Interludes

2014’s Best in Dance

• By drediman
• December 23, 2014
• No Comments

2014 was another busy year in dance in the city, with a large bevy of homegrown and visiting talent dancing up a storm from January to the bitter end in December. Like City Opera, we learned this year that, surprisingly, New York is finding it tricky to support two major ballet companies. This was evidenced by the ABT’s decision to take its excellent theatrical “Nutcracker” out west after four years of lackluster sales (Alexei Ratmansky’s “The Nutcracker” will be performed in Costa Mesa, California beginning in December 2015). However, Balanchine’s classic sugarcoated version for NYCB, which celebrates its 60^th anniversary this year, continues to be a sellout and shows no signs of slowing down. This year, I saw more than 70 dance performances, many of which captivated me.  Here are the highlights.

1. JEWELS (NYCB)

George Balanchine’s three-act conceptual ballet “Jewels” is a wonder in juxtaposed styles and moods. “Emeralds” is elegant and ethereal. “Rubies” is fast and fiery. And “Diamonds” is mighty and regal. With the right cast, the ballet in its entirety can be a downright magical experience. In a performance I attended in May, the City Ballet stars aligned: Ashley Bouder, Sterling Hyltin, and Sara Mearns led a “Jewels” for the ages.

2. MAP (SHEN WEI DANCE ARTS)

More than in previous years, the exciting effects of site-specific dance grabbed me more than ever. A case in point was this summer’s thrilling River to River Festival downtown, which showcased dance in a number of idiosyncratic spaces across lower Manhattan and Governors Island. But the most potent example was Shen Wei Dance Arts’ revival of “Map” at Judson Memorial Church. To accommodate the intimate in-the-round space, Shen Wei re-choreographed and re-designed his mesmerizing work to illuminate the delicacy and organic quality of this lyrical, hypnotic dance.

3. ROSAS (ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAKER)

Despite the major presence of the Bolshoi at this year’s Lincoln Center Festival, the runaway star of the festival for me was Anne Teresa De Keersmaker and the resuscitation of a series of her revolutionary early dances: “Fase”, “Rosas danst Rosas”, “Elena’s Aria”, and “Bartok/Mikrokosmos”. The harshness and minimalism (and, oddly, the resulting freedom) of these early works, particularly “Fase” and “Rosas dast Rosas”, still feels revolutionary to this day.

4. KONTAKTHOF (TANZTHEATER WUPPERTAL PINA BAUSCH)

More than four years after her passing, Pina Bausch is still very much alive and kicking in the form of her company, the bold and quirky Tanstheater Wuppertal. “Kontakthof”, which literally translates to “courtyard of contact”, is essentially a platform for an epic battle of the sexes. This tug of war is core to Ms. Bausch’s sensibility (this is the fourth of her evening-long works I’ve seen, all of them at BAM), but here it is the piece’s raison d’etre, which has been wittily set in a tacky dance hall where couples playfully (and sometimes not) duel. Suffice to say, all hell eventually breaks loose.

5. DON QUIXOTE (MIKHAILOVSKY BALLET)

The Mikhailovsky Ballet capped off its uneven first-time-in-NY residence at the David H. Koch Theater with a dashing, opulent rendition of the ever-popular “Don Quixote”. The ballet has always been a showcase for the talents of charismatic, show-offy, and larger-than-life divas and divos. The performance I attended certainly adhered to this tradition: Superstars Natalia Osipova and Ivan Vasiliev worked the audience into a frenzy with their celebrity personalities and jaw-dropping pyrotechnics. Six or seven curtain calls later, the audience was still cheering and salivating.