Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Thu, 03 Jul 2008 04:36:15 -0400 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Dance :: Stories from The New York Sun http://www.nysun.com/dance istoll@nysun.com (Ira Stoll) webmaster@nysun.com en-us JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/spanning-the-pilobolus-spectrum/81193/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Sometimes you want to ask a Pilobolus piece, "Just exactly where are you going with this?" The characteristically improvisatory pace of the company's work can make too many episodic byways en route to saying something. But the dancers have complete confidence in the direction they're taking, and the improvisatory pace is a reflection of actual improvisations, since Pilobolus creates collaboratively. On Tuesday at the Joyce, where it returned this week for its annual four-week season, the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/abts-merry-widow-a-ballerinas-holiday/81189/ Thu, 3 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST There are not one but two belles of the ball in Ronald Hynd's "The Merry Widow," which returned to American Ballet Theatre on Monday. Julie Kent danced the title role of Hanna Glawari, reunited with her long-lost love, Count Danilo, and Xiomara Reyes was Valencienne, married to a doddery ambassador (Victor Barbee, aged up substantially), but carrying on with a French attaché (Gennadi Saveliev), who personifies a much younger and more vigorous specimen of male. While "Merry Widow" gives both... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/at-adfs-ark-dance-studio-not-your-average-student/80994/ Tue, 1 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST At the end of a week of all-day dancing, the students at the American Dance Festival need to express themselves and socialize. To do so, they don't go for drinks at a bar, or milk shakes at a diner. No — they improvise and dance some more. The social magnet of Saturday nights at ADF is the Ark Dance Studio, a gabled old house, boarded with white, wooden planks. Students start to gather on the steps of this small, one-room, century-old building just as the sun is setting. The jam-packed weekly... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/american-dance-festival-preps-the-next-generation/80900/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Durham, N.C. — The American Dance Festival, now in its 75th season, hosts big-name companies such as Paul Taylor, Martha Graham, and Pilobolus. But at least as important as these field leaders are the students who attend ADF. More than 400 dancers, anywhere between their late teenage years and early 30s, attend the festival to broaden their views and deepen their understanding of the art form's potential. They are tomorrow's potential leaders, and the exposure to dance that they get here may... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/dancers-choice-audiences-loss/80898/ Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST New York City Ballet's "Dancers' Choice" gala on Friday, a one-off performance that benefited the company's Dancers' Emergency Fund, had a familial feeling. In opening remarks, NYCB artistic director Peter Martins explained that this year marked a revival of what was once an annual gala to benefit the fund; to restore the tradition, he asked NYCB principal dancer Jonathan Stafford to curate the evening. The dancers contributed in many ways besides performing, and the entire event demonstrated a... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-boon-of-la-bayadere/80592/ Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST "La Bayadère" is one of American Ballet Theatre's most beautiful and significant productions. Though nearly 30 years old, it looked chipper on Monday night at the Metropolitan Opera House. Choreographed by Marius Petipa, "Bayadère" received its world premiere in 1877 in St. Petersburg. It is a prime product of the 19th-century Romantic and theatrical imagination. A number of operas and ballets were created about "bayadères" — Indian temple dancers — at that time. They fascinated in part because... SUSAN YUNG http://www.nysun.com/arts/around-the-world-with-nicholas-leichter/80449/ Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Choreographer Nicholas Leichter, whose new work, "Spanish Wells," will have its premiere at Dance Theater Workshop on Wednesday, is bringing new meaning to a catchphrase. "To say 'melting pot' is not enough," Mr. Leichter said in between rehearsals for "Spanish Wells," which draws on influences from an array of sources — Creole, Spanish, the nostalgia of the '50s and '60s — and is set to music by both Claude Debussy and Amy Winehouse. "I'm trying to mix these flavors, contrast them," he said... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/woetzel-waves-goodbye/80360/ Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Damian Woetzel's farewell performance at New York City Ballet on Wednesday night gave the audience and his fellow dancers a chance to show their affection and respect, and gave him a chance to show that he remained worthy of earning it without apologies. Mr. Woetzel, who joined the company in 1985, has always been a fine technician; over the years he became much more than that. On Wednesday, Mr. Woetzel and his colleagues performed before an audience pitched to a height of anticipation and... