Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
“You just have to get crazier.” These words came from Pina Bausch, the late choreographer, whose dance troupe made the industrial city of Wuppertal, Germany an avant-garde theatrical destination for 36 years. In Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary “Pina,” screened on October 15 at Alice Tully Hall for the New York Film Festival, audiences got a taste of what Bausch’s crazy looks like. In one scene, a Bausch dancer walks through a park in a floor-length dress like a zombie queen. The woman careens to the ground, flat as a board. Right before smashing her face, her suitor scoops her up like a crane lift. Then she falls again, and again. The effect is part amusement ride, part suicide watch.
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Tags: 3D film, alice tully hall, Buena Vista Social Club, Germany, Giselle, Kirov Ballet, Matthew Bourne, Michael Flatley, New York Film Festival, Paris, Pina Bausch, Rite of Spring, Step Up 3D, Swan Lake, Texas, Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire, Wuppertal
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Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
In 1955 the British dance critic R. J. Austin calculated that American Ballet Theatre, whose roster of choreographers continually changed, would focus on it star dancers to solidify its reputation as a premier ballet company. Austin calculated right. Today ABT is powerful because of its stupendous dancers, whether they’re on the masthead or employed as guest artists for only a season.
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Tags: Albrecht, Alina Cojocaru, American Ballet Theatre, Basilio, David Hallberg, Don Quixote, Giselle, Jean-Georges Noverre, Kevin McKenzie, Kitri, Metropolitan Opera House, Polina Semionova, R. J. Austin, The Wilis
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Monday, January 17th, 2011
by Rachel Straus Finding clues to a lost dance resembles detective work. If you’re the Sherlock Holmes type, dance reconstructions can become obsessively fascinating. On January 9 and 10, the Guggenheim Museum’s popular Works + Process series hosted Pacific Northwest Ballet—Giselle Revisited. Under the artistic directorship of former New York City Ballet principal Peter Boal, […]
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Tags: American Dance Festival, Giselle, Guggenheim Museum, Martha Graham Dance Company, Pacific Northwest Ballet, Robert Wilson, Works + Process
Posted in The Torn Tutu | Comments Off on Mining the Past: A New Giselle, a Restaged Robert Wilson Ballet, and Charles Reinhart