Gia Kourlas

New York

Dance Critic at The New York Times

Articles

An Inspiration to Balanchine, Suzanne Farrell Now Shows Dancers the Way

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

"There's a time for everything," said Farrell, who has returned to New York City Ballet to teach a new and eager generation of dancers. "Too much energy, too much, too much, too much," Suzanne Farrell said as she watched Isabella LaFreniere rehearse George Balanchine's "Chaconne."Farrell's direction, calling for more delicacy, softened the edges of LaFreniere's crisp attack.
Reclaiming the Past in a Dance of Simmering Power

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Wilson's soundtrack operates like a mixtape of sonic poetry. The blues singer Son House's "Motherless Children" is followed by the Gladys Knight and the Pips recording of "I Can See Clearly Now," which takes on a despondent tone as the dancers move forward with rocking feet that seem to be stuck in mud.
In 50th Anniversary Shows, Danspace Project Pulls Past Into Present

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas |Brian Seibert

"I didn't know how to do this back then," Bebe Miller said near the start of "Vespers, Reimagined." Back then was 1982, when she performed her improvised solo "Vespers" at Danspace Project as part of Parallels, a series organized by Houston-Jones to gather Black choreographers working in experimental dance. Now she knows.
Jenifer Ringer Is Back at the School of American Ballet in a New Role

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas |Amir Hamja

"Y'all" is pleasant enough on its own, but to hear it more than a dozen times during a ballet class in New York City is a happy find. As in: "I want y'all to move a lot more. If you fall off your pirouette that is ohhh- kay."That voice, that word, that Southern sound - Jenifer Ringer is back in town. Ringer, a former principal with New York City Ballet, is now the director of the intermediate and advanced divisions and artistic programming at the company's School of American Ballet.
Twyla Tharp Dives Into the Future

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

It could be the middle of the ocean on a starless night, but it's a stage. An arm reaches up, glowing like a beacon of light. It lowers - slowly, deliberately - sliding into the darkness. A piece of movement is nothing without context. Twyla Tharp created that arm gesture nearly 40 years ago as the emphatic closing image of her celebrated "In the Upper Room" (1986), in which two women - the "stompers" - yank down a fist in victory.
At City Ballet, a Swan Is Born and a Firebird Flies Into the Sunset

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

"It was pandemonium," Maria Tallchief wrote in her memoir about her "Firebird" debut, in 1949. "The theater had turned itself into a football stadium, and the audience was in a frenzy."The only thing that went wrong was that they hadn't rehearsed the curtain calls. Tallchief was New York City Ballet's first star, a thrilling dancer and a part of why the company rose to become the most important in the country.
In Zoe Saldaña, a Choreographer Finds His Dream Dancer

2 months ago | businessandamerica.com | Gia Kourlas

Jalet, who choreographed Luca Guadagnino’s horror movie “Suspiria,” knew Saldaña only from the movie “Avatar.” When he discovered “Center Stage,” he grasped that she would take movement seriously. “It was such an amazing relief to feel that, “Oh, she’s a dancer,” he said. In the original conception, Saldaña had just one dance scene: Rita walks through a crowd in an open-air market, building a defense for the courtroom as her hands and arms slice through the air with emphatic intensity.
In Zoe SaldaĆ±a, a Choreographer Finds His Dream Dancer

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Zoe Saldaña is an actress, but buried inside her is a highly trained dancer. This has always been obvious to me; the film "Emilia Pérez" has made it clear to the world. Finally, Saldaña - a devoted ballet student through her childhood and teenage years - can be recognized for the force that she is: an extraordinary mover. All actors use their bodies, but Saldaña has long been on another plane.
Miriam Miller Steps Into the Spotlight as the Swan Queen at City Ballet

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Elegance has a way of pouring out of Miriam Miller. Her arms open like wings, her fingertips part like petals. At 5 foot 10, with long legs and an elastic back, she has the kind of line that goes on for days. But a body isn't everything in ballet. What makes Miller so striking isn't what you see but what you instinctively feel: her aura. Resolute yet plush, her presence has a quiet command and, within that, an almost casual confidence.
The Highs and Lows of 'Edges of Ailey,' the Whitney Museum's New Exhibit

2 months ago | nytimes.com | Gia Kourlas

Dancers, vibrantly attired and nearly floating, skipped across the gallery floor at the Whitney Museum of American Art. With what at first seemed like a bow to the floor but was really a slow slide, they lowered with willful splendor into the splits. Their arms drifted out to either side with steely resolve to the Amy Winehouse song "Back to Black" and, upon rising, they stood with a hand to a hip. And then the dancing began. It got sweaty.