Members of the Dance Critics Association Board of Directors share their 2011 Highlights & 2012 Hopes and for dance in 2012:
JOANNA HARRIS
2011 Highlight – There are splendid ‘emerging’ choreographers and performers from the SF Bay Area: Christy Funsch and Nol Simonse (seen in “Etudes in Detention”); Katie Falkner and Brandon Private Freeman (“Until We Know For Sure”); and Amy Seiwart’s new works for the Smuin Ballet.
2012 Hope – My hope for 2012 is that the SF Ballet will invite more inventive choreographers; that ‘contact improvisation’ will release its hold as ‘technique’ in performance; that NO work will have more than five lifts in five minutes; and that we see groups of the brilliant Merce Cunningham Dance Company performing, somewhere, somehow.
RITA KOHN
2011 Highlight – Despite witnessing many outstanding professional dance companies, my highlight was being in the presence of 4, 5 and 6 year-olds being angels in the Indianapolis School of Ballet 2011 Nutcracker. Not only did they “float” without need of dry ice, they won our hearts with their collective facial wonderment as they interacted with the Snow Queen. Beyond cute, they were professional, focused and everything we hope for the future of dance.
2012 Hope – My 2012 dance hope is for a national recognition of the significance of dance in daily life on and off the stage. I hope Dance Critics Association provides the leadership for a national forum to engage everyone in conversation about how dance is meaningful to our mental, physical, cultural well-being, and thus ripples into every other facet of life.
BRIAN SCHAEFER
2011 Highlight – I’ve been a long-time groupie of Ohad Naharin and the Batsheva Dance Company. Now that I live in Tel Aviv, I have full-access to see them almost whenever I want and get to revisit their stellar repetoire again and again. Every time your artistic hero introduces a new piece, there’s that risk of being disappointed. But Naharin’s new work “Sadeh 21,” which I’ve already seen twice, is a masterpiece. I can’t remember the last time a dance left me in tears.
2012 Hope – I really want to discover someone this year. Whether a new Israeli choreographer or an artist from somewhere else… I want to be surprised. Someone that isn’t already on the map but who I stumble upon and just, “wow.” Kinda like Roy Assaf did for me last year with the charming “Six Years Later…”
ROBERT ABRAMS
2011 Highlight – It is hard to pick just one, but if forced to do so, I would go with the Century Ballroom in Seattle. I thought it was a definite “find”. I have a three year old daughter, so opportunities to go out dancing at night are pretty rare right now.
2012 Hope – I am hoping to take my daughter to one of the New York Theatre Ballet’s one hour dance performances.
WHAT ARE YOURS? COMMENT & SHARE WITH US YOUR HIGHLIGHTS & HOPES