Mikhail Baryshnikov und Hell’s Kitchen Dance

It sounds odd to say that Mikhail Baryshnikov is the most problematic part of his new dance collective, Hell’s Kitchen Dance. But it is impossible to get around the fact that you are watching one of the greatest dancers ever as he passes gracefully into the inevitability of age; what’s worse, he seems cognizant of this the entire time. He commissioned Donna Uchizono and Aszure Barton to create dances for the company’s first New York engagement.

“Leap to Tall,” Uchizono’s trio for Baryshnikov and standout New York dancers Hristoula Harakas and Jodi Melnick, showed at intimate range the choreographer's subtly inflected gestural work for the body’s upper half, which is often at cross-purposes with the pelvis and legs. Uchizono is deft at creating intricately-woven movement for small groups, which this trio performed with great care to the collaged soundtrack of buzz saws and music. Harakas is a master at performing this fascinating post-modern style with maximum muscularity, and Melnick has the proper detached air. Barton contributed “Come In,” charmingly sentimental in no small part because of Vladimir Martynov’s music, whose classical overtones were punctuated with the tick-tock of ...