2010 in Dance: A Look Back
December 25, 2010
Faye Driscoll's "There is so much mad in me", photo by Yi-Chun Wu
We’re days away from the end of 2010, so like in past years on this blog, I’m sharing what struck me as most memorable and impressive throughout the year. Both new and old works performed in a variety of venues and settings made the list. I hope that the older works mentioned here continue to make an impact and that the newer ones withstand the test of time.
I was blown away by Faye Driscoll’s There is so much mad in me at Dance Theater Workshop last April, and which I ended up revisiting this past September. The cast opened themselves up emotionally and physically to showcase extreme states of consciousness in a seamless series of vignettes.
Last February, Trisha Brown Dance Company performed at one of my favorite museums, the Dia: Beacon. It was a fitting setting for Brown’s spiraling, sprawling works, in which her dancers tested the limits of gravity and used the museum as their playground.
George Balanchine's "Serenade", photo by Paul Kolnik
A New York City Ballet spring performance of George Balanchine’s Serenade, featuring Jenifer Ringer, Teresa Reichlen, and Sara Mearns, gave me chills. Unforgettable.
At Dancespace Project, Kyle Abraham’s company performed The Radio Show. The work explored communication and the role of radio during difficult times, while also featuring Abraham’s lush movement style.
Pina Bausch's "Vollmond", photo by Laurent Philippe
A little over one year after Pina Bausch’s death, her company Tanztheater Wuppertal returned to BAM to perform Vollmond (Full Moon). The tons of water used for the performance stayed on stage, but even the audience felt drenched in shifting emotions, and often tears of mourning.
LEVYdance showed an interactive, thought-provoking work at Joyce SoHo called Everyone Intimate Alone Visibly. It was my introduction to the choreographer Benjamin Levy, and I look forward to seeing more from him.
Benjamin Levy and Aline Wachsmuth in "Everyone Intimate Alone Visibly", photo by Andrea Basile
In France, Paris Opera Ballet performed a new version of Jiri Kylian’s Kaguyahime. Original lighting, sets, choreography, and wonderful percussion music brought this ancient story to life.
I jumped at the chance to see Mikhail Baryshnikov perform at Baryshnikov Arts Center last May. His poise and presence were mesmerizing.
Mikhail Baryshnikov in Benjamin Millepied's "Years Later", photo by Andrea Mohin
Sneak Peek of ABT’s Nutcracker
December 10, 2010
Last month, Works & Process at the Guggenheim presented a sneak peek of American Ballet Theatre’s new production of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. The ballet will have its world premiere at Brooklyn Academy of Music on December 22nd. Watch as Ratmansky coaches dancers including Veronika Part, Marcelo Gomes, Daniil Simkin, and others while sharing some of his ideas for the new production.
Another Year, Another Wrap-Up
December 23, 2009
Batsheva Dance Company in Ohad Naharin’s MAX, photo by Gadi Dagon
It has been an eventful year for dance, and at times, a sad one. We lost Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, and Michael Jackson, many companies folded or laid off dancers due to financial troubles, and individuals everywhere involved in the arts – as writers, managers, choreographers, directors, you name it – are scratching their heads and having conversations about how to do more with less. But there were also some new, thriving initiatives, like the Performance Club (which just celebrated its one-year anniversary), Arts in Crisis, and FEAST, which will continue into 2010 and undoubtedly grow stronger. And of course, there were many great performances over the past year that have kept me optimistic and confident that even during the most challenging times, talented artists are creating exciting work. Here are some highlights from 2009, with links to my full reviews.
Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey’s the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t at Dance Theater Workshop: A gorgeously harrowing piece that featured distorted balletic movement and a rich emotional history filled with convulsions, gasps, and haunting stares.
Dancers in Zoe Scofield and Juniper Shuey’s the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t, photo by Justine Avera
Emanuel Gat’s Winter Variations at Lincoln Center Festival: This duet for two men played with pauses and fluid motion within a deserted atmosphere that used light and dark to create personal and emotional boundaries. Their rhythmic movement to The Beatles’ “Day in the Life” is unforgettable.
