Tag Archives: David H. Koch Theater

AILEY AT LINCOLN CENTER 2014

New production of Hans van Manen’s POLISH PIECES (seen here performed by Antonio Douthit-Boyd and Akua Noni Parker) is part of Ailey’s second consecutive Lincoln Center season (photo by Andrew Eccles)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
June 12-16, $25 – $135
212-496-0600
www.alvinailey.org
www.davidhkochtheater.com

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater is already an end-of-year tradition, moving into City Center every December. The celebrated company is now reinvigorating the start of summer with its second consecutive June season at Lincoln Center, this time paying tribute to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of the company founder and namesake at the age of fifty-eight. From June 11 to 22, AAADT will present thirteen works in four different programs at the David H. Koch Theater, with a special free bonus on opening night, when former company members Nasha Thomas-Schmitt and Renee Robinson teach how to dance the “I’ve Been ’Buked,” “Wade in the Water,” and “Rocka My Soul” sections of Revelations at 5:30 on Josie Robertson Plaza. Program A (June 12, 14, 18, 22) features Wayne McGregor’s Chroma, the world premiere of Robert Moses’s The Pleasure of the Lesson, the San Francisco-based choreographer and composer’s first piece for Ailey, and Revelations. Program B (June 13, 15, 21) consists of Ronald K. Brown’s gorgeous Grace, the company premiere of Asadata Dafora’s 1932 Awassa Astrige/Ostrich, a solo piece set to African music by Carl Riley, Bill T. Jones’s D-Man in the Waters (Part 1), and Ohad Naharin’s glorious Minus 16. Program C (June 14, 15, 20) honors the collaboration between Ailey and Duke Ellington with the classic Night Creature and Pas de Duke, associate artistic director Masazumi Chaya’s 2013 restaging of The River, and Revelations. Program D (June 17, 21, 22) comprises Canadian choreographer Aszure Barton’s contagious and energetic Lift, new productions of David Parsons’s signature strobe-heavy solo Caught, set to music by Robert Fripp, and Hans van Manen’s Polish Pieces, with music by Henryk Mikolaj Górecki, and Revelations. The family matinees on June 14 and 21 will be followed by a Q&A with members of the company.

BALLET PRELJOCAJ: SNOW WHITE

Anjelin Preljocaj offers a unique take on the classic Snow White fairy tale (photo by Jean-Claude Carbonne)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center, Broadway at 63rd St.
April 23-27, $25-$125
212-645-2904
www.davidhkochtheater.com
www.preljocaj.org

As the thirtieth anniversary of his company approaches, Angelin Preljocaj is keeping Ballet Preljocaj plenty busy these days. Born in 1957 in Paris to Albanian refugee parents, Preljocaj formed BP in December 1984 and has been melding classical ballet with contemporary dance on the cutting edge ever since, integrating movement, sound, and design in dynamic and unique works that dazzle the eyes and ears. Last November, he brought the thrilling And then, one thousand years of peace to BAM, examining the apocalypse as only he can, preceded in October by Spectral Evidence, which he choreographed for the New York City Ballet, a mesmerizing piece that examined the Salem Witch Trials, with music by John Cage; his previous work for NYCB, 1997’s La Stravaganza, is being performed as part of the “21st Century Choreographers II” program on April 30 and May 3. But first, Ballet Preljocaj will be at the David H. Koch Theater April 23-27 for the New York premiere of his widely hailed Snow White, presented in conjunction with the Joyce Theater Foundation. Preljocaj goes back to the original Brothers Grimm story, not the Disney fairy tale, instead intently focusing on the complicated relationship between the wicked stepmother — portrayed as a kind of dominatrix — and Snow White, incorporating the psychoanalytical ideas of Bruno Bettelheim. “The central motif of ‘Snow White’ is the pubertal girl’s surpassing in every way the evil stepmother who, out of jealousy, denies her an independent existence — symbolically represented by the stepmother’s trying to see Snow White destroyed,” the Austrian psychologist wrote in his 1976 book, The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. “‘Snow White’ is one of the best known fairy tales. Its origins lie in the cycle of complexes described as ‘oedipal’ and date back to the Greek tragedies. . . . It is a story about the sometimes difficult relations due to jealousy and competition that arise amongst families. It is also about the warnings of what not to do, while not necessarily stating what to do.” There’s seemingly nothing Preljocaj won’t do in this 110-minute production, which features music by Gustav Mahler and 79 D, costumes by Jean Paul Gaultier, and sets by Thierry Leproust. Get ready to be amazed.

