Joseph Carman
By Joseph Carman
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Culture Celebrating Balanchine by Channeling His Antithesis
On June 18, Russian choreographer Boris Eifman will premiere his first ballet for the venerable New York City Ballet as part of a program to celebrate what would have been George Balanchine’s 100th birthday. At least in one respect, the match might seem to make sense: Eifman’s own company, the Eifman ballet, is based in…
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News Dancing in Eden
Choreographer Paul Taylor has never demonstrated any fondness for religion. But in his latest premiere, “In the Beginning,” he uses his satirical wit as the primary narrative voice for the book of Genesis. The ballet, which made its New York City debut with the Paul Taylor Dance Company at City Center on March 3 and…
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News Connecting Spirit and Sex
When Leonard Nimoy’s book of photography, “Shekhina,” was published in 2002, it created a ruckus. His depiction of alluringly glamorous women — some wearing tefillin in all their naked glory — as the essence of the feminine manifestation of God struck some as revolutionary and others as salacious. The book sold well, and even inspired…
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News Aaiieee!
The sound of whiskey-voiced singers and the sight of soulful women with snaking arms and electrifying footwork epitomize the fiery Gypsy art of flamenco. But few people realize that flamenco emerged not only from Gypsy passion, but also from Sephardic Jewish roots. In fact, the word “flamenco” means “Flemish” in Spanish, probably because Jews and…
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News Setting Spoken Truth in Motion
Arnie Zane stood 5 feet, 5 inches tall and had the face of a street-wise corner shopkeeper. But when the Bronx-born Jewish boy danced, he commanded the stage with the precision and power of a boomerang. Together with Bill T. Jones, his partner in life and art, they were the oddest of couples — Arnie…
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News Down to Their Gatkes: Israeli Dancers Bare Their Souls
Choreographer Ohad Naharin spawned a controversy at Israel’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1998. His troupe, Batsheva Dance Company, was to perform “Anaphaza,” which called for the dancers, clad in black suits and fedoras, to strip to their underwear, accompanied by the song from the Haggada, “Who Knows One?” Haim Miller, the deputy mayor of Jerusalem,…
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News A New Twist on Interfaith Marriage
Choreographer Mariana Bekerman has perennially encountered multicultural intermixing and the xenophobia that accompanies it. Of Russian Jewish parentage, Bekerman attended high school in the checkered quilt called Queens, then later choreographed shows in Mexico for resorts. So it’s not a surprise that she concocted a dance-theater piece about the clash and fusion of ethnicity in…
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News Shouldering the World’s Sorrows
In 1967, José Limón, one of a handful of choreographic geniuses of the 20th century, fervently immersed himself in creating his last great ballet. Nine months later, his final masterpiece, entitled “Psalm,” emerged from a gestation period of intense rehearsals. What fired his inspiration for “Psalm” was a novel about Jewish persecution, “The Last of…
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