Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\u201cI think it\u2019s fun to take risks.\u201d Pam Tanowitz is speaking from New York where she is putting the finishing touches to a new dance production for London\u2019s Royal Opera House to be performed in its conservatory-like Floral Hall. Her seven dancers have been working on the piece, a blend of new and pre-existing sequences, since September (on and off) but their rented rehearsal studios are rarely as large as the former covered flower market that was re-sited alongside the main theatre during Covent Garden\u2019s millennial makeover. \u201cSometimes I\u2019m in a space that\u2019s half the size,\u201d she says.The company won\u2019t arrive in London until two days before the first performance, when they will be joining forces with 10 students from Rambert dance school who have been learning the moves long-distance. \u201cWe\u2019ve got four or five separate sections that we\u2019ve been rehearsing so when I arrive I\u2019m going to sew the dances together in the space, making them fit the hall.\u201dTwo performances are scheduled on March 25 and 26: one matinee, one evening. This means that lighting \u2014 a transformative element in most contemporary dancemaking \u2014 will be mostly outside Tanowitz\u2019s control. The unforgiving glare of daylight in the glazed hall offers no hiding place \u2014 \u201cEverything\u2019s exposed!\u201d The lack of a traditional proscenium set-up means that she is no longer in charge of what the audience can or can\u2019t see, but she embraces these random, site-specific sightlines: \u201cThe dances can be viewed from all sides. If you\u2019re looking through the beautiful window or at the bar or at other people\u2019s faces? That\u2019s all part of the scenery.\u201dThe last-minute nature of the project would be enough to bring most directors out in hives, but the 55-year-old Bronx-born choreographer clearly thrives on uncertainty: \u201cOne of my favourite things to do is to choreograph on the spot. It\u2019s interesting to push myself in different situations rather than doing the same thing over and over again. It doesn\u2019t feel like a problem; it feels like something for me to solve.\u201dNeither Drums Nor Trumpets is one of 15 dance works in London\u2019s second Dance Reflections season; it is bankrolled by the jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels. This year\u2019s four-week, multi-venue festival includes everything from Robyn Orlin\u2019s celebration of Zulu rickshaw drivers to the Royal Ballet\u2019s George Balanchine programme. There is a particularly welcome focus on the American moderns.Back in the 1990s and 2000s, London enjoyed semi-regular visits from the Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham and Paul Taylor companies, but tight touring budgets and the absence of a big contemporary dance repertory company in the UK has meant that their choreography is now seldom (if ever) seen. The 2025 Dance Reflections season reminds us what we are missing. Lyon Opera Ballet is dancing two Cunningham pieces, and the postmodernist Trisha Brown Company is reviving her 1985 piece Working Title. Dance Reflections also supported Natalia Osipova\u2019s recent performances of Graham\u2019s 1947 masterpiece Errand into the Maze.So far, so heritage, but the festival is dominated by new (or new-ish) work from 21st-century dancemakers including Jules Cunningham, No\u00e9 Soulier and Rachid Ouramdane in addition to Tanowitz\u2019s piece, which was commissioned by Serge Laurent, director of the Van Cleef & Arpels dance and culture programme. \u201cEvery time Serge comes to New York we have a coffee and talk,\u201d says Tanowitz. \u201cHe\u2019s been very supportive and I feel like he\u2019s creating opportunities for me that are different. Coming and doing this site-specific piece feels exciting \u2014 and risky.\u201dTanowitz is in huge demand both as teacher and creator. Choreographer in residence at Bard College\u2019s Fisher Center in upstate New York since 2019, she also lectures on professional practice at Rutgers University. She has regularly undertaken commissions from contemporary and classical companies in addition to making dances for her own troupe. This year has already been very busy. Her work on Neither Drums Nor Trumpets coincides with the creation of new pieces for Miami City Ballet and Boston Lyric Opera.Tanowitz\u2019s choreography is packed with steps that switch register with mercurial ease but are always tailored to the strengths of her chosen dancers, whatever their schooling. She clearly delights in exploiting the material encoded in their muscle memories but she also tries to challenge, even disrupt, their habits and thought patterns. \u201cPart of my work is pushing and pulling against tradition,\u201d she says. Her writing for ballet companies makes playful use of the familiar classroom steps, but the result never looks like patchwork or pastiche. Hers is a fresh and surprising voice.Neither Drums Nor Trumpets will be her fifth piece to be danced at Covent Garden. The first, Everyone Keeps Me, formed part of the Royal Ballet\u2019s Merce Cunningham centenary tribute in 2019 (Tanowitz was a student of Viola Farber, a founder member of Cunningham\u2019s company). Royal Ballet director Kevin O\u2019Hare invited her back in 2022 when she made the witty Dispatch Duet. It was perfect as it was, but Tanowitz\u2019s love of revising and reworking led to a playful film of the piece in 2023 danced in the bars, lifts and backstage areas of the Opera House. A year later she set about reimagining it yet again, this time as a 14-person ensemble Or Forevermore.Tanowitz hates to let go. The excitement of the creative process will always trump the finished product: \u201cIt\u2019s more interesting!\u201d she insists. \u201cOnce the dance is \u2018up\u2019, it\u2019s not mine any more \u2014 it\u2019s the dancers\u2019. There might be too much in my dances, but you\u2019re interested in seeing them again and, to me, that is more important than presenting a perfect dance.\u201dTanowitz\u2019s witty, joyous, densely written dances reward repeat viewings, but we never really see the same piece twice because she cannot resist tailoring any revival to its new interpreters: \u201cI have never done a verbatim dance in my life. As I get to know them, I will craft something based on the dancer. I am always tweaking stuff; it never really feels finished. I like the idea that it could be a rough draft and I could change things between shows. I like surprises.\u201dThis unwillingness to sign off on a piece can complicate final rehearsals \u2014 and exasperate those working with her: \u201cMy dancers have to tell me, \u2018Stop changing things! We have to learn how to dance this!\u2019 And they\u2019re right, I have to stop myself. My dances are hard and there are lots of steps; I don\u2019t want them to be nervous\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. I don\u2019t want dancers thinking about the steps when they\u2019re on stage. They should just be dancing.\u201dDance Reflections at various London venues, March 12-28, dancereflections-vancleefarpels.com, pamtanowitzdance.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor\u2019s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.\u201cI think it\u2019s fun to take risks.\u201d Pam Tanowitz is speaking from New York where she is putting the finishing touches to a new dance production<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":236786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-236785","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":236787,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236785\/revisions\/236787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}