Neal Medlyn in Why Won’t You Let Me Be Great!!!, photo by Zack Brown
Why Won’t You Let Me Be Great!!! at PS 122, conceived by Brendan Kennedy and presented by Neal Medlyn and CATCH: This evening-length show was inspired by Kanye West’s album 808s and Heartbreak, and featured a handful of downtown performing artists who engaged with his songs to convey loneliness, sex, and masculine power, among other themes. Some of the performers even got attention from – or confronted – Kanye West when he attended.
Steve Reich Interpreted Through Dance at the Guggenheim’s Works & Process: Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz both choreographed works to Reich’s Double Sextet. The results were excellent, albeit remarkably different, and both made use of the Guggenheim’s unique performance space.
Dancers in Larry Keigwin’s Sidewalk, photo by Richard Termine
Batsheva Dance Company’s MAX at Brooklyn Academy of Music: Ohad Naharin’s piece for ten dancers layered movement, sound, and lighting to create a heavily structured, non-theatrical work. Naharin’s chanting, in what sounded like gibberish, was a powerful guide throughout the work.
Rachel Maddow’s PillowTalk at Jacob’s Pillow: Sadly, I did not attend this, but a detailed press release left me wishing I had made the trip to Becket, Massachusetts. Maddow’s speech on arts advocacy and the importance of arts education is itself a work of art. An excerpt is below. Thank you, Rachel!
“Not just in wartime but especially in wartime, and not just in hard economic times but especially in hard economic times, the arts get dismissed as ‘sissy’. Dance gets dismissed as craft, creativity gets dismissed as inessential, to the detriment of our country. And so when we fight for dance, when we buy art that’s made by living American artists, when we say that even when you cut education to the bone, you do not cut arts and music education, because arts and music education IS bone, it is structural, it is essential; you are, in [Jacob’s Pillow founder] Ted Shawn’s words, you are preserving the way of life that we are supposedly fighting for and it’s worth being proud of.”
Gallim Dance in Andrea Miller’s Blush, photo by Christopher Duggan
Gallim Dance’s Blush at the Joyce Soho: The three women and three men in this work, choreographed by Andrea Miller, showed raw, intensely physical movement set within an emotional climate that shifted from dangerously cold to achingly tender and warm.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company’s Event at Rockefeller Park: Performed one week after Cunningham’s death at the age of ninety, this site-specific work was a beautiful farewell overflowing with intriguing contrasts and nuances.
Merce Cunningham Dance Company in Event at Rockefeller Park, photo by Julieta Cervantes
Ernesto Neto’s anthropodino at the Park Avenue Armory: There was no performance here, but the interactive installation provided a sensual playground that made it easy to watch people of all ages take in the sights, sounds, smells (1650 pounds of spices were used), and textures of Neto’s massive creation.
ad hoc Ballet’s HER at the Joyce Soho: Deborah Lohse’s work explored female intimacy, aggression, and desire, and the two main women beautifully captured the complexities of their conflicting characters. Their cruelty and vulnerability felt honest and powerful in the Joyce Soho’s intimate space.
Cedar Lake dancers at the Chelsea Art Museum, photo by Kokyat
Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet’s installation at the Chelsea Art Museum: Photographs, sculptures, and paintings by the fifty-six Iranian artists featured in “Iran Inside Out” set the tone for this compelling piece, which echoed the exhibit’s themes of war, sexuality, politics, and the quest for freedom of expression.
The Dia: Beacon: I didn’t see a performance when I visited the museum in October (although there have been many performances there in the past, including a series by Cunningham), but I still highly recommend a trip to the Dia. Richard Serra’s earthy sculptures are extraordinary.
Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipse II, photo by Evan Namerow
Bodies Converse in The Good Dance
December 18, 2009
Dancers in "The Good Dance - dakar/brooklyn", photo by Antoine Tempé
The Torah, the Bible, and the Koran are Good Books in the West. But since earth-based, African traditions turn to the body as a moral and spiritual guide, choreographer Reggie Wilson wonders if there can be a Good Dance. Dancers from his Fist & Heel Performance Group and Andréya Ouamba’s Senegal-based Compagnie 1er Temps use their bodies to try and write one. The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn, which opened at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Wednesday evening, is a cross-cultural exploration of the choreographers’ relationship to one another, their distinct backgrounds (Wilson grew up in Milwaukee after his family migrated from the Mississippi Delta, while Ouamba is Congolese), the rich histories and cultures of the Mississippi Delta and the Congo River, and the use of the body as a moral compass instead of text. Literal and more subtle expressions of these themes combine to create a work that is vivid and strong, yet still evolving and uncertain of its journey.
