There is finally something happening on Pennsylvania Avenue to bring Washington some bipartisan joy. No, not there. A couple blocks away, at the Warner Theatre, where Clara and her prince vanquish an army of rats and celebrate with plum fairies.
Mariinsky Ballet’s La Bayadère: stunning and thrilling (review)
Love is tragic and sumptuous in the Mariinsky Ballet’s La Bayadère. At the Kennedy Center this week, under director Valery Gergiev and acting ballet director Yuri Fateev, the production – its sets (by Mikhail Shishliannikov) vast, its costumes (by Yevgeny Ponomarev) sensual and splendid – has a remarkable grandeur. The very size of the company […]
Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes (review)
Experiencing a Matthew Bourne ballet is like indulging in a whole box of Christmas crackers from Harrods – stuffed with surprises. It also reminds me of reading something by the late writer Vladimir Nabokov – yes, might we say “positively Nabokovian” – dazzling in the layers and turns of the story but always with a […]
The Washington Ballet’s Russian Masters review
America may be in a new cold war with Putin, but the Washington Ballet this week takes Russia into a white-hot embrace.
New York City Ballet: Balanchine, Peck & Ratmansky (review)
In a formidable and diverse program Tuesday night, the New York City Ballet juxtaposed affable athleticism with social and romantic tensions. The former was represented by two Balanchine classics, Square Dance and Tarantella, and Aaron Copland’s Rodeo, reimagined by choreographer Justin Peck. The latter infused Alexei Ratmansky’s disquieting Odessa in its Washington premiere.
Misty Copeland’s curated Ballet Across America at The Kennedy Center (review)
What’s more invigorating than one boundary-pushing ballet company? Three! Wednesday’s audience at the Kennedy Center’s Ballet Across America series was treated to a varied and impressive, though uneven, evening with Nashville Ballet, Jeremy McQueen’s Black Iris Project, and Complexions Contemporary Ballet.
Hamburg Ballet’s exquisite The Little Mermaid (review)
A tale of unrequited love is also a meditation on the anguish and ecstasy of art in Hamburg Ballet’s exquisite The Little Mermaid. The dance theater tour de force by John Neumeir, the company’s artistic director since 1973, had its Washington premiere Tuesday night to a well-deserved standing ovation.
Washington Ballet’s Giselle at the Kennedy Center (review)
Later this spring, the Washington Ballet will present 20th-century and contemporary works, as well as premieres, by choreographers including Jiri Kilyan, Justin Peck, William Forsythe, George Balanchine, Alexei Ratmansky, Twyla Tharp, Ethan Stiefel, and Antony Tudor. The company starts the season off, however, with a consummate production of a treasured 19th-century gem, Giselle.
Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at the Kennedy Center (review)
Big News at the Kennedy Center. Alvin Ailey’s American Dance Theater rocked the place last night.. And no one rushed to exit the Opera House auditorium (as they often do at the KC) until the last bow was taken.
American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake at The Kennedy Center (review)
As I walked up the steps into Kennedy Center’s Opera House for the season’s opening of American Ballet Theatre’s Swan Lake, my heart was fluttering as if for a first love. As indeed it was; classical ballet was my earliest passion. No other performance art form promises such a sweet anti-gravitational lift. How we need […]
Review: A dazzling Confucius makes its American debut
The strength of Confucius, a 90-minute dance piece featuring 60 performers from the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater, is not found in its efforts to present Confucian philosophy and biography, nor even Chinese history and culture, none of which are especially illuminating. The show’s strength lies in its visual splendor and gymnastic choreography.
Debbie Allen’s Freeze Frame…Stop the Madness at The Kennedy Center (review)
Debbie Allen’s Freeze Frame…Stop the Madness is a multi-media show about gun violence at the hands of cops/authority figures. Dance is its beating heart. Which is good. Because the dialogue isn’t always great, the music is sometimes flat, and the video footage often distracting. That said, Freeze Frame has a lot to offer a viewer, […]