Jonah Bokaer danced with Merce Cunningham for seven years before starting his independent work. Cunningham gave his designers and musicians free rein. The dancers were fully rehearsed but when these alien forces came together to do their separate things, a fortuitous beauty emerged. Bokaer and his collaborators work together to achieve a refined stage universe. His dances are collaborative gems but not objective exercises. Cunningham-like, he speaks about form and structure and design, but his dances set out a planned universe where operations can be only partly controlled. At that point, chance intervenes in the creative process, and even computer-generated movement can bring us to laughter and fear.

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ARTICLES BY MARCIA B. SIEGEL
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  •   MARK MORRIS'S SOCRATES, THE MUIR, AND FESTIVAL DANCE  |  May 22, 2012
    Erik Satie called his vocal work Socrate a "symphonic drama," though it's anything but dramatic in a theatrical sense — or symphonic, either.
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    New York has two great ballet companies, New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theater. Any other ballet troupe that wants to put down roots there has to develop a personality that's distinct from those two.
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    In the long string of ballet productions extracted from Miguel de Cervantes's novel Don Quixote, the delusional Don has become a minor character, charging into situations where he shouldn't go and causing trouble instead of good works.
  •   THE TREY MCINTYRE PROJECT IGNITES THE ICA  |  March 21, 2012
    When Trey McIntyre found a base for his infant company in Boise, Idaho, four years ago, eyebrows lifted in the dance world.
  •   BALLET HISPANICO FALLS SHORT  |  March 13, 2012
    All three dances presented by Ballet Hispanico at the Cutler Majestic last weekend depended heavily on costume effects to convey their messages.

 See all articles by: MARCIA B. SIEGEL

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