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-sleeping-beauty-served-straight-up/80266/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST American Ballet Theatre's "Sleeping Beauty" Monday night was as much a matter of what wasn't there as what was. The company brought back this production, which received its world premiere a year ago, minus much of the gadgetry and the notional accretions around which it had originally been built. On Monday, this "Beauty," directed by Kevin McKenzie, Gelsey Kirkland, and Michael Chernov, was a more straightforward presentation and therefore a stronger one. But what really is the true "Sleeping... ANITA SINGH and ISMENE BROWN http://www.nysun.com/arts/royal-ballet-condemned-from-beyond-the-grave/80276/ Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST The former artistic director of Britain's Royal Ballet has delivered an extraordinary attack on the institution from beyond the grave, accusing its management of sabotaging his productions and of conspiring to hound him out. In a tale of intrigue as dramatic as anything to grace the ballet's famous stage in Covent Garden, the words of the late Ross Stretton have come back to haunt the company. Stretton left the Royal Ballet in September 2002 after a disastrous yearlong tenure in which his... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/nina-ananiashvili-to-retire-from-abt/80085/ Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Nina Ananiashvili, a principal dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, will retire from the company during the 2009 Metropolitan Opera House season, the organization announced Monday. Ms. Ananiashvili is artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia, where she plans to continue performing, in addition to making guest appearances around the world. The ballerina from Georgia made her first appearance with the American Ballet Theatre in 1993 as Odette-Odile in "Swan Lake." She studied at the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/nycbs-wendy-whelan-in-her-prime/80031/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST As New York City Ballet's spring season enters its homestretch, program notes indicate — all too often — that the cast has changed due to illness or injury. But no matter how heavy the schedule or how many other dancers are out, City Ballet's senior ballerina Wendy Whelan seems to forge ahead. At 41, not only does she appear to be still in her prime, but she has shown signs of physical renewal this season. The depth, variety, and extreme quality of her work is worth noting and appreciating... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-taste-of-the-prowess-from-the-paris-opera-ballet/80025/ Mon, 16 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Paris Opera Ballet's prowess and panache flashed into the New York State Theater on Saturday afternoon when Nicolas Le Riche, an étoile of the Parisian company, made a guest appearance with New York City Ballet, performing the Jerome Robbins solo "A Suite of Dances." Created for Mikhail Baryshnikov in 1994, "A Suite of Dances" uses a lot of the impishness as well as the moodiness of Mr. Baryshnikov's role in "Other Dances," which Robbins had made for him in 1976. The compact figure and nimble... AMANDA GORDON http://www.nysun.com/arts/jacobs-pillow-creativity-award-to-alonzo-king/79826/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Shaolin monks, jazz musicians, and the Pygmies of Central Africa are just some of the people choreographer Alonzo King has invited onstage to perform with the classically trained dancers of his LINES Ballet, the company he founded 26 years ago in San Francisco. These collaborations have helped establish Mr. King internationally as a choreographer and teacher who simultaneously embraces classical ballet and other forms of dance and movement. And now they've helped him become the recipient of the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/novelty-of-generation-next/79817/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Even if you don't like seeing a water bug scuttle across a counter, you may like Jerome Robbins's "The Cage," his 1951 ballet that was part of a new all-Robbins program that had its debut at New York City Ballet. "Generation Next" is made up of five ballets with pronounced novelty value. In "The Cage," we visit the hive of a colony of predatory female insects who perpetuate the sometime instinct of the entomological world in devouring their sex partners. The dancers are just as bug-like as can... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/an-aria-to-longing-from-jennifer-muller-the-works/79829/ Thu, 12 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST In a one-night gala performance on Tuesday, Jennifer Muller/The Works embodied the heartache and beauty of loss, longing, and loves unfulfilled in the premiere of Ms. Muller's new work, "Aria." The piece consists of seven vignettes, each set to a different Mozart aria, duettino, or trio from one of his operas: "The Marriage of Figaro," "Don Giovanni," and "The Magic Flute." Each vignette focuses on one emotional dynamic as distilled out of the passionate — often haunting — tone and lyrics of... