“Coltrane’s Favorite Things” is one of three works the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company will perform November 18-21 at the Baryshnikov Arts Center

Baryshnikov Arts Center
450 West 37th St.
Thursday, November 18, benefit, $250-$1,000
November 19-21, $15-$45
www.bacnyc.org
www.lubovitch.org

The Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, founded in 1968 by the Chicago-born, New York City-based Lubovitch, will present its fall season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center this week, beginning with a benefit on November 18 that includes a preshow reception and postperformance light dinner and after-party. Lubovitch, who was nominated for a Tony for his choreography for the Broadway hit INTO THE WOODS, created a ballet that has been performed by the American Ballet Theatre and the National Ballet of Canada, and has choreographed ice-skating routines for such Olympic stars as Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, and the duo of Robin Cousins and Rosalynn Sumners, will be presenting the world premiere of “Legend,” set to Johannes Brahms’s Quintet for Piano in F Minor, in addition to a revival of the 1978 “North Star,” featuring music by Philip Glass, and “Coltrane’s Favorite Things,” set to jazz saxophonist John Coltrane’s unique take on the Rodgers and Hammerstein standard. The works will be performed by Jonathan E. Alsberry, Reid Bartelme, Nicole Corea, Attila Joey Csiki, Jenna Fakhoury, Jason McDole, Brian McGinnis, Laura Rutledge, Katarzyna Skarpetowska, and Christopher Vo.

(updated) Lar Lubovitch’s fall season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center begins with one of its signature pieces, 1978’s “North Star,” and it perfectly sums up the Chicago native’s choreographic vocabulary, which consists of a lot of flowing, swinging motion, big smiles, unchallenging music, and synchronous group movement. And that’s exactly how Lubovitch likes it, without irony or any kind of edge. His dances celebrate dance itself through feel-good pieces that mix elements of Broadway, ballet, and even figure skating. “North Star,” which features one of Philip Glass’s more uninspired compositions, is followed by the duet from Lubovitch’s 1999 “Meadow,” a beautiful pas de deux performed by Katarzyna Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis to Gavin Bryars’s “Incipit Vita Nova.” For a long stretch Skarpetowska doesn’t touch the ground, instead twisting around McGinnis in unique ways. After an intermission, the full company returns for the world premiere of “The Legend of Ten,” which at times feel likes a silent film as the dancers act out scenes to Johannes Brahms’s “Quintet for Piano, Two Violins, Viola and Cello in F Minor, Opus 34.” They form a circle and dance a kind of hora, they nearly bring their hands together in claps, they float in and around one another as if at a wedding in a John Ford Western, and they watch the other dancers from the wings as they cross the stage as if one of the gangs in WEST SIDE STORY. The evening concludes with “Coltrane’s Favorite Things,” which premiered earlier this year. Lubovitch chooses a live performance by Coltrane, from Copenhagen in 1963, an odd decision, especially when the soundtrack includes applause from the Danish audience after a particularly powerful sax solo. Once again, the duets are more effective than the larger group gatherings, with Skarpetowska this time standing out with Jonathan E. Alsberry.