In This Issue
Curtain Up: Last fall I caught a rehearsal where Ohad Naharin...
Inside Batsheva: Dancers talk about being part of Ohad’s alchemy.
PLUS: Three couples on being married and dancing
Off the Page
Choreography Knocks: Opportunities for choreographers at all levels
A Growing List of Living Female Choreographers
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WendySisters Forever in Trisha's Spanish Dance
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Jan 30
I must’ve been grinning like a crazy lady all through Spanish Dance. It was such a blast to do that dance with other Trisha Brown alumnae last Friday; this was during her 75th birthday/benefit/auction. You may have seen the piece, or seen a photo of it. Five women in white, evenly spaced across front of the stage—…
WendyHow Does Ballet Fit Into a College Dance Department? Or, My Personal, Anachronistic Envy
posted by Wendy Perron on Sunday, Jan 22
After my first ballet class in college, I broke down and cried. I went to a sink to get a drink of water, and when the water gushed from the faucet, I started sobbing and couldn’t stop. I knew I was saying goodbye to ballet. Yes, we had a ballet class twice a week amidst a slew of modern classes and workshops.…
WendyBest of 2011
posted by Wendy Perron on Friday, Jan 06
Once again my list is completely subjective, limited by what I happened to see. There were LOTS of good performances this year. Please know that the order within each category is fairly random.Best Performances• Dana Caspersen in I don’t believe in outer space …
WendyMerce's Other Legacy
posted by Wendy Perron on Sunday, Jan 01
Yesterday I saw the very last night of Merce on Earth. I mean the last Legacy Tour date at the Park Avenue Armory. But I’m not going to talk about the event because plenty of dance writers have and will. Sure it was nice to see…
GuestBlog
Last Fling in Paris for Merce Dancers
posted by Rashaun Mitchell on Thursday, Dec 29
Paris, December 13-24. Our last stop on the Legacy Tour before our final shows in New York at the Park Avenue Armory. Paris is like a second home to the company. We go there every year and our list of favorite places to visit has grown: La Duree (dessert royalty), Per a Cheval (cute lunch restaurant in the Marais), the Rodin Sculpture Garde…
WendySan Francisco Ballet’s Nutcracker: Less Sugary and More International
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Dec 26
Although I love the NYC Ballet Nutcracker and see more in it every year, SFB’s 2004 version by Helgi Tomasson was a refreshing change of pace. The whole production is less sticky sweet, the décor is e…
SiobhanDavid Hallberg on CBS: An uplifting end to a year of dance in the mainstream
posted by Siobhan Burke on Tuesday, Dec 20
It’s been a big year for dance in the mainstream media. Around this time in 2010, NYCB ballerina Jenifer Ringer was eloquently defending herself on The Today Show, respond…
WendyA Fresh Breeze at Ailey: The Gift of Humor
posted by Wendy Perron on Sunday, Dec 18
Robert Battle’s a funny guy, but even better than that, he’s brought humor to the Ailey repertoire. Three of the four pieces on the "All New" program sparkled with wit. First, Paul Taylor’s Arden Court, which on opening night seemed a bit stiff (the 18th-century music by William Boyce is more formal than mos…
WendyDance Magazine Awards, Ahhhhh
posted by Wendy Perron on Wednesday, Dec 07
Joy and satisfaction wash over me every year when we do the Dance Magazine Awards. On Monday night, I was struck by how many of the award recipients said they couldn’t have done it without their mentors, their husbands, their wives. Everyone's humility was really touching.Dr. William Hamilton told us how supportive Bala…
WendyBrazil: From Samba to Ballet to Hip Hop
posted by on Tuesday, Nov 15
My whirlwind, three-city tour of Brazil started with Samba and ended with a very cool improvisation group. In between were hip hop, Balanchine, dancing in the streets, and Amazon-inspired rituals. Oh, and a funding inequity between a new ballet company and other groups that has many dance people seething with resentment (more on that later).
GuestBlog
Keeping Up with a Whirlwind Tour
posted by Rashaun Mitchell on Monday, Nov 14
One of the realities of the Legacy Tour and the final days of the company is the succession of farewells and all of the activities surrounding the celebration and commemoration of a long history. The shows are the main attraction, but the subsequent events are just as dazzling and just as draining. Saying goodbye over and over again in each city …
WendyThe Glory of “In the Upper Room”
posted by Wendy Perron on Thursday, Nov 10
With the driving Philip Glass music still ringing in my head, I am going to take a stab at why Tharp’s ballet has endured for 25 years. It came out of an era when the belief in “pure movement” was still strong. Many of us at the time embraced Merce Cunningham’s idea that dance could just be itself and not have to serve a s…
WendyHarlem: A New/Old Hot Spot for Dance
posted by Wendy Perron on Thursday, Oct 27
The Bessies was a love fest at—and for—the legendary Apollo Theater. Most dancers just love the music it represents—embedded in the sidewalk out front are plaques for James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, and lots more. On Monday night, many presenters and awardees rubbed their hands on the “tree of hope,” which…
WendyWho is Hurt by the Blatant, um, Appropriation of Beyoncé’s “Countdown”?