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/don-quixote-with-an-americano-twist/79740/ Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST American Ballet Theatre put on a good show Monday night, involving castanets, villagers, flounced dresses, swirling capes, a sun-baked piazza, and runaway lovers. It was, of course, the evening-length "Don Quixote," originally choreographed in 1869 in Moscow by Marius Petipa, and subject to many revisions over the years. But Petipa allegedly remains the choreographer for a lot of it and, in large and some small particulars, it is recognizably the same ballet evoked by the history books. The... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/shen-weis-olympic-moves/79535/ Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST When choreographer Shen Wei first arrived in New York from China 13 years ago, he had had limited exposure to the international culture of modern dance. At the time, the only modern dance company that existed in his homeland was his own, the Guangdong Modern Dance Company. Now, having founded his own New York company and enjoying commissions around the world, Mr. Shen is returning to China as the ambassador of that very culture, working as principal choreographer for the opening ceremonies of... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/ailey-back-at-bam/79438/ Fri, 6 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST This week, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is commemorating its 50th anniversary with a season at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, presented by the Joyce Theater. In the Ailey troupe's early days, it played at BAM frequently, but this weeklong season marks its first appearance here in many years. On Wednesday night, the second of the two programs consisted mostly of recent additions to the company's repertory. It opened with Twyla Tharp's "The Golden Section," which began as the finale of... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/twyla-tharps-latest-rabbit-and-rogue-at-abt/79332/ Thu, 5 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Twyla Tharp's new work, "Rabbit and Rogue," is the latest in the sequence of blockbuster dances with which she has filled the ballet stage since the early 1980s. Given its world premiere by American Ballet Theatre on Tuesday, the new ballet has a retrospective and recapitulatory feel; she peoples the stage with allusions to works she's done for her own company and for ABT, dating back to her first company commission, "Push Comes to Shove," in 1976. In "Rabbit and Rogue," Ms. Tharp also... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/triumph-for-abt/79043/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Veronika Part's performances of "Swan Lake" have been a spring event at ABT since 2004; Saturday afternoon's show was even more of an event because this was her first ABT "Swan" in two years; last year, she cancelled her performance because she was injured. On Saturday, Marcelo Gomes, her customary Prince Siegfried, was now dancing one of the twin incarnations of sorcerer von Rothbart who populate Kevin McKenzie's production. This time, Ms. Part's Prince was instead David Hallberg. It was a... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/alexei-ratmanskys-fun-and-games/79037/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST Fun and games rule rule in Alexei Ratmansky's new "Concerto DSCH," a crowd-pleaser that made its debut at New York City Ballet last week and will undoubtedly serve the company well. It was performed superlatively to Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, and, according to the program note, the ballet's title refers to a sequence of musical notes that Shostakovich used as a whimsically coded signature. Transcribed in German notation, they also represent his initials transliterated into German. The... VALERIE GLADSTONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/anarchic-moves-from-british-choreographer-michael/79034/ Mon, 2 Jun 2008 00:00:00 EST On a darkened stage set with a row of mirrored doors, a dancer lying in a square of light lifted her head at the sound of the first, stirring notes of Stravinsky's "Apollo." Stretching out, she arched her torso like an animal waking from sleep. Two male dancers rushed from the wings, their arms turning like windmills, and the female dancer rose to her feet, joining them to encircle a pale blue, mirrored glass cube in which another dancer performed handstands. While the music may have evoked a... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/ailey-heads-to-brooklyn-for-a-bigger-stage/78921/ Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will spend more time on home ground with a second New York season this year. To celebrate its 50th anniversary season, the Ailey company, which is well-known for its rigorous touring schedule and which has performed in more than 70 countries, is reaching out more to people closer to home with performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music starting Tuesday. "We had a desire to be home more and have a second season in New York," the executive director of the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/american-ballet-theatres-strong-swan-lake/78801/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST For American Ballet Theatre's Michele Wiles, the duality of Odette/Odile in "Swan Lake" is probably the most difficult role in the classical repertory, and she's danced it with mixed results since her debut four years ago. At ABT's