Tag: Amos J. Machanic

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BEST OF AILEY AT BAM

 

With the insanity of ballet season (see this Macaulay article — at the beginning he very accurately describes what it’s like to be a balletomane in NY right now!), I unfortunately was not able to make it out to Brooklyn to see Alvin Ailey’s week-long wrap-up of its year-and-a-half-long 50th Anniversary celebration. I was very sorry to have missed it. So, in lieu of my own write-up, I’m linking to Gia Kourlas’s NYTimes review of opening night. She lauds two of my favorite dancers, Linda Celeste Sims (above, in photo by Andrea Mohin of the NYT) and Amos J. Machanic, and one of my favorite dances of all time Revelations. So very sorry I had to miss it all. Until December…

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Favorites of 2008

Okay, here’s my (late) list of favorites from 2008: (click on highlights to read what I wrote about each dance)

Favorite overall dance of the year:

Revelations by Alvin Ailey. Because the movement language — a unique blend of American Modern with African — is highly evocative, richly varied, and, because it’s set in a specific time and place recognizable to most if not all of us, it’s imbued with meaning and feeling accessible to everyone. And because it speaks to the human condition like no other dance I’ve ever seen. I’m still looking for something to top this and don’t know if I’ll ever find it.

 

Favorite new dances:

1) Nimrod Freed’s PeepDance in Central Park;

 

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