On a stark white elevated platform in the stark white rotunda of New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, dancers Boris Charmatz and Emmanuelle Huynh grappled in a mesmerizing bout of slow-motion contact improv to a nearly unrecognizable recording of Ravel’s …
Inventive New Collaborations in CounterPointe 12
Leigh Donlan reviewed the Sunday Mar 9th, 2025, performance at the Mark O’Donnell Theater in Brooklyn
Dance maker, philosopher and impresario Julia K. Gleich and her Norte Maar co-founder Jason Andrew regularly match up choreographers and visual artists in a collaborative project called CounterPointe. This year’s effort, the 12th in …
By Land and Sea, Tharp’s Jubilee
Leigh Donlan reviewed the Thursday Mar 13th, 2025, performance at New York City Center
Twyla Tharp is still making dance history, celebrating her 60th anniversary with a coast-to-coast Diamond Jubilee tour, and bringing two New York premieres to City Center last week – her monumental Diabelli from 1998, and her …
Poetic Justice: Ethan Stiefel’s Spirit of the Highlands
An ornery witch pounded her burled staff, men in kilts brawled, sylphs wafted through the air and a long scarf lay strewn across the floor of the midcentury library that had been converted into a bright and airy rehearsal space. I had been invited to a rehearsal of American Repertory …
Unity Saves the Day
Leigh Donlan reviewed the March 1st Saturday matinee of Swan Lake at the Koch Theater
Having to stare at length at Per Kirkeby’s abstract set design during a gorgeous Tchaikovsky overture wasn’t the best way to start Peter Martins’ Swan Lake. The wearying brown and gray tones offered no …