Comment Free + – beautiful paintings of Lee Krasner and his life by Jackson Pollock | Dancing

TAlas, famous women are the cornerstone of today’s dance scene. First is his choreographer, Antonia Franceschihe is still known as a ballet dancer from the film Fame back when he was 19. Franceschi danced with George Balanchine’s New York City Ballet – this evening’s short opening, Excerpts from Kinderszenen, is a neo-Balanchine icon – and has been choreographed in the UK by a US artist in ‘ New York Theater Ballet).

The second is the subject of the most interesting work of the night, Lee Krasner, an artist whose reputation is sometimes overshadowed by her being the wife of Jackson Pollock. Prophecy Piece (still a work in progress) is a dance portrait of her life and relationship with Pollock, created by writer and director Sara Joyce, with Krasner and Pollock’s words read in voiceover.

Roseanna Anderson is a young Lee, at the center of a swing club in 30s New York, “determined to eat life. God help anyone who can stop her.” We see her conflicted/powerful relationship with the alcoholic Pollock, and the surrender of her talents to the myth of male genius. He cooks, cleans, redecorates their house, squeezes his paintings into the smallest room of the house, while Pollock stands in his large studio, thinking.

The use of more words in the vocalizations helps the choreography to be less, and more effective, highlighting the words or thoughts with strong gestures or romantic head placement. The goal is to turn The Prophecy into a longer portrait of Krasner’s life, and that’s something I’d love to see.

There is also a ballet inspired by Krasner’s paintings, called Uncaged. Claire van KampenThe music, which is played, contains the fragmented mysteries and transformations of Krasner’s art, piano music like painting; it speaks to the subject. But music and art – with its beautiful shape of limbs and careful coordination – do not speak to each other.

The most successful dance of the night comes from the former principal of the Royal Ballet Edward Watsonwho appears in solo Asylum, a part of the show for only two acts. Watson’s Egon Schiele-esque body swirls around the choreography in this play for one, the ultimate in shape-shifting.