Sondra Forsyth - Page 5

Dubbed the "Oscars of Dance", the Bessies have been recognizing NYC's outstanding performers, choreographers, musicians, and designers ever since 1984. Established by David R. White at Dance Theater Workshop in honor of legendary dance teacher Bessie Schonberg, the awards ceremonies have treated full houses to performances and presentations by established and emerging artists for more than three decades.

Founded in 2004, New York City Center's annual 'Fall for Dance' festival is an inspired idea that continues to fulfill the admirable mission of introducing new and younger audiences to the world of dance. Tickets are a mere $15, a price that's within the reach of millennials yet that coincidentally also tempts NYC's older dancegoers to venture out for performances of less than traditional dance fare. Over the years, the offerings have become an increasingly diverse and international roster of works created by innovative choreographers and performed by first-rate dancers.

Francis Patrelle, who is (remarkably!) celebrating his 45th year as a sought-after dance teacher in New York City, explains in a program note that he decided to bring back his 1995 balletic rendering of Shakespeare's Macbeth because 'the story has a lot to tell us about our own times; deep themes of power, corruption and the futility of man which continue to illuminate our existence.'

The New York City Opera, notably nicknamed 'The People's Opera' by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia when it was founded in 1943, succumbed to bankruptcy in 2013 after 70 glorious years but has risen from the ashes under new management. On the evening of September 8th 2016 at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater, following a brief pre-season during the summer in Bryant Park, the company opened its first full season since the reorganization with a double bill of Rachmaninoff's 'Aleko' and Leoncavallo's 'Pagliacci' that featured first-rate dancing along with the superb singing.

On August 16th 2016, opening night of a six-day run at the Joyce, BalletX did not disappoint dancegoers anticipating a taste of the quirky fare for which the troupe has become known. Billing itself as 'Philadelphia's premier contemporary ballet', the company has from its inception in 2005 been what the founders have called a 'playground' that has allowed choreographers the freedom to experiment and explore as they strive to create exciting new works.

Although the Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre has performed in NYC before, the company's appearance from August 4th to 6th 2016 as the second half of the American Dance Festival's first season in the Big Apple included the New York debut of Herrera's Carne Viva. The work was commissioned by ADF.

Opening night on August 1st 2016 of a shared week at the Joyce presented by the venerable American Dance Festival got the six-day run off to an auspicious start. Provincial Dances Theatre, a company from Russia, treated dancegoers to two mesmerizing contemporary works by Tatiana Baganova that will also be on the boards August 2nd and 3rd. From August 4th to 6th, the Miami-based Rosie Herrera Dance Theatre will complete the season.

Bradley has written a clear, comprehensive guide to dance education in all its current ramifications including jazz and hip hop. She discusses classes for students of all ages including adults. Her tone is friendly and accessible. She lays out the facts about everything from cost to male dance education to competitions, and much more. Any parent with limited knowledge of dance would benefit from Bradley's information and advice. As a lifelong ballet teacher myself, I sometimes forget how much the novice dance parent needs to learn. This book fills that need.

ABT's Resident Choreographer Alexei Ratmansky, who created the version of 'The Golden Cockerel' that had its company premiere on June 6th 2016, is quoted in a Playbill article by Caroline Hamilton as saying, 'This production is overwhelmingly theatrical'. Ah, so that explains why there is virtually no dancing in the entire first act and very little in the second act! A little research reveals that Ratmansky reportedly added more dancing after getting less than laudatory reviews in 2012 when his 'Cockerel' opened in Copenhagen. Yet mime still predominates, which is the legacy of the unwieldy and heavy original costume designs by avant-garde artist Natalia Goncharova for the 1914 and 1937 Ballet Russes opera ballet productions of 'Le Coq d'Or' with choreography by Fokine. (In 1914, 'baby ballerina' Tamara Karsavina danced the role of the Queen of Shemakhan with Enrico Cecchetti as the Astrologer. The Cockerel was a stage prop.)

I was delighted but not surprised by the polished professionalism of the teenage musicians and dancers from Michigan's Interlochen Center for the Arts who performed on the afternoon of June 5th 2016 at David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center as part of the New York Philharmonic's Biennial celebration. I expected nothing less because I knew from my own years as a ballet major and later as a ballet teacher at Interlochen's summer camp that first-rate artistry is the goal at the Interlochen Center for the Arts.

On the afternoon of May 22nd 2016, audience members at a nearly sold out performance of New York City Ballet's 'Classic NYCB II' program at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center were treated to five selections that underscored the impressive range and enduring excellence of the troupe's repertoire.

