Sons of Echo debuts at Joyce with male dancers performing works by women

"Sons of Echo," a program led by Daniil Simkin in which prominent male dancers perform works exclusively by female choreographers, debuted at the Joyce Theater on Wednesday, the New York Times review said. The five-man cast, with Simkin as creative director, includes Osiel Gouneo, Siphesihle November, Jeffrey Cirio and Alban Lendorf; the review noted that Maria Kochetkova joined the opening ballet class led by Tomas Karlborg.

The critic praised flashes of Lendorf’s buoyancy, Cirio’s explosiveness and Gouneo’s control but said the subsequent pieces made little use of those gifts. Lucinda Childs’s "Notes," with live music by Vladimir Rumyantsev from Matteo Myderwyk’s score, was called the least bad but was dampened by what the review described as "Relaxing Classical Muzak." The review criticized Tiler Peck’s use of a Gregory Porter recording in "Real Truth," found Anne Plamondon’s "Will You Catch My Fall" maudlin and clichéd with a score by Ouri, and said Drew Jacoby’s "Jack" mixed Dadaist and Futurist sounds with choreography the critic called pseudo vogue; echo-enhanced poems by Monty Richthofen were likened to "Deep Thoughts by Jack Handey." The review concluded that the program reveals little about new aspects of masculinity in dance beyond an avoidance of aggression and that, under Simkin’s direction, it felt empty; the listing says "Sons of Echo" runs through Jan.

Key Topics

Culture, Joyce Theater, Daniil Simkin, Lucinda Childs, Alban Lendorf, Osiel Gouneo