I had not previously heard of Tayeh Dance or recalled that I’d previously seen one of Artistic Director and choreographer Sonya Tayeh’s dances ( Face the Torrent, performed by Cuba’s Malpaso Dance Company at the Joyce Theater last January), nor had I heard of singer / songwriter / musician Heather Christian and the two vocal artists who accompanied her live on stage, but that demonstrates yet again that I need to get out more often. It’s a fitting tribute to Arthur Mitchell, New York City Ballet Principal Dancer and DTH’s co-founder, who passed away a couple of weeks ago, to whom the program was dedicated.Īnd the evening’s opening dance was a stunning surprise. Rather, Balamouk, which to my understanding is Romanian for “house of the insane” and is the title of a multicultural album by Les Yeux Noirs (The Black Eyes), one of the dance’s three musical sources, is a sparkling, joyous ballet that melds its disparate musical cultural sounds – I heard Klezmer and Greek, among other folkish references – into a coherent whole, and that showcases the individual and group talents of the company’s ten participating dancers. It’s not a monumental ballet, nor is it “cutting edge,” but it doesn’t try to be.

Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Balamouk is the finest new work, as choreographed and executed, that I’ve seen from Dance Theatre of Harlem in a very long time. As for the rest, every one of the pieces in Program 1 left a positive and indelible impression and in Program 2, Gemma Bond’s new ballet, Inner Voices, though not without flaws, is quite good, Sleep Well Beast, Justin Peck’s pas de deux for himself and Patricia Delgado, is superb, and Paul Taylor’s Promethean Fire is an unqualified masterpiece. Indeed, in my view there was only one disappointment – and that one improved as it progressed, so perhaps I’ll change my mind on subsequent views. But this year, at least so far, the caliber of programming has exceeded expectations. With the first two programs of both its 75th Anniversary Celebration and the 15th Anniversary of its Fall for Dance Festival, New York City Center presented its usual potpourri of different forms of dance before sold out houses of enthusiastic audiences. Program 3 (first half): Reclamation Map (Tayeh Dance with Heather Christian), Balamouk (Dance Theatre of Harlem) Program 2: New Work for Goldberg Variations (Pam Tanowitz Dance), Sleep Well Beast (Justin Peck and Patricia Delgado), Inner Voices (Gemma Bond Dance), Promethean Fire (Paul Taylor Dance Company) Program 1: Bach Cello Suites (Boston Ballet), Dances of Isadora – a Solo Tribute (Sara Mearns), Bzzz (Caleb Teicher & Company), The Barbarian Nights, or the First Dawns of the World (excerpts) (Cie Hervé Koubi) Fall for Dance 2018: First Two (and a Half) Programs

Torrent bach cello suite 1