Author Archives: Robbie

Dance Canvas: Introducing the Next Generation

Posted on by
2

Dance Canvas’ “Introducing the Next Generation” is an annual dance concert put together to showcase the works of new and developing choreographers. I’ve been twice before (it would have been three but for the snow last year) and have generally found it enjoyable. Since it features a number of different choreographers and dancers, it can be a mixed bag, but I’ve always found at least one or two pieces in the bunch that I really enjoyed and even the worst of it generally isn’t that bad. This evenings’ collection of works did have some that I didn’t particularly enjoy, but there were some that I really liked.
Continue reading →

Atlanta Ballet: Gennadi’s Choice

Posted on by
Reply

Gennadi’s first choice for the evening was Marius Petipa’s “Paquita” with some tweaks for this particular staging. The costuming and stage design were both traditional, with tutus, tight pants, and a backdrop of a staircase in a grand ballroom. This is a piece that really lays bare the capabilities of a company: the legs and feet of the dancers are very exposed and there is a lot of coordinated ensemble work that makes any missteps pretty visible to the audience even if they aren’t familiar with the piece. There was some muddiness from the corps, with a dancer here and there being slightly off and one particular dancer seeming to be permanently a fraction of a beat behind the rest. The principles and demi-soloists, however, were all excellent, making the overall performance beautiful and enjoyable. Rachel Van Buskirk, in particular, handled the technical demands of the titular role most impressively. Unfortunately, the tech crew began fading the lights and lowering the curtain just before the final pose, so we only had a brief glimpse of the ending image.
Continue reading →

Bang on a Can All-Stars: Field Recordings

Posted on by
Reply

Upon parking on Georgia Tech’s campus, I was greeted with the sound of dance music being blasted from a nearby quad so loudly that the sound was distorted until I was nearly in front of the Ferst Center. When I finally took my seat, I could hear the bass from it very clearly inside the auditorium. It was so loud that I actually went back outside and asked the person in charge of whatever the event was if they could turn it down. He merely said that he had police permission and I could file a complaint if I want. I spoke with someone in admin at the Ferst Center and she said that they’d already tried but that the police wouldn’t do anything and that there really wasn’t anyone else whom she could contact. The whole this is absurd because, as I said, the music was too loud for the event itself and it would not have harmed a thing to turn it down enough that it wouldn’t have penetrated the Ferst Center’s auditorium. Since he told me to file a complaint, though, I probably will and I recommend anyone else who was there to do the same. It’s not the Ferst’s fault, so I’d reach out to the university’s division of administration and finance.
Continue reading →

Full Radius Dance: Silver

Posted on by
Reply

Full Radius’ concert program at 7 Stages was titled Silver in honor of the company’s 25th anniversary. This prompted me to look up the traditional gift materials for each anniversary and I found that the tradition for the third anniversary is leather. Unfortunately, Artistic Director Douglas Scott didn’t include anything on the program from their third anniversary show, which must have been pretty wild.
Continue reading →

ASO: Michael Stern with Marc-André Hamelin

Posted on by
Reply

Michael Stern looked kind of off this evening. The opening of his waistcoat started below his waist, his tails were either in need of a professional pressing or were poorly mended, his French cuffs were slightly crushed, and his thick hair was only almost well groomed. While conducting, he seemed to cue a lot more with his baton in his right hand than with his left — indeed, there were times where he seemed to forget that he had a left hand. And, while his cues were generally good, I’m glad that I don’t have to try to keep count by watching him since he often seemed to forget that he was supposed to be beating the rhythm as well as giving cues. He also had to take a breather after the first movement of the symphony on the program, which seemed a bit odd for someone who does this for a living and wasn’t showing any signs of illness.
Continue reading →

ASO: Robert Spano with Benjamin Beilman

Posted on by
Reply

The orchestra wasn’t in its best form this evening. There was a lot of muddiness all around, but particularly from the brass and the 2nd violins. That said, the music itself did make it through the mud well enough for me to appreciate the scores that they were playing.
Continue reading →

Ear Films: To Sleep To Dream

Posted on by
Reply

The descriptions of Ear Films in the promotional materials for it were kind of ambiguous: it sounded like story-telling more through the use of soundscapes than traditional narrative. It turns out that it’s really just an overproduced and audio drama with a mediocre, under-developed story where the audience is asked to wear a blindfold, which was really the only novel thing about the presentation.
Continue reading →