THENEWYORKER,FEBRUARY3, 2020 9
ILLUSTRATION BY PING ZHU
From the moment of its première in London, in 1995, “Matthew Bourne’s
Swan Lake” struck a chord. This tale about a lonely, forlorn prince and
his dysfunctional family felt somehow relevant to real events. Prince
Charles and Princess Diana were separating; Queen Elizabeth’s “annus
horribilis” was just three years old. Bourne’s homoerotic twist on the
story, by which its prince finds solace, and freedom, with a flock of male
swans, was a vibrant manifesto of the beauty and power of male danc-
ing, but also a liberating example of gay attraction on a ballet stage
(all too rare, even to this day). Bourne’s swans were bare-chested and
sexy, by turns tender and nasty. Twenty-five years later, the show is still
on tour, and, with the popularity of “The Crown” and the drama of
“Megxit,” its allusions to the machinations of palace bureaucrats—the
Royal Family’s private secretary plays a significant role—are sure to
resonate. “Swan Lake” returns to City Center, Jan. 30-Feb. 9, with a few
tweaks and updated sets and costumes by Lez Brotherston. The Royal
Ballet’s Matthew Ball alternates with Will Bozier and Max Westwell
in the role of the Swan, the leader of the swan-men.—Marina Harss
CONTEMPORARYDANCE
1
DANCE
New York City Ballet
David H. Koch
The company unveils “Voices,” the latest bal-
let by the choreographer Alexei Ratmansky.
The music is drawn from “Voices and Piano,”
a series of pieces in which the avant-garde Aus-
trian composer Peter Ablinger mimics various
speakers with pitches and rhythms played on
the piano. The voices that Ratmansky has se-
lected for his ballet include those of the painter
Agnes Martin and the Iranian poet Forough
Farrokhzad. All the main roles are danced by
women. The program on which “Voices” will
appear is strong, also including works by Chris-
topher Wheeldon (“Polyphonia”), Justin Peck
(“Bright”), and Jerome Robbins (“Opus 19/The
Dreamer”). Wheeldon’s “Polyphonia,” from
2001, is one of his finest ballets—a suite for
several couples, set to piano pieces by György
Ligeti, filled with images of haunting, stark
elegance.—Marina Harss (Through March 1.)
Melinda Ring
Danspace Project
A sort of sequel to “X,” Ring’s 2010 work at
Danspace Project, “Strange Engagements”
is intricately organized, though it may not
always look so. A strong cast of five perform-
ers, including the self-possessed veteran Paul
Hamilton, dances all out, mostly in silence, as
if driven by some unheard music. A seeming
free-for-all, loose and informal, it snaps in
and out of unmistakable order, in unison or
canonic imitation, and everyone’s stamina is
tested.—Brian Seibert (Jan. 30-Feb. 1.)
Adam Linder
Museum of Modern Art
For the first commission in MOMA’s new
Studio space—a live-performance gallery
created during the building’s recent renova-
tion—Adam Linder presents “Shelf Life.” He’s
an Australian-born choreographer, trained
in part at the Royal Ballet School, who now
makes conceptual pieces for museums, often
engaging in institutional critique. Here the
idea is anatomical and alliterative: how blood
and the brain relate to the barre, a dancer’s site
of training and preparation. These dancers,
whose own longevity differs from most works
in a museum, perform three to five times daily
through March 8.—B.S. (Feb. 1-March 8.)
Deborah Colker
Joyce Theatre
In “Cão Sem Plumas” (“Dog Without Feath-
ers”), the prominent Rio-based Companhia de
Dança Deborah Colker takes a trip to north-
eastern Brazil, along the Capibaribe River. The
region appears glamorously in black-and-white
1
THETHEATRE
Emojiland
The Duke on 42nd Street
The producers of this musical comedy take
pains to clarify that it has no relation to the
almost universally loathed “The Emoji Movie,”
from 2017, and for good reason: though both
works accept the questionable assumption that
film, directed by Colker and Cláudio Assis:
cracked riverbeds, burning cane fields, and
mangrove swamps, all ornamented with mud-
caked dancers. Onstage, in mud-patterned uni-
tards, the dancers move acrobatically but stick
close to the ground, as if only half emerged
from a state of nature. In a meandering travel-
ogue of images, they take on aspects of herons,
mangrove trees, a giant crab.—B.S. (Feb. 4-9.)
29,” from 2016, precedes the world première
of a new elaboration, “Mouthpiece 29b.” (The
program repeats on Feb. 5 at 7, at the Aus-
trian Cultural Forum, in Manhattan.)—S.S.
(Feb. 4 at 8.)
it’s compelling to imagine the inner lives of
text-message symbols, only this show—written
by Keith Harrison and Laura Schein, who also
plays an emoji called Smize—is actually fun.
Yes, the premise is insultingly dumb and much
of the phone-based wordplay embarrassing,
but, damn it, the cast, the designers, and the
director, Thomas Caruso, sell it all so well that
it’s hard not to enjoy. Particularly disarming
are the transcendently goofy Lesli Marghe-
rita, as the vain, despotic Princess, and Lucas
Steele, as the suicidal Skull, who, in the show’s
most satisfying musical joke, sings a lot like
Thom Yorke.—Rollo Romig (Through March 19.)
Grand Horizons
Hayes
Bess Wohl writes fluid comedies that are like
sitcoms in tone and structure but hide a ker-
nel of darkness within. Her latest, “Grand
Horizons,” is her Broadway début and works
