Category: Ballet

Gallery: Martha Graham/Joyce Season 2015

Above: XiaoChuan Xie (foreground) in Martha Graham’s Steps in The Street; photo © Yi-Chun Wu

Photographer Yi-Chun Wu has provided a portfolio of images from the Martha Graham Dance Company’s 2015 season at The Joyce Theater. In terms of both repertory and dancing, these Graham Company performances were outstanding. Read about two particularly memorable evenings here and here.

From Martha Graham’s Steps in The Street

Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch in Graham’s Steps in The Street

Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch and the ensemble in Graham’s Steps in The Street

Guest artist Misty Copeland of American Ballet Theatre and Graham principal Lloyd Knight in Martha Graham’s At Summer’s Full

PeiJu Chien-Pott in Andonis Foniadakis’ Echo

Charlotte Landreau in Andonis Foniadakis’ Echo

Abdiel Jacobsen and Ying Xin in Andonis Foniadakis’ Echo

Abdiel Jacobsen and Blakeley White-McGuire in Martha Graham’s Errand Into The Maze

The Joyce season marked Blakeley White McGuire’s farewell performances as a member of the Graham company. On the closing night of the season, Blakeley (above) danced Errand Into The Maze with her long-time Graham colleague, Tadej Brdnik, also taking his final bows as a member of the Company.

All photos © Yi-Chun Wu.

February 26, 2015
Graham @ The Joyce 2015 – Part II

Above: Blakeley White-McGuire and Tadej Brdnik; these two phenomenal dancers were making their ‘farewell’ appearances as members of the Graham company tonight.

Sunday February 22nd, 2015 – For me it was a bittersweet evening at the Martha Graham Dance Company‘s final performance of their 2015 Joyce season following the news earlier this week that tonight would mark the ‘farewell’ Graham performances of Blakeley White-McGuire and Tadej Brdnik, two of the great Graham interpreters of our time and two people I greatly love and admire both as dancers and personalities.

Tadej danced in the very first performance of a Graham work that I ever saw: Appalachian Spring at Jacob’s Pillow some 20 years ago. That afternoon his Bride was the inimitable Miki Orihara. Combining the physique of a champion athlete with an appealingly boyish face, Tadej’s boundless energy and commitment have made him a Graham icon; he also has a devilish sense of humor, and I’ve seen him at the end of a long rehearsal keeping his fellow-dancers merry with one-liners and dead-pan expressions. In these final performances as a Company member, he has again shown the power and presence that have made him an emblematic Graham dancer throughout his career.

Of Blakeley White-McGuire, one can say she has indomitable technical prowess and a rare gift for communicating emotion. But beyond that there’s an undefinable element in her dancing which only a handful of dancers in my experience have possessed: a spiritual connection with the music and the movement that makes her performances not just important, but essential. Blakeley is twice-blessed by Terpsichore, and it is we – the audience – who reap the benefits of her beauty and generosity of spirit.

Like Wendy Whelan, who recently retired from New York City Ballet (and who was in the audience tonight!), both Blakeley and Tadej have indicated that they aren’t retiring, but simply turning a page in the chronicle of their dancing careers.

Blakeley and Tadej walked into the Graham studios for the first time on the same day some two decades ago. Although in the original scheme of things they were not scheduled to dance Errand Into The Maze together this season, it seems they were destined by the gods to do so.

Their performance was thrilling, commencing with Blakeley’s opening solo (photo above by Brigid Pierce) in which she danced with a palpitating mixture of fear and resolve, delineating the character’s destiny in a vivid marriage of technique and temperament. Tadej, as the monstrous Minotaur, stalks her like a vicious predator, his incredible thigh musculature giving him grounded strength of purpose. Their pas de deux, so fraught with struggle and sexuality, shows Graham’s gift for devising miracles of leverage, counter-balance, and entwining in her partnering motifs. Blakeley and Tadej’s joint triumph was vastly cheered by the packed house, and their Graham colleagues joined them onstage for the celebration.

For all the excitement generated by Blakeley and Tadej, the evening was an enriching one overall, commencing with two Graham works in which two of my beloved Muses appeared: Deep Song opened the program in a vivid performance by Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch, and Miki Orihara gave a luminous rendering of an excerpt from Primitive Mysteries, presiding over a corps of young women in blue.

