Email Author Deborah Jowitt

2009 Stories by Deborah Jowitt

• Lucinda Childs, Philip Glass, and Sol LeWitt ‘Dance' at Bard's Summerscape

  published July 15, 2009

  This year, the intrepid and stimulating Bard Summerscape features Richard Wagner—his music and his world. Yet the seven weeks of... More >>

• Andrea Miller and Jean-Claude Gallotta at Jacob’s Pillow

  published July 15, 2009

  "Can anything be new, original, private?" asked the spoken text that accompanied Twyla Tharp's 1971 The Bix Pieces. Not really. Yes.... More >>

• Nicholas Leichter's Beat Chamber

  published July 1, 2009

  Once a club kid, always a club kid. Neither a B.A. in dance nor stints in the companies of Ralph Lemon, Ronald K. Brown, and others knocked... More >>

• Larry Keigwin and Kate Weare Put Dancing in the Black

  published July 1, 2009

  Black may be perennially chic, but in dance it’s the color of rigor. When drums sound in Jonathan Melville Pratt’s score... More >>

• In Memoriam: Pina Bausch (1940-2009)

  published July 1, 2009

  The death of Pina Bausch on Tuesday, June 6, came as a shock. She had been diagnosed with cancer only five days before. I thought... More >>

• Sarah Michelson's Dark Tides

  published June 24, 2009

  Sarah Michelson's work makes people ask questions ranging from "How did she come up with an idea like that?" to "What does she think... More >>

• Jennifer Muller Takes a Bath and Saves the Planet

  published June 17, 2009

  Jennifer Muller was choreographing well before she founded her company in 1974. And what a dancer she was! I still remember the... More >>

• Rebecca Stenn, Ben Munisteri, and Nancy Bannon Play Fresh Games

  published June 17, 2009

  Choreographers can get weary of trawling for ideas and following hallowed processes. When that happens, some tackle more ambitious... More >>

• Down by Alexei Ratmansky's Ballet River

  published June 10, 2009

  Sergei Prokofiev's music is rife with weather changes. Storms simmer beneath airy melodies, occasionally braying into prominence. Tubas grumble... More >>

• David Parker and Yoshiko Chuma Ride Different Ranges

  published June 10, 2009

  In Irving Berlin's 1949 Broadway hit, Annie Get Your Gun, Ethel Merman as 1890s sharpshooter Annie Oakley wrangled with Frank Butler... More >>

• Martha Graham's Clytemnestra Lives to Kill Again

  published May 20, 2009

  In 1958, Martha Graham turned 65 and choreographed Clytemnestra. Anger over the first event may well have fueled the latter. What better... More >>

• Christopher Williams Resurrects (and How) a Gaggle of Saints

  published May 20, 2009

  Let’s see, there’s St. Glen, St. Charley, St. Gus. . . .Oops, I mean St. George, St. Francis, and St. Dionysius the... More >>

• Benjamin Millepied, Jirí Bubencík, and Melissa Barak Break From the Gate

  published May 20, 2009

  Some dance fans believe that New York City Ballet dancers ought to be happy performing nothing but works by George Balanchine and... More >>

• Elizabeth Streb Spins Her ‘Whizzing Gizmo’; Rajika Puri Dives Into the Ganges

  published May 13, 2009

  When I first saw Elizabeth Streb’s work in the 1970s, she and her colleague Michael Schwartz were sliding down a slanted... More >>

• Trisha Brown Rounds Up Four Decades of Choreography at BAM

  published May 6, 2009

  Some of us only dream about flying; Trisha Brown launches her dreams onto the stage. And after her opening-night BAM program spanning 40 years... More >>

• Stephen Petronio and Joe Goode Venture on High Seas

  published April 29, 2009

  You wouldn’t expect Stephen Petronio to host his own new evening-long work, but, hey, it’s the 25th anniversary... More >>

• Ros Warby Spreads Her Wings and Takes Off Marching

  published April 29, 2009

  Perhaps Australian choreographer Ros Warby named her latest solo, Monumental, with irony in mind. After all, a single... More >>

• Sonic Youth and Led Zep's John Paul Jones Score Merce Cunningham

  published April 22, 2009

  Merce Cunningham doesn't need a poet son like Dylan Thomas to adjure him to "rage against the dying of the light." His light is burning very... More >>

• Robert Wilson Pays Homage to Suzushi Hanayagi at the Guggenheim

  published April 22, 2009

  None of the events in the Guggenheim’s admirable Works & Processes series connects so sensitively with its current exhibition,... More >>

• Vicky Shick Recalls Her Company's Two-Nation Life

  published April 15, 2009

  Vicky Shick arrived in New York from Budapest at age five. That was in 1956, the year of the Hungarian Revolution and the ensuing Soviet... More >>

• Noémie Lafrance, Melanie Maar, and Keith Hennessy Inscribe the Body

  published April 8, 2009

  You climb the splintery stairs to a Williamsburg loft, where you are politely relieved of your coat and bag, given a name tag, and... More >>

• Eliot Feld Mounts Two New Pieces and A Big Pot of Pasta

  published April 1, 2009

  Once upon a time, Eliot Feld made beautiful, expressive ballets. Then he became fascinated by repetition, paring down his movement vocabulary... More >>

• Susan Marshall and Sally Silvers Entrance the Eye

  published March 25, 2009

  Adamantine, the title of Susan Marshall’s thrilling new work, means hard, impenetrable, and brilliant in the way that a... More >>

• Keely Garfield Flies Through Her Own Outer Space

  published March 25, 2009

  Every time I see Keely Garfield’s choreography, I wish I could get inside her mind and rummage around for a while. I might not understand... More >>

• Space Craft: Ivy Baldwin, Julian Barnett, Jeremy Nelson & Luis Lara Malvacías

  published March 25, 2009

  Dance is a space-hungry art. The movement forms shapes and lays out patterns; it needs room to show them. The concept of place often... More >>