Copyright 2008 The New York Sun Mon, 29 Sep 2008 01:32:27 -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 MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/community-movement-marking-an-anniversary-through/85309/ Mon, 8 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Dripping with sweat in the sweltering sun and 90-degree heat last Thursday afternoon, a man and two women crept across one another on the steps of Brooklyn Bridge Park, in DUMBO, froze in emotional tableaus, then silently fell to the ground. The three, dancers of the Silver-Brown Dance Company, were polishing a work to remember the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, "Oasis 5," which they will perform in the park Thursday evening. As in every year for the past seven years, individuals and... VALERIE GLADSTONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/balanchines-muse-preserving-her-master/86276/ Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST In a grainy black-and-white photograph from 1968, Suzanne Farrell, gently supported by Arthur Mitchell, both of them then principals at the New York City Ballet, arches her back in a perfectly curved arabesque. Shot during the company's halcyon days, it advertised Balanchine's "Pithoprakta," which he choreographed to a score by the Greek composer Iannis Xenakis. This haunting image and a barely decipherable videotape were all that remained of the striking work until financial support from the... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/fall-for-dance-opens-with-pomp-and-pageantry/86170/ Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Fall for Dance, an annual event since 2004, is like an old-time vaudeville bill, programmed with concert dance. On Tuesday night, its opening act was Shen Wei Dance Arts, which performed excerpts from Mr. Shen's "Map," first staged in 2005. Mr. Shen recently choreographed the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics and, here in "Map," he also evinces his taste for mass pageantry and people-moving, allying minimal dance and music to orchestrated collectivism on the march. Performed to music... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-taste-for-the-global/85973/ Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Never underestimate the power of a good idea: That's one of the lessons to be extrapolated from this fall's dance season in New York. At City Center's Fall for Dance Festival, all tickets are priced at $10, and dance attractions from all over the world are featured, some familiar to New York audiences, some entirely new. Fall for Dance is now an entrenched and wildly popular kickoff to the fall season. This year it runs between September 17 and 27. City Center is a prime place for dance lovers... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/around-the-world-at-city-center/85794/ Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST Fall for Dance, which began in 2004, opens Wednesday at City Center, and this year it seems even more inventive and far-reaching than ever, orchestrated so that one can speak of story lines, motifs, and memes as much as genres and categories. International cultures entwine during the festival to make it a melting pot of dance, with companies from all over the globe — avatars of ethnic, indigenous dance. Something New York does not often get to see will be the The Gentlemen of Hälau Nä Kamalei... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/bolshoi-director-ratmansky-joins-abt/85583/ Thu, 11 Sep 2008 00:00:00 EST The artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, Alexei Ratmansky, announced Wednesday that he would leave his current post at the end of the year and join the American Ballet Theatre as its artist in residence, the New York Times reported. In his new position, he will spend at least 20 weeks each year at the ABT, and choreograph one new work every season... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/standing-to-see-jill-johnsons-the-copier/84498/ Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Jill Johnson's "The Copier" makes the audience do some work. And it's more than the imaginative work that one inevitably does while attending a performance. At Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet's wide-open, hangar-like performance space last week, most of the audience stood. There were seats or perches for only a few people. Speaking as someone who once stood through Wagner's "Siegfried," Ms. Johnson's 40-minute work is a piece of cake. But watching it standing has the effect of making us aware of... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/finding-spirit-and-sound-on-a-lunch-break/84402/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Nestled at the base of a mini-canyon of office towers, the Nassau Street flank of the Chase Manhattan Plaza was shaded at noon on Tuesday, making it all the more comfortable for performers and audience members at Battery Dance Company's Downtown Dance Festival. Unfolding on a temporary stage was a program entitled "Erasing Borders: Festival of Indian Dance," presented by the Indo-American Arts Council. Many of those watching seemed to be people who worked in the neighborhood, highlighting the... