Category: dance

“No one in the dance world disputes the influence of these shows, which have given a broad swath of viewers their largest – and in some cases only – exposure to dance.” For all the resulting growth in interest, some worry that the shows lead viewers to expect only fast and flashy moves – and lead dancers to become jacks-of-all-styles and masters of none.

Just a few days before the festival began, the male lead in the company’s Giselle injured his foot and withdrew. “Whoever took the part would have to dance the role with minimal rehearsal time and have a schedule flexible enough to join the company at the last minute. More critically, he would also need to already have clearance to travel to the United States.”

“What might a BP oil-spill dance look like? Or an I-was-gouged-by-Bernie-Madoff solo? … Maybe we’ll never know. Maybe that’s a good thing. But 80 years ago, when a financial crisis and an environmental disaster captured America’s attention, modern dancers were among the leading chroniclers.” The Graham company’s Political Dance Project “looks at works of the 1920s and ’30s by Graham and her contemporaries.”

Wendy Perron: “Any way you slice it, the source of Graham’s theatrical fury is a source for contemplation … and for wondering, Where is that energy today? What female choreographer will bring us that kind of vehemence?”

“This week the Martha Graham Dance Company debuts a new approach to its overall mission. The company, which has been the dance-world guinea pig when it comes to grappling with the challenges of maintaining a company after a founding choreographer’s death, now wants audiences to see the troupe as a living ‘museum,’ keeping the classics alive while also offering new works inspired by them.”

Polina Semionova was supposed to make a triumphant return to London in ENB’s 60th anniversary production of Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall. But she “is stuck in her home city of Berlin, the apparent victim of a new visa system.”

“At 62, Baryshnikov is the perfect mature Merce dancer. He draws your gaze to the movement of every part of his body, infusing the waving [of] his arms or lifting [of] a chair with expression. The … combination of Baryshnikov’s personality, experience and technique, placed at the service of Cunningham, best demonstrates how the work may continue.”

Due to an ankle injury, the Italian ballet superstar has withdrawn from his scheduled appearances in Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet as part of American Ballet Theater’s spring/summer season at the Metropolitan Opera House.

“While ‘American Document (2010)” evokes, and pays homage to, that earlier project, the company has completely reinvented it for today. Perhaps most surprising, a theater director – Anne Bogart – is at the helm, and six actors (members of SITI Company, which Bogart co-founded in 1992) will share the stage with 10 members of the Graham company.”

The Festival Internazionale di Danza Contemporanea “was set up through the largesse of the larger Art Biennale, and it continues to be subsidised handsomely from crumbs that drop from an entourage of art world sponsors. Being funded by the visual arts doesn’t make this festival feel like it’s a poor relation, though.”