Sondra Forsyth - Page 8

Youth America Grand Prix (YAGP), the international competition that gives accomplished young dancers the chance to vie for coveted scholarships and company contracts, held the 2017 Final Rounds at the Koch Theater in Lincoln Center on Wednesday, April 12th. On Thursday, April 13th, the annual “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow” showcased some of this year's winners in Act I and offered stellar performances in Act II by an impressive roster of professionals. Then on Friday, April 14th, a tribute to Julio Bocca marked the occasion of his 50th birthday as part of YAGP's “Legends in Dance” series.

The Steps Beyond Foundation, Steps on Broadway's non-profit arm that launched in 2015 with Diane Grumet as Artistic Director, offered a panel discussion entitled “Dance Criticism in Uncertain Times: A Conversation About Art and Politics”.

The Joffrey Ballet is back on the boards in NYC for the first time since the company decamped to Chicago in 1995. At Lincoln Center's Koch Theater from March 29th to April 2nd 2017, the troupe founded by Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino in 1956 and now under the artistic direction of Ashley Wheater offers a new version of “Romeo & Juliet” choreographed by Krzysztof Pastor, as well as a one-evening Gala on March 31st.

The Hamburg Ballet made its Joyce debut with a six performance run of John Neumeier's Old Friends from March 21st to 25th 2017. The cast of 25, billed as the Joyce Theater New York Ensemble, was selected from the full company roster of 60.

From a humble beginning in 1979 when Carol Paumgarten, the Artistic Director of Steps on Broadway with her then partner Patrice Soriero opened for business in a small space on 56th and Broadway in NYC, Steps has burgeoned into a bustling, internationally acclaimed dance studio boasting top teachers and a huge clientele that ranges from pre-schoolers to leading professional dancers.

On the evening of Saturday, February 25th 2017 at the Koch Theater, a triple bill showed off the versatility and genius of Jerome Robbins, who with George Balanchine was a Founding Choreographer of NYCB.

The venerable Martha Graham Dance Company, founded 91 years ago in 1926, is thriving anew after getting past protracted legal battles following modern dance pioneer Graham's death and coping with the loss of historical material during Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Much of the credit for the success of the current iteration of the troupe goes to Janet Eilber, a former Graham principal who has been at the helm as Artistic Director since 2005. She has instituted a policy of not only presenting Graham's classics but also commissioning fresh visions from today's finest choreographers.

China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) returned to the David H. Koch Theater at Lincoln Center on January 5th, 6th, and 7th 2017 with Confucius, a new dance drama performed by the China National Opera & Dance Drama Theater. The production, directed and choreographed by Kong Dexin who is a 77th-generation direct descendant of Confucius, was a mesmerizing display of dance that was seamlessly infused with expert acrobatics. I expected nothing less after having covered three previous offerings by CAEG over the years.

For 42 years and counting, the all-male Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo has been delighting audiences around the world with the company's unique blend of superb technical prowess flavored by spot-on humor that never fails to elicit laugh-out-loud reactions.

Celebrated Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova crossed over to contemporary along with her real-life partner Sergei Polunin, the 'bad boy of ballet', in a triple bill of U.S. premieres at New York City Center from November 10th to 12th 2016. Watching these two consummate classical dancers believably embody a 21st century movement aesthetic was both astonishing and heartening. I have long told my own students that because dance is ephemeral and cannot be hung on a museum wall for posterity, each new generation of artists must be capable of dancing not only what was then but also what is now. Osipova and Polunin, as well as Jason Kittleberger and James O'Hara who shared the stage for this run, proved unequivocally that this goal is achievable.

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.