Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Charged evenings of dance: New York’s iconic companies share the stage at the BAAND Together Dance Festival

• By drediman
• August 23, 2021
• No Comments

Last week at Damrosch Park at Lincoln Center, five of New York’s most iconic dance institutions – Ballet Hispánico, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, and Dance Theatre of Harlem – shared the outdoor stage courtesy of the first-ever BAAND Together Dance Festival (the acronym comes from the first letter of the names of these companies) as part of Restart Stages. The weeklong festival, nightly introduced by bigwigs like Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, was the culmination of the partnership that was cultivated by these companies’ artistic directors during lockdown, during which they created a fruitful dialogue to collaboratively navigate a path forward together during these difficult times. I’m hopeful that this alliance will continue to strengthen and benefit the dance world at large, and that this summer dance festival becomes a New York tradition.

I’m happy to report that during last week’s festival (unfortunately, the performance on Saturday night, which I was scheduled to attend, was rained out), each of these beloved companies made a strong case for itself as a necessary component of the performing arts fabric of the city. Part of this has to do with the fact that the programs were smartly curated to showcase these companies’ strengths and collective diversity. But let’s give credit where credit is due – it was inspiring to see that the dancers themselves were in fine shape, particularly given the recent extended period of time they found themselves rudderless and unable to perform. On both nights I attended, there was palpable excitement in the air on both sides of the proscenium that translated to charged evenings of dance, boding well for New York’s upcoming fall dance season.

Highlights were plentiful. City Ballet showcased the trademark musicality and refinement of its principal dancers in Jerome Robbins’ In the Night, as well as the technical prowess of its corps in Justin Peck’s early success In Creases. Dance Theatre of Harlem performed with grandeur and expansiveness in both Robert Garland’s playful, Balanchine-esque ensemble piece New Bach, as well as Change, Dianne McIntyre’s majestic, transformative work for three empowered three ballerinas. Ballet Hispánico was astounding in Tiburones, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s provocative, roof-raising meta-dance commentary on West Side Story. I was also impressed by ABT’s sensitively rendered pas de deux excerpt from Alexei Ratmansky’s Songs of Bukovina, which showed off two of the company’s finest dancers (Devon Teuscher and Calvin Royal III). And of course, there’s no denying the crowd-pleasing theatrics of Alvin Ailey’s perennial favorite Revelations and Rennie Harris’s modern classic Lazarus (both from which the company performed excerpts).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

BAAND TOGETHER DANCE FESTIVAL
Dance / In-person
Lincoln Center’s Restart Stages
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed