Rachel’s blog @ View Rachel @ Juilliard Dance | Published: December 9, 2015 Category: reviewBy Rachel Straus NEW YORK–The long-awaited new work for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater by Robert Battle, who took the artistic helm of this renowned company in 2011, did not disappoint. Awakenings, which premiered on Dec. 4 at New York City Center, begins as feverishly as it ends. The work’s intensity is typical Ailey. […] Published: December 6, 2013 Category: reviewBy Rachel Straus Nacho Duato MADRID–Three years ago, former Paris Opera Ballet principal dancer José Carlos Martinez took over the decidedly un-balletic national dance company of Spain (the Compañía Nacional de Danza). Back then, the Madrid-based troupe’s identity was synonymous with the works of Nacho Duato [pictured], whose two-decade leadership and ballet-meets-modern, folk-inflected […] Published: December 11, 2012 Category: reviewBy Rachel Straus NEW YORK — The premiere of Another Night on Dec. 5 for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater signaled another big career stride for 35-year-old choreographer Kyle Abraham [MusicalAmerica.com’s New Artist of the Month in June, 2010]. Since his solo Inventing Pookie Jenkins was selected to be part of the New […] Published: April 29, 2011 Category: reviewBy Rachel Straus NEW YORK — Dance Against Cancer, the April 25 benefit performance at the Manhattan Movement and Arts Center (MMAC), began with a movie. On screen, New York City Ballet principal Maria Kowroski said the last performance her mother saw her dance before she died of cancer was Balanchine’s “Mozartiana.” Later, when Kowroski […] Published: February 1, 2011 Category: historyBy Rachel Straus 1. Who was Talley Beatty’s first dance teacher? 2. Beatty’s choreographic genius was transforming experiences of _____ _____into brilliant physical expressions of the _____ _____. 3. True or False: Beatty rejected ballet for Afro-Caribbean and modern dance. 4. What is the name of the first dance that Beatty created […] Published: February 20, 2007 Category: historyBy Rachel Straus The Lester Horton technique constructs some of the best human skyscrapers in the dance world. And like good building design, the Horton technique’s emphasis on flat backs, pelvic hinges, and “lateral T’s” produces a long-muscled, powerhouse dancer–something not easily toppled. Uninitiated eyes widen the moment an advanced Horton dancer strikes a “lateral […] Published: December 6, 2004 Category: reviewBy Rachel Straus Known for electrifying stages worldwide, the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater brought maximum voltage to City Center last Friday night with the company’s premiere of Donald Byrd’s “Burlesque.” In Mr. Byrd’s dance satire, eight Ailey dancers pose as vaudeville-era performers, shooting out from a line of chairs as though their limbs are […] |