired avant-garde architects.

Others may feel that it’s a time stamp on a period of unlimited greed and profligacy which ended with a restructuring of the big financial institutions, and resulting in the most precarious financial state since the Great Depression. As well as a frivolous confection that takes up real estate in the park.

ABT’s Tudorfest, 10/21/08

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ABT dances Antony Tudor at City Center

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ABT’s big New York season takes place in the summer, when they mainly feature lavish productions of well-known ballets such as Swan Lake and La Bayadère. But their annual two-week City Center seasons are often more exciting, featuring contemporary choreographers’ work, or smaller-scaled repertory. Also, frequently cast in prominent roles are younger company members who might be hidden beneath wigs or carrying a spear at the Met.

This fall’s run, Oct 21 – Nov 2, features choreography by Antony Tudor, whose work looks wonderful on ABT. The City Center stage is also just the right size for his poetic, often searingly dramatic or comedic ballets. Tudor repertory this season includes Jardin aux Lilas in a revival premiere, and The Leaves are Falling, Pillar of Fire, the pas de deux from Romeo and Juliet, and the hilarious Judgment of Paris starring some company alum. And at a special All-Tudor Centennial Celebration on Oct 31, the company also performs Continuo, a sextet to Pachelbel. ABT has a special section of their Web site that features Tudor’s work.

Things loosen up with the addition of Paul Taylor’s fantasticCompany B to Andrews Sisters hits; this classic dance hits emotions from elated to tragic and takes on resonance in times of war. Twyla Tharp’s Brief Fling showcases her powerhouse technique in a witty duet. And her popular Baker’s Dozenreturns, featuring twelve dancers moving to jazz by Willie “The Lion” Smith.

San Fransicso Ballet, 10/16/08

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San Francisco Ballet at City Center

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In the wake of bragging about how New York’s native ballet scene has been greatly enriched by the regular presence of Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses and Alexei Ratmansky signing with ABT, I’m now going to sing the praises of visiting company San Francisco Ballet. This troupe, which makes too few trips to New York, is at City Center through Oct 18. Increasingly, the company is becoming a paradigm – commissioning vital new work, mounting classics, and developing excellent technical standards and charismatic artists.

SFB brings three programs that show the breadth of its repertory and the depth of the company’s technique. Helgi Tomasson, the artistic director now in his 20th year, contributes a few works in his post-Balanchine style, lyrical, athletic, with some familiar motifs (flexed wrists, off-kilter stances).

Mark Morris is based in Brooklyn, but New York City premieres of his work are becoming increasingly rare, especially ballet. SFB performs his Joyride, which premiered in California in April. This major work by Morris utilizes eight dancers clad in shimmering gold and silver bodysuits with digital numbers on their fronts, to be interpreted in innumerable ways. In part because his essential language is so prosaic, it seems that Morris often picks a handful of quirky movements or poses to brand each dance; these are repeated throughout. Here, with ballet serving as his language, he relies less on such tags, allowing the beauty of the vocabulary to shine.

NY’s Ballet Scene Morphs, 10/14/08

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Morphoses at City Center

http://www.thirteen.org/sundayarts/blog/performance/nys-ballet-scene-morphs/629/

New York City is a tour date for many of the world’s leading ballet companies, if only once every decade (ahem, Kirov). But stick around long enough and there’s a pretty good chance you’ll catch lots of them. But the city’s native ballet scene has brightened in recent years. Twyla Tharp has created new work (such as Rabbit and Rogue for ABT) to be seen along with older repertory by a variety of companies; Karole Armitage has returned from Europe to create some serious work with her dynamic company; and rising choreographers have received support and exposure from both New York City Ballet’s Diamond Project, ABT, and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet.

But the biggest news in the last two years has been the founding of Christopher Wheeldon’s company Morphoses, and the recent appointment of Alexei Ratmansky as resident choreographer at ABT. Morphoses recently had its second annual season at City Center. Last year’s debut season could only fall short of the enormous expectations of Wheeldon, who for several years had been the new artistic light at New York City Ballet until stepping down recently as choreographer in residence.

This year’s Morphoses season was better curated than its first. Two of Wheeldon’s handsome, longer works were in the repertory, including last year’s Fool’s Paradise, and one of his earlier successes from 2001, Polyphonia. His lovely new ballet buffa, Commedia, was based on Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite, one of the composer’s most harmonic and lilting scores. It included a powerhouse duet for veteran dancer Leanne Benjamin and 15-year-old Beatriz Stix-Brunell, whose differences and similarities made for a fascinating study.

Wheeldon’s ambition is to hire a permanent company, but at the moment, it is still composed of ringers from New York and abroad, primarily London and Norway. In Commedia, he made the most of this situation, choreographing pull-out duets and trios for compatible or complimentary dancers, and a few effective ensemble scenes that displayed his flair for tableaus. Costumes/sets by, respectively, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, greatly augmented the lighthearted tone.

Hot and Cold Comfort, 10/7/08

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Jane Comfort's An American Rendition

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Jane Comfort’s An American Rendition, which recently closed at the end of September, is the latest work in an oeuvre that continually reaches beyond what most other New York choreographers are producing. Comfort has never shied from topical subject matter, complex collaborations, or pushing her performers past what is normally demanded of them. This new work manages to segue scenes of torture with those of reality TV shows, and succeeds in spades.

The core story centers on the interrogation of an American played by Sean Donovan. It begins as routine questioning of Donovan after he passes through the inanities of airport security, driven by whimsical directives that change with the wind. The questioning session grows more intense, more like what you’d imagine early-stage Guantanamo Bay is like, with the same oversight of basic human rights and answers ignored simply because they aren’t the ones desired.

Actual tactics of interrogation are read aloud by believably bureaucratic Peter Sciscioli, bullet points that go from A to W and venture from practical to psychologically black. Donovan inhabits his character so fully as to make him entirely plausible. He is eventually stripped to his briefs, and his lean frame and full beard add to the wracked desperation of his role. His wife is portrayed by the talented Jessica Anthony, who segues seamlessly from aggrieved spouse intoAmerican Idol contestant singing “I Will Survive” at the top of her lungs.

Falling for Dance, 10/6/08

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Fall for Dance at City Center

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Fall for Dance is a wildly successful annual festival at New York City Center featuring $10 tickets 

and an amazing range of dance companies, 28 total. Now in its fifth year, the festival – produced by Ellen Dennis – spanned ten nights, with six different programs. All three programs I saw offered intriguing variety and samples of outstanding companies from around the world.

In a way, the wide range within each program works perfectly for the contemporary short attention span, when whole thoughts have to be reduced to 75-character text messages. It is a bit like channel surfing on TV, going from Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal in a charming work by Aszure Barton, to Oregon Ballet Theatre doing a Chris Wheeldon duet, to a traditional Indian dance by Madhavi Mudgal, an invocation to Shiva.

On that same program, Sheron Wray performed Jane Dudley’s Harmonica Breakdown from 1938, a remarkable solo inspired in part by Dorothea Lange’s photos. It was a sharp contrast toUprising, by Hofesh Schechter, Israeli-born but now based in London. His cast of men more prowled the stage than danced, sometimes freezing in poses before unleashing martial kicks. Much looking forward to this company’s return to New York, whenever that may be.

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