| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 16-May-2013 Joyce Theater | Nuanced interpretations from Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at the Joyce |
 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, performing at the Joyce last Thursday, is comprised of clearly talented dancers, with nary a technical misstep, but there was a certain abandonment missing from the night’s program – and the program itself suffered from a noticeably stronger first half.
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| 15-May-2013 New York Live Arts | Familiar steps into otherworldly dance: Pam Tanowitz's The Spectators at New York Live Arts |
 What a treat it was this past Wednesday to see dancers fully clothed, free of shock-value tricks and costumes that are eventually removed. What a luxury it was to take in the beautifully arched feet and luscious lines of the dancers at my own leisure. Pam Tanowitz’s newest piece, The Spectators, is a triumph of form, space and aesthetics – all without resorting to tired, dull or unimaginative choreographic devices.
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| 19-Apr-2013 Baryshnikov Arts Center: Howard Gilman Performance Space | Rosie Herrera's Dining Alone at the Baryshnikov Arts Center an unparalleled feast |
 For the past several months, I have repeatedly lamented the dearth of inventive and compelling dance – preferably without an intense display of nudity. I am pleased to announce that I have found a piece of dance theater worthy of my comprehensive recommendation: Rosie Herrera’s Dining Alone. This 50-minute ensemble piece, which dissects the emotional facets of dining out, was compelling, innovative and alternately hugely comedic and poignant.
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| 18-Apr-2013 Danspace Project, St Mark's Church in-the-Bowery | Vicky Shick's Everything You See at Danspace a confusing whirlwind of tiny dances |
 Vicky Shick’s newest piece, presented at Danspace, was a motley crew of a thing in all aspects: colorful and wildly patterned costumes; dozens of pop-up solos, duets and trios, often occurring simultaneously; multi-generations of dancers; and even two separate “stages” within one space. Although this combination gave me more than enough to look at, the overall product felt more distracting and less cohesive than I would have liked. The piece’s biggest asset was its ability to be both matter-of-fact and whimsical at the same time.
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| 3-Apr-2013 New York Live Arts | An ambiguous, quiet treat: Gwen Welliver's Beasts and Plots at New York Live Arts |
 Gwen Welliver’s newest piece, Beasts and Plots, is hard evidence that Ms Welliver has the enviable ability to transform a seemingly mundane series of movements into an imagination-inspiring, fantastical world in which I nearly convinced myself that I’d just glimpsed the cousin land of Narnia by the dance’s end. Transformation is most special when it happens almost without the audience member realizing it, which appears to be Ms Welliver’s particular talent.Read full review... | |
| 9-Mar-2013 Triskelion Arts: Aldous Theater | Explosive performances of stripe associations in Stefanie Nelson's Oddball Zebra at Triskelion Arts |
 Stefanie Nelson’s evening-length piece Oddball Zebra seemed less of a cohesive whole and more of a disjointed combination of separate vignettes. According to the press release, the piece was inspired by the “myriad social connotations and moral implications associated with stripes”; this could account for a certain amount of rambling, to be certain, when one considers just how many connotations there are with stripes, but each interpretation was far from clear – and the overarching result was one of confusion.Read full review... | |
| 2-Mar-2013 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd | A pleasing amoeba of movement: Faye Driscoll's work in progress at 92Y |
 The Doug Varone-curated Harkness Dance Festival at 92Y gives choreographers the rare chance to treat a workshop showing as a performance – that is, without the pressure of “presenting” a finished piece. Moreover, at Saturday night’s performance, Faye Driscoll had the luxurious opportunity to speak about her work-in-progress before the performance; the eager audience members were offered not only insight to the often deliberately ambiguous world of modern dance but also a small peak into Ms Driscoll’s dance mind.Read full review... | |
| 27-Feb-2013 Joyce Theater | Martha Graham Dance Company at the Joyce wisely satisifies both tradition and the contemporary |
 The dancers of the Martha Graham Dance Company may have been doing the repertoire of Ms Graham since the company’s inception in 1926, but Wednesday night’s program – featuring the work of four other choreographers – was proof that these are remarkably versatile dancers, capable of interpreting myriad forms of modern dance assuredly.
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| 19-Feb-2013 New York Live Arts | Juliana May's commentary = not thing goes the current route of in-your-face nudity |
 Juliana May’s newest piece examines the correlation between the vulnerability of the human body and self-consciousness. And while I had a hard time finding moments in which the dancers seemed truly vulnerable, I think the audience, at least, managed to reap some real feelings of rawness and disquieting exposure.
Ms May’s piece is gestural, repetitive, and distinctly off-putting for about two-thirds of its duration. This is not to say that it is a work that falls short; I just wish there were a more original way to convey vulnerability than nudity.
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| 16-Feb-2013 The Kitchen | Process and product: Jennifer Monson at The Kitchen |
 There is something to be said for process over product, but in the case of Jennifer Monson’s Live Dancing Archive, it is not quite enough to raise the solo show – an exploration of how environmentally based experiences shape movement – out of its intellectual heaviness.
