It's always a treat when dancers activate a space filled with lush visual art, especially if the space is intimate.  In “Ephemeral solace (in passing)," New York City Ballet principal Taylor Stanley, and soloist Alec Knight curled, twirled and slithered through UK-based sculptor and installation artist Nicola Turner's "Fabric of Undoing" at CARVALHO PARK.  Stanley and Knight made the 20 minute work by choreographing on each other, and exploring how they see each other move. At the top, and later surrounded by three of Turner's cushion-like, adaptable pieces, Stanley, in a brown unitard, gets lost and becomes one with Turner's mix of chocolate colored, salvaged, horsehair and wool pieces. We were very close so getting those infrequent glances from Stanley or Knight was a solid dismissal of the performer audience divide.

Performances continue at CARVALHO PARK (112 Waterbury St), March 4, 7:00 PM March 8, 2:00 PM, and March 15, 2:00 PM.

Before the show begins, we see more than 80 pairs of shoes covering the stage, and then the 9 performers and musicians in  “African Exodus” take the stage with a glorious offering of music, dance and story. Their tale,  “...an experimental, metaphysical journey through the African migratory experience,” is punctuated with stomping, clapping, shuffling or mangling shoes, and we were deeply attentive. Audience members were invited to join in and they, like the shoes, became part of the storytelling. The shoes and the people comingle in a community circle during a long and welcoming song. The visitors would be asked to leave, but the song, dance and story continued. The performers and musicians are: Xolisile Bongwana, Thabo Gwadiso, Dikeledi Modubu,  Sbusiso Shozi,  Simphiwe Skhakhane, Lindokuhle Thabede, Thulani Zwane, Micca Manganye, 
Volley Nchabeleng

“African Exodus” is a project from The Centre for the Less Good Idea, co-founded by William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace. 

African Exodus
Feb 27—Mar 2, 2025
Perelman Performing Arts Center

​The sparse stage and single performer (well, a doppelganger shows up much later), framed by stark lights that outline the stage for the actress Isabelle Huppert in Robert Wilson's “Martha Said What She said” at NYU Skirball, immediately sets an ominous tone. Directed and designed by Wilson, the story charts the life and torments of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots the sovereign whose passions cost her a crown. Although brilliantly performed in French, sadly, the English surtitles needed for English speakers took precedence over just being rapt by Huppert's facial expressions and her elliptic movements.

“Mary Said What She Said" is written by novelist and playwright Darryl Pinckney, with a score by composer Ludovico Einaudi. 

February 27 – March 2 at NYU Skirball.

When a dance work is replete with repetition and it feels more like a second chance to see what we may have missed, the choreographer must be commended.  Also, when the dancer delivering said movement presents it in a selfless way, we should take notice.  The choreographer and the dancer here is Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker who recently premiered Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind/Bach6Cellosuiten (In the Midst of Life/Bach’s Cello Suites) at NYU Skirball (February 13-15).  The title translated from the opening words of a Martin Luther chorale means “In the midst of life, we are in death.”  Continuing to bridge the marriage between music and dance, cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras’ joined De Keersmaeker and her company Rosas in a memorable live performance of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Cello Suites” in Mitten Wir Im Leben Sind/Bach6Cellosuiten, but the treat was De Keersmaeker’s dancing the entire evening. There were six suites in all, and before each one, De Keersmaeker held up fingers to show where we were (one, two, three, etc.)  A series of duets that morphed to solos followed, and De Keersmaeker danced a distinctively beautifully solo in all.  For the most part, Queyras is positioned in different facings center stage, his sole cello very much a part of the tenor of the evening, and got each dance.  Also before each suite, the dancers tape geometric patterns on the stage which they follow, or not.  In sneakers and regular clothes, they energize the space, confound gravity and play with time through emotionally freeing movement filled with lush circles and unending patterns.  It’s simply the magic of pure movement.  Even more magical is watching De Keersmaeker’s with each dancer, finishing her part of the duet, then dashing off so that her partner would continue. Lit divisively as a way to listen more that see, in suite five we see De Keersmaeker through slits of light as Queyras plays.  In the suite six the entire company, Boštjan Antončič, Marie Goudot, Julien Monty and Michaël Pomero return with De Keersmaeker and Queyras.  Altogether, they are even more wonderful.

