Mark Morris Dance Company “A Choral Fantasy”

What I saw last night. Mark Morris Dance Company at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. The first piece is a lengthy opera based on a work by Gerturde Stein with a couple of jovial Saints. At one point they are the bouncer and person with clipboard at the front of a club. That makes it sound bad but it is not really. The next piece was a world premier and featured music by Beethoven. It starts slow with the dancers close to the wings but they eventually make it to center stage where they form and reform patterns in intricate ways. By the time the chorus joined the orchestra they were running and jumping with great enthusiasm and the crowd got wound up. Another soundtrack I could use at the gym. Worth viewing.

Elements: a swing, live music & chorus
Title: “Four Saints in Three Acts” “A Choral Fantasy”
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Kings of Dance

What I saw last night. Kings of Dance at City Center. A rainy night for a revue of a few of the top male dancers. The first piece featured all the kings finger pointing, taking a solo and generally hanging out like bros more than kings. The following pieces were all solos for each king.  A lot of hand jive and unfortunate winking punctuated by the occassional impressive jump. The final piece all the kings reunited and one pauses in the middle to play piano. This was more jesters than kings with busy hands. Without a queen to pick up they all seemed a bit lost. (Irina Dvorovenko) A pity as many of the queens were in the audience.(Paloma Herrera)(Natalia Osipova) center of aisle (Kevin McKenzie) seated on the aisle

Elements: piano playing, bare chests, man in skirt, finger pointing
Title: “Jazzy Five” “Kaburias” “Tue” “Labyrinth of Solitude” “Still of King” “Guilty” “KO’d”
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Crystal Pite / Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM

What I saw last night. Crystal Pite / Kidd Pivot Frankfurt RM at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. The first piece a man and woman walk past each other like robots and appear to be thinking about each other rather than dancing together. A voice over intones things like “this is you” and “this is you again”. The second piece two men do a similar performance except they interact more. Along with the locking robot moves they also marionette themselves and make anguished faces. The third piece is more of the same except a new man and woman. Some kind of haunted house soundtrack and mash of fearful expressions. The final piece had some entertainment as a man sat in a chair and discussed the trials of being a superhero. I could gather some subtext about the difficulty in having relationships but when he dons a cape and fights posed villains to an action hero soundtrack I recalled the Spider-Man musical with more humor. Unfortunately the choreographer did not know how to end the piece and what seemed like an incidental coda actually seem as long as the good beginning. Well at least there was a good beginning.

Elements: dry ice, strobe, voice over, talking
Title: “A Picture of You Falling” “The Other You” “Das Glashaus” “A Picture of You Flying”
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Young Jean Lee, Pedro Jimenez and Ann Liv Young

What I saw last night. Young Jean Lee, Pedro Jimenez and Ann Liv Young at Danspace Project. The first piece is just a film in which Young Jean Lee reacts to being slapped in the face multiple times by an unseen hand. Out of any context it made little impression on me. The second piece a man presumably dances around in total darkness for awhile. Eventually the lights come on and he is streaking while carry a flag that says pace. Finally a bag with a scull on it is thrown out and he opens it to reveal flowers.

I should mention at this point that this evening was called black dance and the artists were there to reflect that. The twist is that none of the artists were black. In the final piece Ann Liv bursts into the room as her Sherry character except that she is in black face. Her character which I have seen many times before although only as a white is something of a  daytime TV host slash therapist. She walked about questioning the audience members on their ethnicity and asking whether they find her offensive. Eventually because this is New York someone self importantly ask her if she can define minstrelsy. I wonder if she was a ringer. She was surely easy meat for Ann Liv who exposed her sanctimony with swiftly cutting retorts. People who are too obvious always fare poorly at her shows which was equally hilarious and uncomfortable.