first "Swan Lake" of the season, on Tuesday night, she was able to maintain and, in some respects, build on her improved performance of last year. Few if any ballerinas are naturally suited to all parts of the Odette/Odile calculus. Ms. Wiles is first and foremost an... ERICA ORDEN http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-york-city-ballet-goes-to-paris/78786/ Thu, 29 May 2008 00:00:00 EST New York City Ballet will perform a two-week engagement at the Opéra National de Paris in September 2008, the company is to announce next month. NYCB's artistic director, Peter Martins, along with the director of the Opéra National de Paris, Gerard Mortier, plan to announce that NYCB will open its performances on September 9 in Paris, where, according to the Opéra National de Paris's Web site, the company will perform an all-Balanchine program, consisting of "Divertimento No. 15," "Episodes,"... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/whelans-sensuous-best-for-bugaku/78600/ Tue, 27 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Wendy Whelan has had a date with Balanchine's "Bugaku" for many years, but it wasn't until this month at New York City Ballet that the rendezvous came to fruition. May marked Ms. Whelan's debut in this ballet that contains significant links in the series of knotty and complicated duets that Balanchine created during the late 1950s and early '60s. In this repertory, Ms. Whelan had for years tangled her legs into the most extreme and unorthodox of cat's cradles. But she had not yet availed... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/robbins-peers-inside-the-female-psyche/77330/ Fri, 23 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Jerome Robbins's perspectives on female psychology made "In the Night" the most absorbing ballet on the all-Robbins "Baroque to Jazz" program Wednesday night at New York City Ballet. There is an element of psychological self-analysis to all of Robbins's works that makes them fascinating even when they are not artistically the most compelling. Artistically, "In the Night" is successful, even though it is also rather obvious. The ballet is danced by three couples, and the three women form an... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/freshening-the-corsaire-cut-and-paste/76851/ Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:00 EST On Tuesday night American Ballet Theatre brought back "Le Corsaire," looking tighter and fresher than it had in a while. "Corsaire" had become the ultimate cut-and-paste ballet well before ABT first performed it in 1998. Multiple choreographers and composers have all had their hand in what we now see onstage. The ballet is loosely based on Byron's 1814 poem that perfectly answered his audience's fascination with exotic climates and cultures and adventures. Verdi made an opera from it in 1848... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/putting-on-the-glitz/76796/ Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EST As a rule, the gala audience wants flash, expects flash, and is disconcerted if it doesn't get flash. For the most part, American Ballet Theatre catered to its audience at its opening night gala at the Metropolitan Opera House on Monday night. But not with Antony Tudor's "Judgment of Paris," which aroused laughter, but received tepid applause, despite the fact that the three clip-joint beldames were performed by three noted ABT veterans: Bonnie Mathis, Kathleen Moore, and Martine van Hamel... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/monumental-moves/76752/ Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:00 EST New looks at classic scores by Russian composers highlight dance in New York City and its environs over the summer. London's Michael Clark brings his "Stravinsky Project" to the Rose Theater June 4-7 as part of Lincoln Center's Great Performers "New Visions" series. Get ready to see how the renegade Mr. Clark reimagines Stravinsky's "Les Noces," "Apollo" and "Le Sacre du Printemps," each of which was first choreographed early in the 20th century. Mr. Clark's company will perform to live music... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/abts-free-agents-in-flux/76614/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST American Ballet Theatre's annual spring season at the Metropolitan Opera House, opening tonight with a gala performance, resembles a yearly reunion of intimate but peripatetic members of a guild or club or professional society. Since ABT was founded in 1940, it has functioned to some degree as a confederacy of free agents, highlighting many guest stars and part-time stars. Over the last decade, there seem to have developed two different ranks of principal dancers in the company: those who... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/abt-dancer-awarded/76616/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The 2008 Benois de la Danse Prize for best male dancer was shared between American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Marcelo Gomes and Cuban dancer Carlos Acosta. Mr. Gomes's award was based on his performance in Lar Lubovitch's "Othello," as well as his performances in Jorma Elo's "C. to C. (Close to Chuck)," which ABT presented at City Center in October. The Benois de la Danse Prize was established in 1992 by the International Dance Association (now the International Dance Union) and Unesco... