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☆ What if All Dance Forms Were Considered Equal?
▼ + stars: | 2024-08-08 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Under the gentle radiance of golden chandeliers stood dancers, rows and rows of them, gleaming onstage. The scene was like a painting steeped in mist, its width diffused by shards of light and fog, its depth seeming to reach into infinity. Within each body, you felt dance history. For this version of his dance “Apaches,” the choreographer Saïdo Lehlouh opened the Foyer de la Danse behind the stage at the Palais Garnier, the opera house that is a hallowed home for classical ballet. The foyer, a gilded salon where dancers warm up, is not a space the public usually sees.

Persons: Saïdo Lehlouh Organizations: Apaches, Danse, Palais Garnier

Whales, Black bodies, the ocean, climate change, protest movements — over the past few years, they have all made their way into work by Mayfield Brooks, a choreographer, dancer and vocalist. The latest setting for Brooks’s ever-evolving dance project is a majestic one: the Tall Ship Wavertree, the last iron-hulled, three-masted cargo ship in the world. Built in 1885 and docked at Pier 16, the Wavertree extends about the length of a football field. This week, as part of the River to River Festival, Brooks (who uses they/them pronouns) finishes their whale journey with two works: “Whale Fall Abyss,” a dance performance on the ship, which is part of the South Street Seaport Museum; and “Whale Fall Reckoning,” a companion installation at a gallery — a former munitions room storage space — on Governors Island.

Persons: Mayfield Brooks, Brooks, ” Organizations: Street Seaport Museum

☆ The World Needs an Action Hero. Enter Twyla Tharp (and Camus).
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-30 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last year, Twyla Tharp immersed herself in the work of the French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, namely “The Plague.” World events were on her mind, and his 1947 novel about a pandemic in Algeria struck a chord. In her new full-length work, an outdoor dance-and-musical hybrid, “How Long Blues,” named after a Leroy Carr song, Tharp finds inspiration in that writing and also in American jazz. It reminds Tharp a little of performing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park in 1971, when she presented the premiere of “Eight Jelly Rolls.” A couple of performances “had puddles onstage,” she said. But the Little Island stage, while also outdoors, is not that. Tharp, who directed, choreographed and conceived “How Long Blues,” which runs June 1 through 23, regards the proscenium as a wonderful thing.

Persons: Twyla Tharp, Albert Camus, ”, Leroy Carr, Tharp, Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, “, “ They’ve Locations: Algeria, Little, Manhattan, Hudson, Central Park, New York

☆ At DanceAfrica, the Enduring Power of Love
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Life is love,” Davis says in a video shot at the wedding, crossing his arms across his chest before reaching them broadly to either side. “Love is all.”The wedding was a lavish occasion, but it was more than a theatrical staging of a ritual. DanceAfrica, the vibrant festival now in its 47th year, is as much about building and honoring a community as it is about showcasing artistic forms. Davis brought the couple — N’Goma, 80, is a drummer and Normadien, 71, a dancer — together by bringing them into his world. At DanceAfrica, N’Goma is a stage manager; Normadien is assistant stage manager.

Persons: Normadien, Chuck Davis, —, ” Davis, ”, Davis Organizations: Brooklyn Academy of Music Locations: United States, DanceAfrica

☆ She Wants to Make San Francisco Ballet an ‘Arrow to the Future’
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Coming from Tamara Rojo, three words go a long way: “That, I believe.”Rojo, the artistic director of San Francisco Ballet since 2022, wants dancers to have autonomy — more than just input, a real choice in how to interpret a role. There’s a difference between watching dancers ripple through steps, however beautifully, and watching their ideas about a role unfold in real time. When Rojo sees a moment she believes, it means they’re performing steps with meaning and intention. “What I really want is for them to go through the exercise of asking themselves questions,” Rojo said in her office after back-to-back “Swan Lake” rehearsals last month. That’s right.’”Her rehearsals are entertaining.

