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on August 16, 2009

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Dance Review: Neil Greenberg - Saggy-Crotch Tights are the Cats Pajamas!

By George—or better yet, by Merce—Neil Greenberg’s got good design; this former Cunningham dancer not only knows how to make a fashion statement, but also how to make statement, a fashion. His past works have made quite the mark, inviting audience members to question status-quo gender roles, ponder common assumptions about HIV/AIDS, and interrogate what society associates with homosexuality. And now, his latest work, (like a vase) , continues the expedition into the social-norm jungle. Take for example the opening section, which brings to light the status-quo obsession with looks, and body image. We see dancer, Johnni Durango, enter and stand center stage amongst the inanimate columns and vases. Suddenly, she is no longer a dancer, but an object: a thing to be looked at, studied, and critiqued… like a piece of art —like a vase!— and perhaps like a candid celebrity beach body shot in US Weekly. Thanks to a humorous recorded narrative by Ruth Draper, “A Class in Greek Poise,” t

Dance Review: Treeline’s Show and Tell; the Proper Way to Play

Happy Birthday Treeline Dance Works! Although this one-year-old company may be just a baby on the dance scene, kiddos look out because she is growing in vigorous leaps and bounds…quite literally, in fact! Her first full-length show, In Transit , demonstrates how technical prowess can meet child-like playfulness. Throughout, dancers play their bodies like musical instruments as they weave intricate formations and portray comedic/disturbing narratives. They seem to make games of spatial patterns as they move like scattering marbles or jumping checkers. All is accomplished with outstanding precision and ease. These ladies are not only capable of great feats of agility, but also of an honest connectedness to each other on stage. All hailing from SUNY Brockport, company members Erin Johnson, Caroline Nelson, Jessica Reidy, Jenny Showalter, and Lyndsey Vader are a fox-force-five to be reckoned with. Lyndsey Vader’s sense of control, for example, in her solo “Pulse/Apology”, is brea

Dance Review: Eryc Taylor Dance, Pushing Boundaries

Eryc Taylor Dance wraps up an amazing sold-out run at Joyce SoHo in Spectacular fashion. With excitement, grace, power, and beauty, this is a company to watch. The company, consisting of Isabelle Fernandez, Gierre Godley, Dillon Honniker, Carly Mayer, Michelle Pellizon and Danielle Schulz, is filled with excellent performers exhibiting with "no holds back" what great dancers they are! The evening opens with Drowntown. Amazingly athletic and energetic, this is a powerhouse. The dancers weave and dodge one another without missing a beat, yet join each other to prove a point at different times. It is inspiring... Imagine walking through Time Square at rush hour. Watch out or you will get left in the dust! Next on the program is Wraith. Danced by Michelle Pellizzon and Danielle Schulz, this piece is hauntingly beautiful. With costumes by Tonatiuh Otero, they look like beautiful red Nymphs. Showing their clean and pure technique, they dance in tune with each ot

Dance Review: The Strong and the Beautiful, Cedar Lake at The Joyce

Well, what's there not to say about Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet? A diverse repertory company of exquisite technical beasts would be dream and playground for any guest choreographer; or, so it seems, based on the three works on the bill ( Sunday Again, Unit in Reaction, and Hubbub ) for one of their evenings at the Joyce Theater. The evening opens with Jo Stromgen's Sunday Again, a lighthearted, whimsical portrayal of a collection of lovers all dealing with the usual feuds and qualms of being in a relationship paralleled to back and forth quality experienced in a tennis match. Literally. Props used include a tennis net, raquet, and plastic shuttlecocks that randomly appear from underneath clothing. All this in place is a quaint and neat set-up for a perfectly boring piece. However, Stromgen infuses stark humor via unexpected male/female moments of roughness, lesbian eroticism, and other social behaviors such as spitting and gossiping amongst themselves. Overall, th

Dance Review: Blues, Rock, and Rachmaniov! -Complexions at The Joyce Theater

On opening night of the Complexions Fall/Winter season at The Joyce Theater, the audience, comprised with many power players of the dance world, not only buzzes with excitement and anticipation, but also disappointment. We hear that dance royalty, the breathtaking brilliant and talented, Desmond Richardson, is suffering from an injury (received earlier in the afternoon) and is not dancing in this evening's performance! ....Eee Gads ...Say it ain't so! Like many audience members, I question if Complexions’ performance will possess the same virility with the absence of Richardson. The curtain rises, and any doubt in the room dissipates with an exploding big bang as Dwight Rhoden’s Moon Over Jupiter takes shape over Rachmaniov’s score. A meteor shower of momentum and dynamics, the ballet showcases the extreme unique talent and technique of all the Complexion dancers. Like an orbiting solar system, the dancers move in organized chaos into an eclipse of synchronization