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/robbinss-french-flavor/76621/ Mon, 19 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Four ballets choreographed by Jerome Robbins to Debussy and Ravel made up a cohesive whole in the New York City Ballet's "French Cuisine" program last week. "Mother Goose (Fairy Tales for Dancers)" is self-reflexive: The dancers onstage appear to be impersonating themselves. We see them first in practice clothes, posed as if at ease listening to a storyteller who sits with an open book. Then they take the initiative, acting out their own series of tales. The stage is mostly bare when the ballet... SAVANNAH ASHOUR http://www.nysun.com/arts/familiar-tricks-from-momix/76481/ Thu, 15 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Momix opened its run at the Joyce Theater last night with "Passion," a 17-year-old work set to the lush Peter Gabriel score for the Martin Scorsese film "The Last Temptation of Christ." "Passion" is awash with visual trickery and symbolic allusion, but it is disappointingly short on substance. For better or worse, the dance's combination of acrobatics, prop work, and pantheistic imagery never fails to bring up comparisons to Cirque du Soleil. Is choreographer Moses Pendleton enthused by the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/robbins-shows-his-roots/76240/ Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Jerome Robbins was the son of Russian immigrants, and on Friday night, New York City Ballet grouped several of his works to Russian music in a program entitled "Russian Roots." Robbins's old-country roots certainly were deep, and he was interested throughout his career in plumbing them, returning with increasing frequency to folk themes and folk dance vocabulary over the course of his career. But the works collected here do not show his roots' most fruitful aesthetic abundance. The best thing... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/all-robbins-roundup/75826/ Mon, 5 May 2008 00:00:00 EST The New York City Ballet has entered a season that celebrates Jerome Robbins, and last week, the company performed three iconic and totally dissimilar works by the choreographer: "Fancy Free," "Dybbuk," and "Watermill." Each proved its worthiness to be seen in perpetuity, even if "Watermill" is guilty of an ersatz quality missing in the other two works. Rarely has a choreographer debuted as confidently as Robbins did with "Fancy Free" in 1944. This larky vignette of three sailors painting the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/new-york-city-ballet-opens-its-season/75655/ Thu, 1 May 2008 00:00:00 EST Tuesday night was the opening of New York City Ballet's spring season, which was also the opening of its season-long Jerome Robbins Celebration during the year that would have marked his 90th birthday. On view were two long, episodic later works of Robbins: "The Four Seasons" and "West Side Story Suite," which respectively encompass his two major career tracks: ballet and Broadway. Yes, I did say just a few months ago that 1979's "The Four Seasons" is one of Robbins's best ballets. Tuesday... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/shen-wei-to-choreograph-olympic-ceremony/75575/ Wed, 30 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The New York-based choreographer Shen Wei has been tapped to serve as a lead creative consultant and the principal choreographer for the 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremonies. Prior to the announcement, Mr. Shen had worked with the dancers in his own company — Shen Wei Dance Arts — to develop material for the ceremonies. Olympic dancers in Beijing will perform the works. Mr. Shen, who was born in Hunan, China, and is now an American citizen, often combines multiple artistic elements in his... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/chen-see-to-lead-ballet-competition/75407/ Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Richard Chen See will be the director of the New York International Ballet Competition, the organization's board of directors announced yesterday. Mr. Chen See, who is in his 14th year as a dancer with the Paul Taylor Dance Company, will work with NYIBC's executive director, Ilona Copen, and artistic director, Eleanor D'Antuono, to prepare for the June 2009 competition. A native of Jamaica, Mr. Chen See has danced with Northern Ballet Theatre, Oakland Ballet, and ODC/San Francisco. NYIBC, a... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/in-limbo-with-akram-khan/75322/ Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Watching Akram Khan's "bahok," at City Center on Tuesday night, I thought of the plays "No Exit" by Sartre and "Outward Bound" by Sutton Vane. In each, an unsuspecting cross-section of humanity finds itself stranded in a limbo that turns out to be purgatory. Enforced proximity and uncertainty incite a heightened airing of human traits and foibles, which are put under inspection as if in a bell jar. Plays come to mind probably because "bahok" (which means "carrier" in Mr. Khan's familial... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/cream-of-the-international-crop/75234/ Thu, 24 Apr 2008 02:21:51 EST The annual Youth America Grand Prix gala, held at City Center, doesn't operate under deluxe conditions, but it does give New Yorkers a chance to see international stars who don't come to town very often. This year's gala was, in fact, the New York debut of the Bolshoi Ballet's Ivan Vasiliev, the Berlin State Opera Ballet's Polina Semionova, the Hong Kong Ballet's Jin Yao and Huang Zhen, and the Tokyo Ballet's Mizuka Ueno. The Youth America galas cap a multiday competition in which students win... