Category: DANCE

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JCE Jazz Dance Project

Bravos Sofia Bengoa, Samantha Paulik, Michaela Romulo and Sadie NcNamara, for a great performance at the JCE Jazz Dance Project!!! Congrats also to Cristal Del Mar López and Julia Kane for presenting your work.

I’ve seen both Cristal’s and Julia’s choreographies before. Watching them again and sitting in the first row brought out all kinds of wonderful details.

Love the intricate steps to the piano keys in “Soledad” choreographed by Cristal Del Mar López and danced by Sofia Bengoa. The movements in “100 Years” choreographed by Julia Kane and danced by Julia Kane Dance Collective are so much sharper, more energetic, and more powerful than I had remembered. Beautiful work, Julia!

Other favorites tonight…

“Safety Dance” choreographed by Skye Mattox and performed by Skye Mattox and Ryan VanDenBoom. Looove the movements, chemistry, and personalities in the duet.

“Reclaiming My Time” by Paul A Brown. An upbeat classic theatre jazz piece with an abundance of positive energy centered on sisterhood, to the music of “Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves”.

“Eleanor” by Muenter Merete. Another classic theatre jazz piece with beautiful lines and flowing movements, danced to the Beatle music “Eleanor Rigby”.

I’m saddened by the loss of Kavin Grant whose work “Who Is She” was one of my favorites in past concerts. RIP, Kavin.

Finally, get some sleep #teamnosleep!!!

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Martha Graham Dance

Had a great time watching Martha Graham Dance at the Joyce Theater.

My favorites this afternoon go to Deo and Hérodiade.

Deo is a world premiere choreographed by Maxine Doyle and Bobbi Jene Smith featuring an all-female cast, and explores the relationship between mothers and daughters. I loved the incredible amount of energy in the piece. Sections of the dance reminded me of Pina Bausch’s the Rite of Spring. e.g., When the women came together and moved rapidly in a tight formation (into the ground, arms crossing their chest, beating their feet to create rhythm) and individual women broke out into their own solo. Even the opening scene, when all but one dancer were lying flat on the ground, felt powerful.

I also enjoyed seeing Martha Graham’s distinct movement vocabulary so vividly executed by Xin Ying and Anne Souder as a woman and her attendant in the 1944 choreography, Hérodiade.

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Dance Lab Spring Gala

Dance Lab NY is an organization devoted to the development of the art form of choreography. It was amazing to learn about their workshops and mentoring programs, and see what the choreographers and dancers accomplished!

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Aspen Santa Fe Ballet

A few belated posts from March…

Aspen Santa Fe Ballet at the Joyce Theater on Sunday, March 24.

I thoroughly enjoyed Aspen Santa Fe Ballet‘s last visit to the Joyce Theater, and liked learning about their focus on fostering new and creative works. I’ve been curious about what they would present this year.

My favorite today was “Dream Play” by Fernando Melo. The piece has so many unique and unexpected moments.

First and foremost, it’s theatre piece about a pair of lovers, about our desires, and about a dream world. The entire scene is set flat on the floor, with the dancers lying on the stage. The dancers move, roll, crawl, “walk” while lying on one shoulder, “fly” by gliding across the stage on a dolly. The choreography is captured and projected onto a screen via an overhead camera in real time. The movements feel both realistic — the dancers did an incredible job mimicking real-life activities as they “walk” across the stage — and surreal — without gravity, the dancers can jump as high as they want, walk a tightrope, spin, fly in all manners imaginable. I loved how the choreography took advantage of the stage setup and the dream-like environment to create such a rich movement vocabulary.

Second, interspersed between the storytelling were several gorgeous “human” kaleidoscope scenes. The dancers, wearing costumes with high contrast lines, would sit on the floor and move their arms, legs, and torso in beautiful geometric patterns. The patterns, when captured by the overhead camera, formed gorgeous — I mean absolutely gorgeous — shapes that looked like a kaleidoscope but more stunning in every way.

Finally, my favorite moment is when the storytelling and the kaleidoscope scenes merged at the end, and the two lovers burst out of the “human” kaleidoscope in the midst of a sea of spinning red umbrellas. The picture and the movements were just sooooo beautiful.

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Hubbard Street: Crystal Pite

Hubbard Street presented three choreographies by Crystal Pite in their second week at the Joyce Theater.

I love how Crystal creates the connections between the dancers… from our relationship with ourselves in “A Picture of You Falling” and “The Other You”… to how 14 dancers work together and in contrast with each other in “Grace Engine.”

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Hubbard Street: Decadence

What a stunning program tonight!!! Hubbard Street presented “Decadence/Chicago”, a collection of excerpts from choreographies by Ohad Naharin. I am completely overwhelmed by the creativity, ingenuity, and the power of Ohad’s work. Bravos to the Hubbard Street dancers for an incredible presentation. It’s so wonderful to finally see piece such as “Minus 16” live on stage.

(top photo courtesy of the Joyce Theater)