BAAND

Review by Celia Ipiotis

In an inspired move to attract audiences after COVID, Ballet Hispanico, American Ballet Theater, Alvin Ailey Dance Company, NYC Ballet and Dance Theater of Harlem forged a sparkly constellation called BAAND and performed for free outdoors at Lincoln Center.  As the years wore on, the event outgrew its space and went indoors.  This year’s BAAND entered the Koch Theater drawing enthusiastic crowds to pleasing, albeit “light” summer fare.

Michael Nyman’s “String Quartet No. 2” spun around choreographer and Artistic Director of the Dance Theater of Harlem, Robert Garland’s choreography of the same name. Dancers moved in swanky confidence, shifting shoulders and confidently spinning.

Jazz and ballet melded over Nyman’s Eastern and Western tinged score that drew the dancers into a communion of partnerships.

Currently the staple of many galas and special events, Christopher Wheeldon’s After the Rain featured  the much lauded young NYC Ballet dancer Miriam Miller and her partner Alec Knight.

Connected nearly the whole time, the duet is known for the demands on the female’s flexibility and tensile strength. Long arching backbends and airy lifts with the legs split and torso vertical, found Miller collapsed into horizontal splits to the floor only to be hoisted back in the air, like an untouchable star. The poignant music by Arvo Part echoes throughout the spellbound duet.

A choreographer who trafficks in lyrical works that soar, Lar Lubovitcvh made Many Angels for Alvin Ailey Dance Company in 2024.

A sweeping work, dancers moved effortlessly in pairs and trios. The continuous motion kicked up clouds of airy movements pressed against Gustav Mahler’s Adagietto from Symphony No. 5  and projections of turbulent skies.

Constantly floating upwards, dancers bodies accordioned in and out forming complex patterns of layered bodies and leaving the audience in hushed appreciation.

Susan Jaffe, Artistic Director of ABT, choreographed a duet to the adagio from Alessandro Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in B Minor. Based on solid classical technique and featuring two outstanding dancers, Sierra Armstrong and Michael De La Nuez, Midnight Pas De Deux drew inspiration from the dancers and music.

Bare legged in black leotards, it conjured images of a ballet being contemplatively brought to life in a rehearsal room. 

Ballet Hispanico closed the evening with a rousing excerpt from The House of Mad’moiselle by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa. An imposing Adam Dario Morales decked in a black and platform wedge heels, stalked the stage, surrounded by a bevy of orange/red wigged  freaky acolytes. 

Dancing over a bright music collage that included Bernstein and Bart Rijnink, Mad’moiselle injected wacky humor into the evening –something we all needed at this moment. Mad’moiselle capitalized on the dancers prodigious ability to abandon themselves dramatically and technically. At its conclusion, enthusiastic applause engulfed the dancers.

*All photos by Rosalie O’Connor

EYE ON THE ARTS, NY — Celia Ipiotis