2023 Fini Dance Festival and Italian International Dance Awards
Antonio Fini in Ted Shawn’s “The Cosmic Dance of Siva,” performed as part of 2023 Fini Dance [more]
Max Richter
Malpaso Dance Company: 2018 Season
The first work on the program was “Indomitable Waltz” (2016) choreographed by Aszure Barton to dark hued music by the Balanescu Quartet and Nils Frahm. Barton achieved a graceful, yet dramatic flow for these dancers dressed in Fritz Masten’s black and grey costumes. Barton knows how to spread her dancers about the stage like a single organism continually splitting apart and coming together again. They danced warily about each other, performed leans and sensual embraces that faded as the dancers melted to the floor. The work ended on a contemplative note as Dunia Acosta moved with careful steps and twisting hips, in a journey across the stage. Although the emotions of “Indomitable Waltz” ranged from dark to sensual to giddily physical, it ended up as a head scratcher, beautifully performed by the Malpaso dancers. The intriguingly moody lighting was by Nicole Pearce. [more]
Paul Taylor American Modern Dance: Spring Season 2017
Now named Paul Taylor American Modern Dance, Taylor has included ballets by other choreographers which allows for some healthy comparisons and a hope for the future of this legendary company. The four non-Taylor works, all but one danced by the Taylor dancers, made fascinating comparison with his work: particularly Martha Graham’s “Diversion of Angels,” her ode to romantic and sexual love, choreographed in 1948 to music by Norman Dello Joio, one of the few works in which Graham, herself, did not appear. [more]
BalaSole Dance Company: Mixtus
The ten solos proceeded efficiently and smoothly with certain similarities becoming apparent: black was the color of all but one of the costumes and black was the mood of most the works. Crouches were the preferred opening poses, beginning with “Convergent Unease” by Alexis Julian to music by Max Richter, and the movement palettes were not particularly original, even when well danced, as were most of the solos. [more]
Soaking WET 2016
There are relatively few venues, even in dance crazy NYC, where fledgling choreographers can work on their craft in a totally professional environment. Soaking WET at the West End Theater is one of them. Curator David Parker and producer Jeffrey Kazin run a tight, but open-minded, ship. The dances I saw, flawed as they were, had inklings of wit and inspiration. [more]
The Royal Ballet 2015: Program B
he Royal Ballet’s second program of its ridiculously short season at the David H. Koch Theater was disappointing as much for what was on it as for what wasn’t. What wasn’t there were any classical works. Among divertissement-type short works making up the second part of the show, there was not one classical Pas de Deux. Instead, the program opened with an abstruse modern ballet and ended with an equally abstruse new version of an old one with six very short works of varying quality and appropriateness sandwiched in between. [more]