NEW YORK CITY BALLET: CONTEMPORARY CHOREOGRAPHERS

Eight dancers explore the Salem Witch Trials in Angelin Preljocaj’s SPECTRAL EVIDENCE (photo by Paul Kolnik)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
Tuesday, October 8, 7:30, Thursday, October 10, 7:30, and Saturday, October 12, 2:00, $29-$159,
212-496-0600
www.nycballet.com

The fall edition of the New York City Ballet’s Contemporary Choreographers makes for a splendid evening at the David H. Koch Theater, featuring a trio of works from three immensely talented artists. The program begins with a slightly revised version of forty-year-old English choreographer Christopher Wheeldon’s 1998 American School of Ballet piece Soirée Musicale, set to Samuel Barber’s “Souvenirs Ballet Suite, Op. 28” from 1955. Wheeldon, a former NYCB principal who left his company, Morphoses, in 2010 and was named artistic associate of the Royal Ballet in 2012, has fun with ballet tropes and sexual innuendo in Soirée Musicale, the men in tuxedoes, the women in long tutus, proceeding through a waltz, a schottische, a tango, a two-step, and a lovely pas de deux (Lauren Lovette and Zachary Catazaro) before bringing all together for the grand finale. Next, fifty-six-year-old French filmmaker and choreographer Angelin Preljocaj presents the world premiere of the dazzling Spectral Evidence, set to half a dozen previously recorded John Cage works, some with vocals. Preljocaj, who formed Ballet Preljocaj in December 1984 and created La Stravaganza for NYCB in 1997, uses the Salem Witch Trials as inspiration for Spectral Evidence, with four male dancers (Robert Fairchild, Adrian Danchig-Waring, Amar Ramasar, and Taylor Stanley), in priestly black outfits with white collars, and four women dancers (Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Georgina Pazcoguin, and Gretchen Smith), in long off-white dresses with sinful patches of red. The set makes fascinating use of white wedges that transform into various other objects, including angled slides and a coffin. Spectral Evidence is a mesmerizing piece that could have gone on all night.

Robert Fairchild searches for his true love in Alexei Ratmansky’s NAMOUNA, A GRAND DIVERTISSEMENT (photo by Paul Kolnik)

The program concludes with forty-five-year-old Russian choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s 2010 Namouna, A Grand Divertissement, set to nineteenth-century composer Édouard Lalo’s “Namouna.” Ratmansky, the former director of the Bolshoi Ballet and the first artist in residence at American Ballet Theatre, takes on classical ballet clichés in the piece, which features seven primary dancers (Sterling Hyltin, Tyler Angle, Jenifer Ringer, Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, Daniel Ulbricht, and Abi Stafford) and another two dozen troupe members smoking cigarettes, acting out scenes reminiscent of silent film, and picking on one poor sailor who is trying to find his love. The costumes, by Marc Happel and Rustam Khamdamov, range from long-flowing yellow gowns and wigs that evoke both Cleopatra and Louise Brooks to bronze outfits and tight-fitting hats that recall Fritz Lang’s Metropolis to colorful body-hugging tops and short skirts accompanied by swim caps. The piece does get repetitive and goes on a bit too long, but it’s still vastly entertaining. This Contemporary Choreographers program, which repeats on October 8, 10, and 12, should appeal to both adventurous ballet regulars as well as those predisposed to more modern dance.

AILEY AT LINCOLN CENTER

Ronald K. Brown leads rehearsal for FOUR CORNERS, which makes its world premiere next week as AADT returns to Lincoln Center (photo by Claudia Schrier)

Ronald K. Brown leads rehearsal for FOUR CORNERS, which makes its world premiere next week as Alvin Ailey returns to Lincoln Center for the first time since 2000 (photo by Claudia Schreier)

David H. Koch Theater
20 Lincoln Center Plaza
June 12-16, $25 – $135
212-496-0600
www.alvinailey.org
www.davidhkochtheater.com

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater always puts a jolt into the holiday season, taking up residence at City Center every December. This month, as an added bonus, they’ll be performing at Lincoln Center for the first time in thirteen years. Led by artistic director Robert Battle, AADT will be at the David H. Koch Theater from June 6 to 12, presenting seven pieces over the course of seven performances. The highlight is the world premiere of Ronald K. Brown’s Four Corners, which was inspired by Carl Hancock Rux’s “Lamentations” and is set to music by Hancock Rux and others. The seven programs also feature Brown’s beautiful Grace as well as Garth Fagan’s From Before, Jiří Kylián’s inventive Petite Mort, Battle’s whirlwind solo work Takademe (performed by either Kirven James Boyd or Jamar Roberts), Ohad Naharin’s dazzling Minus 16, and the company’s signature Revelations. (For reviews of many of these works from the past two years, go here and here.) Battle has just added Ailey II’s Jeroboam Bozeman and Fana Tesfagiorgis and Battleworks veteran Elisa Clark to the troupe, while rehearsal director and guest artist Matthew Rushing will take the stage in both Brown pieces. Revelations, which closes six of the performances, will include either Linda Celeste Sims and Glenn Allen Sims or Alicia Graf Mack and Roberts teaming up for the “Fix Me” pas de deux, and the June 15 matinee will be followed by a Q&A with the dancers.