dance performances

Live, in-person contemporary ballet performances have returned this year, and we decided to see two in quick succession. Last Friday, we saw Alonzo King's Lines Ballet, a contemporary company based in San Francisco. They performed four selections from various works, and then a new piece after intermission. We loved being out and at the Newmark Theatre, and both agreed that the third excerpt was outstanding in every respect. It was my feeling that the men were either stronger dancers or given better choreography than the women, because they were outstanding, and the women often seemed awkward or unnecessarily contrived. But it was definitely worthwhile.

Tonight, we went to see a performance by Portland's own Northwest Dance Project. Liesl came with us, her first time at contemporary ballet instead of classical story ballet! There were three works, by three different choreographers, all quite different in tone and music. The second one, by Ihsan Rustem, was elegiac and powerful. But we didn't recognize any of the dancers, which felt odd, because we used to know all of them really well, and had watched some of them mature and develop on stage. But they have all moved on, or retired, and it made us feel a little sad and disconnected from the performance. Still - once again it was lovely to be out and watching dancers perform in person.