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NY City Center
Fall for Dance – Program II
Company Rafaela Carrasco
www.rafaelacarrasco.com
New York City Ballet
www.nycballet.com
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
www.billtjones.org
Companhia Urbana De Dança
www.myspace.com/sonia_destri
At New York City Center
www.nycitycenter.org
Arlene Schuler, President & CEO
Mark Litvin, Sr. VP & Managing Director
Jed Wheeler, Artistic Advisor
Wendy Perron, Artistic Advisor
Clifton Taylor, Festival Lighting Director
Leon Rothenberg, Festival Sound Supervisor
Press: Helene Davis Public Relations
Dr. Roberta E. Zlokower
September 30, 2010
Company Rafaela Carrasco
Three Movements (adapted for FFD): Choreography by
Rafaela Carrasco, David Coria, Jose Maldonado, Music by
Juan Antonio Suarez “Cano”, Costumes by Elisa Sanz, Lighting
by Gloria Montesinos, Production Manager: Alejandro Salade,
Singer: Gema Caballero, Performed by Rafaela Carrasco, David
Coria, Jose Maldonado.
Rafaela Carrasco’s Three Movements was one of the
most exciting flamenco dances I’ve seen. The dramatic drive
inherent in this piece is bold and expressive. The entire
company brings flamenco to a new level, with unpredictable
swirling, palmera clapping, and spellbinding footwork. The
essence of flamenco is mesmerizing momentum in the rhythmic
beat of the cajón and palmeras. Ms. Carrasco’s huge scarf,
white airy shirt, and long ruffled white skirt enhanced
the energy of her intense focus and facial gestures. David
Coria’s dance partnering and solos in “Los 4 Muleros” and
“Café de Chinitas” (with Jose Maldonado), plus Ms. Carrasco’s
dance solos in “Percussion”, with musician, Nacho Arimany,
were stunning. The program lists these excerpts from “three
evening-length works” as “cutting-edge flamenco”, and they
certainly were.
New York City Ballet
Red Angels (1994): Choreography by Ulysses Dove,
Music by Richard Einhorn (“Maxwell’s Demon”), Costumes by
Holly Hynes, Lighting by Mark Stanley, Musician: Cenovia
Cummins on Electric Violin, Performed by Maria Kowroski,
Teresa Reichlen, Adrian Danchig-Waring, and Tyler Angle.
It was good to see four familiar dancers from New York City
Ballet, who are always riveting, but tonight more than spectacular.
Ulysses Dove’s Red Angels, contemporary and lyrical,
brought out principals, Maria Kowroski, Teresa Reichlen,
and Tyler Angle, plus the supremely talented soloist, Adrian
Danchig-Waring, in red unitards to Richard Einhorn’s stark
“Maxwell’s Demon”, played by Cenovia Cummins on electric
violin. I wish City Ballet could stage this piece soon,
as, as soon as it ended, I wanted to see it again. Ms. Kowroski
and Ms. Reichlen are both long-limbed and intense, perfectly
matched here in physique and psyche. Their scissors-sharp
kicks were split-timed and stunning. Mr. Angle and Mr. Danchig-Waring
are youthfully nimble with rippling muscularity, features
that shone in this magnetizing work. In fact, Mr. Danchig-Waring
is one of the most fascinating male dancers on stage in
New York. He grabs the eye and transports the viewer.
Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company
Duet (1995): Choreography by Bill T. Jones, Music
by Girls Chorus in Madagascar, John Oswald, Daniel Bernard
Roumain, Scenery by Bjorn Amelan, Costumes by Liz Prince,
Lighting by Robert Wierzel, Production Stage Manager: Kyle
Maude, Lighting Supervisor: Laura Bickford, Performed by
Shayla-Vie Jenkins and LaMichael Leonard, Jr.
I was less impressed with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance
work, Duet. Shayla-Vie Jenkins and LaMichael Leonard,
Jr. danced a distant then somewhat together duet, with muscular
tensing, leg extensions, exercise motifs, and slung torsos.
There were some lightning quick changes in motion, but this
seemed less dance than acrobatic images. Neither performer
convinced in an aesthetic momentum.
Companhia Urbana De Dança
Id:Entidades (US Premiere): Choreography by Sonia
Destri with Companhia Urbana De Dança, Music by Rodrigo
Marçal, Staged by Marcio Destri, Costumes by Urban CUD Outfit,
Lighting by Dominique Palabau, Lighting Operator: Ton Bernardes,
Production Manager: Ivan Vasconcelos.
In bare chests and dark blousy pants, nine young male dancers
danced to hip-hop, à la Brazil, while I longed for Samba.
Just like the let-down feeling of the Israeli dance segment
the night before, Companhia Urbana De Dança was the anti-Rio
from Rio. These were the dancers and dances of Rio’s “suburbs
and favelas”, but it was merely repetitive, one-dimensional,
jarring, and gyrating. You could see this “urban” dance
in almost any US high school, and, again, it did not showcase
dance from Brazil. Dancers came one, two, then three at
a time, from a dim background row, and they showed off macho
skills, falling on the floor, rolling their arms, spinning
low, or catapulting about.
COMPANY RAFAELA CARRASCO
Rafaela Carrasco & David Coria
Courtesy of Jose Vallinas
COMPANHIA URBANA de DANÇA
Tiago Sousa and Miguel Fernandezy of Sonia Destri
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