Author: Philip Gardner

Lar Lubovitch Dance Company @ BAC

Sunday November 21, 2010 evening – The culmination of one of my busiest fortnights since I started blogging: a truly enjoyable evening of works by Lar Lubovitch, beautifully danced by his beautiful dancers. This was the Company’s final performance of a sold-out run at the Baryshnikov Arts Center.

I suppose North Star would be considered early Philip Glass. He’d been composing for about ten years when he wrote this in 1977. (The ballet premiered in 1978). The music seems denser and less ethereal than many of Glass’s later works, but still very enjoyable to hear. The dancers swirl and flash about the stage individually or in quartets which join and then splinter as the music ebbs and flows. The restless energy of the score is visualized by the choreographer to perfect effect. Photo above: Todd Rosenberg.

Katarzyna Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis (above, Christopher Duggan photo) performed the duet from MEADOW. Dating from 1999 and originally set on ABT, this work is set to an intrinsically luminous work by Gavin Bryars entitled Incipit Vita Nova.To the uneartly sounds of the counter-tenor voice, the dancers create sculptural shapes as one pose flows into another with silken smoothness. For the perfection of their performance, Skarpetowska and McGinnis were warmly cheered.

THE LEGEND OF TEN is a tribute to the ten members of the Company and – all clad in somewhat ominous but elegant black – the dancers turned it into a tribute to Lubovitch who is surely the king of lyricism among current choreographers. With a central adagio couple (Jenna Fakhoury and Reid Bartelme) surrounded by a lively octet of dancers who often step in unison and sometimes bring gypsy flourishes to their movements, the piece is structurally propelled by the music of the Brahms piano quintet Opus 34. The Lubovitch dancers mesh into a cohesive ensemble but the individual personalities of the dancers also shine thru in this, the latest success in the choreographer’s long catalog of works. (Photo above: Sasha Fornani)

All was going well as I saw the finish line of my 2-week dance marathon approaching, but on standing up for the second intermission tonight, my left knee finally rebelled in earnest. I realized that if I sat for another twenty minutes it would tighten further so I hobbled down to the street and after a few minutes of walking it loosened up enough to limp to the subway. I felt bad missing the last piece on the Lubovitch programme though it was one (Coltrane’s Favorite Things) I’d seen not long ago. My grandmother always told me: “It’s hell to grow old!”

November 21, 2010
Dancing for Avi: Ana Sophia Scheller & David Prottas

Thursday October 28, 2010 – Avi Scher is creating a new duet for New York City Ballet artists Ana Sophia Scheller and David Prottas and he invited Kokyat and me to watch a rehearsal down in SoHo tonight. This pas de deux will be presented at the Young Choreographers Showcase at the Manhattan Movement & Arts Center Theatre, 248 West 60th Street (between 10th and West End Avenues) on Sunday evening November 14th. Tickets available here.

Avi tells me that this duet will eventually become part of a larger piece that he is working on entitled DreamScapes.

Ana and David are two of NYCB‘s most attractive and charismatic dancers; I always love watching them onstage so it was exciting to observe them in the studio. Their partnership creates an intense and shifting dynamic and the choreography takes wing from that with some really expansive moments (above)…

…as well as a kind of intimate tension that keeps the focus of the duet on the relationship.

Here is a gallery of Kokyat’s images from this rehearsal:

In addition to Avi Scher’s newest creation, the Young Choreographers Showcase will feature works by Emery LeCrone, Ja’ Malik, Justin Peck and Zalman Grinberg.

October 29, 2010
Isadora Rediscovered

Isadora Duncan (above, in 1908) is a legendary name in the world of dance. Born in San Francisco in 1877, Isadora moved to Paris in 1900 where she taught a style of dance freed from the constraints of classical ballet technique. She also performed, and her reputation for dancing to classical music wearing a Grecian tunic in her bare feet and with hair down made her a celebrity.

In her private life, Duncan’s affair with Paris Singer (of the sewing-machine Singers), her tempestuous marriage to poet Sergei Yesenin and an affair with the poetess Mercedes de Acosta (as well as a rumoured dalliance with Eleanora Duse) were manifestations of her free-thinking lifestyle. She embraced Communism; she gave birth to three children out of wedlock, though none survived her.

Fatal accidents plagued Isadora to the end: her father died in the sinking of the SS Mohegan in 1898 and her two young children were killed in a bizarre accident in Paris in 1913 when a car in which they were sitting with their nanny rolled into the Seine. Duncan met her own death in an equally strange manner: riding in an open car, her long scarf became entangled in the rear wheel and she was strangled.

