Company XIV's latest dance dazzler may be aimed at kids, but it's a captivating show for all ages.<\/p>\n
Taking the tale of Snow White straight from the Brothers Grimm, and borrowing a few costuming themes from Disney's classic animated version of the popular but creepy fairy tale, choreographer Austin McCormick and his multi-talented group conjure an extravagant feast for the eye and ear.<\/p>\n
At the performance I attended, a large number of children, some quite small, remained rapt for over an hour. As it was hard to look away from the cavalcade of gorgeous dances, costumes, sets and props, I had to remind myself to glance over at the kids every few minutes to gauge their reactions.<\/p>\n
Here, as in the troupe's adult-themed shows, McCormick uses baroque dance, ballet, and modern dance variously as the spirit calls. ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/static.blogcritics.org\/09\/12\/13\/121275\/Snow-White.jpg\")
A rather straightforward ballet defines Snow White herself at the start. An elegant baroque dance captivates (literally) our lovely but obtuse heroine a bit later, as the disguised Wicked Queen gussies poor Snow up in a fancy white wig bearing the lethal comb. Jerky modernistic movements jack up the monstrous creatures representing the third and final temptation of Snow White: the poisoned apple. Shadow puppets play the Dwarves to humorous effect.<\/p>\n
Company XIV always casts a wide net to find lively and appropriate music. Here the recorded selections range from Carnival of the Animals<\/i> to "Rumania Rumania," and from Tchaikovsky to Ella Fitzgerald. Making this show extra special is the presence of a baroque opera trio knows as Charites, consisting of three women who sing live numbers and play the sweetly musical Mirror, a screened entity that must be seen and heard to be appreciated.<\/p>\n
My only complaint: the recorded music was a little too loud during the first couple of numbers, drowning out the narration. Either my ears or the sound engineer adjusted after a short while and all was well for the remainder.<\/p>\n
It's been a great privilege to be able to experience the arc of all three recent Company XIV productions. Le Serpent Rouge<\/i> and The Judgment of Paris<\/i> are in revival through mid-January, alternating performances with Snow White<\/i>. Indulge yourself and see them all, or if you're taking the kids, experience this Snow White<\/i> – it's a fairy story to remember.<\/p>\n
Presented by Company XIV at 303 Bond St., Brooklyn, N.Y. Dec. 12–Jan. 17. Sat. and Sun., 3 p.m. (No performance Sun., Dec. 13, and Sat., Dec. 26.) (212) 868-4444 or www.smarttix.com<\/a>. More information at the Company XIV<\/i> website<\/a>.<\/p>\n Photo by Daniel Perez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Choreographer Austin McCormick and his multi-talented troupe conjure an extravagant feast for the eye and ear \u2013 and for all ages.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[72,73,193,23,74],"class_list":["post-813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dance","tag-austin-mccormick","tag-company-xiv","tag-dance","tag-review","tag-snow-white"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":814,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/813\/revisions\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonsobel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}