Sondra Forsyth - Page 6

In the wake of the media frenzy about African-American ballerina Misty Copeland, a recent article in The New York Times by Gia Kourlas applauds the fact that the American Ballet Theatre and the New York City Ballet are featuring black, Asian, Latino, and multiracial dancers 'where it matters most: Lincoln Center, home base to both companies'.

According to a 1998 review of ABT by Jack Anderson in The New York Times, publicists for the company in the early days used to call the troupe 'a museum of the dance.' Anderson commented that this is a good phrase to describe the company 'provided one realizes that great museums can encourage new art as well as preserve old'. I heartily concur. As I've mentioned before, I always remind my ballet students that we can hang a Rembrandt or a Picasso on a museum wall for posterity, but each generation of dancers must be capable performing both the old and the new if we are to keep our history alive. Fortunately, true to ABT's founding mission 'to develop a repertoire of the best ballets from the past and to encourage the creation of new works by gifted young choreographers,' this national treasure continues to present accurate historical reconstructions as well as new works by today's choreographers.

There may be no better way to chase the gloom of an unseasonably chilly and wind-whipped evening in NYC than to watch New York City Ballet's delightfully varied quintuple-bill entitled "Americana X Five". On October 2nd 2015, with Hurricane Joaquin's approach bringing on a gusty downpour, I was among the lucky dancegoers at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center who enjoyed one of the best programs the company has offered in a long time. If you'll be in town through October 7th, don't miss the chance to see the works of four very different choreographers set to the equally wide-ranging works of a talented handful of American composers.

New York City Ballet's 'Swan Lake', which opened the 2015 fall season with performances from September 22nd to 29th, is a testament to the old adage that goes 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it.' In creating this iteration of one of the most beloved staples in ballet's classical canon, Artistic Director Peter Martins and his colleagues tinkered mercilessly with everything from the choreography to the costumes and sets. The dancing on the evening of Friday, September 25th when I saw the production was gorgeous and the story line was suitably moving, but those positive aspects didn't make up for the other glaring flaws. Not only that, but the orchestra was definitely not in fine fettle. Tchaikovsky's glorious score deserves better.

The second program of the Royal Ballet of England's return to New York City after an 11-year hiatus – and the first appearance of the company at the Koch Theatre in Lincoln Center – was an ambitious but not entirely successful presentation of works by British choreographers. The greatest failing was not onstage but in the Playbill. No notes at all were included to help the audience appreciate the ballets and the music in a historical context. While I applaud the company as well as the presenting Joyce Theater Foundation for eschewing the standard story ballets in favor of repertory fare, I am at a loss to figure out why the dancegoers were not given any information other than titles, credits, and casting. On the afternoon of June 27th when I was there, I overheard many people during pauses and intermissions commenting that a little assistance in comprehending the inspiration and intent of the choreographers would have been appreciated.

SAB's annual Workshop performances have been a treasured staple on NYC dance lovers' calendars ever since 1965 when the legendary Alexandra Danilova, then a faculty member, initiated the iconic spring ritual. The event is not a graduation ceremony, but rather a tantalizing glimpse of what the future of dance may hold. This year, not only the school's most promising advanced students but also a group of prodigiously talented nine to 14-year-olds took the stage in fully costumed performances of excerpts from the New York City Ballet repertory, danced to live orchestral accompaniment.

ABT's 75th Anniversary Gala, a balletomane's dream of a performance on May 18th 2015 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, treated the nearly sold-out audience to a joyous celebration in dance and archival images of the American Ballet Theatre's seven-and-a-half decade reign as 'America's National Ballet Company'. That designation became official with an act of Congress on April 27th 2006, but the troupe founded by Richard Pleasant with Lucia Chase and Oliver Smith as Co-Directors in 1940 had embraced the ethos of this country right from the start.

Suzanne Farrell, one of the greatest ballerinas of her generation, proved herself to be a charming and thoroughly engaging raconteur when she appeared on the evening of May 12th 2015 as a guest of LIVE from NYPL. The event at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in NYC was ably hosted by LIVE founder Paul Holdengraber and co-presented with Jennifer Homans' Center for Ballet and the Arts at New York University as well as the Friends of the Jerome Robbins Dance Division at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

The spring 2015 season of the New York City Ballet at the David H. Koch Theater in Lincoln Center boasts not one but two programs featuring George Balanchine's minimalist masterpieces that are affectionately referred to as the "leotard ballets" by dancers and devotees alike. On the evening of May 1st, "Balanchine Black & White 1" proved once again that plotless ballets stripped of elaborate sets and costumes do indeed achieve Mr. B's goal of focusing on the movement and the music. What is so remarkable is that each of the three works on the bill, all of them with the dancers in practice clothes, is uniquely compelling. This feast of Mr. B's earliest neoclassical creations holds the audience in thrall from start to finish without ever becoming repetitious.

