Spring-Summer 2019 Ballet Review
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Spring-Summer 2019 Ballet Review 4 Philadelphia – Eva Shan Chou 5 New York – Karen Greenspan 7 Los Angeles – Eva Shan Chou 9 New York – Susanna Sloat 11 Williamstown – Christine Temin 12 New York – Karen Greenspan Susanna Sloat 16 Tokyo – Vincent Le Baron 95 Rennie Harris and Ronald K. Brown 18 Jacob’s Pillow – Christine Temin Celebrate Alvin Ailey 20 Toronto – Gary Smith Robert Greskovic 22 Boston – Jeffrey Gantz 100 Chopiniana 25 London – Joseph Houseal 25 Vienna – Vincent Le Baron 109 Judson Dance Theater 27 New York – Susanna Sloat Michael Langlois 28 Miami – Michael Langlois 114 Awakenings 29 Toronto – Gary Smith 31 Venice – Joel Lobenthal Karen Greenspan 32 London – Gerald Dowler 119 In the Court of Yogyakarta 35 Havana – Gary Smith Marian Smith 37 Washington, D.C. – Lisa Traiger 125 The Metropolitan Balanchine 39 London – John Morrone 40 Chicago – Joseph Houseal Gerald Dowler 42 Milan – Vincent Le Baron 141 An Autumn in Europe Alexei Ratmansky Sophie Mintz 44 Staging Petipa’s Harlequinade 146 White Light at ABT Lynn Garafola George Washington Cable 151 Raymonda, 1946 56 The Dance in Place Congo Karen Greenspan Michael Langlois 161 Drive East 2018 63 A Conversation with Karen Greenspan Clement Crisp 168 A Conversation with Maya Joseph Houseal Kulkarni and Mesma Belsaré 76 A Quiet Evening, in Two Acts Francis Mason Ian Spencer Bell 171 Ben Belitt on Graham 82 Women Onstage Gary Smith Michael Langlois 175 A Conversation with Grettel Morejón 86 A Conversation with Hubert Goldschmidt Stella Abrera 177 Rodin and the Dance 207 London Reporter – Louise Levene 218 Dance in America – Jay Rogoff 220 Music on Disc – George Dorris Cover photo by Paul Kolnik, NYCB: Joseph Gordon in Dances at a Gathering. Ballet Review 47.1-2 Spring-Summer 2019 Editor and Designer: Marvin Hoshino Managing Editor: Roberta Hellman Senior Editor: Don Daniels Associate Editors: Joel Lobenthal Larry Kaplan Ballet Review is a nonprofit Alice Helpern journal pub lished by the Dance 168 Webmaster: Research Foundation, Inc. It David S. Weiss is supported in part by funds from the National Endowment Copy Editor: Naomi Mindlin for the Arts, the New York State Council on the Arts, The Fan Photographers: Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Tom Brazil Foundation, and individuals. Costas Contributions to the Dance Associates: Research Foundation, Inc., Peter Anastos 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, Robert Greskovic New York, NY 10013, are 76 George Jackson tax-deduc tible. Elizabeth Kendall Board of Directors: Paul Parish Hubert Goldschmidt, Roberta Nancy Reynolds Hellman, Marv in Hoshino, James Sutton Nancy Lassalle, Dawn Lille, Edward Willinger Michael Popkin, Theodore C. Sarah C. Woodcock Rogers, Barbara E. Schlain, David Weiss. * For the latest information on subscriptions, see our website: balletreview.com. Current 95 double issue: $35. Editorial correspondence, books for review, subscriptions, and changes of address to Ballet Review, 100 Hudson St. – Apt. 6B, New York, NY 10013. Manuscripts must be accom- panied by a self-addressed, stamped return envelope. E-mail: [email protected]. * 207 ©2019 Dance Research Foun- dation, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in China. issn: 0522- 0653. Periodical postage paid at New York, NY, and additional mailing offices. Onstage Women Stanley died twenty years ago. Just this morn- ing, I was reading the New York Times piece about Chase Johnsey, a gender-fluid cis-man, dancing a woman’s corps de ballet role at the English National Ballet. And a few weeks ago Ian Spencer Bell I watched Teagan Reed , an apparently cis-male dancer in red lipstick, perform in the final As I was getting dressed for the Royal Danish contemporary showing at the School at Jacob’s Ballet performance at Jacob’s Pillow, I won- Pillow. I called Reed, age twenty, who partic- dered what Stanley Williams, the American ipated in both the ballet and contemporary master of Bournonville technique, would programs at the Pillow, to ask him about his think of contemporary gender expression in experience as a self-defined gender-queer classical dance. I was a fourteen-year-old, dancer. Southern, gay boy at School of American Bal- “I felt comfortable at the Pillow talking to let when I first took class with Stanley – Stan- my ballet peers about gender because it was ley, not Mr. Williams – and all summer long all so new to them. Many of them still hadn’t in pale trousers and a button-down, rolled at seen male-on-male duets. At other ballet the wrists. Sure I had watched my best