Barcelona Ballet

What I saw last night. Barcelona Ballet at City Center. Angel Corella’s company returns with three pieces. The first was probably the best and most traditional of ballets. Lots of V formations and duets. The second one was for 4 men and was originally made for the Kings of dance. Considering those works are usually full of stunts to show off the “king’s” abilities this one was not so bad. The final piece was just insane. There were matadors acting like a gang, bare chested miners with lanterns. Women in lace cat suits that made off with the lanterns. Courtesans lounging on chairs and couches. Break away dresses. A soundtrack of every type of music imaginable. It was like watching the highlights from many shows done as a montage.

Elements: chairs, couches, fans, feathers, lanterns
Title: “Bruch Violin Conceto No. 1” by Clark Tipps “For 4” by Christopher Wheeldon “Palpito” by Rojas & Rodriguez
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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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Alvin Ailey “Arden Court”

What I saw last night. Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at City Center. A rare occasion where all three pieces were good ones. The first piece I have seen done by Paul Taylor company before. They were not quite up to that standard but I did start thinking I could run to Baroque music. I believe I have seen the second piece before but I could not remember it. A hip hop type thing it had a slow start but once it gets going it is good. Final piece is a mash up of excerpts. Many I have seen before. It starts during the intermission with a dancer in front of the curtain. When it begins in ernest a arc of chairs are filled with dancers in suits with hats that in turn get flung into the center. It ends where audience members are brought up on stage to engage in a kind of tango. That can go wrong quickly but this time it was carried off well.

Elements: bare chests, audience participation, chairs, hats
Title: “Arden Court” by Paul Taylor “Home” by Rennie Harris “Minus 16” by Ohad Naharin
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American Ballet Theater “In The Upper Room”

What I saw last night. American Ballet Theater at City Center. I finally got to see In The Upper Room. Thought maybe it was supposed to be so foggy you could not see the dancers except for the occasional arm or leg. Once members of the audience started yelling and coughing and the curtain came down mid dance I realized that something was amiss. Thankfully after they aired the place out and started over things went off with out a hitch and I was able to add Upper Room to the pantheon of works of I have seen. Credit to the dancers for continuing to dance in the fog until the curtain was all the way down. Cheers to dedication.

Elements: FOG, live guitar
Title: “Black Tuesday” by Paul Taylor “Private Light” by Demis Volpi “In The Upper Room” by Twyla Tharp
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The Australian Ballet, Steven McRae, Pontus Lidberg Dance and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago

What I saw last night. The Australian Ballet, Steven McRae, Pontus Lidberg Dance and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at City Center. First a rather severe ballet for two couples. Next a tap solo to Benny Goodman’s “Sing, Sing, Sing”. After intermission another version of the Faune where the dancers (including a couple from City Ballet) exchanged shirt and pants throughout the dance. The final dance for I think 17 in t-shirts and pants did crazy unison movements to weird guttural chants and Glenn Gould. At one point some of the dancers moon us. I have seen this piece before and it always fares well on mixed bills.

Elements: laurels, spoken word, brief nudity
Title: “Gemini”by GlenTetley “Something Different”  “Faune”  “Three To Max” by Ohnad Naharin
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Vertigo Dance Company, Drew Jacoby, Jessica Lang Dance and Richard Alston Dance Company

What I saw last night. Vertigo Dance Company, Drew Jacoby, Jessica Lang Dance and Richard Alston Dance Company at City Center. First men in skirts and a woman with a balloon attached to her head danced in front of the silhouette of a moving house. The second piece a woman ran around in front of a bunch of purple lights to music from Radiohead, The third piece was a duet where the woman rolled around in a long strip of fabric eventually getting caught up in it. Finally a stripped down dance in the Merce Cunningham mode.
Elements: balloon, fabric
Title: “Mana” “Bloom” “Among the Stars” “Roughcut”
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Paul Taylor “Esplanade”

What I saw last night. Paul Taylor at City Center. I had never seen “Speaking in Tongues” before. It is like a scarier “Footloose” I went specifically to see “Esplanade”. I try to see it once a season. One of the few classical music works (Bach) that I could listen to while running.

Elements: chairs, church
Titles: “Speaking in Tongues” “Esplanade”
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Paul Taylor “Orbs”

What I saw last night. Paul Taylor at City Center. The first piece is in two parts and is spacey. I need to see it again to understand it all but it is pretty out there for a work from 1966. “Promethean Fire” I have seen before and it is better than I recalled.

Elements: mask, crescent, veils, outer-spacey costumes
Titles: “Orbs” “Promethean Fire”
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Paul Taylor “Three Dubious Memories”

What I saw last night. Paul Taylor at City Center. I have seen too many shows this week to write anything intelligible right now. I will say that all the works on this program were good ones and that is rare. I am off to another show now…

Elements: rope, sheets, disco balls, mirror boxes
Titles: “Dust” “Three Dubious Memories” “Cloven Kingdom”
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Alvin Ailey “Three Black Kings”

What I saw last night. Alvin Ailey at City Center. I saw them perform Three Black Kings. Music by Duke Ellington, the Kings are Balthazar, Solomon, and Martin Luther. The Luther section was best partly because the music for that section is best. Wynton Marsalis played as well. The theater however was damn cold.

Elements: live music
Title: “Three Black Kings”
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