New dances from Graham heirs fall short of an earlier triumph
Buglisi/Foreman Dance
Joyce Theater
Closed
New work always gets the lion’s share of limited review space. Older items in a company’s rep get neglected, though they’ve survived because of their fitness. Too bad, since Jacqulyn Buglisi’s passion-packed, visually ravishing Requiem (2002) was the single masterwork on this season’s Buglisi/Foreman program. By contrast, Buglisi’s Rain looks like an ad for exceedingly costly cosmetics—pretty and vacant. Maddeningly danced behind a scrim kept busy with projected images of the rainforest, it’s all picturesque flora, fauna, copulation, and conception—honeyed promises of eternal renewal if we don’t mess up our planet. Donlin Foreman’s new Cascade proved that the gut-sprung, gravity-glorifying Graham technique and a conventionally lyrical response to Chopin make uneasy bedfellows. The company remains admirable for its insistence on live music and its terrific dancers, among them Christine Dakin, a paragon of experienced artistry, and the very young and altogether luminous Helen Hansen. —Tobi Tobias
Traditional arts from Colombia and Peru arecelebrated by locals
Global Beat Of The Boroughs
Symphony Space
Closed
This series from the Center for Traditional Music and Dance creates space for diverse immigrant communities and an opportunity for New Yorkers to savor what our neighbors bring to the groaning board. A recent show explored African culture in South America, driven by powerful musical performances—guitarist Carlos Hayre, vocalist Mochi Parra, an ensemble elegantly representing Peru, and exuberant La Cumbiamba Eneyé for Colombia’s Pacific and Caribbean coasts. Each segment sampled typical dances which, for the uninitiated, should have been introduced. One unexpected turn offered by Peru’s Luisa Valencia and Luis Casanova Lazarte had this charming pair trading tap steps and slapping ankles and shins in percussive patterns. Splendid Colombian dancers Ana Marcela Avila and Dennis Gusman pivoted around each other, pelvises describing delicate, sensual revolutions. She lifted her long skirt like a heron’s white wings; he arched his arms as if to sail her away to deeper waters. —Eva Yaa Asantewaa