The Winger » Dances across the Plaza

Dances across the Plaza

May 30, 2007 at 6:50 pm · Filed under new york city ballet, lincoln center, DAVID, performance, david hallberg, performances, relaxing

| | Posted by David Hallberg

Last night I hopped over to the other side of the plaza to catch a Jerome Robbins program at City Ballet. I was blown away with one of Robbins’ master works, Dances at a Gathering. Robbins, in my opinion, has such a way of humanizing ballet and making it about PEOPLE dancing not DANCERS dancing. The cast was so strong and were clearly so comfortable with the choreography, that there was such comfort on stage and ease in the audience. I haven’t had this emotional of a reaction towards a performance since Sankai Juku at BAM.

I was thinking last night that I almost don’t want to dance these gems… Dances, Brandenburg Concerto, In the Night… because I want to just sit in the audience and enjoy it for once. The phrase “Ignorance is bliss” holds so true when you know a ballet. You always go over the steps in you mind, even though you are not dancing. It creates a different experience altogether. You think about different interpretations and whether or not a lift or a turn will work. Last night, I just enjoyed the performance. A euphoric experience

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M said,

May 30, 2007 @ 7:46 pm

So jealous that you got to see the Robbins program. No one in Montana is doing any Robbins at the moment, perhaps a little boot kicking line dancing, but no Robbins. Of course boot kicking line dancing is “humanizing” but in an entirely different way. “In The Night” was beautiful when I saw it when I was 15 but I haven’t seen it since. I’m not familiar with the other two pieces but I can only imagine how gorgeous they must be.

SanderO said,

May 30, 2007 @ 10:35 pm

David,

This is a very interesting perspective coming from the other side of the procenium so to speak. You can’t return to your innocence and see a performance the way someone such as myself who has absolutely no training in dance at all sees it. I am completely naive… ignorance is a kind of bliss.. but I thirst for more knowledge to enrich my experience… and I do find being able to watch a performance without knowing all sorts of technical things does makes it so beautiful, mysterious and pure.

I recall my first sailing experiences where I was in awe of how the wind drove the boat (sailing upwind) and now years on I understand sailing technically and some of the awe is now forever lost… I notice sail trim and all the little things which make the boat move slower or faster… I know the jargon… (much the way I don’t know the dance jargon). And without the descriptive words… it loses some meaning.. doesn’t it?

It’s wonderful that you can trip back in time and feel that same wonder seeing dance performed… without thinking about every step, lift, balance etc… Dance to me is a miracle and I don’t know that I want to know too much about how that miracle is made… but if people like you don’t know it, we can’t thrill to it.

I off wonder if dancers can get so into what they are doing that it all unfolds without any technical thoughts… like we walk without a thought. It sure looks that way….

Lindsey said,

May 31, 2007 @ 1:47 am

It’s always interesting to “see” ballet from an audience’s point of view. Sometimes you are so stuck on an interpretaion that anything else just seems wrong or you say “well so-and-so did x amount of pirouettes there.” I love watching others enjoy and express themselves with what I love most.

jennifer said,

May 31, 2007 @ 2:41 am

being an audience member is pretty awesome, but it’s also great to be on stage too!

they are totally different experiences. when i watch a ballet i did a long time ago, i have this urge to try to climb onstage…

SanderO said,

May 31, 2007 @ 9:28 am

Dancing on stage is certainly different from simply dancing. There is the notion of performing a work which is observed… and so it is a form of communication with others… as well as with oneself. You don’t hear all that much discussion about the “need” to get on a stage and perform… and how that intersects with the “need” to dance.

tonya said,

June 3, 2007 @ 9:22 pm

It’s really interesting to me what you say about Robbins “humanizing ballet” and making it about “people dancing and not dancers dancing,” David. I’ve bemoaned why concert ballroom dancing is enjoying so much popularity right now and ballet is not really partaking of that, and people have commented along the lines that ballroom is something everyone can understand and have access to and relate to, whereas ballet is perceived of as being only for the wealthy who can afford the prices or intellectual elites who can make sense of all the abstraction in the contemporary ballets or find appreciation in the classical. NYCB friends have told me that their non-ballet friends always prefer the Robbins ballets to the Balanchines and I’ve found too that when I introduce people to ballet they tend to prefer the Tharp and Robbins as well. I’ve often felt when I’m watching something by Robbins that it’s like ballroom-y or swing-y ballet — it has that ‘everyman’ feel to it and I think people react very positively to that. I wish ABT would do more pieces like that … not just Robbins, Lar Lubovitch and other choreographers have similar work too…

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