Dance on the Hudson: top picks from the Battery Dance Festival

Pori Dance Company in Songs

Span Dance Company in Agocha Davies' Harmonic Ascend

Focus Dance Company in Tsai Hsi Hung's Self-Portrait

Kailei Sin in who, what, when, where, and why?

Lucas Crew's Minsu Kim

Julie Crothers in Secondhand

By Carla Escoda, 22 August 2024

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“frenzied bursts of energy, arms furiously slicing the air, bodies contorted near the ground”

Reviewed at Battery Dance, New York City on 11 August 2024

Mixed Programme

Pori Dance Company

Span Dance Company

A'nó:wara Dance Theatre

Focus Dance Company

wee dance company

Ballet for cowboys and soldiers at Kansas City Ballet

Hilary Stroh, 20th March

Kansas City Ballet celebrate the USA’s 250th anniversary with three American ballets. Balanchine's Stars and Stripes, de Mille's Rodeo and a new work by Caili Quan, A Home Away.

****1

English National Ballet’s Body and Soul: a very mixed bag

Deborah Weiss, 19th March

English National Ballet presents a double bill of contrasts at Sadler’s Wells with startlingly mixed results, not all positive.

***11

Ailey II dancers shine in ambitious mixed bill at the Joyce Theater

Carla Escoda, 18th March

In their penultimate stop on a US tour, Ailey's second company produced exceptional performances in an Ailey classic and four handsome new works.

****1

Alexander Whitley: the cutting edge of dance and technology

Graham Watts, 18th March

Two new works by Alexander Whitley, Mirrors and The Rite of Spring, explore society’s increasing dependency on AI in dance.

***11

American Ballet Theatre's double bill is short and sweet in New York

Ivy Lin, 15th March

American Ballet Theatre presents Balanchine's Raymonda: Grand Pas Hongrois and Ratmansky's Firebird which showcases the company well and provides a strong contrast.

****1

Avant-Garde: an eclectic triple bill in Prague

Elsa Giovanna Simonetti, 15th March

A tremendous triple bill comprising Jiří Kylián's 27’52” and two new works by Robert Bondara and Marco Goecke. The programme unfolds as a meditation on transience, instability and the unpredictability of human life.

****1

More reviews...

Carla Escoda

Born in the Philippines, Carla trained as a ballet and modern dancer with the Alice Reyes Dance Company in Manila. She has lived and worked in Asia and the U.S. and has written about the arts for Bachtrack, KQED (the northern California public media broadcaster), Dance International, dance journal/hk, the Huffington Post, Dance Europe and ballettothepeople.