Persons: Tamara Rojo, ” Rojo, Rojo, ’, Misa Kuranaga, Odette, “ Organizations: San Francisco Ballet Locations: “ Swan

☆ Review: Dance Theater of Harlem Is in New (and Capable) Hands
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And on Thursday, Garland showed that he was getting some things right: Dance Theater, now in its 55th season, has a vintage kind of glow. The company, along with its dancers, seems to be more sure of itself: It’s growing into a sense of style. Honoring Mitchell was a reminder of why Dance Theater, born after the assassination of the Rev. Along with showcasing the transformative power of ballet, Garland writes in the program, Mitchell used Dance Theater as a means for social justice in part by way of its repertoire: George Balanchine ballets were performed alongside works by Black choreographers like Geoffrey Holder. 2,” which braids social dance with classical ballet.

Persons: Robert Garland, “ Arthur Mitchell, ‘, Robert, ’, — Mitchell, Garland, Mitchell, Martin Luther King Jr, George Balanchine, Black, Geoffrey Holder, curation, —, ”, Marius Petipa Organizations: New York City Center, Dance Theater of Harlem, “ Locations: New

☆ Watch: The Solo of ‘Solitude’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-25 | by ( Gia Kourlas | Stephan Alessi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Watch: The Solo of ‘Solitude’Click through as Joseph Gordon performs a section from Alexei Ratmansky’s new dance for New York City Ballet, a reaction to the horrors of the war in Ukraine.

Persons: Joseph Gordon, Alexei Ratmansky’s Organizations: New York City Ballet Locations: Ukraine

☆ At City Ballet, 2 Sparkling Premieres and Many Moments to Remember
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

For a company to unveil a decent new ballet is a strange and marvelous occurrence. To unveil two in one season? Quality choreography that celebrates classicism, that highlights musicality — that even pushes the form into new realms — isn’t the norm. But at New York City Ballet this season, two premieres were worthy of many more viewings — and in the case of Alexei Ratmansky’s harrowing “Solitude,” set to Mahler, endless ones. Inspired by a 2022 photo of a Ukrainian father kneeling before the body of his dead son, the ballet filled the stage with bodies expressing the tangible ache of grief and love.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, ”, Mahler, Ratmansky, —, “, Tiler Peck, Francis Poulenc, Peck, Peter Martins, Jerome Robbins, George Balanchine’s, Mary Thomas MacKinnon’s Organizations: New York City Ballet, City Ballet, della Locations: New, Ukrainian, della Regina

☆ At Dance Theater of Harlem, a New Lease on History and Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-24 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Robert Garland has held many positions at Dance Theater of Harlem over many years — principal dancer, resident choreographer, school director, archivist and company webmaster. At long last, he has caught the prize title: artistic director. A couple of years ago, the company’s executive director, Anna Glass, and Virginia Johnson, then its artistic director, invited him to dinner. Normally his evenings were spent at Dance Theater’s school, where he managed the pre-professional students. “They’re like, ‘Oh, come on!’”Johnson, a former star dancer, told Garland that she had decided to step down.

Persons: Robert Garland, Anna Glass, Virginia Johnson, Garland, “, ”, ” Johnson, ” Garland Organizations: Dance Theater of Harlem, Dance

☆ Review: Dancing Out ‘Goldberg’ With a Nod to John Travolta
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Images of women testing their bodies’ endurance have been swirling about the universe lately. For “The Goldberg Variations, BWV 988,” De Keersmaeker is joined by the young Russian-born pianist Pavel Kolesnikov. On paper, De Keersmaeker’s version of “Goldberg Variations” is a solo. This “Goldberg” is stark and simple, painting a choreographic picture full of shadows and light that mercifully loosens up over time. So does De Keersmaeker, a respected experimentalist based in Brussels, who has turned to Bach several times over the course of her career.

Persons: Taylor Swift, Madonna, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, ” De Keersmaeker, Pavel Kolesnikov, “ Goldberg, Goldberg, Bach Locations: Russian, Brussels

☆ Review: Alexei Ratmansky Unleashes the Pain of War at City Ballet
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-16 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Or, worse, when that world is breaking down with such vehemence that the air seems to grow more toxic by the minute? In Alexei Ratmansky’s new ballet “Solitude,” dancers waver and buckle as inner and outer forces wreak havoc on their bodies. Ratmansky’s latest ballet, his first as artist in residence at New York City Ballet, is about war — the devastating war in Ukraine, the country where Ratmansky grew up and where his parents still live. That grief — the solitude of “Solitude” — is apparent from the start. The principal dancer Joseph Gordon kneels before the limp body of Theo Rochios, a young student of the company-affiliated School of American Ballet.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s, Gustav Mahler, Ratmansky, David H, Joseph Gordon, Theo Rochios, Gordon Organizations: New York City Ballet, Koch, American Ballet, Rochios Locations: New, Ukraine, Russian, Kharkiv

