You guys, I am so sorry it’s taken me so long to post these when I promised them, what, over two weeks ago?? I had no idea how much went into planning a cross-country move, especially when working lots of overtime… I’ll try to get caught up on blogging this weekend when Hurricane Irene (keep wanting to call her Irina…) will likely prevent me from running back and forth between my apartment and The Strand, Housing Works, Goodwill, and various Williamsburg used clothing stores bearing bags of books and clothes to sell and donate… I think I’m giving away far more than I’m taking with me.
Anyway, here are more photos of Marcelo Gomes and Charles Yang performing with Cisne Negro two weeks ago at the Joyce. And a couple photos of Cisne Negro’s other pieces. All photos are by Matthew Murphy.
I don’t have much time for a review, but briefly: I loved Marcelo’s Paganini (two top photos). There were quite a bit of tempo changes throughout the piece, and Marcelo executed them all splendidly, as did Yang. The two interacted very well together. It kind of reminded me of Robbins in that sense, the playfulness between musician and dancer.
The bottom two photos are of the company in Calunga, the last piece on the program, which reminded me of a combination of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations and The Prodigal Prince, also performed by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater (though I momentarily forgot the choreographer’s name). Calunga was a combination of very Alvin Ailey-esque movement (much of the program was; there was a section in Flock, the first piece on the program, that was almost the same choreography as in end of the first part of Revelations to a tee), with some balletic movement, combined with authentic Brazilian. Throughout there were so many samba steps, I was in heaven 🙂 The company is very athletic, the men were very acrobatic, many of the women were hyper-flexible, some of their arabesque penchees were quite beautiful. The dancers were definitely remarkable even if the choreography could have been a bit richer. I also liked how ethnically diverse the company is – not all whites like other Brazilian companies I’ve seen tour here, but more how I expect Brazil to be!
Sorry I can’t write more. I have to go to bed now so I can get up at the crack of dawn…