On the evening of May 16th 2016 at the Metropolitan Opera House in Lincoln Center, the beloved troupe that was recognized as 'America's National Ballet Company' in 2006 by the United States Congress proved once again that the American Ballet Theatre is indeed a treasure. Dancegoers in dazzling formal attire were treated to a Spring Gala that eschewed traditional staples and showcased instead an appetite-whetting smorgasbord of excerpts from the spring season as well as a world premiere and the one-act Firebird.

Jessica Zeller's exhaustively researched and engagingly written book, available now for pre-order, is an eye-opening addition to our currently extant ballet literature. Full disclosure: I was Zeller's childhood ballet teacher, and I'm honored that she mentions me in her acknowledgements. That said, however, my review of her impressive and valuable contribution to the history of ballet in America is unbiased.

On April 30th 2016 at Symphony Space on NYC's Upper West Side, Valentina Kozlova glowed with well-deserved pride as she introduced the Awards Ceremony and Gala of this year's eponymous Valentina Kozlova International Ballet Competition. Originally called the Boston Ballet Competition, the event has mushroomed in just six years into a worthy contender for joining the ranks of such celebrated competitions as Youth America Grand Prix, Varna, and Jackson.

The 2016 season of Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP) culminated during three days in April at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). On April 27th, the Final Round of this celebrated international competition proved to be a heartening display of youthful promise. Then on April 28th and 29th, the "Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow" Gala featured the 2016 YAGP finalists along with a roster of top-flight professionals. Several of the pros are former YAGP alumni, which validates YAGP's motto: "Ensuring the Future of Dance".

Pennsylvania Ballet returned to New York City for a run at the Joyce from March 29th to April 3rd 2016, the first time the company has been here since Angel Corella took on the role of Artistic Director 18 months ago. Corella, the former American Ballet Theatre Principal who won our hearts with his boyish charm and boundless energy, turns out to be well suited to his second act as a director. Wisely, he eschewed the classics and brought three intimate and innovative contemporary pieces that were perfectly suited to the up-close-and-personal Joyce venue as well as to discerning NYC dancegoers. As Corella himself put it in an endearing program note, 'I know that New York audiences are very smart and know good work and good dancing when they see it, which is why I know you are going to love this program.'

Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet under the artistic direction of Peter Boal returned to New York City Center in February 2016 with an 'All Balanchine' program on the 24th and 25th followed by a triple bill, 'Contemporary Innovations', on the 26th and 27th. The latter, which I saw on the 26th, featured works by two choreographers who had at one time worked with William Forsythe as members of Ballett Frankfurt and a third piece by Forsythe himself. Forsythe's protegees created pieces that harked back to his own reinvention of classical ballet, yet went further in that direction with strikingly individual styles. The PNB dancers, superbly trained and impeccably rehearsed, gave world-class performances in all three of the evening's offerings. In particular, Angelica Generosa was a shining presence with superb technique. She is currently a member of the corps de ballet, but I see a promotion in her future.

Peter Martins' reconstruction of the 1836 tragicomedy, 'La Sylphide', and Balanchine's 1972 update of 'Tschaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2' proved to be a particularly felicitous pairing for a February 12th to 18th run at the Koch Theater during New York City Ballet's Winter Season. 'La Sylphide', with choreography by the Danish icon August Bournonville to a score by Herman Lovenskjold, is a masterpiece of surprisingly campy humor plus gorgeous 'white ballet' ensemble work for the ladies. After that opener, the audience is warmed up and ready for one of Mr. B's most ingenious plotless neoclassic treasures.

As part of New York City Ballet's Winter Season 2016 at Lincoln Center's Koch Theater, the program appropriately entitled 'Masters at Work' was a perfect pairing of two disparate yet in one way similar creations by the troupe's founding choreographers, George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins. Mr. B's Liebeslieder Walzer, which premiered in November of 1960, is a lush and romantic evocation of 19th century Vienna to the music of Johannes Brahms set to poems by Friedrich Daumer and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. In contrast, Robbins's Glass Pieces dating from 1984 is a pulsing portrayal of urban urgency in the 20th century with Philip Glass's minimalist score as the accompaniment.

Twyla Tharp, the award-winning choreographer who has rightfully become a dance legend in her own time, capped her multi-city 50th Anniversary Tour with performances from November 17th to 22nd 2015 at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center, presented by The Joyce Theater. Yet perhaps precisely because the run has been so eagerly anticipated by those of us who have followed Tharp's evolution during a stellar career that spans half a century, the double bill of premieres she created for the tour was not entirely satisfying.