I can’t even begin to describe how delighted I was by the feet Atlanta Ballet’s performance of Johan Kobborg’s production of Bournonville’s La Sylphide last night. Kobborg’s notes for the program point out how distinctive Bournonville’s use of intricate, speedy, and precise footwork is and I have to say he was absolutely right: the bouncing, flitting, flicking, hopping, feet were definitely what held my eye throughout the work.
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Last night I caught Thread: Women’s Voices Through Dance, a collaboration between artists in the Atlanta and Chattanooga areas staged at Emory’s Performing Arts Studio. I honestly didn’t know much about what to expect, but it promised reconstructions and there really aren’t many people doing classic modern dance pieces in the metro area, so I bought a ticket. It turned out that there was only one reconstruction, but I didn’t feel disappointed because the show was still enjoyable.
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There were four pieces on last night’s program by Full Radius Dance at 7 Stages, all choreographed by Douglas Scott. It included two rather moving pieces in the middle bookended by lighter works at the beginning and end. Overall, it was a pretty good show.
Continue readingDue to some back issues, I wasn’t really able to comfortably sit and write this out the weekend before last when I saw Ballet Hispanico perform at the Rialto. I generally don’t get around to completing a writeup if I don’t get to it within a day or two, but I really wanted to make sure that I got something down so that I will be able to remember them since I enjoyed the show so much. In particular, I want to remember to keep an eye out for works by choreographer Michelle Manzanales, whose Con Brazos Abiertos opened the program.
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Seeing Komansé Dance Theater’s Skid on Friday was my first time in the Ferst Center since its auditorium was renovated. It’s Sunday and my back still hasn’t fully recovered from the awful new seats. The seat-backs tilt forward somewhere around 10-15°. What animal are those even designed for? Definitely not human and definitely not someone with a lower back problem like mine. The center aisle has been done away with and replaced with two aisles separating three seating sections, which is nice since now there are actually seats in the middle of the auditorium. Gone, too, are the bright safety lights that were on the steps in that middle aisle that would get in your eye if you sat within 5 or so seats of the aisle. They’ve been replaced by bright, white lights in the sides of the seats on either side of the aisles that are directed out instead of down so that now you get to enjoy having bright lights in your peripheral vision no matter where you sit. I was in row F, which is the first terraced row and a half-step above E. I thought it was a good height and would afford me a good view of the stage even if a six-foot tall person sat in front of me. Row G is two steps above F, so if you’re really short you may want to sit there. Or you may want to see if they’ll let you stand to avoid having the seat try to push you into a poor and painful posture. I have two more things on my calendar for the Ferst this season: I’ll be taking a lumbar pillow with me to the next one and if that fails to help me then I may just be done with the venue all together. Although I’ve actually been going there more often in recent years, that’s mostly been because of favorable scheduling as the programming has become less and less interesting to me in recent seasons.
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It occurred to me that you could keep the choreography for Swan Lake exactly the same and change the story to be about a prince who encounters a magical swan who helps him to realize that animals are people too and sets him on the path towards becoming an animal rights activist. The prince turns down the four princesses because each has livestock as part of their dowry. Von Rothbart is a swan farmer and Odile is actually his daughter who tricks the prince into swearing to protect her father from those in the kingdom who would take away his living. Really, Rothbart makes a lot more sense this way than being some random magician who likes turning young women into swans. I mean, what’s that about? Is he supposed to be some sort of incel misogynist taking his revenge through sorcery on women who won’t date him? And, really, the prince falling in love with a freakin’ swan-lady on first sight is pretty shallow and just a little on the gross side. Unless he’s got some serious bestiality fetish for birds, I don’t think someone that shallow is going to risk his life to fight a wizard who can summon lightening and turn people into animals. He’d be like, “Oh, you’re hot but there are other fish in the sea…or birds in the sky…or ducks in the pond…whatever,” and then go have his way with some serf girl who will be killed if she says no to him because, let’s face it, the reality of feudalism and our romantic ideals aren’t really as compatible as the modern adaptations of the old European folktales may want us to believe. I find it much more believable that the prince became a vegan and tried to keep the swans dancing to Tchaikovsky instead of singing Orff.
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I usually throw a few notes down on my computer before going to bed if I think that I might want to write about something that I’ve been to. The first note that I left for myself after getting home from seeing Corian Ellisor and Alex Abarca’s My People at 7 Stages was the question “Why am I drunk?” I got a cup of wine from Java Jive before the show and found that my face and lips had gone completely numb and I was finding new comfortable ways to lean against the banister by the stage. For a moment I wondered if I’d actually been drugged but I suspect that my body was just worn out by a long week and there was more wine in that cup than normal. Fortunately I had walked there and didn’t really have to worry about driving.
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