Opening night of Dance Theater of Harlem's 2015 season at City Center began with a curtain speech by Artistic Director Virginia Johnson, who was visibly more excited and confident on this third anniversary of the rebirth of the legendary company than she had been in 2014 when DTH danced at Jazz at Lincoln Center after a nine-year performing hiatus. Her contagious enthusiasm proved to be well founded as the evening progressed with a quadruple bill called 'What's New' that showcased the vastly improved technique and artistry of the 18-member troupe.

On May 25th 2015, opening night of Ballet West's debut season at the Joyce, three New York premieres and a world premiere showcased the company's admirable command of contemporary ballet. The world-renowned troupe from Salt Lake City does have the classics in its repertoire, but the decision by Artistic Director Adam Sklute to bring his superb dancers to NYC in pieces by four celebrated if sometimes controversial current choreographers was a wise one.

New York City Ballet's 'All Balanchine III, Hear the Dance: Italy' features a perfect pairing of pieces that brim with Balanchine's incomparable sense of showmanship. Ballet is an art form, but Mr. B knew that it can also serve as sheer entertainment without losing integrity. Beyond that, he was a master of making us 'see the music, hear the dance', as he put it. This double bill, with works set to scores by great Italian composers, does precisely that.

'Blood on the Veil' is a mesmerizing theater piece with the commendable mission of dispelling the misconception that the ancient oriental art of belly dancing is nothing but a dance of seduction. Written, choreographed, and performed by the multi-talented Carol Henning, the performance involves not only dancing but also her passionately delivered monologues laced with humor about her journey from illness to health. Fittingly, Henning's stage name is 'Tandava', which is Sanskrit for the Hindu deity Shiva's dance of destruction and rebirth.

I've never been a fan of Peter Martins' choreography so I was surprised to find myself moved by the "balcony pas de deux" in Romeo + Juliet, his adaptation for the New York City Ballet of Shakespeare's tragic tale about star-crossed lovers. Sterling Hyltin as Juliet and Robert Fairchild as Romeo, returning to the roles they originated when the ballet had its premiere in 2007, used the beautiful but difficult intertwinings and lifts to convey their youthful passion in a way that was entirely believable to me.

On January 16th 2015 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the unparalleled precision of the Mariinsky Ballet's corps in "Swan Lake" was rightfully rewarded with the evening's most thunderous applause. Every tilt of the head, every flick of the wrist, every pose, every hop in arabesque was performed in unison and with perfect musicality. The bevy of Russian ballerinas as Swans put the New York City Ballet's often ragged corps to shame, although the American Ballet Theatre's corps is a close second to that of the St. Petersburg troupe.

After the 1954 New York City Ballet premiere of George Balanchine's The Nutcracker, the production reigned supreme as the gold standard for the holiday classic even though William Christensen's excellent 1944 version was the first one ever staged in this country. By now, however, countless superb iterations of the ballet have spawned from coast to coast as well as in Alaska and Hawaii. Many of them, in my opinion, are better than Mr. B's. That may be why the matinee I saw on December 27th 2014 at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center seemed like an obligatory musty relic that had been dragged out of the attic for yet another season.

The most recent revival of 'On the Town', the 1944 smash hit based on Jerome Robbins' 'Fancy Free' ballet about three sailors on 24-hour shore leave in NYC, is first-rate on all counts. Right from the moment that the booming bass-baritone voice of Phillip Boykin joins the audience singing 'The Star Spangled Banner' as he strolls down an aisle, the show captivates with professionalism and energy that are sustained throughout the evening.

Far and away the highlight on opening night of the Pacific Northwest Ballet's five-day return engagement at NYC's Joyce on October 8th 2014 was the soul-stirring and remarkably supple performance by Carla Korbes. The ballerina, who will retire at the end of the 2014-2015 season, is a mere 33 years old. Watching her dance with Jerome Tisserand in a preview of Justin Peck's "Debonair" to an alternately playful and poignant score by George Anthell was pure delight. The ballet is slated to premiere next month in Seattle and served as the closer for the NYC triple bill.

On the first ever World Ballet Day, October 1st 2014, I postponed watching the video stream of five top ballet companies in favor of attending what turned out to be a mesmerizing mixed bill featuring Balanchine ballets to the music of Stravinsky at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center. YouTube can wait for me to catch up on the video stream later, but being in the audience at a live performance is always a one-time experience never to be recaptured except in the mind's eye.

On September 21st 2014 at Lincoln Center, Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall delivered a soul stirring al fresco performance of the pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's 'After the Rain' to the haunting music of Arvo Part. The performance by the pair of New York City Ballet dancers was one of the offerings during the evening portion of the free, day-long Buddhist ceremony called the Shinnyo Lantern Floating for Peace.