Reviews of the Century.Great Moments from the pages of Dance Magazine These excerpts from historic Dance Magazine reviews retain their original spelling and punctuation. Photos are from Dance Magazine Archives unless otherwise noted. 1958 SEPTEMBER 1958 THE WASHINGTON BALLET The Washington Ballet is one of the premiere ballet companies in the United States. The company is an outgrowth of the Washington School of Ballet, which was founded in 1944 by Lisa Gardner and Mary Day; pioneers in American dance. CARTER BARRON AMPHITHEATRE JUNE 30--JULY 3, 1958 BY DORIS HERING About two years ago, the Washington Ballet (under artistic advisor Lisa Gardiner) began to widen its scope beyond programs for children. And, felicitously fe·lic·i·tous adj. 1. Admirably suited; apt: a felicitous comparison. 2. Exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style: a felicitous writer. 3. , it acquired Frederic Franklin as ballet master bal´let` mas´ter n. 1. a man who trains ballet dancers. Noun 1. ballet master - a man who directs and teaches and rehearses dancers for a ballet company and co-director with Mary Day. This company is a potentially interesting one. Its dancers are remarkably homogenous homogenous - homogeneous in appearance, slim, pared down, with the spare look of professionals (although it is actually a semi-professional organization).... Mr. Franklin has obviously imparted to the group his own brisk, alert, and straightforward stage style. The result is honest dancing, secure dancing, though only occasionally dancing that touches the heart.... SEPTEMBER 1958 ATLANTA CIVIC BALLET JACOB'S PILLOW DANCE FESTIVAL Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, summer dance concert series held annually near Lee, Mass., in the Berkshires. The site, originally an 18th-century farm, was purchased by the American modern dancer Ted Shawn in 1930, and three years later it became the home of his Men JULY 29--AUGUST 1, 1958 BY DORIS HERING ... Although good training is of the essence in the formation of a ballet company Noun 1. ballet company - a company that produces ballets troupe, company - organization of performers and associated personnel (especially theatrical); "the traveling company all stayed at the same hotel" , there is a more important element--the elusive one of company personality. Under the artistic direction of Dorothy Alexander, the Atlanta Civic Ballet has achieved a definite and appealing quality of its own. It is a lyric one. The dancers look as though they rehearse in the open air, instead of in a studio. Their arms are softly rounded, their heads lightly poised. There is a suspension in their gestures, as though a gentle breeze were their master.... 1959 JANUARY 1959 ERICK HAWKINS' HUNTER PLAYHOUSE NOVEMBER 29, 1958 BY DORIS HERING Was it the poet Milton who advocated the balance between heart and mind in the education of a child? If so, what would he have said of Here and Now with Watchers? For here was a work, performed without intermission for an hour and a half, that represented a triumph of the intellect. And it was triumph--or perhaps domination--of the mind in an inherently emotional experience--the mating experience.... JULY 1959 DONALD MCKAYLE, KEVIN CARLISLE 92ND STREET "Y" MAY 10, 1959 BY SELMA JEANNE COHEN Selma Jeanne Cohen (September 18 1920 – December 23 2005) was a dance historian, editor, and teacher who devoted her career to advocating dance as an art worthy of the same scholarly respect traditionally awarded to painting, music, and literature. ... Because Mr. McKayle's movement ideas derive from concepts of characterization, his works have a functional integrity. His new piece, Rainbow Round My Shoulder, dealt with a chain gang--their interminable labor, their dreams, their sorrows.... The dancers were given strong, percussive per·cus·sive adj. Of, relating to, or characterized by percussion. per·cus  sive·ly adv. movement--big, strong, masculine movement.... The men, led by Mr. McKayle and Al de Sio, all danced with exciting vigor and tension.... In her three roles, Mary Hinkson gave a stunning performance of remarkable fluid grace and dramatic sensitivity.... JULY 1959 NYC NYC abbr. New York City NYC New York City BALLET MAY 12--JUNE 14, 1959 NEW YORK CITY CENTER
... Since Martha Graham was not planning a New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of season this year, one owes a special debt of gratitude to the management of the New York City Ballet New York City Ballet, one of the foremost American dance companies of the 20th cent. It was founded by Lincoln Kirstein and George Balanchine as the Ballet Society in 1946. for having presented her in a new work. Hers was the first part of Episodes, an hour-long excursion to the orchestral compositions of Webern. The second part of Episodes was staged by George Balanchine. There were two elements that Episodes I and Episodes II had in common. Beyond that they went their separate ways. Both began and ended in moments of significant stillness. And both could only have been the work of mature artists with sufficient mastery of their medium to be able to synthesize, pare away, eliminate extraneous linear detail.... This year, the New York City Ballet has begun listing its leading dancers alphabetically so that there would be no semblance of a star system. But we emerged from the season spelling out an alphabet of our own. "H" [Melissa Hayden], "K" [Allegra Kent], and "V" [Violette Verdy] turned out to be its first three letters.... 1960 MARCH 1960 ALVIN AILEY DANCE THEATRE 92ND STREET "Y" JANUARY 31, 1960 BY SELMA JEANNE COHEN ... The other new work on the program was Revelation[s], a suite of Negro spirituals. There were some striking individual sections here. The opening "songs of trouble" contained exciting stage designs, suddenly broken by huge surges of movement and resolved into mourning masses of stillness. The baptismal scenes were filled with fervor and deft characterizations. The company danced them all with a wonderful muscular awareness of their emotional import. But the suite was much too long for sustained effectiveness and became at times an almost literal reiteration of the musical phrase.... |
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