The choreographer Deborah Colker’s Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) references Brazilian writer Joāo Cabral de Melo Neto’s poem of the same name and which brings attention to the people and their coexistence with the underdevelopment in the Capbaribe River region of Northeast Brazil.  The film helps to make this real and most of the action is on stage, but the film, filling the back wall, pulls attention from the dance.  The dancers move through a desperately dry riverbed, and in comparable sequences on stage bringing to life Colker’s connection to what nature gives and what is taken away.  Covered in thick mud, the gender neutral dancers, often move in unison from one idea to another, rolling and disrupting the dust likened to the dry riverbed that cover the stage.  Later, isolated body parts dart through oversized crate-like structures re-imagining a Brazilian slum underscoring the dancers’ commitment to the work.  To be sure, they and give more to the work than Colker’s movement cannon does, but with so much happening so little is delivered.  Cão Sem Plumas (Dog Without Feathers) ran at The Joyce from February 4-9.

This is the last week of the annual five-week season for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (AAADT) at City Center; performances will run until January 5. Sadly, there were some special days that won’t be repeated, but must be mentioned, topmost on the list is “Celebrating Chaya: Five Decades of Ailey History,” the evening dedicated Masazumi Chaya who is retiring as Associate Artistic Director after 28 seasons. In two Acts, and then an exceptional rendition of Mr. Ailey’s Revelations, decades of Chaya’s touch on each Ailey dancer was shared.  There were speeches by Artistic Director Robert Battle, Artistic Director Emeritus Judith Jamison, and more.  For sure, the performances by past members of AAADT solely in thanks to Chaya was the highlight of the evening.  The list is long, but there were performances by Sylvia Waters, Sarita Allen, Donna Wood Sanders, Desmond Richardson, Tracy Inman, Amos J. Machanic, Elizabeth Roxas-Dobrish, Troy Powell, Renee Robinson, Guillermo Asca, Aubrey Lynch, Nasha Thomas, Dwana Adiaha Smallwood, Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell and more. 

Another glorious highlight of the season was Ode by Ailey dancer and newly announced Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts’ response to gun violence.  Ode is performed by either a cast of male or female dancers.  Danica Paulos, Sarah Daley-Perdomo, Jacqueline Green, Samantha Figgins, Ghrai DeVore-Stokes and Jacquelin Harris danced on Sunday, December 29.  Libby Stadstad’s gigantic backdrop, mostly black with colorful, cascading flowers from top to bottom sets the stage, so too does Don Pullen’s multi-sensory solo piano “Suite (Sweet) Malcolm (Part 1 Memories and Gunshots).” The movement comes from deep quiet places, solos within unison segments meet and glide against ever-evolving tempos. They go, go, go, and stop only to begin again with new breath.  To make the work, say Roberts, it came from a “…lens of love; how we heal,” and we see this in the quiet screams and the many embracing arms that fill the space in circles and lines, then offer support as they fall recover and fall again. Ode is a masterpiece.

Catch the other works:  Greenwood by Donald Byrd and Ode by Ailey dancer and newly announced Resident Choreographer Jamar Roberts; company premieres of BUSK by Aszure Barton and City of Rain by Camille A. Brown; new productions of Divining (1984) by Judith Jamison and Fandango (1995) Lar Lubovitch; plus repertory favorites including Ailey’s Memoria and Revelations. Find out more here

A repertory-based full-time company, Gibney Dance Company invites choreographers to create original works or remount older ones on them.  This year’s guest choreographers were Stefanie Batten Bland and Peter Chu (November 14-16) in the evening titled: “BOTH/AND.” In both works, the Company (Amy Miller, Nigel Campbell, Zultari Gomez, Jesse Obremski, Jacob Thoman and Leal Zielińska) looks good. Chu’s less strong work, jam packed with repeating canons, lines and unison movements, Forming Out, closed the program.  The highlight of the evening was Batten Bland’s 5 St. Fifperhanway Place Apt. 2A wherein the Company really show as “collaborators.”  Batten Bland often includes prop(s) in her works, here it was a large bed.  With a bed on wheels, and six very active bodies as an equal partner, anything could happen and the collaborators allow for this.  So, in 5 St. Fifperhanway Place… they invite everyone in during their bedtime frolicking.  Costumed in pajamas, the dance happens on and off the bed in many groupings.  All five are sometimes tucked under the sheets, feet poked out, they feign pillow fights, and move from sequence to sequence that envelope the space, and their luscious dance is non-stop from start to finish. 

