Friday, January 28

[dirac]

Washington Ballet dancers talk about how the pandemic has changed things.

Quote

To understand what the dancers have gone through to be able to pick up where they left off, I spoke with the four women — Katherine Barkman, Eun Won Lee, Maki Onuki and Adelaide Clauss — scheduled to star in “Swan Lake.” Here, in their own words, are their stories of loss, grit and how the pandemic shaped them.

 

[dirac]

A review of New York City Ballet in Justin Peck's "Partita" by Gia Kourlas in The New York Times.

Quote

But “Partita,” however much it churns along, has a way of flattening itself out with each subsequent movement. Some of this happens through Peck’s use of repetition, which doesn’t build or create new energy; it only depletes any semblance of choreographic surprise. Increasingly, the opulence of “Partita” becomes ordinary — an expensive object that gradually loses its luster. And it is opulent, thanks to its striking set designed by Eva LeWitt, the daughter of Sol LeWitt, the artist whose “Wall Drawing 305” inspired Shaw in the first place.

 

[dirac]

Ivy Lin's review of NYCB for Bachtrack.

Quote

Justin Peck’s choreography, however, recycled many of his most popular “sneaker ballet” moves and his vocabulary wasn’t as well-matched to Partita for 8 Voices as it was for Dan Deacon’s electronica The Times Are Racing. Peck is overly fond of a few steps – one is a move I call the “movie theater recliner”, in which a dancer hikes up a bent knee, leans slightly backwards (as if in a movie theater recliner), and then stops in mid-air. Another is the “hockey stick”, where a dancer extends his leg out with feet flexed and slides the foot, like a hockey stick.