DanceNOW [NYC] Festival: Find Your Artistic Crush
October 30, 2008
Singh & Dance, photo by Steven Schreiber, courtesy of Dance Theater Workshop
The 14th annual DanceNOW [NYC] Festival kicked off on Monday at Dance Theater Workshop, and performances will continue through Saturday, November 1st. With 65 choreographers presenting 40 works over a six-day period, you’re bound “to find your artistic crush” – the organization’s slogan – and connect with at least one of the artists’ works. Over the past few days, Misnomer Dance Theater, Singh & Dance, and ad hoc Ballet have performed, among many others. Companies performing between today and Saturday include Battleworks Dance Company, The Bang Group, and Gina Gibney Dance.
View the full festival lineup and order $20 tickets online, or pay $25 at the door. Also, check out DanceNOW’s GreenNOW campaign. It’s great to see arts organizations incorporating environmental initiatives into their artistic and creative vision.
DanceNOW [NYC] Festival
Performances continue October 30, 31, and November 1 at 8 PM
Dance Theater Workshop
219 West 19th Street
$20 online or $25 at the door
ARENA Dances Premieres “Ugly” at the Joyce Soho
October 29, 2008
Mathew Janczewski, Artistic Director of ARENA Dances, photo by Aaron Warkov
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of speaking with Mathew Janczewski, founder and artistic director of ARENA Dances, about his company’s upcoming performances of Ugly at the Joyce Soho starting on October 30th. Commissioned by and premiered at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis last year, Ugly will be making its New York premiere. The evening-length, multi-media work examines perceptions of beauty and society’s demand for physical perfection through abstract movements inspired by martial arts, gymnastic athleticism, and court dance. Ugly stemmed from collaborations with a variety of artists, and features original choreography by Janczewski, electronic music composed by Morton Subotnick (who will perform live on stage), a narrative by playwright Kira Obolensky, and a video installation.
Janczewski, who has been choreographing since he was sixteen and founded ARENA Dances fresh out of the University of Minnesota in 1995, started brainstorming ideas for Ugly after biking by a green silo that said “ugly” on it in graffiti. Recognizing that he usually makes “big physical dances attempting to be beautiful”, Janczewski questioned society’s obsession with defining what is beautiful and what is ugly. He asked himself, “Who am I to be the judge of what’s ugly or grotesque?” This led to creative round-table discussions and workshops with artists and dancers over a two-year period, which was occasionally overwhelming for Janczewski since he tends to work over brief periods of time. In the studio, he and the cast of seven played with ideas and closely collaborated to create Ugly, and with the support of the Walker Art Center, the piece premiered in October 2007. In three distinct sections, Ugly takes the audience on a journey from Baroque, to Technology/Disco, and finally to Nature, with each section giving way to the next. Janczewski received a range of feedback after the premiere. “A lot of people said they didn’t like it because it made them uncomfortable, but others loved it”, he told me. Since Ugly was so different from the majority of his work, Janczewski wasn’t surprised by the mixed reactions.
ARENA dancers in Ugly, photo by Cameron Wittig
This past January, Dance Magazine recognized Janczewski and ARENA Dances as one of the top 25 to Watch, stating that “the abstract, deeply intelligent choreography of Mathew Janczewski, which his dancers inhabit with almost preternatural ease and precision, makes audiences swoon.” Ugly sounds like a fascinating, thoughtful, and extremely relevant work. Hopefully this is just the beginning of Janczewski and ARENA Dance’s performances in New York City. Ugly will be performed October 30 through November 2 at the Joyce Soho. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling (212) 352-3101.
Steve Reich Evening at BAM
October 27, 2008
Rosas in Steve Reich Evening, photo by Herman Sorgeloos
Brooklyn Academy of Music presented Steve Reich Evening this past week as part of its Next Wave Festival. Choreographed by Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and performed by Rosas, the company she founded in 1983, the performance was a dedication to Reich’s work, which has inspired De Keersmaeker since the early 1980s. Ms. De Keersmaeker proved that she is not only an ambitious dancemaker – Reich’s work sounds impossible to count and can be irksome for its monotony – but also a brilliantly perceptive one. I couldn’t have imagined a more accurate dance reflection of Reich’s music, which was performed by the Brussels-based music ensemble Ictus.
The first two sections of the performance were devoted solely to sound, opening with Pendulum Music, in which two suspended microphones swung back and forth over a speaker…and back…and forth…and back. There was something calming and balancing about the image, but after nearly ten minutes, I was eager for something that reflected the intricacy of Reich’s work. Marimba Phase was more of the same, with two marimba players in silhouette performing center stage. After this, however, the performance gained momentum in each section (with the exception of Gyorgy Ligeti’s part silly, part aggravating Poeme symphonique pour cent metronomes, in which one hundred orange mechanical metronomes ticked at the front of the stage…enough already). In Piano Phase, two women repeatedly pivoted and swung their right arms while advancing downstage and then moving back in different panels of light. Eight Lines, a piece for eight women, looked random and at times improvised, but there was structure and order within the chaos. While watching these pieces, I found that there was a fine line between being mesmerized and feeling disengaged. My eyes tended to glaze over when I watched the whole picture, but by focusing on a specific dancer or group of dancers, I found subtleties that emphasized De Keersmaeker’s pure understanding of Reich’s music.
Four Organs was the low point of the performance, as five men struggled to add energy to the repetition of Reich. The music and movement never truly connected, and therefore never amounted to anything substantial. But the finale set to the percussive Drumming-Part 1 was riveting. Jan Versweyveld’s lighting captured the charted lines on the floor while casting panels of stark light upon the dancers. With the wings and backdrop stripped away, they moved at lightning speed, often bringing their knees to their forehead and then slamming into the floor. Along with the four percussionists, the dancers commanded the stage.