☆ Together ‘There Was Magic’: Two Fluid Dancers in Our Racing Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Ashton Edwards rushed across the stage and straight into Taylor Stanley’s arms on a Sunday afternoon at New York City Ballet. In “The Times Are Racing,” a fervent ballet by Justin Peck, that hug is part of the choreography — a freeze-frame of raw emotion, like a stop sign dropped into a sea of hurtling, sweeping bodies. The embrace is a signal for a new beginning: an intimate pas de deux that unfolds like a dream within a dream. Their performance glowed, and not just because it was newsworthy: This was the first pairing of two nonbinary dancers in a major pas de deux at City Ballet. But what mattered more was the energy between their physical forms; the warmth they radiated even at a distance; and their phrasing, which was so fluid that at times they seemed less two bodies than one.

Persons: Ashton Edwards, Taylor, ”, Justin Peck, “, ” Edwards, Edwards, Stanley Organizations: New York City Ballet, Times, City Ballet Locations: New

☆ Review: A Japanese ‘Boléro’? It’s a Spooky Ride of Revenge.
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-25 | by ( Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

For better or worse, Ravel’s “Boléro,” with its churning swell of sound, has stirred the imagination of artists over time, among them the choreographer Maurice Béjart and the ice dancing team of Torvill and Dean. She takes revenge by transforming into a snake and chasing him until he perishes, burning to death as he tries to escape to the bell of the Dojoji temple. Genkuro coaxes out the sinister notes of the score in a deranged but good way. If you have to watch another dance to “Boléro,” this one, at least, is full of drama, danger and brittle, seething anger. As the music builds so does Kiyohime’s rage, which Tokuyo illuminates with icy solemnity as the fire of passion is turned into despair and, ultimately, revenge.

Persons: “, Maurice Béjart, Bo Derek —, Blake Edwards, Nihon, ”, Boléro, Hanayagi Genkuro, Azuma Tokuyo, Nakamura Kazutaro, Genkuro coaxes Organizations: Japan Society Locations: Dean, ”

☆ Robert Battle Had a Wide Vision of What Alvin Ailey Could Be
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Roy’s Joys,” set to recordings by Roy Eldridge, is abundant with layers of vernacular dance, ballet and modern — everything to grow a company of dancers, and grow they did under Battle. That mix of new and the unexpected old was also important in the bigger picture of dance — “Roy’s Joys” (1997) was granted a second, much-needed life at Ailey. Alvin Ailey studied with Martha Graham; Taylor was in her company. I’ll never forget the invigorating sight of Ailey dancers performing Taylor’s “Arden Court,” a bold, crisp example of showing them, as he said, in new ways. But Battle branched out, and as he dusted off the Ailey company, he led it into the 21st century with a public persona that was as fresh as his artistic agenda.

Persons: Lazarus, ”, Rennie Harris, Twyla Tharp, Roy Eldridge, Ailey, Carolyn Adams, Paul Taylor, Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Taylor, I’ll, Taylor’s “ Organizations: Ailey, Center Locations: Taylor’s “ Arden

All the while Eliza Babinska charged along, energy spilling out of her body like sparks of electricity. “Eliza hates this,” Vasilisa, her older sister, said with a giggle. When Vasilisa first saw her perform, she said: “I was like, that’s my sister? I saw her face, and I was like, whoa.”Even the way Eliza holds her head in class is imposingly regal. On the subway, her chin started to droop, almost as heavily as her eyelids.

Persons: Pati, Eliza Babinska, —, “ Eliza, ” Vasilisa, Eliza, Julia, Vasilisa, “ Organizations: New York City Ballet, School, American Ballet Locations: Queens, Manhattan, barre, droop

☆ It Seemed to Have It All: 9 Dancers, 5 Guitars, 5 Amps
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-19 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The ghosts of “takemehome” are embodied by his dancers, dressed in streetwear separates, as they dip in and out of manic states, sometimes clawing at the air as their audible breath echoes across the gloomy stage. When the dancers in “takemehome” do get going, their energetic shifts lead to quick sprints, rapid fire jumps, far-flung limbs, but there is also much slow motion, in which bodies lean back and drag forward as if suspended by strings. Lately it seems that European contemporary dance, at least from France, has a thing for slow motion. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a subconscious way of willing those in the world to take a much-needed pause. When five of the performers, some standing on the amps, pick up guitars and start to strum — they do so vigorously, their arms moving up and down to create a sheet of sound — the zeppelin turns an angry red.

