Lydia Johnson Dance: Rehearsal Gallery

Above: Katie Lohiya and Oliver Swan-Jackson of Lydia Johnson Dance

Friday April 17th, 2015 – Lydia Johnson Dance are in rehearsal for their upcoming New York season; the performance dates are June 11th thru 13th, 2015 at Ailey Citigroup Theater. Tickets here. The programme will feature two world premieres: “What Counts” set to music by The Bad Plus, and an as-yet-untitled piece to music by Osvaldo Golijov and Marc Mellits. Last season’s “Barretts Mill Road: A Remembrance”, danced to Mozart, will return; and the evening includes a revival of “Untitled Bach” (2010) for ten dancers which is set to selections from Bach’s violin sonatas and partitas.

Lydia’s choreography continues to impress as a unique fusion of ballet and contemporary dance; her intense focus on musicality has set her creations in high profile among the vast number of danceworks being made here in Gotham year after year. Her dancers seem constantly to find new depths of eloquence in performing these ballets which are essentially abstract but rooted in matters of the heart. Thus the dancing is never dryly technical but instead reverberates with evocations of the human spirit. 

The Company’s ballet mistress Deborah Wingert had given company class prior to my arrival at the studio today; Deborah has also been engaged in coaching for the Company and is working closely with Lydia in molding a unity of stylistic expression for these dancers who come from diverse training backgrounds.

Here are some images of the LJD dancers at work:

Chazz McBride and Min-Seon Kim

Grant Dettling and Sarah Pon

Katie Lohiya

Laura DiOrio, Blake Hennessy-York, Min Kim, Chazz McBride

Chazz McBride, Blake Hennessy-York

Chazz and Blake

Laura DiOrio

Blake Hennessy-York

Oliver Swan-Jackson, Katie Lohiya

Sarah Pon, Blake Hennessy-York

So lovely to run into Lisa Iannicito McBride at Lydia’s studio today; Lisa has been a key member of LJD and several important works were created on her. She took time off to have a wonderful son; it was just great seeing her again!

Here’s Lisa in Lydia’s CROSSINGS BY RIVER, a gorgeous female-ensemble work set to Golijov that I am dying to see again…photo by Kokyat.