posted by Wendy Perron on Tuesday, Oct 11
It’s kind of thrilling and kind of disheartening to recognize the choreography of Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker in Beyoncé’s fabulous new music video “Countdown.” Thrilling because right ther…
GuestBlog
From Pyramids to RainForest: Merce's Dancers in Mexico
posted by Rashaun Mitchell on Monday, Oct 03
On our final world tour, traveling to unknown cities such as Mexico City makes me think fondly of Merce. The dancers are thrust into unfamiliar places and encouraged to push through our fatigue to experience something new. It's not unlike dancing in the Cunningham Company or being exposed to the difficulties of his movement as a new …
WendyA Double Celebration of Jerome Robbins
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Oct 03
A cornucopia of riches tumbled out at New York City Ballet last Friday. Not only was the dancing of this all-Robbins program fantastic, but also 26 female stars from up and down the decades trouped onstage to receive the Jerome Robbins Award. The program itself gave a glimpse into three different aspects of Robbins’ gigantic oeuvre&…
WendyWally Cardona’s Ridiculous Bliss
posted by Wendy on Monday, Sep 26
Tool Is Loot at The Kitchen seemed to be supremely perverse, but I was less interested in the piece itself and more interested in the two choreographers—Wally Cardona and Jennifer Lacey—as performers.I say perverse because it was a duet in which the two hardly ever danced together, and because it was made with inp…
WendyDTW and Bill T. Jones Join Hands, Or, An Ode to Arnie Zane
posted by Wendy Perron on Sunday, Sep 18
All of a sudden Bill T. Jones and Carla Peterson look like they’ve been hanging out together for years. Carla, on the one hand, the latest beacon of Dance Theater Workshop, champion of current dance in all its untidy and/or international forms; Bill T., the experimental artist who has made forays into Broadway and is about to be canonized y…
WendySeven Brides, Seven Brothers, One Great Musical
posted by Wendy Perron on Friday, Sep 02
Whenever I happen upon a great musical on Turner Classic Movies, I feel like I’ve struck it rich. The other night Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was playing on TV. I had forgotten how much I like this 1954 movie.No Fred …
GuestBlog
Rocking and Rolling in Eastern Europe
posted by Dylan Ward on Thursday, Aug 25
After days and days of rehearsals and travel, The Washington Ballet is finally hitting the stage tonight in Turkey at the 9th Bodrum International Ballet Festival! The trip so far has been full of amazing new experiences, and I cannot wait to share our performances with the wonderful people of Turkey.The festival has hosted a fe…
GuestBlog
“My soul is glad, my soul is free, I’m going home…”
posted by Glenn Allen Sims on Friday, Aug 19
Week 9: Frankfurt, Germany Isn’t it funny when you realize what your calling in life is? Some people search years to find that one thing that satisfies their passionate heart, while others seem to find that one niche that fulfills them completely. For me that is performing, whether I’m dancing with Ailey, at a v…
GuestBlog
Memories of getting "green penned" in Köln, "3R" time
posted by Glenn Allen Sims on Wednesday, Aug 17
Week 7: Returning to Köln, Germany , brought back some of my fondest memories as a dancer with Ailey. I say this because Köln was the first tour stop with the company when I joined in 1997. Seeing landmarks like the Dom Cathedral and the walking bridge across the Rhine reminded me how I felt about seeing this European…
WendyJacob's Pillow, Before the Rain
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Aug 15
Jodi Melnick and David Neumann both have an arresting gaze when they look straight out at the audience. They hold you with their eyes. But while Jodi is intense, and steady in that intensity, David is always giving us the slip. Now he’s a conman, now he’s a clown. We eat it up. And his moves can be as slippery as Jodi’s. They ar…
WendyAn Ode to Lincoln Center in Summer
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Aug 08
It’s not just the excitement of the Mariinsky coming to Lincoln Center Festival, with its gorgeous dancing and confounding repertoire
GuestBlog
Ambassadors of Dance, and a Debut
posted by Glenn Allen Sims on Thursday, Aug 04
Week 5: Following a morning flight from Berlin, the company arrived at Swissotel, Zurich at 3:30 p.m. My wife Linda and I had to meet artistic director Robert Battle, rehearsal director Matthew Rushing, and company manager Dacquiri T. Smittick in the lobby of the hotel by 5 p.m. to attend a welcome reception at the residence of t…
WendyEiko & Koma: The Unnatural Side of Communing with Nature
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Aug 01
They are eerily, beautifully, part of some timeless dreamscape. The water is their natural environment. Eiko’s face floats, partially submerged, like a bright moon gliding across a dark sky. She is a doomed Ophelia who is rescued by Koma. The driftwood that magically sails toward them is their survival raft, but it also ensnares them in som…
WendyRacist Violence vs. Something More Than Tolerance
posted by Wendy Perron on Thursday, Jul 28
Like everybody else, I was utterly horrified by the bombing and massacre in Norway. I can't stop thinking about those kids and their families. It’s mind-boggling to try to understand the motivation of someone who would do what Anders Behring Breivik did. And if it can happen in peace-loving Norway, it can happen anywhere. But it made me thi…
WendyAre We Blinded by Certain Choreographers’ Annoying Habits?