Above: Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch in Deep Song; photo by Brigid Pierce

Deep Song is a solo work by Martha Graham, set to Music by Henry Cowell. It was premiered in 1937 as one of the choreographer’s responses to the horrors of war (the Spanish civil war in this case). In a black and white gown, Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch is first seen seated on a white bench. The choreography develops with seeming inevitability as she struggles with her inner torment, sinking to the ground. She later lifts the bench, seeming to use it as a shield or hiding place. Finally the bench takes on a coffin-like aspect as she lowers it over herself. Carrie, a dancer I have always held in highest esteem, danced as superbly as I expected. The audience seemed to agree: she won a prolonged ovation which made me want to smile and weep at the same time.

Miki Orihara (rehearsal image, above) appeared like a shimmering angel all in white to perform the ‘Hymn to the Blessed Virgin’ from Graham’s 1931 ballet Primitive Mysteries. This is the Graham work I am most curious about, and tonight’s tantalizing excerpt makes me curiouser and curiouser. Escorted by a group of attendants in deep blue gowns (members and apprentices of Graham II), Miki radiates feminine mystique with her poetic gestures, moving with an almost ghostly lightness of tread. To Louis Horst’s atmospheric melody for flute and piano, the women perform antique rituals in this finely-structured dancework. The ensemble’s signature poses and port de bras make a particularly strong effect as Miki walks forward between facing rows of acolytes who sink down or raise their arms to heaven as she passes by. Miki sustains a powerful pose in demi-plié as the women circle about her. All to soon, their cortège passes onward but the resonance of their dancing lingers. Miki, always so movingly inspired and inspiring, sets a lovely example for the young dancers surrounding her: not only of how to move, but how to be.

In the Graham Company’s on-going project of asking now-generation choreographers to create short danceworks inspired by Martha’s legendary solo Lamentation, Michelle Dorrance and Liz Gerring have now devised new pieces – Lamentation Variations – for the Graham dancers. Bulareyaung Pargalava’s Variation, a classic by now, was also on offer tonight.

Above: the Graham men in Michelle Dorrance’s Lamentation Variation; left to right are Abdiel Jacobsen, Ben Schultz, Lloyd Knight, Lloyd Mayor, Tadej Brdnik. Photo by Christopher Jones.

Ms. Dorrance, a tap-dancing paragon, did not ask the Graham dancers to tap. But the music she used relied on tap rhythmics with a jazzy over-lay. The men formed a kind of central knot, while a quintet of women were seen in walkabouts…which one or two of the men sometimes strayed into. Though abstract, an underlying aspect of sadness and solitude prevailed throughout this work.

Liz Gerring’s Lamentation Variation is a quartet – performed by Natasha M Diamond-Walker, Charlotte Landreau, Ying Xin, and the indefatigable Tadej Brdnik (photo, Brigid Pierce) – which is set to a score for electronics and piano. The movement is rather stylized, and choreographer and dancers make excellent use of the space.

Above: from Bulareyaung Pargalava’s Lamentation Vartiation; photo © 2015 Yi-Chun Wu.

Pargalava’s Variation opens to the sound of Martha Graham’s voice speaking about the solo that inspired all these variations. Soon a haunting melody from Mahler’s ‘Songs of the Wayfarer’ is heard. In flesh-coloured tights, the delicate XiaoChuan Xie and her three demi-god partners – Ben Schultz, Lloyd Knight, and Lloyd Mayor – move with a sense of flowing lyricism through intricate partnerings in which Chuan alternately sinks down and is lifted on high. The dancers and the dance certainly wove a hypnotic spell tonight.

Above: Tadej Brdnik and XiaoChuan Xie in Annie-B Parson’s The Snow Falls in the Winter; photo by Brigid Pierce.

I saw Annie-B Parson’s The Snow Falls in the Winter a few seasons ago when OtherShore performed it. It’s simply not my cup of tea. For me one of the great joys of watching dance is: the dancers are silent. Once they begin to speak, a whole element of mystery falls away. Ms. Parson’s work is more like a play with a bit of dancing thrown in. The Graham dancers of course flung themselves into the piece with their customary zest, and Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch and Natasha Diamond-Walker in particular proved themselves adept actresses. But while many in the audience applauded lustily and commented enthusiastically on this very ‘different’ work, I found it pretty tedious.

