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Artscope Magazine | November/December 2020

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dance

MYTHOLOGIZING AND ROMANTICIZING: SERGEI DIAGHILEV’S REVOLUTIONARY BALLET COMPANY BROUGHT TO LIFE

// Current Issue, Issue Articles, January/February 2020

by Beth Neville

What a wonderful day of discovery! On a cold and dreary November day to find a new (for me) museum, a new artist and a new town with good restaurants! The Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Massachusetts, opened in 2006, is exhibiting the marvelous photographs of Emil Otto Hoppé (British, 1878-1972) of the Ballets Russes. The exhibition is sponsored by Artscope Magazine. Hoppé, one of the most famous photographers of his day, had exclusive access to Ballets Russes, the revolutionary ballet company founded by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris, France (1909-1929). Hoppé’s 73 ballet photographs provide an eye-popping view into the balletic revolution that moved away from 19th century heavily costumed, stylized, drama-ballets to the modernism of “The Rite of Spring,” “The Firebird,” “Petrushka,” “Le Carnaval” and others. What a sensation Diaghilev and his company caused; offended patrons rioted … [Read more...] about MYTHOLOGIZING AND ROMANTICIZING: SERGEI DIAGHILEV’S REVOLUTIONARY BALLET COMPANY BROUGHT TO LIFE

REVIEW: ALVIN AILEY CELEBRATES 60TH SEASON AT THE BOCH CENTER WANG THEATRE

// Artscope Online, Featured, Theatre

by James Foritano

The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater celebrated its 60th year as a leading American and world company during its annual Celebrity Series of Boston appearance from May 2 though 5 at the Boch Center Wang Theatre. This year, acclaimed choreographer Rennie Harris’ “Lazarus,” composed in 2018, was featured on Friday evening. “Lazarus” is based on the biblical story in the gospel of John of Jesus’ raising of Lazarus from a tomb where he had lain dead for four days. Fact or legend, this dramatic spectacle has been celebrated in Western culture by superstar painters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt as well as countless icon paintings from the Eastern regions of the Roman empire. Harris is a choreographer raised in an inner-city community on the North Side of Philadelphia. His rise to his present status in the dance world is itself a miracle of an artistic talent blossoming in the … [Read more...] about REVIEW: ALVIN AILEY CELEBRATES 60TH SEASON AT THE BOCH CENTER WANG THEATRE

ENDICOTT REPERTORY DANCE ENSEMBLE’S ARMATIONS: ANTHROPOCENE AN IMMERSIVE PERFORMANCE

// Artscope Online, Featured, Theatre, Visual Arts

by Flavia Cigliano

Every electrifying minute of the Endicott Repertory Dance Ensemble production of Armations: Anthropocene, presented in late April at Tia’s Black Box Theater at the Walter J. Manninen Center for the Arts, was a sensory experience, professionally executed, and laden with layers of intellectual content. The production explored the Anthropocene epoch, the geological period characterized by the dominant influence of human activity on climate and the planet’s ecosystems. With dance, visual art, lighting and sound, the production addressed the interrelationship of humanity, the role of technology in our lives, and the future of the natural world. A tall order, no doubt about it, but successfully realized because every element was carefully thought through, resulting in a unified performance that showcased an outstanding corps of young dancers, all students at Endicott College. The … [Read more...] about ENDICOTT REPERTORY DANCE ENSEMBLE’S ARMATIONS: ANTHROPOCENE AN IMMERSIVE PERFORMANCE

Lia Cirio in William Forsythe's Blake Works I. Photograph by Angela Sterling, courtesy of Boston Ballet.

PERFORMANCE: BOSTON BALLET’S FULL ON FORSYTHE AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

// Artscope Online, Exhibits, News, Visual Arts

by James Foritano

The Boston Ballet’s world premier presentation of “Full on Forsythe" opened on Thursday, March 7 and will run through March 17 at the Boston Opera House. Madeleine, my wife and partner in this critique, sat beside me for the full two hour and 30-minute performance with two intermissions. Madeleine was restive during the first of the three pieces, which I could sympathize with, since this first work, titled, obscurely, “Pas/Parts 2018,” is packed with so much raw energy, helicoptering dancers, electronic bonging and shearing and vibrating that I too sat back in my seat feeling the ice in my veins from the outside temperature begin to boil and bubble. And yet, as avant-garde a choreographer as William Forsythe is, he is also a performer, and knows when to slow down, just as the month of March proverbially “roars like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” The second piece, titled … [Read more...] about PERFORMANCE: BOSTON BALLET’S FULL ON FORSYTHE AT THE BOSTON OPERA HOUSE

Jocelyn Lee, The Cove, 2017.

MAINE’S MINI-MECCA: CONTEMPORARY ON THE COAST

// Issue Articles, July/August 2018

by Greg Morell

I was the victim of a studio flood in Northampton, Massachusetts. The sewer drain next to the back door of my basement studio plugged and I was inundated with a nasty slurry of fetid water that infected my costumes, my library and anything under two and half feet in height. I was not looking forward to reliving the disaster as I headed to Tom Burckhardt’s “Studio Flood,” one of four exhibitions currently on view on at Rockland’s Center for Maine Contemporary Art (CMCA). However, much to my surprise, I was enthralled. This is a true miracle of cardboard construction in amazing detail. Creatively clever, smartly humorous, this artist’s topsy-turvy phantasmagoria of mind-bending detail is a delicious take on devastation. You cannot help but smile at its conceit. Every nook and cranny is filled with carefully crafted ephemera, all executed with exacting detail. Paint brushes, tubes of … [Read more...] about MAINE’S MINI-MECCA: CONTEMPORARY ON THE COAST

LEFT: Ashley Ellis, principal dancer, Boston Ballet. Copyright © 2016 NYC Dance Project. RIGHT: Charlotte Landreau, soloist, Martha Graham Dance Company. Copyright © 2016 NYC Dance Project.

NYC DANCE PROJECT: BREATHTAKING MOMENTS IN TIME

// Issue Articles, July/August 2018

by Lisa Mikulski

With a single click, a moment in time can be captured forever. It’s extraordinary, really, when you think about it. Occasions, places, and historical events are preserved by the internal mechanisms of a camera — and the skill and passion of the photographer — providing us with something our own eyes may not see. The click of a shutter can capture something so slight as the breath of a dancer. Speaking on the art of the performance, the late legendary dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham once said, “You have to love dancing to stick to it. It gives you nothing back, no manuscript to store away, no paintings to hang in museums, no poems to be printed and sold, nothing but that fleeting moment when you feel alive.” Ken Browar and Deborah Ory have given us, and the dancers they photograph, something to hold on to. They are the founders of NYC Dance Project, which features a … [Read more...] about NYC DANCE PROJECT: BREATHTAKING MOMENTS IN TIME