A weekly, highly personal and subjective list of performances and artists we want you to know about:
Leigh says:
Austin McCormick was meant to do opera. His lush, naughty aesthetic: a gilt and papier maché mashup of burlesque and baroque, is usually managed on a smoke-and-mirrors budget. Tapped by director Mary Zimmerman at The Metropolitan Opera to create the dances for Dvořák’s “Rusalka,” he’s got real resources at his disposal. The story won’t be much of a jump for balletgoers; it’s close to Ashton’s “Ondine.” It’s playing in repertory through March 2.
Martha says:
Asian-American Ben Kimitch has a deliberation and seriousness that can catch in your throat; he cradles the audience, while making us ache. He’ll premiere “Ko-bu,” at Danspace Project on February 23-25, a solo in memory of his mother created with and for his long-time collaborator Julie McMillan. This meditation on grief and loss promises to touch the soul.
Soviet-born dancer-choreographer Anna Azrieli seems to make everything around her vibrate when she moves. She debuts her first full-length work “Mirror Furor” at the Chocolate Factory on February 22-25. With three partners — a dancer (Eleanor Smith), an actor (Massimiliano Balduzzi), and a child (Ezra Azrieli Holzman) – Azrieli invents looping, melting roles that echo and resonate, amplify and recede in a tangle of shifting relationships.
Cover: Kristine Opolais in the title role of Dvořák’s “Rusalka.” Photo © Ken Howard.
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