This night for Fall for Dance at New York City Center, it was four of us again but peg was replaced by mollyT.  Each year there is one night that I am underwhelmed and night four was the underwhelming night for me.

All photos are taken from the NY City Center website or the internet. 

The NY premiere of Faun was performed by Jacey Gailliard and Wei Wang of the San Francisco Ballet. Inspired by Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun, which I know I have seen at one past Fall for Dance, if not more, this version gives more weight to both the male and female dancers and there is only one female faun interacting with the male faun. On a bare stage, it opens like the original with the male faun curled up asleep and he slowly awakes. Wang stretches and the spotlight follows him as he dances around the stage. The backdrop is a forest and the floor looks like the sun shining through the leaves of the trees. Later there are bare trees and only the shadows of the trunks on the floor. Both are barely dressed – he is wearing what looks like underwear and she is wearing similar underwear and a wraparound tank top. Gailliard enters and stretches and dances around and they notice each other. At first, they dance at each other but then they dance with each other and are finally in sync. It is all very sensual and athletic with unusual lifts. The shadow and light of the leaves reappear on the stage floor again and the spotlight of the leaves gets smaller and smaller.

Artistic Director: Tamara Rojo

Choreography: Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui

Music: Claude Debussy

Additional Music: Nitin Sawhney

Staging: James O’Hara & Daisy Phillips

Costume Design: Hussein Chalayan

Lighting Design: Adam Carrée

Production Stage Manager: Katie Orr

Friedmann Vogel (The Stuttgart Ballet) performed the world premiere of ECHO:SOG with Abram Korsunsky on piano. This was the first of two representatives from Stuttgart that night. The dance opens with Vogel pushing onto the stage the riser holding the piano that Korsunsky is playing. Wearing a blue sleeveless collared shirt and wide black high-waist pants, Vogel performs classic ballet moves with all the leaps and spins expected. The stage is bare, with a black floor and white screen as the backdrop.

Dancer: Friedmann Vogel

Pianist: Abram Korsunsky

Music: Chaconne, BV B 24 (after JS Bach’s Violin Partita No. 2 in D Minor, arranged for piano)

The night ended with the US premiere of Any way the wind blows performed by Gauthier Dance//Dance Company Theaterhaus Stuttgart. Another dark stage. Half the company is in a circle holding hands and the other half is standing in two lines. They are basically in street clothes, except for an occasional difference – shirtless with a ruffled scarf around the neck and sleeveless collared shirt with ruffles around the wrists and hands. Lots of herky jerky movements with each dancer dancing differently. There was partner dancing and then suddenly everyone would be in sync. Near the start, lights on the side of the stage flashed on and blinked on and off. The music ranged from industrial sounds to classical and back to soundscapes. The audience very enthusiastically applauded at the end.

Artistic Director: Eric Gauthier

Choreography: Hofesh Shechter

Music: Hofesh Shechter

Assistant Choreographer: Kim Kohlmann

Costume Design: Hofesh Shechter, Kerry Rees & Christine Lange

Lighting Design: Tom Visser

Lighting Assistant: Ivan Cascon

Dancers: Rebecca Amoroso, Bruna Andrade, Karlijn Dedroog, Stefano Gallelli, Barbara Melo Freire, Luca Pannacci, Alexandra Policaro, Arnau Redorta Ortiz, Sidney Elizabeth Turtschi, Shawn Wu, Shori Yamamoto