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/somethings-coming/75012/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST New York City Ballet's two-month spring season opens on April 29, and it's very nearly all Jerome Robbins. Robbins, who died in 1998, would have turned 90 this October. During the season there will be 10 all-Robbins programs, encompassing 33 of his ballets, reflecting the length and depth of Robbins's association with the company. He joined as dancer and choreographer in 1949, and worked with the company right up until his death. The season opens with an all-Robbins gala performance, but two... VALERIE GLADSTONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/around-the-world-with-akram-khan/75031/ Mon, 21 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST On a visit to India, British choreographer Akram Khan endured a frightening episode when border guards snatched his passport. "I knew I was nothing without that piece of paper," he said recently, over the phone from Australia, where he was on tour. "They could say I was anyone and I wouldn't be able to prove otherwise. A document separated a good life from a bad life — and possibly my life from my death." Mr. Khan, though, used the experience as a springboard for two new works — "Zero Degrees"... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/seasons-depletings/74655/ Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The Kirov Ballet showed the fourth program of its City Center season over the weekend. It opened with the impalpable reverie of Mikhail Fokine's "Chopiniana," and closed with the hard-driving pyrotechnics of Harold Lander's "Etudes." In "Chopiniana," the company was in its element, but "Etudes" taxed them stringently. Two-thirds of the way through a grueling season was probably not the time to introduce this ballet. Even at the best of times, however, "Etudes" would not really suit the Kirov... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/of-movement-and-men/74532/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The opening night program of Eliot Feld's Mandance Project at the Joyce on Wednesday demonstrated Mr. Feld's affection for high-concept excess. In addition to his interest in props, appurtenances, and theatrical regalia as catalysts for movement investigations — sometimes in the manner of performance art — he has an inability to judiciously prune or edit his work. An exception was the closing piece, "Isis in Transit," a vehicle for ex-Martha Graham dancer Fang-Yi Sheu, who made a welcome return... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/kirov-is-shaky-on-its-feet/74558/ Fri, 11 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The Kirov Ballet looked like a great company under duress in its performance at City Center on Tuesday night. In the opening grab bag of excerpts from "Le Corsaire," odalisques Svetlana Ivanova, Yana Selina, and Nadezhda Gonchar collided in their finale after keeping things on an admirable keel throughout their difficult individual solos. During the closing "Kingdom of the Shades" from "La Bayadere," Elena Androsova, who has danced superbly in the front line of the corps de ballet throughout... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/high-honors-for-heat-and-light/74305/ Tue, 8 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST The Kirov Ballet's ensemble took high honors in its all-Michel Fokine program over the weekend. The women were all but unsurpassable in "Chopiniana," and both women and men gave as much heat and light to "Scheherazade" as the cramped City Center stage could support. The "Chopiniana" corps was even better than it has been in the recent past — a little less synchronized and neatly regimented, more susceptible to musical rubato. On Saturday and Sunday afternoons, the very young Daria Vasnetsova... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/tribute-to-tudor/74260/ Mon, 7 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST It's an often-repeated misconception that the dancers in Antony Tudor's ballets move like human beings. They don't; they move like Tudor ballet dancers, defined by a unique movement language. Throughout the next year, dance audiences will enjoy expanded opportunities to interpret this language as part of Tudor's centennial celebration festivities. Tudor died in 1987 at age 79, and would have celebrated his 100th birthday on Friday, April 4. He was born William Cook to a working-class family in... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/kirov-shrinks-to-fit/74102/ Thu, 3 Apr 2008 00:00:00 EST Amplitude traditionally been the keynote of Kirov Ballet style, but amplitude was not easily possible Tuesday night at the opening of the company's three-week City Center season. City Center has never been an ideal space for ballet, and certainly not on the grand scale for which the Kirov is famous. The stage here is drastically smaller than at the Kirov's home, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, or the Metropolitan Opera, where it has customarily performed in New York since its debut...