People today may be familiar with the tragedies of Duncan’s life and of her pioneering work as a dancer but: what were her dances actually like? The group IsadoraNOW under the direction of Elyssa Dru Rosenberg have invited us to a rehearsal on Halloween evening. Watch a brief video here of dancers from IsadoraNOW performing, and there’s a lovely gallery of photos of the Company here. I’m very much anticipating this experience.

October 29, 2010
Emery LeCrone/Columbia Ballet Collaborative

Sunday March 21, 2010 – Emery LeCrone invited Kokyat and me to a rehearsal for her new work being created for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative‘s upcoming performances at the Miller Theater on April 9th & 10th.

Emery’s work is entitled Five Songs for Piano and is set to selections from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, Opus 19, #2 – 6. Click on the first two images for a closer look.

Victoria North, who is Artistic Director of the Collaborative, dances a soloist role in the new ballet and she is joined by an ensemble of four young Columbia students:

Erin Arbuckle…

…Jen Barrer-Gall…

…Nicole Cerutti…

…and Alexandra Ignatius.

The work has been set and now Emery is polishing up the details and sometimes adding, discarding or altering moves and gestures. The music is sometimes plaintive and sometimes vivacious. The girls worked smoothly together to produce the look Emery wants; counts and spacing were discussed and Victoria’s solo passages were worked into the framework of the quartet.

After Emery broke down and spruced up individual segments, she suggested technical corrections and got the girls thinking about expressive nuances. Then they tried a full run-thru during which the shape of the ballet became clear and the detail work paid off. It’s a really attractive, lyrical piece – I’ve always thought so much of Mendelssohn’s music truly begs to be danced to – and the girls responded well to the score and to Emery’s style of movement.

Here are more of Kokyat’s images from the rehearsal:

Nicole and Victoria.

Nicole (in front).

Jen.

Erin.

Alexandra.

Performance details:

Columbia Ballet Collaborative proudly presents an engaging program of contemporary ballet works in its return to Miller Theatre. The program includes choreography by Justin Peck, Emery LeCrone, Monique Meunier, Lauren Birnbaum, Claudia Schreier, and John-Mark Owen. Guest artists include Teresa Reichlen and Justin Peck of the New York City Ballet.

Tickets are just $12 (or $7 with Columbia University ID). Tickets are available online or at the box office:

Miller Theatre Box Office
2960 Broadway (at 116th street)
212-854-7799

October 28, 2010
Roman Baca’s NUTCRACKER Rehearsal

Saturday October 23, 2010 – Kokyat and I went to watch choreographer Roman Baca working on his upcoming new production of THE NUTCRACKER for Ballet Theatre Company’s annual performances at St. Joseph’s College in West Hartford, Connecticut. A USMC veteran of the Iraq war, Roman presents the ballet as A Soldier’s Nutcracker. Above, Paige Grimard leading the Waltz of the Flowers.

Taylor Gordon would normally be dancing in this NUTCRACKER but following surgery (from which she’s well on her way to recovery) she is serving as ballet mistress for the production. Most of the divertissement pieces are double-cast giving the dancers expanded opportunities.

How many dozens of times have choreographers tackled the NUTCRACKER since Balanchine put it on the map? I really like what Roman is doing with it: very classical in feel but steering clear of the ideas we’ve seen in other settings. For example, his Harlequin (Michael Wright, above)…

…and Columbine (Hope Kroog) do not dance together: they each have a solo in turn.

Roman’s Arabian is probably my favorite from among the set pieces I’ve seen so far for this production: Roman creates a very sensuous and demanding pas de deux. Above: Kimberly Gianelli and Kendahl Ferguson.

Arabian (and many other roles in the production) are double-cast. Above: Michael Wright, Jessica Freitas.

Spanish is a trio: a man and two women. Above: Adrienne Cousineau, Michael Wright and Crystal Danzer ready to start. Marzipan is another trio, all girls in this case. And there are two alternating Dewdrops for the Waltz of the Flowers...

…Mayo Kurokawa…

…and Paige Grimard.

Thru being over-played 24/7 from Thanksgiving til New Year, the music of the NUTCRACKER makes some people nauseous. Me? I love it still and most especially the Waltz of the Flowers – melodies that tug at the heartstrings try as we may to withstand their charms.

