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The best night of Fall For Dance thus far, imo. 1) The Suzanne Farrell Ballet performing a little-known Balanchine work and appearing in New York for the very first time; 2) brilliant Modern dancer Talia Paz in a poignant, desperate, evocative solo titled simply Love; 3) the equally poignant, evocative, and at times desperate The Light Has Not the Arms to Carry Us by the Kate Weare Company; 4) The Lombard Twins from Argentina (whom I’d seen earlier dancing with Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance) doing an original hip hop / theatre / “street” dance to Tango master Astor Piazzola, played wonderfully by a full onstage band; and 5) the excellent Afro-Modern Garth Fagan Dance company performing his 1978 celebration of the African origins of dance. He put me in such a good mood, I’d have danced home if the weather wasn’t so nasty.
Oh man Al and I were there too (and I spotted Claudia LaRocco), I thought about you but I didn’t know you were going all the days.
My favorites were Talia Paz and Kate Weare (the 2nd one better actually, even though I couldn’t find the connection between the opening solo and the 2nd part very well…). To be honest I didn’t like the Balanchine by Suzanne Farrel too much, it didn’t move me.
Garth Fargan was cheerful but I didn’t realize the dance was actually made in 1978 so the costumes bothered me a lot for looking so dated and distracting (I thought the choreography was recently made). I liked the main dancer in purple though…
Hi Dea — that’s so funny. As I was watching the Hula class, I thought I saw you walk by. It was really crowded, but I got up to look for you and saw another girl who looked just like you but wasn’t you. So, then I thought I saw her and not you. You were there after all!
The two modern were overall my favorites too, along with the Fagan, which I thought ended the whole evening on a really upbeat, dance-happy note. I didn’t notice the costumes looked dated — I thought they were so basic. I guess maybe the colors were… Yeah, I agree with you about the Farrell. I thought my reason for not loving it was more the dancers than the choreography, though that was one of his smaller works. It kind of reminded me more of Robbins’s The Cage, or of Martha Graham on pointe. But I could see the some parallels — the main ‘vixen-ish’ dancer kind of reminded me of the Siren from “Prodigal Son.” Thing is her dancers just aren’t as strong as NYCB’s, so I kept wondering how differently Maria Kowroski or Teresa Reichlen would have looked in that part. They also looked really nervous — I was sitting up close and she was shaking the whole time.
I wish I would have seen you and met Claudia!
I’m going again, for the final time, Saturday. Are you going again?
Oh and regarding the Kate Weare: I could be completely wrong, but I kind of thought it was a family. The solo was the child; when she rolled away from the father, it was like she was leaving. And then the duet evoked the parents and their relationship absent the third party. They were left to themselves now, and there was something sexy to it, but with a kind of heartache in the background. The solo could have been a woman having an affair with the man too though… thing I like about those kind of dances is that they’re so open to interpretation while still making you feel something very concrete.
I didn’t much like the Balanchine/Suzanne Farrell either, and I think it was a combination of the choreography and the dancers for me. I also thought that from up close (sitting up close is such a change for me that it’s disconcerting!) they looked nervous at times. Or overly careful perhaps…But I did appreciate their lack of showiness and I’m not sure I would have liked it even if I had been hugely impressed by the dancers.
I though Talia Paz was wonderful and liked the Kate Weare also (not quite as much). I had trouble seeing the second part of the Kate Weare one though because when they were standing far apart someone’s head was blocking my view of the man and when I moved to see him, I couldn’t see her. Oh, trials and tribulations! 🙂
And I agree that the Garth Fagan was so much fun, although I did think it looked very 70s.
That was a hula class? I saw it more towards the end and I could swear it was hip hop! lol
I agree about Farrell’s dancers, I could notice she was shaking from the mid-mezzanine. Too bad I haven’t seen nearly as much stuff as you and don’t have the references from the other coreographies you cited, I could only identify some elements of Balanchine’s technique. That’s why it’s so enriching to read your blog!
We are not going again unfortunately…I have class at NYU the whole day on Saturday and we’re still unpacking from the move last Sunday.
That is a very interesting take on the Weare dance…it makes me feel like watching it again. I will check if she’s doing anything again soon.
Meg, I had the same problem at times. Unless you’re sitting in the front row of a section, sitelines are *always* a problem at City Center!
Aw, thanks Dea 🙂 Yes, it was hula — at least that’s what it was called! It looked very much like hip hop to me too, although I don’t know much about hula…