friend’s schools, I felt a lot of separation from the peo- father, a square-jawed, six-foot-four Dutch- ple I studied with. I can’t hold the teachers ac- man, descend a flight of stairs in a navy tux. countable; ballet since its inception was gen- I had seen a star polo player in white trousers dered. Teachers said my hands were too girly, and black boots dismount a pony. I had ob- that they need to be less expressive. My peers served my own father choosing a belt and tie didn’t understand that I was trying to achieve for supper. But of these, only Stanley was to something beyond being a dancer: I was try- teach me about men’s style and performance. ing to be myself. At some point, I realized I And by “teach,” I mean whisper. “Go there,” was going to be required to put up a façade so he’d say, or more famously, “You go out, and I I could make money in this industry. I’ve tried go in.” He might hold up an elbow or wrist, to understand how to dance masculinity in point to a toe or heel. Really he said very lit- everyday life. I had to learn to pass. In retro- tle. He didn’t have to; his exquisite classwork spect, it probably helped me a lot.” – its attention to time, sound, level, and qual- My own gender bending I couldn’t keep in ity – showed us that our charge as young Bal- the wings: platinum hair, tongue ring, soft anchine men was to finely articulate music hands and upper body. It was the 1990s and and space. for each offense I was chided: “I didn’t realize What a relief that was. This was not the Madonna was joining our class today” and “Do kicks, tricks, and claptrap I’d been told I’d have you really need another hole in your head?” to do. I didn’t want to hold up a girl or be a pi- and “I get what you’re trying to do, but tone rate in tights. I wanted to dance well – quick, it down.” with detail, line, and a full-bodied expres- Dressed in summer blacks like the other siveness. As for my macho classmates (“Yo, bro, New Yorkers, I found my seat in the Ted Shawn, your tours were sick.”), I may as well have the largest theater at the Pillow. The hand- been a woman, a girl. My roommate at North some ensemble of mostly principal dancers Carolina School of the Arts, where I studied in (two soloists and a corps dancer joined) burst the fall, suggested I join the modern program. forth in scarlet, leaping and clapping in the After all, didn’t I love Cunningham? But still I pas de sept from Bournonville’s Folk Tale. In- dreamed of Apollo and in the summers returned deed, the brilliant dancing made our beloved to Stanley. Berkshire stage feel a little poky. Bournonville So much has changed in the world since insists dancers dance with each other, not just 82 ©2019 Ian Spencer Bell in gorgeous patterns and groupings. It’s Prom- Amy Watson was bewitching as the Sylph ised-Land beauty: bountiful, playful, harmo- in La Sylphide pas de deux. (Can we please have nious. an outdoor Sylphide(s) or Midsummer at the Pil- The company, maybe already too long in the low?) Her hands made magic of the panto - States, was eager to sell us their performance mime. Marcin Kupiñski, as James, was refined of it, which for the most part was charming if and understated. not occasionally labored. I couldn’t help but A pair of patrons lumbering up the aisle in- wonder if I wasn’t too close. It’s not that I saw terrupted the mime at the start of the White sweat fly; rather I saw tight, hard pliés and Swan pas de deux. Maybe it was my irrita- gripped finishes. Maybe it’s the choreography; tion or the dancers responding to the intru- sion, but here I missed the delicate gesture I’d seen in the previous pas de deux. Not enough was held back. (I often feel this watching dance.) Kizzy Matiakis per- formed with Andreas Kaas, a fine actor who made the most of holding up his swan. When Holly Jean Dorger and Jonathan Chmelensky entered for the Black Swan pas de deux, my seatmate, a former dancer, touched my thigh. It’s easy to admire Dorger’s energy and athle- ticism. Ida Praetorius and Kaas were technically splen- Teagan Reed and ensemble in Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Scarlet did in the first act pas de Circles. ( Photo: Noor Eemaan, Jacob’s Pillow) deux from The Kermesse in Bournon ville seemed to favor precious end- Bruges. More thrilling than their footwork ings. Phrases stutter like they’re trying to con- and port de bras: they seemed to truly love tinue, which with this dance and company is dancing with each other. In the second act exactly what you want. pas de deux from Giselle, J’aime Crandall was I can’t recall the last time I saw dancers use at times like mist rolling over a field.