Elements: film, flag, nudity, flowers, lap top, t-shirts, dvds, singing
Title: “Hitting Video” by Young Jean Lee “sNoppy” by Pedro Jimenez “Sherry Show” by Ann Liv Young
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New York City Ballet “Romeo + Juliet”

What I saw last night. New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. I have seen many versions of Romeo & Juliet and this one flashes the most steel. It is closer to the three musketeers or a Shaw Brothers film than Shakespeare in the fights. The leads were good but fights aside this is a hokey version. Juliet has really bad parents.

Elements: swords, vials, acting
Title: “Romeo + Juliet” by Peter Martins  with Erica Pereira and Taylor Stanley
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Les Ballets De Monte Carlo

What I saw last night. Les Ballets De Monte Carlo at the Joyce Theater. In the first piece half the men are dressed in skirts and the other half in pants with some kind of girdle. In this they match the women. There is a bunch of same sex and opposite sex dancing and very poor light. The second piece is brighter and starts with dancers in yellow. There is the odd crooning of Meredith Monk and the dancers react like birds or whatever creatures the music seems to indicate.
Elements: Karl Lagerfeld costumes, Meredith Monk music, George Condo set, cross dressing
Title: “Altro Canto 1” “Opus 40” by Maillot
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Will Rawls and Isabel Lewis

What I saw last night. Will Rawls and Isabel Lewis at Danspace Project. The first piece is a solo for a man and a bunch of cardboard cut outs of a German Shepherd. He rolls about on the floor and engages in staring contests with the dog that he is bound to lose. Occasionally he works himself into a fury and flings them about like game pieces. It ends with Lyold Dobler’s speech from Say Anything “I don’t want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career…” on a loop.

The second piece 20 to 30 women and one man slowly walk into the space and begin stretching and performing their own individual movements with little regard to what anyone else is doing. Everyone is in their own Private Idaho. Eventually they all leave and that is it.

Elements: German Shepherd cutouts, ladder, broom, small speakers
Title: “Frontispieces” by Rawls “Synthetic Action” by Lewis
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Akram Khan Company

What I saw last night. Akram Khan Company at the Alexander Kasser Theater at Montclair State University. Six men and three woman perform in this piece where a man stands behind a floor to ceiling plastic sheet and creates ominous ripples that look like pebbles hitting the pond. A sound of water dripping is played. Later there are many prostrated positions and reaching toward the sky. It had moments in the beginning and at the end but a long saggy middle.

Elements: plastic sheet, dust, slate tablets, fog
Title: “Vertical Road”
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Dance Theatre of Harlem II & Giants Victory Parade

What I saw last night. Dance Theatre of Harlem II  at the Joyce Theater. The first piece four men and women stood like mannequins for a night out to live piano. They mostly paired off for individual duets. The next piece a woman is passed around by three men like a hot potato. Next is a Balanchine trio. Not badly done but City Ballet won’t be hearing footsteps. Next was a recruitment film in the manner of an MTV montage interview. Finally there was a sort of synthesized contest where it was the task of the woman to fold like a pretzel while the man tries his best to balance her in the air.

Bonus coverage: I had to get to the office through the ticker tape parade. One guy showed me his tattoo of Tom Brady holding a gun to his head. Everyone insisted on high-fiving me during the 30 minutes it took me to walk 4 blocks. I had to use a lot of Purell by lunch.

Elements: live piano, film
Title: “Six Piano Pieces (Harlem Style)” by Fernandez “In The Mirror of Her Mind” by Huggins “Glinka” by Balanchine “En Avant” film “Contested Space” by Byrd
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Young Jean Lee’s “Untitled Feminist Show”

What I saw last night. Young Jean Lee’s Theater Company at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. Six women emerge naked from various sides of theater and in the audience. They proceed to cavort through a series of vignettes that consist of topics like playground bullying and  romance. Lap dances and leg splits aside, I am not sure if I bought the notion that this was a feminist work. Most compelling to me was being seated next to Wallace Shawn during the performance. Expected him at any moment to shout “Inconceivable!” and storm off to Dinner with Andre.

Elements: nudity, simulated fellatio, fisting, fights & orgies, umbrellas, singing, video
Title: “Untitled Feminist Show”
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