NEW YORK — On a recent afternoon, in a big studio at New York City Center, dancer Melissa Toogood presented her class with a puzzle. With the clear, direct energy of someone walking down the street, she performed a darting series of steps that folded back on itself, ending where it started. The challenge, beyond pairing sudden swerves of the torso with the down-up-up rhythm of the feet, was to somehow travel forward in space, even as the movement resisted that pathway.
NEW YORK — On most weekdays, Cristi, 33, works in marketing for a fashion company, a regular 9-to-5 job. But on a recent Friday afternoon, she could be found at Symphony Space doing a split in the theater aisle as a friend pulled back her arms, assisting her in a deep stretch.
NEW YORK — On most weekdays, Cristi, 33, works in marketing for a fashion company, a regular 9-to-5 job. But on a recent Friday afternoon, she could be found at Symphony Space doing a split in the theater aisle as a friend pulled back her arms, assisting her in a deep stretch.
NEW YORK — Nearly 50 years old, Ballet Hispánico has long been a home for explorations of Spanish and Latin American identities. With its latest season at the Joyce Theater, which opened on Tuesday, the company turns its focus to a particular cultural crossroads: where Hispanic and Asian diasporas meet.
NEW YORK — When choreographer Madeline Hollander makes a site-specific work, she gets to know the site inside and out. On a recent afternoon, she stood at the base of a warehouse on 10th Avenue, around the corner from the gleaming glass entrance of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
NEW YORK — The Round Dance, a Native American dance of friendship, happens at powwows and other gatherings of indigenous people all over the country. But as Louis Mofsie, director of the Thunderbird American Indian Dancers, noted on Friday night, “We have some of the best round dancing right here on First Avenue in New York.”
NEW YORK — If you happened to be walking down Broadway near 21st Street in Manhattan on Saturday, you might have noticed some colorful pedestrians: a man in a floral top hat; a woman in a billowing green robe; friends in bright dresses braiding one another’s hair.
NEW YORK — An hour and 45 minutes had passed when the dancer pirouetted — a fast blur cutting through slow motion, like a fish through a stagnant pond. A familiar turn, a basic unit of so much choreography, felt suddenly momentous, as if it had never happened before.
(Critic’s notebook): NEW YORK — Fifteen years ago, choreographers Bobbi Jene Smith and Shamel Pitts were classmates at Juilliard. Smith left before graduating to join the Batsheva Dance Company in Tel Aviv, Israel; Pitts arrived at the same company four years later.
(Critic’s Pick): NEW YORK — Considering Michelle Dorrance’s virtuosity as a dancer — which in her medium, tap, is really a type of musician — perhaps it’s not surprising that she also sings and plays the bass.
The thrill factor, of course, has to do with who’s dancing. And on this program, it spiked when Melissa Toogood — a member of the Cunningham company’s final generation — shared the stage with American Ballet Theater soloist Calvin Royal III.
The conclusion of her trilogy on African-American identity, with “Mr. TOL E. RAncE” (2012) and “BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play” (2015), “ink” flies by, a rousing and incisive final statement.
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