Dance Review: Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce

Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, the ultra-sexy company formed by Wal-Mart heiress Nancy Laurie, burst onto the scene in 2003, garnering innumerable Dance Magazine covers and glowing reviews. On Wednesday night, I impatiently awaited the rise of the curtain on the company's second program of their fall season at The Joyce. The bill featured the company standard Sunday, Again by Norwegian choreographer Jo Stromgren, and the New York premiere of both Hofesh Shechter's The Fools and Didy Veldman's frame of view . Sunday, Again, which premiered in Oslo in 2008, explores the combative nature of relationships using the slightly random metaphor of badminton. (Who among us doesn't relate to badminton?) However, quite a few of us can relate to dysfunctional relationships and the emotional life of each couple is earnestly expressed with fluent, graceful lines and breathtaking partnering. The opening duet between Jason Kittelberger and Acacia Schachte is parti

Broadway Dance Review: To All Fela-Fanatics... Don’t Just Go See FELA! Go See it Again and Again and Again!

FELA!, the new Broadway musical that marries the biopic story of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti with his music, is a raw insightful adaptation of 37 Arts’ off Broadway version to the great white way. This production is enhanced by the incredible spacial perspective and evocative powers of the design team. The visionary choreography/direction from Bill T. Jones, changeable set which vibes-n-flows via video production, and costume design from Marina Draghici, as well as the innovative lighting design by Robert Weirzel, all place the audience at a brightly lit version of Fela’s beloved club, the Shrine. The audience doesn’t miss a thing as this cozy theatre becomes a fringe Nigerian space, sweeping us all into the madness that becomes Fela’s MOP (Movement of the People). Sahr Ngaujah is a quadruple threat playing Fela as he acts, sings, dances while playing both saxophone, drum and trumpet. His ability to float between skills goes from strength to strength as he simultaneously takes on the p

Emerging Talent Enthralls at Chen Dance Center with Newsteps

The welcoming and delightful Chen Dance Center—even down to the lovely and efficient Dana Grunklee who takes reservations—presents the first of two weekends in their semi-annual emerging choreographer’s series—Newsteps. Often perplexing, always interesting and sometimes amusing, Newsteps features new work by choreographers that is daring, innovative and definitely emotionally enthralling. Newsteps inundates the audience with five choreographed dances, keeping spectators on stand-by for the next cataclysmic surprise. The first performance, (encounter), choreographed by Hsiao-Wei and Hsiao-Ting, applies Laban’s A-scale, while at the start of the performance, three light-filled squares fill the stage. Each dancer, occupying a square, appears to be freestyling, individualizing their solos with different attitudes and movem ent (i.e., technical, perhaps intentionally clumsy, confused, and even irate). The three solos become interlinked, and the dancers upstage their individual routine

Dance Review: “Coup de Foudre,” Baker, Van Peebles, and DJ Spooky at the Guggenheim Museum

Coupe de Foudre, a theatrical reinterpretation of surrealist film maker Jean Cocteau's 1930 film "Blood of a Poet," gives a sudden intense feeling of love as the French title suggests as well as many other emotions as the audience remained in awe of this artistic collaboration of three generations of African American artists at the Guggenheim Museum. Corey Baker, Co-Artistic director of Ballet Noir and performer in Fela! on Broadway, performed as a dancer/actor physically interpreting the onscreen performance of characters in the film blending the present and past of art interpretation. Paul Miller, a.k.a DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid, accompanied by Telos Ensemble, rescores the music creating an eerie, haunting, mystical mood to the stage, and Melvin Van Peebles filmmaker/director of “Sweetback” in the 1960's gives a dynamic performance adding dialogue as he interprets the French poetry of the film. It completely appeals to all the senses and takes the audien

Dance Review: Dear Peter, Love, Nora

Saturday night, the audience at 100 Grand Street was all abuzz, anticipating a wonderful performance of “Dear Peter, Love, Nora” a collaborative effort by Peter Chamberlin and Nora Petroliunas. They would not be disappointed, as what unfolds over the course of the evening is an amazing melding of dance, theater, audience participation, site specific work, an origami into an unforgettable, magical, and satisfying experience. The program is split into two halves, the first of which consists of two works by Chamberlin. The first piece is a virtuosic study in speed, balance, and precision; performed by Chamberlin, himself. Backed by a haunting score, providing more mood than melody, he executes a repeating series of poses; each flowing into the next, often on one leg, always perfectly placed. As the dance progresses, the tempo gradually increases until, at the end, Chamberlin is a blur of speed moving continuously through each pose; never faltering, always calmly and coolly in

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