Interludes

VIEWPOINTS – The inaugural CITY CENTER DANCE FESTIVAL concludes with a flourish: Martha Graham Dance Company & Dance Theatre of Harlem

• By drediman
• April 12, 2022
• No Comments

This past week, the inaugural City Center Dance Festival concluded with a flourish, with both Martha Graham Dance Company and Dance Theatre of Harlem playing in repertoire (other companies that have graced New York City Center’s hallowed stage over the past few weeks include Paul Taylor Dance Company and Ballet Hispánico). Here are my thoughts on the programs I attended on the festival’s final day of performances.

MARTHA GRAHAM DANCE COMPANY (PROGRAM B)
New York City Center

First up was Martha Graham Dance Company (RECOMMENDED). The bill began with the choreographer’s 1944 masterpiece Appalachian Spring, which is set to Aaron Copland’s famous score of the same name. Sunday afternoon’s rendition – thankfully performed to music-making from a live orchestra – was meticulous. Although the piece is famously austere, there was a buoyancy and joy in how the steps were executed that popped powerfully off the stage (kudos to the dancers Anne O’Donnell, Lloyd Mayor, Lloyd Knight, and the regal Natasha M. Diamond-Walker for their superb performances). The program concluded with a new ballet created by eight different choreogaphers entitled Canticle for Innocent Comedians, which was inspired by a 1952 work by Graham (alas, little is known of this work, except a few notes and its structure). Although I had mixed feelings about Jason Moran’s moody score and the obvious ways in which lead choreographer Sonya Tayeh stitched the piece together, the company’s dancers looked fantastic in it, obviously well-grounded in the Graham’s sculptural, grounded aesthetic.

DANCE THEATRE OF HARLEM (PROGRAM A)
New York City Center

Then later that afternoon, I was back at City Center to take in a performance by Dance Theatre of Harlem (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED). The ballet company looks to be entering an exciting new era, as exemplified by the program I attended, which contained three notable New York premieres. The late matinee commenced with Higher Ground choreographed by Robert Garland. Set to the upbeat music of Stevie Wonder, the ballet is both classically elegant and authentically soulful. The bill continued with Claudia Schreier’s Passage, which artfully and potently conveys four centuries of Black history (beginning with the first documented arrival of enslaved Africans). The program concluded with the extended version of Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s sensual and celebratory Balamouk, which is set to wonderfully rhythmic Roma and klezmer songs of Les Yeux Noirs (among others) that were played live by the Klezmatics. Throughout, the dancing was majestic and the technique solid. But what impressed me most is the way the dancers effortlessly and seamlessly meld classical ballet with less formal genres of dance. In doing so, they are making classical ballet relevant without sacrificing the essence of their identity.