Moving through a sea of plastic bottles partly filled with water – symbolizing a natural resource trapped within a manufactured vessel and disconnected from its roots – the eight dancers blended Wilson’s structural style with Ouamba’s improvisational approach to convey rhythms that range from a propulsive, driving energy to a sleepier, meditative stretch. Musical choices including Aretha Franklin, Robert Belfour, and Franco & Le Tpok Jazz enhanced the ebb and flow of the piece’s pace. Whether performing in solos, duets, or as an ensemble, the dancers erupted with fluid, sensual movement that attempted to push beyond the boundaries of the water bottles. Sometimes they threw their bodies into a pile and successfully pushed the bottles into a corner, while in other instances, they laid still amidst the sparkling mess, or watched from the sidelines as others navigated these uncertain waters. Literal interpretations and metaphors abound.
The gorgeous lighting design by Jonathan Belcher and Carrie Wood shifted between shadows and yellow or red light, creating a sense of time passing, or migration to a new place. Indeed, the dancers brought the audience along on their journey, but it isn’t over. These bodies are still writing. It seems that Wilson and Ouamba’s exploration of their backgrounds, the Mississippi and the Congo, and the body is ongoing, and perhaps The Good Dance evolves as well. Like any good book, you can return to a good dance, find something new and marvelous, and see where it takes you.
The Good Dance – dakar/brooklyn will be performed again tonight and Saturday at 7:30 PM at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The Forsythe Company in Decreation at BAM
October 8, 2009
William Forsythe’s Decreation, photo by Dominik Mentzos
William Forsythe’s 2003 piece Decreation, which opened last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, is a meditation on the messiness of life. The work takes its title from an essay by Anne Carson, and as the title suggests, the eighteen dancers dissolved into nothingness while in states of rage, tenderness, love, and jealousy. For sixty-five minutes, dialogue, movement, live video, and jarring sounds joined forces to create a chilling, frustrating commentary on the emotional self.
A heated dialogue occurred between a man and woman questioning their love for one another as they tugged at their own clothing and jerked at each other’s limbs. Their argument was re-contextualized and distorted as other dancers repeated their words elsewhere in the piece. A man matter-of-factly presented his own needs to a moaning woman (“This is the deal. You give me everything and I give you nothing.”), a lonely, lustful woman pressed herself between two stoic men, and a raging man ripped at his own skin while shouting in German. Contributing to the dense, claustrophobic atmosphere was the sound design, which amplified or changed the pitch of the dancers’ voices, or drowned them out with electronics. In addition to suggesting that the speaker and listener have different perceptions of what they hear, the dizzying sounds also reflected the chaos of conflicting internal voices.
However distressing the on-stage communication was for the audience, it was surely more challenging for the dancers of The Forsythe Company as they courageously, meticulously navigated through the performance. With remarkable commitment, they conveyed a range of emotional states through dialogue and movement – which shifted among convulsions, fluid softness, and combative, tangled duets and solos – while also working with a video camera and sound equipment that depicted and altered their own images and voices. Besides battling with each other, the dancers were forced to face their own projected images, illustrating the hidden interactions that occur within an individual.
“This is irritating”, said one of the dancers to the audience, and as this line was repeated throughout Decreation, those words felt increasingly true of the piece itself. Perhaps this was Forsythe’s intention – to show how vicious, loud, insincere, confusing, and tender our communication with one another can be. And to make us realize what the same dancer asked aloud, upon removing herself from an argument: “Is this it? This is our life?” If there was a spiritual component in the piece, or an attempt at a journey of the soul, it was buried beneath the dancers’ extreme states and the forces that shaped them.
Decreation continues at BAM through October 10th, and there will be a free post-performance talk with Forsythe on October 8th. Tickets can be ordered online or by calling BAM ticket services at 718.636.4100.
