Eric Taub

Eric Taub, who is based in New York, just says he trying to write about dance and other things, intelligibly.

Forsythe Company – I don’t believe in outer space – Brooklyn

by Eric Taub December 14, 2011 Reviews
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I’m sure I can’t hold Forsythe himself entirely responsible. For instance, the program lists “Dramaturgy” by Freya Vass-Rhee. (I think it’s a safe bet that whenever a dance program lists a dramaturgist, one should run for the hills. Remember ABT’s Sleeping Beauty?)

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American Ballet Theatre – Duets, Villandry, Seven Sonatas and Upper Room – New York

by Eric Taub December 7, 2011 Reviews
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The more I see Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas, the more impressed I am at what a jewel of construction it is.

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Nina Ananiashvili and the State Ballet of Georgia – New York

by Eric Taub November 29, 2011 Reviews
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So you’re Nina Ananiashvili, aka The World’s Greatest Ballerina™. You’ve just given a kick-ass performance of The Dying Swan, and you’re favoring the adulatory crowd of picture-hungry, iPhone-wielding fans with one of your celebrated, in-character curtain calls. You could make yet another soulful, swanny curtsey—they’re eating it up—but that, any ballerina could do, and you’re Nina Ananiashvili, etc. So you flutter offstage, cue the cellist, and dance the whole thing again, even better.

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Bolshoi Ballet at the Cinema – Sleeping Beauty – Telecast from Moscow

by Eric Taub November 22, 2011 Reviews
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I’m still adjusting to the idea of live ballet at the movies, but it is not without its charms, and I settled down for this morning’s performance (10:00 am, Eastern Standard Time) after a brief, if expensive, visit from the Popcorn Fairy.

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NY Fall for Dance – Program 4 – New York

by Eric Taub November 6, 2011 Reviews
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…if you can find it in your heart to forgive the world’s choreographers for the sin of not being, or having been, George Balanchine, it’s still more than possible to have an enjoyable time. The decidedly mixed level of the fourth program’s offerings just reminded me that I find honest naiveté more forgivable than failed sophistication.

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NY Fall for Dance – Program 3 – New York

by Eric Taub November 5, 2011 Reviews
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Although I might have found some ups and downs in this evening’s program, with ten-dollar tickets, and four-dollar cocktails in the nearby Fall For Dance Lounge, what really do I have to complain about? Certainly, thanks especially to Naharin and Hubbard Street, it’s a heck of a lot of dancing for one’s money.

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New York City Ballet – Charles Askegard Farewell – New York

by Eric Taub October 19, 2011 Reviews
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Down came the confetti, the cheers, his modest bows and his final curtain at City Ballet but not, yet, of his career, as he leaves to form a new company, Ballet Next, with the former ABT principal, Michele Wiles. She’s tall, leggy and blonde; I have a feeling they’ll look great together.

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New York City Ballet – Jewels – New York

by Eric Taub October 13, 2011 Reviews
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New York City Ballet Jewels: Emeralds|Rubies|Diamonds New York, David H. Koch Theater October 4, 2011 If you were inclined to look for a certain insectile quality in Ashley Bouder’s dancing last night, you’d find, not the Green Hornet, but a Tiffany dragonfly, all rich, sensual colors glowing within a shimmering filigree as she skimmed Emeralds’ [...]

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New York City Ballet – Square Dance, Liturgy, Fearful Symmetries, La Sonnambula – New York

by Eric Taub October 11, 2011 Reviews
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New York City Ballet Square Dance, Liturgy, Fearful Symmetries, La Sonnambula New York, The David H. Koch Theater October 5, 2011 Affected, perhaps, by the touch of Fall in the air heralding the approach of Halloween, I couldn’t stop thinking at the end of La Sonnambula that only a few touches of red and black [...]

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New York City Ballet – Ocean’s Kingdom – New York

by Eric Taub September 24, 2011 Reviews
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Granted, the ballet’s chained to the boat-anchor of McCartney’s cartoonish plot, that, if more fully realized, might aspire to preciosity, but there are lots of ballets with silly plots, and an important, if unglamorous, part of the art of being a choreographer is knowing how to take the banal and make it appear, if not necessarily the stuff of genius, at least, well, less banal. With an almost aggressive lack of imagination, Martins couches this slight story in even slighter dance

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Mariinsky Ballet – Little Humpbacked Horse – New York

by Eric Taub July 16, 2011 Reviews
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I won’t tell you not to see this, but if you must, you’d be well advised to hold out for Hallberg’s Prince, and even better advised to emulate the divine Ms. Van Hamel’s character, and bring a flask of bathtub gin to kill the pain. No, bring two: those Stepsisters don’t call for half-measures, and you probably couldn’t get a two-barreled shotgun past the Met’s security.

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American Ballet Theatre – Lady of the Camellias – New York

by Eric Taub July 5, 2011 Reviews
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I really try to give John Neumeier a chance, and more than once a decade. The guy’s got a great flair for theater: he appreciates Great Literature and History; his ballets are always impeccably dressed, and their librettos show a flair for the dramatic, if not melodramatic. He picks respectable music, and even has keen sense of timing. Keen, that is, when there’s not actually any dancing going on, because the one thing he doesn’t have is the ability to string together two steps in such a manner that you’d want to stick around for the third…

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New York City Ballet – ‘Saturday at the Ballet with George’ – matinee

by Eric Taub February 16, 2011 Reviews
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‘”Here’s to George Balanchine!” a very cheerful guy yelled out from one of the balconies lining the walls of the Koch theater’s lobby. I love City Ballet’s vodka toasts, and it had been a long, long time since I encountered one. No little bottles one might snag as a souvenir this time, just an endless supply of shots waiting on conveniently placed tables at the first intermission. I’d already knocked back one, but couldn’t let this toast go unanswered; then I discovered that Orangina…

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