Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – Dance premieres: ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER puts her stamp on Bach’s Goldberg Variations and ALONZO KING’s latest creation hypnotizes

• By drediman
• February 25, 2024
• No Comments

This weekend, I caught two new works by a pair of notable choreographers, Brussels-based contemporary dance-maker Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker and American choreographer Alonzo King, both of whom brought their distinctive aesthetic to their New York dance premieres. Read on for my thoughts on them.

ANNE TERESA DE KEERSMAEKER: THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS, BWV 988
NYU Skirball

First up was Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s solo take on Bach’s masterful The Goldberg Variations, which enjoyed its North American premiere this weekend at NYU Skirball. Entitled The Goldberg Variataions, BWV 988 (RECOMMENDED), the ambitious undertaking is the latest offering of the New York iteration of Dance Reflections, Van Cleef & Arpels’ extensive and wide-reaching dance festival. In her interpretation, De Keersmaeker envisions the piece as a sort of journey from the shadows of night into the light of day. All of this is artfully rendered, of course, and the unadorned humanity for which her performances are known was evident throughout. As the luxuriously-paced evening unfolded, De Keersmaeker – a typically deadpan and rigorous artist, who is perhaps best known to theater audiences for choreographing Ivo van Hove’s controversially radical Broadway revival of West Side Story – increasingly brought personality and humor to her performance, as did game young pianist Pavel Kolesnikov, whose rendition of the Bach masterpiece was lucid and purposeful. Indeed, the performance was a true partnership between the two artists, a symbiotic relationship that displayed an uncanny sensitivity between them. As an act of endurance, De Keersmaeker acquitted herself gamely, and she emerged on the other end triumphantly.

ALONZO KING LINES BALLET: DEEP RIVER
Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center

Then over at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center, I had the opportunity to take in the New York premiere of Alonzo King’s Deep River (RECOMMENDED). Danced by the choreographer’s San Francisco-based LINES Ballet, the work also featured live music arranged and performed by jazz pianist Jason Moran, who was emotively accompanied by vocalist Lisa Fischer. Using an array of musical modes from around the globe (augmented by pre-recorded flourishes), they created a sonic tapestry that cast a spell over the sold out Rose Theater audience for over an hour. King’s typically fluid choreography is wonderfully suited to his company – a lean, sinuous group of movers who hypnotize with their facile, imminently watchable smoothness. Over the course of the piece, King’s composition morphed organically across a number of choreographic combinations, moving seamlessly between ensemble, duets, and solos. Although I’d be hard pressed to deny the prettiness of it all, there’s certain sameness slowly crept in about midway through, suggesting that the piece could benefit from a truncated version. That being said, the evening length work concluded with a gorgeous pas de deux that highlighted King’s penchant for effortlessly-hit lines and flowing choreography.