By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 26, 2011
Shaping a contemporary, kinetic, edgy new profile means stepping out on limb, taking risks, stretching, discovering new patterns of thought and motion, pushing the body and mind to its limits. Such was Atlanta Ballet’s spring mixed repertory performance, “Fusion,” which felt like a breakthrough for the company.
Works by Helen Pickett, Christopher Hampson and Val Caniparoli were exhilarating: breathlessly beautiful, politically edgy and harmoniously multicultural. It’s a different tack, a dynamic shift in the company’s course, and one that should be experienced in all of its expressive range. The show runs through March 27.
Even before the show, the Cobb Energy Performing ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 21, 2011
Two brothers are caught in a wrestling headlock. Whether the image brings back childhood memories or suggests a mythic battle, it begins the story in Christopher Hampson’s “The Rite of Spring,” a world premiere that will open Atlanta Ballet’s “Fusion” this Friday at the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The ballet joins Helen Pickett’s “Petal” and Val Caniparoli’s “Lambarena” on a triple bill of contemporary works. The show will run just this weekend, March 25-27.
At a recent studio preview at the Michael C. Carlos Dance Centre, Hampson, wearing neat, casual jeans and with subtly spiked hair, spoke to patrons and ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 15, 2011
Twyla Tharp has been thinking about a new ballet for 20 years -- a full-length narrative work, adapted from children’s stories by George MacDonald, about a young girl coming of age. It will include dancers of various ages, from children to those in their prime to mature character dancers. The musical inspiration is Franz Schubert.
Now Atlanta Ballet and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet are making it happen, in a partnership that has been growing over the past few years. Both companies' artistic directors, Atlanta's John McFall and Winnipeg's Andre Lewis, joined Tharp (at left) for the announcement today at Georgia Public ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 14, 2011
Cell phones will remain on at the U.S. premiere of Jonah Bokaer’s “FILTER” on April 2 at the Ferst Center for the Arts. The integrated media production, to be shown alongside Bokaer’s 2009 National Academy of Sciences commission “REPLICA,” is the culmination of the Ferst’s ARTech residency series, a new program designed to explore ways that art and technology (or art and science) intersect in creative process and in life. Composed through a collaborative process over the course of five residencies, ARTech’s first commission may show that people’s relationship with technology isn't easy or simple.
Bokaer, a choreographer and media artist, is ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 14, 2011
Last summer, Paul Taylor celebrated his 80th birthday. One of the most prolific choreographers of our time, he continues to generate works that are masterfully crafted, quizzical and compelling.
This Saturday at the Rialto Center for the Arts, the Paul Taylor Dance Company will perform a mixed bill featuring “Brandenburgs,” set to music by J.S. Bach; “Company B,” Taylor’s popular wartime piece to songs by the Andrews Sisters; and “Phantasmagoria,” set to music by anonymous Renaissance composers.
“Phantasmagoria” was given its world premiere last summer at the American Dance Festival. Costumed by Santo Loquasto and lit by Jennifer Tipton, the work evokes the ...
By Cynthia Bond Perry | Mar 5, 2011
Nicodemus, Kansas, 1898. You might envision a windswept prairie town where a few rugged homesteaders struggled against the elements to eke out a living. For the Exodusters -- African-Americans who migrated there from the South -- the all-black town also offered autonomy: freedom from the South’s racism, an opportunity to own land and a chance to self-govern. In 1992, Atlanta playwright Pearl Cleage’s “Flyin’ West” gave voice to these individuals and pointed out that the westward American migration was multicultural and multiracial.
Now the play has inspired Ballethnic Dance Company co-founder Waverly Lucas to adapt Cleage’s story into a new, full-length narrative ballet that ...
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