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LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE Review by Celia Ipiotis

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Cinematic designs and set changes saturate Chirstopher Wheeldon's evening length ballet For Water Like Chocolate based on the 1989 book of the same name by Laura Esquivel. Sweeping across several generations, the tangled web of shattered love, broken families, old crones and specters adds to the visual luster. Framed by both naturalistic and surrealistic sets by award-winning theater designer Bob Crowley and sinuous lighting by Jody Talbot Like Water for Chocolate demonstrates Wheeldon's ability to transfer story ballets to the level of Broadway theatrics for American Ballet Theater at the Metropolitan Opera House. A string of white dressed brides holding bright red flower bouquets in their laps transform into black garbed women in mourning. This Greek chorus of women in black remains a recurring theme throughout the ballet, foreshadowing dark events. My first introduction to the ballet featured a dancer unknown to me, SunMi Park. Only recently promoted to the role of...
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CELIA IPIOTIS Comments on FLOWER

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New York, New York -- Misty Copeland is sprouting new projects faster than the sound of a car honking when the light turns from red to green in midtown Manhattan. And yet, she maintains a centered, resolute demeanor regardless of how many times she faces the public and speaks about her remarkable life and projects. In Copeland's most recent twist of artistic fate she is producing and starring in an Independent Film that scored screenings during the highly regarded TriBeca Film Festival and at Lincoln Center on July 1 at 8:30pm. LifeMotion Productions formed by Misty Copeland along with Emmy-winning writer-producer Leyla Fayyaz, hatched the film directed by Laruen Finerman. In a historic throwback, Finerman pays homage to silent Black films by eliminating all dialogue and instead setting the 28-minute story to music and dance. With great compassion and concern, Rose (Copeland) struggles to care for her aging mother Gloria (the elegant Christina Johnson). Copeland teaches danc...
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FALCON DANCE Review by Mary Seidman

New York, New York June 9 -- Seated in the front row in the Gibney Theater this reviewer sat in the first row I was surprised to find I was part of the opening section of Beauty Happens , choreographed collaboratively by eight dancers of Falcon Dance and Brit Falcon, Artistic Director was commissioned by Gibney and curated by Eva Yea Asantewaa. Eight dancers walk on from the wings, seating themselves as audience in the middle of the front row. After a long wait, a percussive and electronic sound score activates the upper bodies of the dancers, one somersaulting from the second row to the first, then standing vertically on one chair, as the others undulate spines and arms. The activity beneath my row caused a series of eruptions as I reluctantly indulged the discomfort of my location. One dancer finally stood and lunged onto the stage, as two, then four joined. Turns, rond de jambe and attitude turns in the air were mesmerizing. After fifteen minutes, all were on stage standing s...
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