I START my survey of what to look forward to with one regret. It’s my loss that I’ve scheduled my vacation during New York City Center’s annual Fall for Dance season in late September, a festival that is an education in itself.This year’s six programs make an ideal mix: dances New York is known to love (the Paul Taylor Dance Company in “Esplanade,” the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in “Sounddance”); dances admired in New York that I have yet to see myself (Twyla Tharp’s “Sweet Fields” as danced by Aspen Santa Fe Ballet); dance productions that I have admired outside New York but have not seen here (the Suzanne Farrell Ballet in Balanchine’s rare “Pithoprakta,” Oregon Ballet Theater in Christopher Wheeldon’s “Rush,” the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company in Asadata Dafora’s “Awassa Astrige/Ostrich” solo); dances seen too seldom here or elsewhere (Jane Dudley’s “Harmonica Breakdown” as danced by Sheron Wray); and companies or dancers of which tantalizingly little is known here (like the Pichet Klunchun Dance Company of Thailand and the Lombard Twins from Argentina).
If there is one dancer among the many who would tempt me to rush back from my holiday, it is Madhavi Mudgal, the glorious exponent of the Indian Odissi style. When I first saw her several years ago in Edinburgh and London, I thought that she was one of the most poetic dancers of any genre. In the miraculously full length of her phrases, the variety of her rhythm, the beautiful arcs shown by her arms and the focus of her eyes, she seemed to be Indian dance’s counterpart to Margot Fonteyn.
The year 2008 continues to enjoy its anniversaries. The Antony Tudor centenary reaches its climax in American Ballet Theater’s fall season, with six of his ballets (“Jardin aux Lilas,” “Judgment of Paris,” “Pillar of Fire,” the “Romeo and Juliet” pas de deux, “Continuo,” “The Leaves Are Fading”) revived in whole or part. The Jerome Robbins anniversary likewise continues (a Robbins tribute as part of Fall for Dance on Sept. 26 and 27, “On the Town” in November, both at City Center). And the Alvin Ailey company celebrates its 50th anniversary with a five-week Christmas season, including several performances of live music, with appearances by Jessye Norman and Wynton Marsalis.
Must New York be surpassed by other American cities in commemorating the centenary of the creation of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in 2009? “Join us,” says the Web site for Ballet West in Salt Lake City, to celebrate “the 100th anniversary of the birth of a company that brought together some of the greatest composers, artists, choreographers and librettists ever assembled.” If Salt Lake City can stage an adventurous Diaghilev triple bill (the Fokine-Borodin-Roerich “Polovetsian Dances” from “Prince Igor,” the Balanchine-Prokofiev-Rouault “Prodigal Son” and the Nijinska-Poulenc-Laurencin “Les Biches,” in late March and early April), and if the Joffrey Ballet in Chicago and Boston Ballet are also honoring Diaghilev, you have to wonder: What will New York’s ballet companies do in his name?
So far, zilch. There will be Diaghilev exhibitions in Boston (808 Gallery at Boston University), Hartford (Wadsworth Atheneum) and New York (Donald and Mary Oenslager Gallery of the New York Public Library, “Diaghilev’s Theater of Marvels: The Ballets Russes and Its Aftermath”). And a Boston festival will include a Diaghilev symposium, Diaghilev concerts, Diaghilev ballets and other special events. Is New York to be outdone?
Probably. After all, New York is often outdone by other American cities when it comes to its own choreographers. This year, let one example suffice. Merce Cunningham’s “Xover” (pronounced “Crossover”) was the outstanding new work of 2007, with the last stage designs ever made by Robert Rauschenberg before his death in May. London will see it in October, Berkeley, Calif., in November. New York may never. If you like this city’s best choreographers, you have to keep traveling out of town to see their work.
I end with another regret. In early October, when I will be reviewing abroad, Rachid Ouramdane performs “Diptyque” with Pascal Rambert at Performance Space 122. I predict nothing, but I state that of all the choreographers whose work I’ve discovered since starting this job in 2007, I have found none more strangely, painfully eloquent or imaginative than Mr. Ouramdane. New York doesn’t do justice to the choreographers who live and work here, but it remains the best place to see the spectrum of those who don’t.
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