5 St. Fifperhanway Place Apt 2A is the second work in a new series.  The original score is by Grant Cutler, and costumes are by Shane Ballard.

At Martha Graham Company performances, Artistic Director Janet Eilber bring audiences closer to Graham.  Her informal welcome at the top of the show gives a breakdown of the masterwork to be performed, and then she makes connections to newer works and why, or how they may, or may not relate to Graham’s dance-making legacy. For the Company’s recent season (November 14-17 at Peak Performances), part of their conversation series, the Graham masterwork was Appalachian Spring (1944), celebrating its 75th anniversary, and the work in response to Appalachian Spring was Troy Schumacher’s The Auditions.  To be clear, any attempt to be aligned with a Graham masterwork is a bit unfair, but Schumacher went boldly into creating this contemporary conversation.  As Graham did with Aaron Copeland, Schumacher called on the composer Augusta Read Thomas to make an original score.  Also, as Graham did, Schumacher dared to hope for normalcy in a complicated world, like then, now. Graham’s slower-moving work echoes the vicissitudes of wartime (think World War II and Japanese internment camps) and a need for the comfort of family. Time is given to hold hands in prayer, or support the back of the preacher, gently rock an imagined baby, unite through unison movement across the stage, or bowing heads in agreement while seated closely on a high-back bench.  Conversely, Schumacher’s present-day world is fast-paced, and driven by a dogged competition to exist.  Schumacher’s ethereal response steps into the now and takes the dancers on an all-out, current–day-chorus-line competition (audition) to get to a sought after place. A light, center stage that came and went, was the marker. In sneakers, colorful contemporary wear, hair flying, feet moving fast, there is barely time to breathe, but they do as they dart through their real and imagined space, vying to outdo each other.  Schumacher version is definitely a good try, but maybe too ephemeral.  

The Graham dancers are: Lloyd Knight, Ben Schultz, Xin Ying, Lloyd Mayor, Natasha M. Diamond-Walker, Lorenzo Pagano, Charlotte Landreau, Anne O’Donnell, Leslie Andrea Williams, Anne Souder, Laurel Dalley Smith, So Young An, Marzia Memoli, Jacob Larsen and Alessio Crognale.

Anne Bogart’s SITI Company, Elizabeth Streb’s STREB EXTREME ACTION & playwright Charles Mee @ Peak Performances (September 24-29).

Surprises were happening even at curtain.  During early rehearsals when Elizabeth Streb was away, Anne Bogart presented the dancers with text even though Streb was for it.  And, during the run, in their friendly-taunting, Streb added more “substances” to the set although Bogart didn’t’ really for that.  For the first time ever, Streb and Bogart joined forces after a collective sixty-one years in the business to make FALLING & LOVING.  As is expected for any Streb production, in FALLING & LOVING she designed a monstrous structure, fondly called the “guck machine,” that would serve as a major part of the action. Picture a large sandbox with ledges that frame a big square space, and above, stings connected to tons of buckets that would expel varied substances.  Bogart is from the world of theater and believes in shared partnership of collaboration.  Bogart, Streb and Mee were all in.

Their balance of quirky text and daring dance/movement that seamlessly melds these disparate companies speak for itself. Much like the two bowling balls that’s manipulated and pendulum from side to side with differing speed, the same goes for this powerful show.  Mee’s words come through in the very fast mix of movement and text, and his words cement and balance the forgiving love against the weighted love.  In the midst to this cacophonous 90 minutes, one line goes:  “a person begins to freak out,” and yes, we probably should “get up and run,” but we don’t because FALLING & LOVING is fulfilling and every unpredicted moment deserves our patience.  We never know what words will match what action or vice versa.  Streb’s “guck machine” could expel flour, sugar, water, molasses, confetti, feathers, paint balls, sprinkles, or popcorn.  And, whenever they are prompted, the cast of 12 would breakout in dance number with all systems go; and it’s wild, really wild.  But all does get “resolved.” “I find you give delight to me.” Yes, that’s right, a delight indeed, goes another memorable line.

Members of SITI Company are: Akiko Aizawa, Will Bond, Leon Ingulsrud, Ellen Lauren, Barney O’Hanlon and Stephen Duff Webber
Members of STREB EXTREME ACTION are: Kairis Daniels, Luciany Germán, Chance Hill, Julia Karis, Brigitte Manga and Fabio Tavares.