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Jul 25
During Armitage Gone! Dance’s performance at SummerStage last week, every time a dancer split her legs wide open facing the audience, it was almost like she was saying hello from the crotch. It’s an unseemly way to greet the audience, but I just said to myself, “Karole loves extensions to excess, but I’ll keep my eyes open…
GuestBlog
Raked Stage in St. P, Watching Linda do Cry
posted by Glenn Allen Sims on Thursday, Jul 21
Week 3: I am in St. Petersburg, Russia, standing in front of one of the world’s most famous theaters, the Mariinsky. This is my second time performing in this historic venue for the White Nights Festival (not to be confused with the 1985 movie White Nights that featured two dance greats, Gregory Hines and Mikhail B…
WendyWho Was the Man Who Rebuilt Diaghilev's Ballets Russes?
posted by on Friday, Jul 15
René Blum and the Ballets Russes: In Search of a Lost Life is not easy reading. It’s is an almost unrelievedly sad book. And yet it’s fascinating to read Judith Chazin-Bennahum’s account of the resuscitation of the Ballets Russes, the developments in Europe between the wars, and the life of a dance impresario who…
WendySleeping Beauty: Fate and the Unconscious, or, A Great Partnership Gives It life
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Jul 11
Sometimes I dread sitting through all the extra pageantry in Sleeping Beauty, but last Friday at ABT, I saw something else in the ballet: the idea of fate being equivalent to the unconscious. In the scene where Prince Désiré’s friends blindfold him, he “sees” the castle and intuitively understa…
GuestBlog
Jet-setting with Ailey's Glenn Allen Sims: Welcome
posted by Glenn Allen Sims on Friday, Jul 08
Fifteen years. Wow. I’m entering my 15th year as a dancer with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater! I remember my very first tour with the Company. We embarked on a 10-week international tour, and here I am 15 years later on an international tour with the exact same length of time. So many things have transpired in my life since then. I met …
WendyOsipova and Vasiliev in Love
posted by Wendy Perron on Wednesday, Jul 06
So Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev are engaged! And they’re about to dance “Romeo and Juliet for real” in London, which is driving the London critics
WendyCarreño’s Farewell: Bravado & Humility
posted by Wendy Perron on Friday, Jul 01
Line, lightness, and libido come together in the dancing of Jose Manuel Carreño. I don’t necessarily mean his libido, but ours. It’s not only his relaxed, virile, presence that's seductive, but also the way his pelvis, sometimes at the end of a pirouette, gently lilts forward.Last night at his ABT farewell performan…
WendyI Think I Just Invented a New Somatic Practice: Gaga Ball Work
posted by Wendy Perron on Saturday, Jun 25
Only kidding, kind of. Like all inventions, it came from necessity. Sometimes, when I work at the computer with crazed concentration, I get a burning in my upper back. So wherever I am (even at the office) I lie on a ball. It could be any ball—India rubber ball, tennis ball, soccer ball, golf ball (these last are brutal). For starters, thou…
SiobhanSite-Specific Stirrings: Dance in New York Comes Out of Hibernation
posted by Siobhan Burke on Tuesday, Jun 21
During summer in New York, there are no limits to where dance can happen. For me, some highlights of the past month have been site-specific works that transform the city into a stage—popping up on rooftops and stairwells, spilling out from storefronts onto sidewalks, and roving through gardens at night. As the average pedestri…
WendyIn Praise of Betty Jones
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Jun 20
The great modern dancer and teacher Betty Jones was just honored by the Limón Dance Company. The occasion jolted my memory of her as a teacher.At Connecticut College (American Dance Festival) in 1967 and '68, Betty was a belove…
WendyDancers’ Choice: Day of Democracy
posted by Wendy Perron on Monday, Jun 13
There’s something exhilarating about dancers choosing their own rep and casting. Too often they just have to do what they’re told without participating in decisions. Once a year at New York City Ballet, for the Dancers' Choice evening, dancers not only devise the program but also direct the marketing, as it’s not part of the reg…
WendyWhere Are All the Men at Ballet Nacional de Cuba?
posted by Wendy Perron on Thursday, Jun 09
I saw only boys last night at BAM. Some of the lead female dancers were familiar to me because I’d seen them dance in Havana. But the guys were all new—quite young and unfinished. So they tended to disappear behind their more experienced partners.An exception was the pairing of the very young Osiel Gounod as Franz and Gret…
WendyVishneva & Gomes Sublime in Giselle
posted by Wendy Perron on Friday, Jun 03
Never have I been so in love with the ballet Giselle. Last night Diana Vishneva and Marcelo Gomes were astounding and moving, lifting each other into the stratosphere. I don't want to compare them with Alina Cojocaru and David Hallberg last weekend (see my
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