The pure dance numbers are being rehearsed here in NYC and the party scene and all the story work are being done up in Connecticut meaning that Roman is trekking back and forth.

Here are a few more of Kokyat’s images from today’s rehearsal:

Jessica Freitas

Michael Wright, Crystal Danzer

Kimberly Gianelli, Kendahl Ferguson

Maddie James

Jessica Freitas, Michael Wright

Adrienne Cousineau

Paige Grimard

Mayo Kurokawa

All photos by Kokyat.

October 27, 2010
In The Studio With Justin Peck

Wednesday October 27, 2010 – New York City Ballet dancer and rising choreographer Justin Peck invited me to watch a rehearsal of the ballet he is creating for the upcoming performances of the New York Choreographic Institute (at the Miller Theatre @ Columbia University on November 5th and 6th) Above photo of Justin at work in the studio by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy NYCI.

Justin’s using music of Sufjan Stevens, a composer who inspired Justin’s most recent choreographic effort: the duet ENJOY YOUR RABBIT which he danced with NYCB principal Teresa Reichlen at Columbia Ballet Collaborative’s performances earlier this year. This duet, along with the ballet QUINTET which Justin created at the NY Choreographic Institute in Autumn 2009 have me thinking of Justin in terms of being a delivering rather than a promising choreographer.

Justin is very fortunate to be dancing at New York City Ballet and to have access both to the dancers of the Company’s roster and to the students at SAB as his ballet-building colleagues. For this work, entitled TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC, he assembled a really fine group from SAB. I’ve seen some of these young dancers in class but it’s quite different to see them actually dancing choreographed patterns. Justin apologized for the absence of one key dancer, however the ‘substitutes’ were both perfectly fine so there was no feeling of anything missing. It was great to see the developing dance-personalities of these students today and to know that it won’t be long before we see some of them onstage at NYCB.

What strikes me most about Justin’s choreography is his clear and imaginative grasp of structure; I’ve seen enough aimless dance works to last a lifetime so it’s really pleasing to see how Justin creates patterns, breaking the ensemble into smaller groups and organizing passages of visual polyphony. Justin’s work is also clear in the Balanchinian theory of ‘seeing the music’; he catches the undercurrents of the score without being a slave to metronomic devices. This gives the work a fresh and vibrant appeal.

The witty aspects of the choreography are not over-played; they seem to occur naturally and thus avoid any feeling of cuteness. In using the established vocabulary of dance, an imaginative choreographer will create original sentences from familiar words. Both here and in his Mendelssohn ballet, that is exactly what Justin is doing.

It’s always fun to be in SAB‘s home at the Rose Building…you never know who might peek into the studio to see what’s happening. Today it was Albert Evans.

The dancers Justin is using for the Miller Theatre performances are not the same ones as shown in Ms. O’Connor’s photos which were taken at an earlier studio presentation of the work. The current cast has some standouts who I am sure will be noticed by the eagle-eyed fans at the Miller – always in search of new talent.

Here is the announced programme for the Miller Theatre performances:

TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC Choreography: Justin Peck Music: Sufjan Stevens Danced by: Students from the School of American Ballet

MANDALA Choreography: Darius Barnes Music: Kyle Blaha Dancers: Ashley Isaacs, Lauren Lovette, Erica Pereira, Kristen Segin; Zachary Catazaro, Chase Finlay, Allen Peiffer and Taylor Stanley

DROPLET Choreography: Jessica Lang Music: Jakub Ciupinski Dancers: Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall

FOR SASCHA Choreography: Marco Goecke Music: Matthew Fuerst* Dancers: Marika Anderson, Gretchen Smith, Daniel Applebaum and Sean Suozzi.

Three short works composed by Daniel Ott:

FALLING Choreography: Larry Keigwin Dancers: Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Antonio Carmena, Joaquin de Luz and Andrew Veyette

SARA SOLO Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon Danced by Sara Mearns

UNTITLED Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky Dancers: Ashley Bouder, Ana Sophia Scheller, David Prottas and Christian Tworzyanski

The performances are November 5th @ 8:00 PM and November 6th @ 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM.

Ticket information: 212-854-7799

The Miller Theatre is located at Broadway and 116th Street. Take the #1 train right to the door.

Composer Matt Fuerst is a friend and former co-worker of mine. He composed the score for Albert Evans’ 2005 ballet BROKEN PROMISE at NYCB.

