BAAND 2024

Review by Celia Ipiotis

By compressing 5 major dance companies into one performance, NYC audiences got a taste of some of the city’s best. Opening night drew a parade of dance enthusiasts, eager to engage with NYC Ballet, American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, Ballet Hispanico and Dance Theatre of Harlem.

Filled to the rafters, the audience was treated to a pleasant summer program. In George Balanchine’s 1972 Duo Concertant to a score by Igor Stravinsky, a piano stood in the corner of the stage where two dancers listened contentedly to Elaine Chelton and violinist Sean Lee.  Unable to hold still, Megan Fairchild and Anthony Huxley pulled away in a dreamy duet full of  romantic arches and pinwheel lifts. Both broke into quick footed solos traveling lightly across the stage until they re-engaged in a pinpoint pool of light.

Recently promoted to Principal, the young, avidly watched Chloe Misseldine appeared in Night Falls (2004) by Thomas Forster. Messeline streamed Chopin’s music through her willowy limbs  in a mesmerizingly continuous flow. Ably partnered by Thomas Forster, the duet resembled an intimate soliloquy.

Hans van Manen, a major Dutch choreographer, wittily sent his three Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater dancers– Chalvar Monteiro, Yannick Lebrun, and Patrick Coker– into an interconnected frolic to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach. A flurry of motion broke out as dancers ran, whipped into windmill arms, slid on the floor and kinetically winked broadly at the audience.

Ballet Hispanico brought their energy to Sombrerisimo (2013) by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa to lively music by Banda Ionica. Brightly colored costumes by Diana Ruettiger, added to Ochoa’s strong visual sensibility outlined by the dancers in bowler hats (nod to Rene Magreitte)  gathered in huddles that broke into Latin, hand on heart, hip switching dance moves.

Known for his hyper-extended, slippery, fast choreography, William Forsythe’s 2023 Blake Works IV (The Barre Project) brought the program to a well deserved, rousing close. Set on Dance Theatre of Harlem to catchy tunes by James Blake, a physical ballet barre figured into the taut, smartly organized choreography that kept winding up tighter and tighter, until it sprang into a contained eruption. Focused and clean, the company members cheekily funked up traditional ballet poses composed of tiny movement bits that added up to a shout.

Here’s hoping DTH continues its creative relationship with Forsythe, someone I think of as the Eminem of ballet.

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis

Photographs (c) Rosalie O’Connor.