-
Recuerdo tango
RECUERDO TANGO is the second of Mariela Franganillo’s tango shows that I have seen, and like the previous one, Tango Connection: Love Stories, it is distinguished by a feel for dramatic structure that goes beyond that of a revue whose main purpose is to showcase the history and virtuosity of the dance. Franganillo – in…
-
Balanchine Short Stories
Of the multifarious branches of the theater that I have followed, and now and then even practiced, it is probably the classical ballet of which I have been the most neglectful. This is not as it ought to have been, particularly here in New York, where the ballet achieves an amplitude matched in few if…
-
World Economics, Danced
Pascal Rambert’s A (MICRO) HISTORY OF WORLD ECONOMICS, DANCED is, I gather, a work of some fluidity, as it incorporates the stories of a changing array of dancers, many of them local to the space in which it is presented, in the context of a world changed by the crisis of 2008. All artworks change…
-
Sider
SIDER is a dance performed to the soundtrack of a film of an unspecified Elizabethan tragedy that the dancers hear through earpieces but that the audience does not. There is other sound and musical accompaniment that we do hear, including vocalizations, which do not seem to me to be in a particular language, although I…
-
Tango House
It is a cliché in criticism to call something a gem, but here you have it: the show at TANGO HOUSE is a gem. It is small, can be taken in at a glance, is faceted, fitted to the space, the talent, and the audience, and of undoubted value and elegance. I have now seen…
-
Social Tango
I was privileged to observe a rehearsal of SOCIAL TANGO and am the more regretful that the show’s opening does not overlap with my stay in Buenos Aires. This does not fit the stereotype of a tourist show, but a tourist ought to love it. The dances are not about acrobatics or overwrought sexuality. There…
-
Girls Girls Girls!
I don’t imagine I would have found my way to GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS! had my talented friend Jazmin Patiño not been one of them. But this self-described burlesque cabaret made for a smart and enjoyable hour or so, knitted together by an exhibit of corset and bustier themed paintings (an installation by Heather Leigh Corey)…
-
Danko
DANKO is the creation of Carlos Paredes, who, with his partner Diana Giraldo, in 2006 pulled off the first non-Argentine victory in the world championship for Stage Tango. It plays tonight at the Boulevard in Queens. I saw the show last Sunday at the Kimmel Center and was thoroughly entertained by Paredes’ charming company of…
-
Eurydice’s Dream
EURYDICE’S DREAM is an apt title for the show by Blessed Unrest currently playing at The Interart Theatre. It signals the sort of reality that will be experienced if you immerse yourself in the play, but is never used as an excuse for incoherence or obscurantism. This collectively developed piece has a recognizable theme that…
-
María de Buenos Aires
That which is good about Beth Greenberg’s production of Ástor Piazzolla’s MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES for Opera Hispánica is so very good that one doesn’t even want to think about that which is awkward or even bad about it. The supertitles are dreadful, no matter how difficult the surreal imagery of Horacio Ferrar’s libretto is…