October 26, 2010
Cedar Lake @ The Joyce/Programme A

Tuesday October 26, 2010 – This first of two programmes by Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at The Joyce provided a tremendously satisfying evening of dance:

Week 1 (October 26 – 31)
“Sunday, Again” by Jo Strømgren
“UNIT IN REACTION” by Jacopo Godani (NY PREMIERE)
“Hubbub” by Alexander Ekman (NY PREMIERE)

Top photo: Jon Bond & Manuel Vignoulle in rehearsal for HUBBUB. View the Company roster here.

SUNDAY, AGAIN (Julieta Cervantes photo, above) is one of the pieces from Cedar Lake‘s repertoire that I most enjoy and admire and I’m very glad for the opportunity to see it again (twice…it’s on both Joyce programmes). This work by Jo Stromgren is set to music of J S Bach and features the entire Company dressed in tennis whites. The theme of the work is: what to do on yet another Sunday spent with the domestic partner.

Jason Kittelberger wants to go out and play badminton and his lover Acacia Schachte wants to stay in. This leads to the work’s tempestuous opening duet by these two magnificent dancers (above) in which the most edgy, risky aspects of dance partnering are displayed. The play of tension between the two dancers and the intensity of their individual personalities make this a thrilling start to the evening.

From there the work evolves into an ensemble piece with the underlying idea of getting a badminton game going. This leads to shifting dynamics between men and women and to witty moments as when Harumi Tereyama draws a shuttlecock out of her mouth and teases Jubal Battisti with it. Later, Gwynenn Taylor-Young pats down Ana-Maria Lucaciu til she finds another shuttlecock. Between these and other duets, the dancers stride across the stage with racquets and nets at the ready. Finally the game begins: men vs women. But all too soon the afternoon’s over and the drapes are drawn.

UNIT IN REACTION by Jacopo Godani is a New York premiere. Six of Cedar Lake’s ultra-powerful and fascinating dancers form the first of two alternating casts who will perform this work during the first week of the current season: Jon Bond, Jason Kittelberger, Oscar Ramos, Ana-Maria Lucaciu, Acacia Schachte and Ebony Williams. In a darkish setting, these dancers move with restless energy in a series of solos and duets which stretch the limits of physical movement. Acacia Schachte and Oscar Ramos seize their moments vibrantly and a duet for Ana-Maria and Ebony is especially potent. Jon Bond, one of the most thrillingly agile and sexy dancers ever to take the stage, is mind-boggling in his solo. Throughout this work with its pounding, fragmented percussion/industrial score, Jason Kittelberger is an ominous, forceful figure. The six dancers won screams and whoops from the packed house as each stepped forward for a bow at the end.

The New York premiere of Alexander Ekman’s HUBUB provided a truly witty and apt finale to the evening. To the relentless clicking of that antique, obsolete apparatus – the typewriter – the dancers, stripped down to the briefest and most revealing of costumes, each have their own metal-frame podium on which they stand, sit or hide under.

In an endless, pretentious monologue the voice of dance criticism reads from the endless sheaf of typewritten pages, telling the viewer what the dance is all about, what it means and how to react to it. In fact, the narrator is saying next-to-nothing and merely stating the obvious in dressed-up language.

Central to HUBBUB is a hysterically funny duet in which the thoughts of two dancers – Harumi Tereyama and Nickemil Concepcion – are heard in voice-over as they perform a pas de deux. Harumi and Nickemil danced this piece with dead-pan expressions as the audience laughed aloud. (Above: a rehearsal photo of the pair by Jubal Battisti).

In the final movement of HUBBUB, the inner thoughts of the dancers are revealed – their mundane likes and dislikes and their secret habits. The music of Xavier Cugat had underlined the opening segments of HUBBUB but here we have one of the Chopin nocturnes, yet another imaginative stroke.

The evening ended with a genuine standing ovation.

Is twenty-six year old Alexander Ekman the world’s cutest choreographer? He has my vote.

So the evening was a great kickoff for the two-week Cedar Lake season. Allthough I have a special fondness for the Company’s home-theatre on 26th Street, the Joyce provides more seats – all occupied tonight – meaning that more people can see this troupe of dancers: some of the most potent and distinctive in Gotham. Ticket info here.

October 26, 2010
Master Class with Wendy Whelan

UPDATE: Erin Fogarty has sent me a couple of pictures she took of Wendy teaching.

