Eye On the Arts

                   A TOUCH OF THE POET Spotlight Review by Celia Ipiotis               Kate Forbes and Robert Cuccioli in Eugene O'Neil's A Touch Of The Poet. Photo by Carol Rosegg Frustrated dreams plague the house of the Melody inn and pub. After losing his patrimony, castle and dreams in Ireland, the only thing Cornelius Melody (Robert Cuccioli) retained was his outsized pride in  A Touch of the Poet . On the edge of bankruptcy, his wife Nora (the marvelous Kate Forbes) and her daughter Sara (Belle Aykroyd) work the place, and haggle for credit while he preens. Self-effacing, kind and generous towards all, Nora can never forget she got pregnant after falling in love with her husband, while working on his family's grounds. The pregnancy forced them to abscond for America. On the other hand, Sara faces forward towards the future, a place of open opportunity not paralyzed by class distinctions...

                    PAUL TAYLOR DANCE COMPANY Review by Celia Ipiotis Sandwiched between two major Taylor works, Lovette's  Pentimento to a score by the classical Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera excels in the ease with which the dancers embody the movement. Like Taylor, Lovett dispenses with over-wrought choreography, and instead aspires towards a cleaner palette. In fact, it makes sense to import a NYC Ballet dancer turned choreographer, because Paul Taylor actually appeared as a guest artist with NYC Ballet from 1959-1960. Although retired from NYCB, Lovett remains an eloquent performer and her embodied experiences translate seamlessly to her interpreters. Effectively locating dancers' comfort zones, Lovett forms highly organic choreography filled with spatial clarity.  In this instance, Lovett imbued herself in the Taylor athletic style -- one that pulls dancers to the ground rather than into the heavens....

             HER BODY AS WORDS By Norah Witke Mele                                       Peggy Baker photo by Jeremy Mimnagh Contemporary dance icon Peggy Baker’s new dance film,  her body as words , is an exploration of what it means to be a woman today. Presented by Baryshnikov Arts Center, it is made up of nine solo dances, created in collaboration between the performers and Baker herself. Filmed in portrait (as if to be viewed on a phone) by Jeremy Mimnagh, the dancers move in a dark room, where the lights transform air into smoke, rendering the space countless shades of grey marked by only the barest traces of color. The editing is excellent, almost seamlessly cutting in and out of proximity to the performers. Similarly, the dances are delivered with seriousness and poise, catching complicated shapes between swift articulations of the hands. To Cont...

        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...

                                  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...

 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 clas...

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...