Persons: Chamblas —, “, Yves Godin, Virginie Mira, strum Locations: California, France

☆ At Paul Taylor, the Music Calls for a Dance. The Men Respond.
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It’s not a race, but Lauren Lovette seems to be running, not walking, to create a body of work for the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Last year, after becoming Taylor’s resident choreographer, she presented two new works; this week, as part of the Taylor season at Lincoln Center, she added two more, including the world premiere of “Echo” on Thursday. Dancers, all men, mainly bare chested, began a gliding procession toward the stage, migrating along all the pathways of the theater — the sides, the aisles. This kind of offbeat entrance isn’t exactly new to dance, but Lovette used it in a meaningful way: It was almost primal, as if the music were calling for the dance. One couldn’t exist without the other in this artistic reverberation or, as she named it, echo.

Persons: It’s, Lauren Lovette, Paul Taylor, ”, David H, Shawn Lesniak, Kevin Puts’s Organizations: Paul Taylor Dance Company, Lincoln Center, Koch, “ Fame, ”, Orchestra of St Locations: “, Luke’s

☆ Review: Ballet Theater Revisits Its Past With a Hit and Two Misses
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-19 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

American Ballet Theater opened its fall season on a high note: Alexei Ratmansky’s “Piano Concerto No. The program, part of the first New York season created by the company’s artistic director, Susan Jaffe, gradually lost steam. “Petite Mort” (1991) is flimsier than ever. Devon Teuscher’s clean, classical elegance lent the overlong work a boost of grace and energy, but the ballet, created in 1948, is hardly a good time capsule. In a program note, Lander describes his ballet as “an expression of myself, and of my thoughts on dance.

Persons: Alexei Ratmansky’s “, Mort ”, Jiri Kylian, Harald Lander, Susan Jaffe, Devon Teuscher’s, George Balanchine’s, Frederick Ashton’s “, ”, “, Lander Organizations: Ballet Theater, New, Lincoln Center Locations: New York

☆ As City Ballet Celebrates Its 75th, Dancers (Hundreds) Take a Bow
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-20 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

George Balanchine, by his own admission, always admired jewels, a quality he attributed to his Georgian roots. “I like the color of gems, the beauty of stones,” he wrote in “101 Stories of the Great Ballets.”When, in 1967, the curtain rose at New York City Ballet on his opulent triptych, known as the first full-length plotless ballet, it had no unifying title. “Emeralds” possesses the fragrant earthiness and secrecy of nature; “Rubies” is heat and playfulness, with the games and posturing of a summer scape in New York City; and “Diamonds” casts a dazzling spell of cool refinement that wavers between soft and hard. “Jewels,” as it came to be called, is an occasion as well as a ballet. (The music was performed live, though before the show, members of the New York City Ballet Orchestra held a rally in front of Lincoln Center’s plaza to protest delays in contract negotiations.)

Persons: George Balanchine, ”, Balanchine, Lincoln Kirstein, Suzanne Farrell, Allegra Kent, Patricia McBride, Edward Villella — Organizations: New York City Ballet, City, Lincoln Center, New York City Ballet Orchestra Locations: New, New York City, Lincoln

☆ The New Punk, (La)Horde Style: Working ‘for a Brighter Future’
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-12 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

While Brutti generally does the talking for (La)Horde — Harel and Debrouwer understand English, but aren’t as comfortable communicating — they speak as one. “He was like, ‘You’re young, you’re hot at the moment — if not now, when?’” the group said. It made them think — not about the job, but about how applying for it could serve (La)Horde, in a deeper way. They decided that they would create a manifesto about what contemporary dance could be today. Contemporary dance is something.

