Articles written by the author
Two Vogue Shows Strike Art-World Poses
(Critic’s Notebook)
'For Colored Girls' Is a Choreopoem. What's a Choreopoem?
NEW YORK — “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf” is not a play. Or that’s not what the breakthrough work was called by its author, Ntozake Shange. Her word was “choreopoem,” and any production of “For Colored Girls,” like the major revival now in previews at the Public Theater, has to figure out what the term means.
Kyle Abraham Wants You to See Another Side of Misty Copeland
NEW YORK — Choreographer Kyle Abraham is a Misty Copeland fan. One of his favorite fan memories is of a Prince concert where Copeland appeared as a surprise guest artist. This was before she was a superstar — before 2015, when she made the cover of Time magazine and became the first black woman promoted to principal dancer at American Ballet Theater. So maybe not everyone in the audience knew who she was. But Abraham did.
A Tap Dancer's Place: After the Horn Players, Before the Drummer
At the White Plains Jazz Festival this month, the band Mwenso & the Shakes was setting up, plugging in instruments and checking microphones. Michela Marino Lerman was among them. She set down a wooden board and hooked it up to the sound system. Then she changed out of her sandals into tap shoes. Lerman is a tap dancer, and she is also a member of the band.
What's Chinese About Chinese Ballet?
(Critic's Notebook)
Review: Big Names (Royal Ballet!), Small Pieces at the Joyce
NEW YORK — When the Joyce Theater began its annual ballet festival, in summer 2013, it was as a useful showcase of small companies from around the United States. Upstart and offshoot troupes needed New York exposure but maybe weren't ready to fill the Joyce for a week on their own.
'Maze' Review: Virtuoso Street Dance Sends Blurry Message
NEW YORK — “This happened already,” a voice whispers. “This smells familiar.”
'Maze' Review: Virtuoso Street Dance Sends Blurry Message
NEW YORK — “This happened already,” a voice whispers. “This smells familiar.”Fire Island Dance Festival: A Full-Circle Community Experience
Denise Roberts Hurlin was a member of the Paul Taylor Dance Company in 1991, which meant she could not avoid the terrifying reality of AIDS. “So many friends and colleagues were getting sick and dying,” she recalled recently. “So many.”
Two and a Half Cheers for Pam Tanowitz!
NEW YORK — Lately, there’s been a lot of talk of a “new era” or “new chapter” at New York City Ballet. At the company’s spring gala at the David H. Koch Theater on Thursday, both phrases cropped up in preshow speeches by the new artistic director, Jonathan Stafford, and the new associate artistic director, Wendy Whelan. These speeches were far from lively, but fresh ideas have been emerging in other forms. The fruit of one was on the program: a commission for choreographer Pam Tanowitz.
Creating for Martha Graham's Company, Competing With the Great Mother
(Critic’s Notebook)Cholly Atkins' Motown Moves Get an Update in 'Ain't Too Proud'
NEW YORK — Five handsome men, dressed sharp. Golden-voiced singers, each distinctly soulful, harmonizing on hit after hit. That they could also move well, smoothly executing snazzy, classy choreography, might have seemed extra. Yet it was essential to what made the Temptations exceptional and enduring. Think about it: Does anyone dance quite the way they did anymore?
Making Dances in the Shadow of Merce Cunningham
Douglas Dunn has been making dances since 1971. His choreography has earned acclaim and awards, but presenters don’t call as frequently as they once did. That helps explains why, when Dunn was asked to present a premiere in the 92nd Street Y’s Harkness Dance Festival this year, his emotions were mixed. Gratified to have his work chosen, he was disturbed by the reason underlying the choice: that 50 years ago he danced in work by someone else.Mable Lee, Tap-Dancing 'Queen of the Soundies,' Dies at 97
First, she sings: a boogie-woogie dance instruction number called “Chicken Shack Shuffle.” And then, because this is a soundie — one of the many short musical films made in the 1940s to be played on coin-operated jukeboxes — she demonstrates.
Mable Lee, Tap-Dancing 'Queen of the Soundies,' Dies at 97
First, she sings: a boogie-woogie dance instruction number called “Chicken Shack Shuffle.” And then, because this is a soundie — one of the many short musical films made in the 1940s to be played on coin-operated jukeboxes — she demonstrates.Review: At City Ballet, More Youthful Invention From Justin Peck
NEW YORK — Like many works by Justin Peck, his new “Principia” is immediately arresting. Two dozen dancers clump in a crouch, and somebody in the middle spurts up. Then someone else does, followed by another and another, each burst contributing to the collective image of a fountain. A little later, dancers huddle together in three groups like tall sheaves of wheat. When someone touches the top of a bundle, it opens to reveal a treasure inside: another member of the company.A Master of Dance Lighting Steps Out of the Shadows
It’s easy to understand why lighting is essential to dance performance. Dancing in the dark is hard to see. But when Brandon Stirling Baker says he wants his lighting design to be essential, he means something different.
Review: 'Sleeping Beauty Dreams' Is a Tawdry Tech Fantasy
NEW YORK — In just about every version of “Sleeping Beauty,” be it a tale or ballet, the heroine escapes a fatal curse when a good fairy softens the sentence to a mere hundred-year siesta.
Review: 'Sleeping Beauty Dreams' Is a Tawdry Tech Fantasy
NEW YORK — In just about every version of “Sleeping Beauty,” be it a tale or ballet, the heroine escapes a fatal curse when a good fairy softens the sentence to a mere hundred-year siesta.Review: Ronald K. Brown follows 'Grace' with a dark plea for 'Mercy'
For the dance’s 20th anniversary, Bard SummerScape invited Brown’s company, Evidence, to perform “Grace” as never before: with live music. Bard also commissioned a new companion piece, “Mercy.” Both ideas were risky.