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| 2-Feb-2013 New York Live Arts | Armitage Gone! Dance at New York Live Arts an uncomfortable display of feral sexuality |
 I am always hesitant to review a dance piece negatively; I understand that it is a great act of bravery to put one’s choreography out into the atmosphere, subject to criticism and the paltry opinions of people who are bound to incorrectly interpret it. Whenever I find myself confronted with a piece that I do not favor, I try to find one or two truly redeeming qualities within it: the dancers’ facility; a moment of technical perfection; a transient but pleasing marriage of music and movement.Read full review... | |
| 31-Jan-2013 Joyce Theater | Seán Curran Company at the Joyce: Beautiful dancing but few choreographic surprises |
 Mr Curran presented two New York premières at the Joyce, both of which had moments of interest and innovation but summarily failed to present a show worthy of my unequivocal recommendation. The first piece, Fireweather, was a partial retelling of Dante’s Inferno and consisted of seven parts. Mr Curran seemed pressed to fit so much narrative and imagery into one half of an evening, and the result was a lot of floorwork, heavy-limbed bodies, solos, and finally, tableaux.Read full review... | |
| 30-Jan-2013 Brooklyn Academy of Music: Howard Gilman Opera House | Trisha Brown Dance Company at BAM a liquid delight but a touch dated |
 Wednesday night’s performance by the Trisha Brown Dance Company was momentous for a number of reasons: first, this performance series includes the very last two premières of Ms Brown’s choreography, as she is retiring from the company due to health reasons. Second, it was my first time seeing this famous modern dance company live, and not via a videotaped performance in a college dance history class. It seems that Ms Brown has mellowed in her later years as a choreographer.Read full review... | |
| 15-Jan-2013 New York Live Arts | Beyond a bag of shock-value tricks: MAGICAL at New York Live Arts |
 The element of surprise is one of the few underrated performance facets these days. So often when I attend dance performances, I find myself growing bored, even as I am confronted with superbly talented dancers and even intricate and innovative choreography. This was not the case at all when I saw Anne Juren perform MAGICAL, co-created with Annie Dorsen, at New York Live Arts: over the course of an hour, I found myself undergoing feelings of enthrallment, revulsion, discomfort, and simple, unfettered joy at the wonder of the human body as it dances – but never boredom.Read full review... | |
| 10-Jan-2013 Triskelion Arts: Aldous Theater | Hard-hitting movement, no respite: Shannon Gillen + Guests at Triskelion |
 Shannon Gillen + Guests gave a striking display of powerful, virtuosic dance, but I’m beginning to find that such a performance is no longer a rarity; the unique performance is that which offers not only undeniable technical prowess but also dynamics and an emotional connection. I know that it is probably frowned upon in journalism to cite a dance as one that gives a warm, squishy feeling of having been moved, but I know of no other way to define it. Your pulse quickens, your blood thickens – you feel that you have seen something magical transpire.Read full review... | |
| 15-Dec-2012 La MaMa | Stunning movement, slow development: Netta Yerushalmy's Devouring Devouring in NYC |
 Netta Yerushalmy’s Devouring Devouring at La MaMa was the proof that I have needed of late to know that a piece can be interesting and wholly watchable, based solely on the facility and performance quality of the dancers involved. That is not to say that Ms Yerushalmy’s work was boring; on the contrary, I found myself deeply invested from beginning to end. But I think that had more to do with my desire to understand Ms Yerushalmy’s overarching intent – and, of course, my fascination with her beautiful, supple-footed dancers – than with the choreography itself.
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| 29-Nov-2012 New York City Center | Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at New York City Center |
 I should start this review by being honest and explaining that I was not initially excited to see Ailey at City Center. I was prepared to be impressed by the company’s physical aesthetic and not much else – I often think of the company as finely-tuned robots who are capable of demonstrating technical virtuosity but not of moving me in a big way, emotionally. I am pleased to admit that I was completely wrong.Read full review... | |
| 28-Nov-2012 Joyce Theater | Crystal Pite's Kidd Pivot presents The Tempest Replica at the Joyce |
 It is becoming an increasingly rare event in the dance world for a major company to live up to its own hype, and Crystal Pite’s Kidd Pivot had quite a bar set before opening night of The Tempest Replica at the Joyce. And – almost unbelievably – expectations were met. Ms Pite managed to craft a completely engrossing and almost entirely narrative piece, replete with awe-inducing partnering, scenic surprises, and unparalleled performative prowess from a staggeringly talented cast of seven.
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| 9-Nov-2012 Brooklyn Academy of Music: Howard Gilman Opera House | Compagnie 111's triumphant showing of Sans Objet at NYC's BAM |
 It’s a pretty daring thing to make a piece of machinery – albeit an impressive piece of machinery – the focal point of a dance-theatre performance, but Compagnie 111’s artistic director Aurélien Bory needed only the first few seconds of Sans Objet to arrest the audience’s attention. And although the machine is the only performer on stage for the first 10 or so minutes, it isn’t even seen: it’s covered in a gray, vaguely metallic tarpaulin, which twists and crinkles and rustles as the machine beneath it assumes various shapes.Read full review... | |
| 20-Oct-2012 NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts | Monica Bill Barnes & Company at NYU Skirball deliver laugh after laugh |
 Monica Bill Barnes’ 2011 piece for her full company, entitled Everything is getting better all the time, may as well be a catchphrase for the company’s trajectory of success. At New York University’s Skirball Center this past weekend, Monica Bill Barnes & Company’s audience cheered on Barnes and her performers as if no less than the president were performing on stage. Her dance fans knew exactly what to expect, and they weren’t disappointed: the gummy faces and punchy dynamics of Ms Barnes, Anna Bass, Christina Robson, and Giulia Carotenuto were in full force.
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| 16-Oct-2012 New York City Center | American Ballet Theatre's 70th anniversary Rodeo |
 American Ballet Theatre’s gala performance for the opening of its New York season was wonderfully varied and matched the level of excitement necessary to kick off a run at the prestigious City Center. First on the program was Mark Morris’ musical interpretation of Ben Jonson’s poem Song to Celia, actually first created for ABT fifteen years ago, though it showed no signs of wear-and-tear on Tuesday night.Read full review... | |