Monday October 25, 2010 – Sometimes I cannot believe my own good fortune. This evening I sat in a studio at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center watching the ballerina who has been driving me mad for the past few years with her matchless and unique interpretations of Balanchine, Robbins and Wheeldon – Wendy Whelan – giving a Master Class. If you had told me five years ago that I’d be doing this sort of thing I would have just laughed out loud.

Wendy arrived – her forest-green leotard was so pretty – and the roomful of dancers came to order. There were four boys and approximately 16 girls in the class who seemed to be at various levels of accomplishment, including some professional dancers.

I promised myself that I would watch the students rather than watching Wendy but this very soon proved to be impossible: when Wendy Whelan is in motion, you are simply drawn to her. It was great fun to observe people outside the studio looking in thru the windows to watch Ms. Whelan teaching.

Wendy’s barre was quite interesting although I am not sure she was getting the music she wanted for each exercise. But she wisely didn’t waste time worrying about that; she simply adapted the steps to the rhythm being offered. Her descriptions of the flow of energy thru the body and of certain small details of technique to give a polished look helped me to understand what makes her such an intriguing dancer.

The class went by so quickly and all of a sudden the dancers were in the center where Avi Scher and Mary Sell danced with the full-out breadth of style to Wendy’s beautiful combinations. Another girl who made a big impression was Amy Gilson; she stood out for the poise and clarity with which she danced.

I felt that Wendy would like to have gone on for another half-hour or so and I’m sure the dancers would have loved it but the time had flashed by and the pianist slipped away. MMAC is such a cool place – you always feel the energy of all the dance that is going on there whenever you visit; Erin Fogarty’s doing a great job…and she took Wendy’s barre.

October 25, 2010
Emery LeCrone Prepares For MOVE! @ PS1

Kokyat and I watched choreographer Emery LeCrone working on two very different projects this past weekend. On Saturday we went to the studio at Barnard where she was creating a new piece for the Columbia Ballet Collaborative. And then on Sunday we found Emery again at MMAC where she was rehearsing a fairly large contingent of dancers for a Halloween weekend production which is part of MoMA PS1‘s series MOVE!

MOVE! is a series of performance/installations at the Queens MoMA venue which bring together the realms of the arts and fashion. The current MOVE! project will take place at the museum on October 30th and 31st. Emery’s collaborators will be artist Tauba Auerbach and designers Flora Gill and Alexa Adams of Ohne Titel.

Emery’s piece for PS1 will be performed in a small space, so she blocked off part of the studio so that the dancers would have an idea of what to expect. Click on the above image to see Kat Carter, Erin Arbuckle, Caitlin Dieck, Stephanie Eagle, Ashley Matthews, Jen Barrer-Gall, Kelsey Coventry, Nicole Cerutti, Emery LeCrone, Sakiko Yamagata and Rebecca Azenberg. (Erin, Jen and Nicole were in the original cast of Emery’s FIVE SONGS FOR PIANO at CBC, and Erin and Rebecca are in Emery’s current CBC project). A twelfth dancer, Maddie Deavenport, will also be in the PS1 production.

At PS1 the girls will perform Emery’s ten-minute piece 6 times each day, every hour on the hour. There won’t be any music and they will be sharing the space with their audience. Emery came into the rehearsal with a whole range of ideas and she immediately started whipping up a piece that is entertaining, amusing, mysterious and that will suit the venue really well.

Kokyat and I had one of our most purely enjoyable studio visits ever watching this work come together. It was fascinating to see how quickly Emery worked and how fast the piece developed. The dancers jumped right in; they took each of Emery’s visual motifs and expanded on them, bringing their own personalities into the mix.

Emery uses the dancers’ personal attributes as part of the look…their hair became an expressive device. Erin, Kat and Stephanie, above…

…and Caitlin, Ashley & Jen.

Kokyat circled the room and came up with these images; now it remains to see how it will look when meshed with what the artist and designers have created. We plan to go out to Queens on Halloween and hopefully be able to photograph the finished performance. Meanwhile, just watching Emery and the girls in the studio was pretty much a performance in its own right.

Stephanie, Kat, Ashley and Caitlin

Erin, Kat & Stephanie

Rebecca and Kelsey in the foreground

Jen and Stephanie in the foreground

October 25, 2010
Barber/Stravinsky/LUCE NASCOSTA @ NYCB

Wednesday September 29, 2010 – Above: a Paul Kolnik photo of Craig Hall and Ashley Bouder in Mauro Bigonzetti’s LUCE NASCOSTA, the closing work on tonight’s programme at New York City Ballet. (Craig unfortunately did not dance tonight though he was announced.)

