Vital Signs
Donald Byrd’s 10th season at Spectrum Dance Theater has been chock-full: a national tour of his Theater of Needless Talents, Byrd’s homage to artists who perished in the Holocaust; the premiere of A Meeting Place last winter; and a DanceMotion USA goodwill trip to Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. This month, the Seattle-based company reprises A Cruel New World/the new normal, Byrd’s first piece for Spectrum after becoming director, about post-9/11 America. www.spectrumdance.org.
A Cruel New World/the new normal. Photo by Nate Watters, Courtesy Spectrum.
See the Music
Oregon Ballet Theatre’s artistic director departed at the end of 2012, in response to the board-supported new direction for the company (see “Transitions,” p. 58). But Christopher Stowell’s vision for the season lives on, and this month’s American Music Festival is but one example of his progressive leadership. Both Trey McIntyre and Pontus Lidberg have been commissioned. McIntyre’s feel-good choreography will be set to music by Pacific Northwest band Fleet Foxes, and Lidberg has chosen Portland-born composer Ryan Francis. The company also performs Matthew Neenan’s At the Border, set to music by John Adams and made for Pennsylvania Ballet. April 18–27. www.obt.org.
Alison Roper in McIntyre’s
Just. Photo by Blaine Truitt Covert, Courtesy OBT.
All That Jazz
In a pair of tributes to legendary jazz musicians, River North Dance Chicago will celebrate Eva Cassidy and Cuban jazz this month. The Cassidy premiere runs April 4–6 at the Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Philly. On April 13, the company combines forces with Chicago Jazz Philharmonic and the Auditorium Theatre in a co-commissioned work titled “The Cuban Project.” www.rivernorthchicago.com.
Monique Haley of River North Dance Chicago. Photo by Marc Hauser, Courtesy RNDC.
One Starry Night
After hundreds of budding ballet dancers have competed, the trophies have been awarded, and the tears have dried, Youth America Grand Prix puts on a spectacular gala. Joining dancers from American Ballet Theatre and New York City Ballet, and Ballet West’s Beckanne Sisk (a YAGP alumna), flying in for “Stars of Today Meet the Stars of Tomorrow” will be Dorothée Gilbert, one of Paris Opéra Ballet’s most fetching étoiles, and from Ballet Nacional de Cuba, balancing queen Viengsay Valdés and Osiel Gounod, the company’s promising new principal. April 18. www.yagp.org.
Viengsay Valdés of Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Photo by Matthew Karas.
Repping for Vets
Repertory Dance Theatre honors the women who have served in the United States military in “Women of Valor: In the Spirit of Service.” Featuring choreography by Joanie Smith, Bill Evans, and Susan Hadley, the April 11 performance will raise proceeds to help fund the Utah Women’s Military Memorial at the Fort Douglas Museum. April 11–13 at the Jeanne Wagner Theatre. www.rdtutah.org.
Katherine Winder. Photo by Scott Peterson, Courtesy RDT.
A Toast to Trisha
UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance fetes Trisha Brown and her legacy this month in “Trisha Brown Dance Company: The Retrospective Project.” On April 4, the company performs Astral Converted in an outdoor amphitheater on campus. Set and Reset and Spanish Dance, among other works, come to Royce Hall on April 5 and 7. UCLA students, coached by company members, will perform the groping-through-clothing Floor of the Forest at the Hammer Museum, and two performances of Roof Piece on April 6 at the iconic J. Paul Getty Museum round out the weeklong celebration. www.cap.ucla.edu.
Brown’s
Spanish Dance. Photo by Alfredo Anceschi, Courtesy CAP.
The Rite Moves
Companies around the world continue to perform tributes to Nijinsky’s
Le Sacre du Printemps on the occasion of the ballet’s centennial:
Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
dances Michael Keegan-Dolan’s The Rite of Spring at Sadler’s Wells in London.
GroundWorks DanceTheater
performs director David Shimotakahara’s new Rite of Spring with the Akron Symphony Orchestra.
Meryl Tankard
’s Oracle appears in Urbana, IL; Austin, TX; and Syracuse, NY.
Tanztheater Wuppertal
performs Pina Bausch’s Das Frühlingsopfer in Taiwan and at the Bolshoi Theatre.
At Carolina Performing Arts: Nederlands Dans Theater dances Medhi Walerski’s Chamber, inspired by Le Sacre; Martha Graham Dance Company revives Graham’s Rite of Spring (1984); and students at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts perform Shen Wei’s Rite of Spring.
Nederlands Dans Theater in Medhi Walerski’s
Chamber. Photo by Rahi Rezvani, Courtesy NDT.
Contributors: Kathleen Dalton, Kina Poon
