Ballet in New York: Brio & The Blahs

by Susan Yung

Dance

A recent diablog on Artsjournal.com centered on whether New York is the dance capital of the world. It raised as many questions as it answered, but it underscored what we jaded New Yorkers can take for granted—the considerable wealth of all kinds of dance, from large companies to open class schools. And if there is a common language among the different types of dance—either native to New York, or among the vast variety of companies that tour here—it is ballet, whether interpreted as a movement vocabulary, relied upon by modern dancers to build fundamentals, or as something to revolt against.

Taking It Lying Down: John Jasperse at The Kitchen

by Ben La Rocco

Dance

I could reach up and touch the razor burn on Luciana Achugar’s inner thigh. Eleanor Hullihan’s extended foot swept past my face, close enough for me to see a few unraveling strands of tape on one bandaged, dirty toe. Then she was gone, straddling me and hurtling backwards with startling speed. Levi Gonzalez was somewhere, doing something, but I couldn’t find his distorted body in the rows of fun-house mirrors swaying against the ceiling.

Work from the Heart (and then some): Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People’s Retrospective Exhibitionist

by Kathryn Enright

Dance

Hello. Please repeat after me. I (I) am (am) Miguel (Miguel) Gutierrez (Gutierrez)

Wearing a green hat, a blonde wig, red sneakers, and nothing else, Gutierrez walks onto the Dance Theater Workshop stage, places a mirror on the back wall, checks out his floppy musculature, and walks off, leaving us staring at a black wall and our own reflections. His next trip onstage brings a TV/VCR on which we watch a tape of what we assume to be a young dancing Gutierrez. The third trip places him downstage center where he methodically asks his audience to repeat after him: “I am Miguel Gutierrez.” Still lit by the bright house lights, we respond, “I am Miguel Gutierrez,” actively accepting a participatory role in the examination and experience of Miguel and, subsequently, ourselves.