A programme change brought a repeat of Peter Martins’ BARBER VIOLIN CONCERTO – one of his best ballets – in place of his charming but less profound GRAZIOSO. Portrait of composer Samuel Barber, above. The excellent cast for the BARBER – Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, Charles Askegard and Jared Angle – repeated their roles from the season premiere which I wrote about here. Tonight’s performance found all four dancers on top form and violin soloist Arturo Delmoni and conductor Faycal Karoui giving an especially moving and – in the final movement: edgy and witty – performance of the score. Kokyat was thrilled with Sara Mearns’ luscious dancing, and he and I both thought Megan Fairchild reminded us of the inimitable Rachel Berman, the great Paul Taylor dancer we met last year at the NYIBC.

Balanchine’s STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO was likewise given an excellent musical rendering by violinist Kurt Nikkanen and Maestro Karoui. During this Fall season we have seen four fascinating ballerinas in this ballet: Sterling Hyltin and Janie Taylor shared one role, and Maria Kowroski and Rebecca Krohn shared the other. Each seemed perfect in her own way, and thankfully we don’t need to choose who’s better or best: we can simply relish the wealth of star-power on display. Tonight Rebecca danced with Sebastien Marcovici and I wondered if they would develop the same electric current that passed between Rebecca and Amar Ramasar at the earlier performance. They did, making for a exciting rendition of their duet. Janie Taylor is already digging deeper into her role – she was wonderful in her debut in this ballet but she’s finding it even more congenial as she repeats it: small nuances of gesture and expression making the ballet more her’s. Sebastien and Ask laCour danced powerfully and partnered the girls superbly in the demanding duets.

The Santiago Calatrava setting for LUCE NASCOSTA looks stunning, and the score by Bruno Moretti continues to reveal entrancing facets on each hearing. The sexy costumes (bare chested, black-trousered boys and the girls in bewitching black-ruffled skirts) add to the appeal of this dark yet curiously romantic (in the second half) ballet. An injury to Gonzalo Garcia (hopefully not serious) caused his original role to be danced by Adrian Danchig-Waring tonight, and the unannounced absence of Craig Hall necessitated further changes: Sam Greenberg appeared in the ensembles as did David Prottas who danced very well in the duet with Sean Suozzi; and Christian Tworzyanski took over one partnered passage with Tiler Peck. It also seemed to me that Georgina Pazcoguin and Vincent Paradiso had expanded opportunities which is fine with me since they are two of the Company’s most striking dancers.

Tiler Peck and Adrian Danching-Waring open the ballet, drawing us into the the mysterious world of this lost tribe. Their opening passage is danced in silence; Tiler’s dancing is so mysterious and intense that we are immediately in her thrall. One motif that threads thru the choreography is of the girls in a rather awkward balance on both pointes which they must sustain. Tiler stayed strikingly still as Adrian moved around her.

Adrian was nothing short of magnificent: his powerful physique and the intensity of his persona are riveting. In his duet with the gorgeous Tess Reichlen they were smoulderingly powerful. Maria Kowroski continued her top-notch season with a stunning perfomance; her duet with Amar Ramasar was jaw-dropping in its physicality and in the allure of these two spectacular dancers – people were screaming for them at the curtain calls.

Georgina Pazcoguin and Vincent Paradiso are such remarkably communicative personalities onstage and this ballet gives them the perfect opportunity to display both their physicality and their sense of risk-taking while meanwhile simply savoring the erotic undercurrents they bring to their duet passages.

The solos for Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle show us these two beautiful dancers at their most charismatic; Ashley Bouder & Jon Stafford in their duet bring a vivid tension to the partnering which is complex, angular and steamy all at once.

Maya Collins looks so great in this ballet, always catching my eye. I wish Ana Sophia Scheller had more to do here – I’d love to see one of Mr. Bigonzetti’s duets crafted for her and Sean Suozzi for example. The two blonde beauties Lydia Wellington and Sarah Villwock and the smooth-moving, exotic-looing Sam Greenberg were all excellent and I hope they will each have more opportunities to step out in the near future.

As LUCE NASCOSTA ends, the girls glide across the floor into the arms of their men – this striking motif seemed especially impressive tonight. As the music fades away, I felt I was awakening from a dream that I did not want to end.

Walking to the train after the performance, Kokyat captured this image which seems like a tribute to Santiago Calatrava’s floating disc and to LUCE NASCOSTA.

September 29, 2010