Beth Gill

It takes courage to dance slowly and Beth Gill’s New Work for the Desert is slow from start to finish. Slow enough to feel the light change, quiet enough to not see entrances from another direction, sad enough to remind you of death. In an interview with Gia Kourlas, Gill is up front about being influenced by Trisha Brown, particularly her 1987 Newark—though I also saw glimmers of Trisha’s Locus (1975) and Set and Reset (1983). Gill has incorporated specific partnering moves from the genius last section of Newark, in which a very conscious sort of gravitational pull happens between people, e.g. hooking a foot around the back of another’s neck, clasping hands around the neck and rocking that person. The partner has to be passive enough to make these neat maneuvers possible, and Gill extends that passivity to its ultimate endpoint. What happens next is morbidly, bizarrely, beautifully tender. Thomas Dunn’s lighting creates the illusion of sky, earth, and distance. Till March 22. New York Live Arts. Click here for more info.

08_BethGill_PhotobyCherylynnTsushima

09_BethGill_PhotobyCherylynnTsushima

All photos by Cherylynn Tsushima

All photos by Cherylynn Tsushima

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Martha Graham Dance Company

Nacho Duato and the Graham company are an inspired pairing. Although Duato told me in this interview that he enjoyed working with the Mikhailovsky Ballet dancers, I imagine he missed the earthy quality that is so central to his choreography. And lord knows the Graham company needs new choreography. Rust, the piece he made on the group’s men last year, sears your soul with its images of torture. (Sorry, but we won’t be seeing it at City Center this season.) His world premiere, as shown in progress at Guggenheim Works & Process a couple weeks ago, is also intense. Titled Depak Ine, it has insect motifs like scrunching, belly-to-the-ground twitches. A gripping solo for the astounding  PeiJu Chien-Pott, a new dancer from Taiwan, is worth the ticket price alone. The season also includes Clytemnestra (with the glorious Katherine Crockett), Appalachian Spring, and a world premiere by Andonis Foniadakis. March 19–22 at NY City Center. Click here for tickets.

Katherine Crockett in Clytemnestra, photo by Hibbard Nash

Katherine Crockett in Clytemnestra, photo by Hibbard Nash

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Juilliard Does Tharp, Lubovitch & Feld

One of Twyla Tharp’s breeziest, most feel-good works, Baker’s Dozen will be performed by Juilliard students next week. The piece, made in 1979 for 12 dancers, has an innocent polymorphous pleasure that predates the combative seductiveness of the more familiar Nine Sinatra Songs (1982). The piano music, by Willie “The Lion” Smith, will be played live by a Juilliard alum—one of the pluses of going to a dance concert at Juilliard. Another plus, of course, is that you get to see serious students who are already at a professional level. They regularly perform works by current choreographers, and this program is no exception. Accompanying Baker’s Dozen is Lar Lubovitch’s classic group work, Concerto Six Twenty-Two (the one that contains his beautiful male-bonding duet made in the time of AIDS) and Eliot Feld’s fun romp The Jig Is Up. March 21–25 in Juilliard’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater. For more info click here.

Juilliard dancers in baker's Dozen, photo y Jeffrey Cuyubamba

Juilliard dancers in Baker’s Dozen, photo y Jeffrey Cuyubamba

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Wayne McGregor’s Atomos

I wouldn’t don 3-D glasses for just anyone, but I would for Wayne McGregor. His London-based Random Dance company gives Atomos its American premiere at Peak Performances in NJ. The piece plunges his fierce performers into a visually transforming environment, including 3-D video screens hung from above (I’m trying to picture it), designed by his resident lighting genius, Lucy Carter. I loved Borderlands, their collaboration for San Francisco Ballet, which gave me a reason to interview the brilliant McGregor for Dance Magazine last year. If Atomos has even a fraction of the giddy complexity of Borderlands, I’ll be beyond happy. March 15–23 at Peak Performances in Montclair, NJ—only a half hour from Penn Station. To find out how to get there, click here.

Atomos, photo by Ravi Deepres

Atomos, photo by Ravi Deepres

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PNB’s Mash-Up Evening

If you’re interested in how other forms of dance infiltrate ballet—and you live near Seattle—check out Peter Boal’s Director’s Choice evening at Pacific Northwest Ballet. He’s got company favorites by (post)moderns Susan Marshall (Kiss) and Molissa Fenley (State of Darkness), and TAKE FIVE…More or Less by musical theater mastermind Susan Stroman. What’s new? A world premiere by Alejandro Cerrudo, everyone’s favorite tall, skinny Spaniard, who can flip between classical ballet (silky pirouettes) and modern (large scooping moves), as he did for Wendy Whelan’s Restless Creature.  March 14–23. Click here for tix.

James Moore & Mara Vinson in Kiss, photo © Angela Sterling

James Moore & Mara Vinson in Marshall’s Kiss. Homepage photo is of Stroman’s TAKE FIVE, with Kaori Nakamura; both photos © Angela Sterling.

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Harkness Festival: Kyle Abraham & David Dorfman

Lightbulb Theory, photo by Julie Lemberger

Lightbulb Theory, photo by Julie Lemberger

For the second half of the Harkness Festival, Doug Varone has chosen signature works by two of our most risk-taking choreographers: Kyle Abraham and David Dorfman. While Abraham’s Radio Show (March 14–16) gives us a beguiling rendition of gender fluidity, Dorfman’s Lightbulb Theory (March 21–23) revels in his sly, self-effacing humor and all-out, rough-and-tumble partnering. (To get a glimpse of his sense of humor—and doom—see his Choreography in Focus.)  At the 92nd Street Y. For tickets, click here.

 

 

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