This was not the best grouping of Reich’s work, but I respect De Keersmaeker for delving into these selections, and mostly succeeding. Minimalist music is often considered to be simplistic or mundane, but Steve Reich Evening was a challenging performance that conveyed the complexity and depth of Reich’s music through movement.
Dancing Perfectly Free Is One Year Young
October 25, 2008
This past Tuesday marked the one-year anniversary of Dancing Perfectly Free, and to mark the occasion, I thought it was time for a little makeover. So, DPF is now at dancingperfectlyfree.com! You can still get to the site under the old WordPress domain, but the new address is a bit shorter and easier to remember. There’s also some updated information on the “About” page, and the “Contact” page includes my new email address: Evan (at) dancingperfectlyfree (dot) com. If you have questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, or just want to say hello, feel free to send me an email. Over the past year, I’ve seen many thought-provoking, memorable dance performances and had the pleasure of meeting and interacting with some wonderful choreographers, dancers, bloggers, blog readers, photographers, and artistic staff. I’m so grateful to all of the people, performances, and opportunities that have shaped Dancing Perfectly Free. Thank you! Here’s to another exciting year of blogging. I’ll leave you with a video, featuring Fazil Say‘s Black Earth, that floated around the online dance community a few months ago. What a beautiful commercial.
San Francisco Ballet at City Center
October 22, 2008
San Francisco Ballet in Helgi Tomasson’s The Fifth Season, photo by Erik Tomasson
San Francisco Ballet‘s engagement at City Center came to a close this weekend after presenting three diverse programs. The two that I saw illustrated artistic director Helgi Tomasson’s dedication to preserving Balanchine classics while incorporating newer choreographic voices, including his own, into the repertoire. Not everything was successful, but one thing was clear: SFB dancers have impeccable technique and clarity of intention, and the men in particular are some of the strongest I’ve ever seen.
One program opened with Balanchine’s Divertimento No. 15, and the other closed with The Four Temperaments. The former showcased the dancers’ clean lines and pure technique. Frances Chung, in the second variation, had a lovely, engaging presence that made the challenging choreography look effortless. But this ballet felt dated and uncomfortably formal, especially when compared to the black-and-white Four T’s, set to Paul Hindemith’s wonderfully moody Theme with Four Variations for String Orchestra and Piano. I had forgotten how many high leg extensions and battements are in this ballet, all of which were performed with simultaneous control and attack. The highlight, however, was Taras Domitro in the Melancholic variation. Not only did he amaze the audience with his unbelievably flexible back, but he also infused the variation with lyricism, passion, and a subtle spiritual quality. Perhaps he went against Balanchine by showing so much emotion, but it only enhanced his performance.
Mr. Tomasson contributed Concerto Grosso and The Fifth Season back to back on one of the programs. Set to a strings composition by Karl Jenkins, The Fifth Season included a waltz, a romance, a tango, and a largo for a variety of couples. While the dancers – dressed in blue-gray leotards and tights – were in command of the movement, it was unclear what they were attempting to convey, which left me wondering: What exactly is the fifth season? Mr. Tomasson packed as much choreography as possible into the music, but the result was still bland. Concerto Grosso showed the technical prowess of five men who performed a series of solos and duets. They were all superb, and their technical strengths clearly inspired Tomasson enough to make a ballet about just that. Poise, elegance, and artistry played a role, but this was mainly about technique.
Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba in Within the Golden Hour, photo by Erik Tomasson
I had mixed feelings about Morphoses/The Wheeldon Company’s recent season at City Center, so I was prepared to be disappointed by Christopher Wheeldon’s Within the Golden Hour, which he created for SFB last April. But this ballet, set to Ezio Bosso‘s music for strings, revealed the choreographic complexity and emotional depth that reminded me why I’m drawn to Wheeldon’s work. Three pas de deux were framed by ensemble dancing that again emphasized the strength of SFB’s men. Golden lighting, costumes in various earth tones, and Bosso’s mysterious compositions created a delicate, otherworldly atmosphere. At the heart of the ballet was a lyrical duet for Sarah Van Patten and Pierre-Francois Vilanoba that conveyed the distant longing for something far beyond their reach. Wheeldon interwove the music and movement to create a pure, organic whole, with the slow tempo allowing the dancers to luxuriate in every stretch, extension, and detail of the intricate partnering. This is one of the strongest Wheeldon ballets I’ve seen in a while, but it would be so refreshing to see some independent women in his works. Within the Golden Hour, like many of his other pieces, relied on the men manipulating the women from one movement to the next. The shapes and lifts that they created were stunning, but it was always the men initiating the movement. And while there were a series of duets and solos for the men, the women were rarely featured on their own.
Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith in Yuri Possokhov’s Fusion, photo by Erik Tomasson
At the beginning of Mark Morris’s Joyride, digital number plates that were attached to the dancers’ shiny metallic costumes caught the audience’s attention, but the piece eventually wandered from one grouping of witty movement to the next. John Adams’ Son of Chamber Symphony contributed to the flatness of the piece, continuing along without ever gaining momentum. Yuri Possokhov’s Fusion, on the other hand, was focused on building – or rather, fusing – several parts into a greater whole: old and new, ancient and modern, east and west. Unfortunately, the piece was formulaic in the way it went about conveying this cultural merge. First, four men danced who represented the “old”; then several couples illustrated the “new”; and then they danced together, with Possokhov incorporating choreography from both the old and new. The only truly enlightening part of Fusion was a duet for Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith. With sweeping lifts and lunges, the dancers seemed to set aside the piece’s agenda and just immerse themselves in the movement.
Both programs showed musical and choreographic range, but what was most memorable were the superb technical and artistic abilities of SFB’s dancers.