Persons: — Harel, Debrouwer, Childs, “, Dimitri Chamblas —, Arts —, Chamblas, ‘, ’, Horde Organizations: Ballet National, Marseille, California Institute of, Arts Locations: Los Angeles, Marseille

☆ A Physical and Spiritual Awakening (but No Steady Paycheck)
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-09 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Let her dance.’”She was short, her turnout was nonexistent and her feet needed a lot of work. She is firm about one thing: If her young self were to audition for the School of American Ballet today, she wouldn’t get in — much less into the company. And I think that was the main thing he respected about me. And I think he saw that I loved to dance.”Walczak was also a sharp observer. (With the dancer Una Kai, she wrote “Balanchine the Teacher,” a jewel of a book examining the fundamentals that shaped the company’s first generation.)

Persons: ‘, ”, “ ‘ We’ve, wouldn’t, Mia Slavenska, Slavenska, “, ” Walczak, I’d, Una Kai, “ Balanchine, Suzanne Farrell’s Organizations: School of American Ballet, Ballet Russe, Carlo, Radio City Music Hall, Ballet Society Locations: Balanchine’s

With outstretched arms, dancers skimmed across the sand like gliding birds, soundless against the pressing wind and somehow soaring without actual wings. Surveying the shoreline of Rockaway Beach on a recent morning, Patricia Lent, from the Merce Cunningham Trust, was elated. “This is a dream come true,” she said, adding: “It’s someone else’s dream — but it is a dream come true.”Cunningham’s “Beach Birds” has finally made its way to the beach. An adaptation of this 1991 dance is part of this year’s Beach Sessions Dance Series, at Rockaway Beach on Saturday. Staged by Lent and Rashaun Mitchell — both former company members and trustees — “Beach Birds” comes to life in a setting where the sand, the sea and real birds create, along with 11 dancers, a humming summer landscape.

Persons: Patricia Lent, Merce Cunningham, Lent, Rashaun Mitchell —, —, Cunningham, John Cage Organizations: Merce Cunningham Trust Locations: Rockaway

☆ O’Shae Sibley’s ‘Expression Was Turned Into Resistance’
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Robert Garland, the artistic director of Dance Theater of Harlem who, like Sibley, is from Philadelphia, recently presented a ballet at Lincoln Center. “O’Shae put his body on the line,” Garland said in an interview. “And his expression was turned into resistance. He was just being who he was.”Because of the way he died — and the way that he was dancing when he died — Sibley’s body is now an act of resistance. That has much to do with vogue, a language that grew out of the Harlem ballroom scene of the 1960s.

Persons: Robert Garland, Sibley, John Carlos, “ O’Shae, ” Garland, “, —, Joan Myers Brown, remembrances, Jason Rodriguez Organizations: Dance Theater of Harlem, Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Dance Company, Ailey, Gliding, Adidas Locations: Philadelphia, Mexico City, Sibley, Harlem

☆ The Dance of Too-Hot Summer? Melt Into the Pinegrove Shuffle.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The lyrics that stand out during Lee’s dance, “Nothing here to care about,” are deceptive — to dance this dance is to show that you do care, that you aren’t going down without a fight. The Pinegrove Shuffle is an antithesis to the pink — albeit fun — universe of Barbie. And I feel like that’s contributed a lot to my dance moves. I put a lot of hips into it.”It also helps that he is a snowboarder. “All my hobbies,” he said, “kind of correlate back to this Pinegrove video.”

Persons: Lee, Barbie, —, Shakira, ” Lee, that’s, ” Locations: Maryland, Salisbury, Mass

☆ The Dance Delight in ‘Barbie’ Belongs to the Kens
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-28 | by ( Gia Kourlas | More About Gia Kourlas | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There’s a gorgeous scene in “Barbie” that isn’t painted the usual pink. It’s a dream ballet, stylish and clean, with steps so sleek it lets bodies — Kens, Kens and more Kens — sing. Unofficially known as the Ken dance, it’s like entering a portal to another world, where moving bodies etch trails of rotating circles and diamonds onto a gleaming surface. But the jazzy gist of the “I’m Just Ken” dance isn’t just about staggering patterns or nostalgia for old Hollywood. Plopped into Greta Gerwig’s Barbie universe, the dance is more than a dance: It’s an emotional release.

Persons: “ Barbie, —, Ken, Busby Berkeley, Ken ”, Plopped, Greta Gerwig’s, Gene Kelly, Margot Robbie, Barbie Organizations: Hollywood

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