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/move-in-and-around-manhattan/84044/ Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Frequenters of the financial district may encounter a sidewalk surprise in Lower Manhattan this week. Starting today, members of MoveOpolis! the two-year-old dance company of Richard Move, who is otherwise well known for his impersonations of Martha Graham, will colonize corners of this district as they strut their way through six events that are part of Sitelines, the site-specific performance series organized by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council. Mr. Move's hour-long Sitelines... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/fearless-at-battleworks/83639/ Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST "Take it easy; don't hurt yourself," I wanted to say to the dancers of the Battleworks Dance Company, which alternated performances with Keigwin + Company at the Joyce Theater. Robert Battle's choreography sets his dancers slamming to the ground or seemingly having it pulled out from under their feet, springing through the air in flips before making crash landings, all of which are executed fearlessly by his dancers. Mr. Battle's duet "Unfold," performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/hubbard-street-dance-chicagos-american-aerobicism/83557/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Hubbard Street Dance Chicago has its own particular movement language down pat: It emulates the way Europeans have adapted the textures and rhythms of classic modern-dance vocabulary, but it has combined it with an American aerobicism. It's not unsophisticated, but it's also readily accessible. It has not only a style but even a culture of its own: When the entire company or most of it is onstage together one senses a particular cohesion among the dancers. But as vigorously as they danced all... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/downtown-dance-festival-brings-global-dance/83558/ Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Manhattan's Battery Dance Company will bridge waters for the first time this year with its multiday Downtown Dance Festival, presenting performances on the greens of Governors Island. During the course of nine days, 30 companies with styles including flamenco, hip-hop, Indian, and Chinese traditional dance will tackle the stage on the island and also, as in previous years, at Chase Plaza and Battery Park in Lower Manhattan. "New Yorkers are very open-minded and look for new opportunities to get... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/blaine-hoven-wins-hellman-dance-award/83239/ Wed, 6 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Blaine Hoven of the American Ballet Theatre has been named the winner of the 2008 Chris Hellman Dance Award from the Princess Grace Foundation, the organization announced yesterday. Mr. Hoven's career with ABT started in 1999 when he was awarded their National Training Scholarship. He also attended ABT's Summer Intensives and in 2003 joined ABT II. He became a member of the corps de ballet the following year. Mr. Hoven has held roles in the ABT ballets "Giselle," "Othello," "Sleeping Beauty,"... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/hubbard-streets-up-and-comer/83128/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, which begins its two-week engagement at the Joyce Theater today, nurtures and cultivates young choreographers from within its own ranks to add company-exclusive works to the repertory. Hubbard Street's artistic director, Jim Vincent, is intrigued by the subtlety and uniqueness that arise when dancers work with their peers. An annual choreographic workshop introduced by Mr. Vincent, "Inside/Out," lets Hubbard Street dancers create choreography for fellow company... ALAN LOCKWOOD http://www.nysun.com/arts/love-and-life-out-of-doors/83134/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST On Friday, the dynamic dance bill at Lincoln Center Out of Doors will feature the premiere of "Summer of Love" by Karole Armitage's company, Armitage Gone!, along with a program of repertory pieces by Ronald K. Brown's company, Evidence. "Summer of Love" fuses choreographer Ms. Armitage's balletic energy with the West African pop of Burkina Electric, while Mr. Brown and Evidence will perform two works: "High Life," an abstract piece that peaks with a tapestry of movement fueled by Fela Kuti's... VALERIE GLADSTONE http://www.nysun.com/arts/requiem-for-a-requiem/83132/ Mon, 4 Aug 2008 00:00:00 EST Samoan choreographer Lemi Ponifasio calls his "Requiem" a ceremony. "It's an act of preparation," he said recently, on the phone from New Zealand. "It honors those who came before us and those who will join us. Mozart considered his 'Requiem' a conversation with God. I think of mine the same way." A highlight of the Mostly Mozart Festival, the evening-length work, which will be performed at the Rose Theater on August 8 and 9, deals with themes similar to Mozart's masterpiece: transformation... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/towels-balloons-and-buffoonery-keigwin-company/82925/ Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Larry Keigwin's interests in cabaret and concert dance reach a point of perfect fusion in his new "Elements," now at the Joyce Theater. Humor runs all the way through, but Mr. Keigwin saves most of the extended dance invention for the second half of the program. Dancers wrapped only in towels don't seem particularly sleek or graceful, and in the first segment, "Water," Mr. Keigwin's troupe concentrates instead on pool-party clowning. When Mr. Keigwin pulls off Andrew Cook's towel and Mr. Cook... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/sampling-the-delouche-series/82499/ Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST This week at the Walter Reade Theater, the Film Society of Lincoln Center offers a rare opportunity to sample Dominique Delouche's remarkable series of films about dance and dancers. In some of them, Mr. Delouche allows the subject to take us along on a visit to the past. In "Maia," Maia Plisetskaya stands on the site of the house in Moscow where she lived as a 12-year-old when, in 1937, her father was arrested, vanishing into the black hole of Stalin's purges. In "Les Cahiers retrouvés de Nina... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-three-ring-circus-of-czar/82245/ Mon, 21 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Kudos to Kathryn Bennetts, the artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders since 2005, who put her company into international circulation with a revival of William Forsythe's 1988 three-act "Impressing the Czar," which came to the Lincoln Center Festival last week. For 15 years, beginning in 1989, Ms. Bennetts was Mr. Forsythe's ballet mistress at Ballett Frankfurt. Not seen since 1995, "Czar" was revived by the Flanders company in 2006 and has since become its global calling card and... Associated Press http://www.nysun.com/arts/peter-martins-inducted-into-dance-hall-of-fame/81926/ Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of the New York City Ballet, is the newest member of the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame. The 51-year-old native of Denmark was inducted Monday night at the museum in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where the ballet company stages its annual summer residency at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Mr. Martins, a former principal dancer with the company, joins nearly 40 other members of the Dance Hall of Fame, including George Balanchine, his mentor and a... Staff Reporter of the Sun http://www.nysun.com/arts/abts-copeland-lane-win-annenberg-fellowships/81826/ Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST American Ballet Theatre soloists Misty Copeland and Sarah Lane are the recipients of the 2008 Leonore Annenberg Fellowship in the Arts, the ABT announced Monday. The fellowship gives the young artists the opportunity, through a subsidy, to further their training outside of the ABT program with attention from master teachers, trainers, and studio space. Ms. Copeland joined ABT's Studio Company in 2000 and became a soloist in 2007. Ms. Lane became an apprentice at ABT in 2003, joined the... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/the-open-air-artistry-of-cityparks-dance/81763/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Some of this city's lesser-served parks and communities will receive special attention in the form of dance this week. Starting on Wednesday, the Joyce Theater, together with City Parks Foundation, is taking outdoor performances a step beyond the outdoor dance stage and is presenting three separate works that can only exist in the open. Three works in 25 performances in a series called Dance Out! will reach into far-flung corners of the five boroughs to celebrate the Joyce's 25th anniversary: a... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/piloboluss-shadowy-netherworld/81777/ Mon, 14 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST Pilobolus's palpably present dancer-acrobats dematerialize into figments of a shadowy netherworld in the company's "Darkness and Light," currently on view at the Joyce Theater. This piece, on Program 3 of the company's nearly monthlong stay at the Joyce, is the result of a collaboration by puppeteer Basil Twist with Pilobolus's Robby Barnett and Jonathan Wolken (and the performers themselves, listed as co-choreographers for most of Pilobolus's works). Mr. Twist's puppets freely intermingle with... JOEL LOBENTHAL http://www.nysun.com/arts/a-giselle-with-speed-and-style/81465/ Wed, 9 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST On Monday night, at American Ballet Theatre's season premiere of "Giselle," Nina Ananiashvili gave what is likely one of her last performances in one of her best roles, given that next season will be her last with the company. Like her legendary Bolshoi Ballet ancestor Galina Ulanova, Ms. Ananiashvili deviates from the classic portrayal of this innocent village girl betrayed by a callous aristocrat. For one thing, Ms. Ananiashvili is tall, and thus further from the prototypical image of a... MARY STAUB http://www.nysun.com/arts/finding-movement-across-the-globe/81282/ Mon, 7 Jul 2008 00:00:00 EST DURHAM, N.C. — It may be called the American Dance Festival, but it is no longer strictly an American affair. In its first incarnation in 1934, more than 100 students flocked to the festival school to learn about a uniquely American art form known as modern dance from early icons such as Martha Graham, Doris Humphrey, and Charles Weidman. Since then, artists from countries including China, Egypt, Iraq, and Mozambique have become important building blocks. "The challenge is how to keep the... 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... 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... 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/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...