Eye On the Arts

        NEW YORK CITY BALLET AND BALANCHINE. Review by Celia Ipiotis                                  The Four Temperaments. Photo by Paul Kolnik                                  Under a full moon on a chilly February night, NYCB warmed up the audience with no fewer than a dozen company member debuts. Romantic repertory bumped up against a Neo-classical ballet masterpiece and shimmering ballet duet. George Balanchine's masterful  Four Temperaments  fully reveals the dancer in the dance. Lean choreography dominates, tightening the vocabulary to a handful of steps combined and recombined to the music of Paul Himdemith. Legs slice the air, hands snap at the wrists and shards of unison movement thrill all. For sheer female warrior power, there's no better example than the invasion of the stage by four women advancing towards the male, legs flaring up, then stabbing floor followed by sharp pelvic thrusts forward and back.Hair rasing. All those who debuted: Jacqueline Bologna, Jonat

                                  TROUBLE IN MIND Review by Celia Ipiotis                                                LaChanze in Roundabout Theatre Company's Trouble in Mind. Photo by Joan Marcus You're not paid to think!" Sadly, that admonition is heard by many actors. The idea that someone else controls all your decisions is galling and in the newly revived drama "Trouble in Mind" it's downright maddening. Written in 1955 by the African American playwright, Alice Childress,  Trouble in Mind  was an Off-Broadway theater hit but never got a ticket to Broadway because of the controversial subject matter. Some 66 years later, the play finally landed on Broadway. The grand ensemble cast is led by a spot-on LaChanze as the esteemed, seasoned actor Wiletta Mayer along with the elder statesman Sheldon Foresster (Chuck Cooper) who's just about seen it all; a brash Millie Davis (Jessica Frances Dukes); the white, privileged ingenue Judy Sears (Danielle Campbe

 NEW YORK CITY BALLET: PARTITA-SUMMERSPACE-DVG.   Review by Celia Ipiotis                                              PARTITA with India Bradley and Claire Kretzschmar.                                              SUMMERSAPCE with Adrian Danchig-Waring,                                               Ashley Laracey, Emilie Gerrity.                                              Photos by Erin Baiano After a minor delay due to COVID, NYC Ballet opened its doors to dance lovers eager to bask in company premieres and classics. Season festivities bounced open with the premiere of Justin Peck's sneaker ballet  Partita.  Enriched by Caroline Shaw's  thoroughly intriguing a cappella composition  Partita for 8 Voices  performed live by Roomful of Teeth, a tribe of 8 dancers mirror the vocals. Dressed in casual shorts, tops and tights, by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung, the energized dancers slither through Eva Lewitts whimsical set design of colorful, scalloped fringe. Frequently cast as

LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT REVIEWED BY CELIA IPIOTIS                                                              Photo by: Joan Marcus Should you suffer from hyper-tension, you might consider doubling up your meds before heading to Eugene O'Neil's devastating "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Bound by love, and cradled in despair, O'Neill's 1916 tragedy exposes lost souls savaged by the past. Spartanly directed by Robert O'Hara, the tension-filled two hour  Long Day's Journey Into Night  features a taut, ensemble cast at the Minetta Lane Theatre. The play unfolds in the space of one, disastrous day of truth. Liquor, drugs and doubt fuel a family's origin myth, the one repeated again and again until it overwhelms reality. Blind to Socrates' instruction "the unexamined life is not worth living," personal devils devour the family. To continue