Modern Dance Giants Take Risks to Expand

After decades of performing at City Center, Paul Taylor goes into the larger Koch Theater at Lincoln Center for the first time tomorrow.  His expanded season of 22 ballets and 3 premieres shows how deep the repertory bench is. The question is, can the company attract enough audience to break even?

 

At the same time, the Martha Graham Dance Company, while returning to the Joyce, adds a more glamorous performance with Russian ballet superstar Diana Vishneva as a guest artist at City Center. (See our Quick Q & A with her about taking on the role of Errand into the Maze.)  The question here is, will the ballet ticket-buyers come through for Vishneva even though she’s doing modern dance?

 

And in both cases, the longterm question is, will these risks of expansion help the company attract a larger following for the future?

—Wendy Perron

Pictured at right: Diana Vishneva in
Errand Into the Maze last year, when she brought the first rendition of a Graham work to Russia. Photo by Nina Alovert.