Above: from Andonis Foniadakis’ Echo, Lloyd Mayor, PeiJu Chien-Pott, and Lloyd Knight; photo by Brigid Pierce

The evening then soared to its conclusion with Andonis Foniadakis’ myth-inspired masterwork, Echo. It’s more a mood piece than a literal re-telling of the ancient tale of Narcissus and Echo, and as such it flows gorgeously upon Julien Tauride’s atmospheric score. The Graham Company’s beautiful pair of Lloyds – Mayor and Knight – create the illusion of Narcissus and his refection in deeply-enmeshed duets, their movement enhanced by their long sheer skirts (costumes by Anastasios Sofroniou) as caught in shadowy swirls by Clifton Taylor’s lighting design. PeiJu Chein-Pott is simply gorgeous as Echo, her dancing radiant and her creation of the character’s unspoken love and frustration literally becoming poetry in motion. In a supporting ensemble (as if such dancers can ever be thought of as merely ‘supporting’!) Tadej Brdnik, Ben Schultz, Abdiel Jacobsen, Natasha Diamond-Walker, XiaoChuan Xie, Charlotte Landreau, and Lauren Newman all wove into the marvelous mythic tapestry that Mr. Foniadakis has created.

Above: from Andonis Foniadakis’ Echo, Lloyd Mayor and PeiJu Chien-Pott; photo by Brigid Pierce

So nice to see many dancer-friends among the crowd: Wendy Whelan, Mariya Dashkina Maddux, Jere Hunt, Justin Lynch, Jonathan Breton, and Alexandre Balmain; and of course my delightful companion of the evening, Roberto Villanueva. Special thanks to Janet Eilber, the dance world’s most gracious hostess, and to publicist Janet Stapleton for sending me the production photos with perfect timing.

Afterglow: Tadej Brdnik and Blakeley White-McGuire basking in the affectionate admiration of friends and fans after the performance. Photo courtesy of Karen Brounstein.

February 22, 2015
YCA Young Composers Concert @ Merkin Hall

Tuesday February 17th, 2015 – Young Concert Artists presenting an evening of chamber music by young composers at Merkin Hall. I invited my choreographer-friend Claudia Schreier to join me, as she is always in quest of music to set dances to.

It was a cordial and wonderfully satisfying evening of music, the four composers showing an expansive range of styles and influences, and a fine mastery of writing for the chosen instruments. The level of playing was high and mighty, and how lovely to re-encounter Ursula Oppens, who throughout her career has been a champion of new music.

Things got off to a shining start with BENJAMIN C.S. BOYLE‘s Sonata-Cantilena (NY premiere) performed by pianist Charles Abramovic and flautist Mimi Stillman (above). This four-movement work opens with a Debussyian shimmer; it wends its way thru melodious passages – sometimes doleful and sometimes evoking the warblings of exotic birds – with some sprightly, witty cascades of impetuous coloratura added to the mix. Ms. Stillman, in a fetching pale-violet frock, played beautifully and Mr. Abramovic was a congenially artful partner.

Ms. Oppens (above) was then joined by violinist Paul Huang and clarinetist Narek Arutyunian for DAVID HERTZBERG‘s Orgie Céleste (Premiere), a fantastical evocation of heavenly delights. Complex and ear-tingling in its textures, much of the music has an ethereal quality as the piano and violin linger in their high registers; meanwhile the clarinet murmurs a two-note motif endlessly, like a subtly pulsing heartbeat. Mr. Huang showed extraordinary technical control as he met all the composer’s demands with alacrity, including some ironic glissandi. The intermingling of the three voices kept everything in a constant state of freshness, Ms. Oppens was wonderfully vivid in her silvery filigree and Mr. Arutyunian seizing melodic opportunities his mellow, expressive tone. The audience responded enthusiastically to both the music and the musicians.

The only one of tonight’s composers previously familiar to me was KENJI BUNCH, who I had met several years ago while I was working at Tower Records. Since then I have heard quite a bit of his music, but I had not had the pleasure of hearing him play live. He’s a superb violist, with a marvelous mastery of the instrument, making it sing for him is two very contrasted works.

Above: Kenji Bunch and pianist Monica Ohuchi

In I Dream in Evergreen, Kenji revealed the viola’s depth of lyricism in a poignant reflection on the sundering aspects of death, when mortal friendships end and are transformed into memory. Ms. Ohuchi’s gently shimmering opening theme is soon joined by the viola intoning its poetic recollection of past affection and regret. Together the two musicians provided a reflective interlude, impeccably played.

Kenji’s Étude No. 4 (from a set of twelve études he composed for his wife, Ms. Ohuchi, under the title Monica’s Notebook) is a brief and brilliant piece. Lasting all of 90 seconds, it sends the pianist’s hands rippling up and down the keyboard in a delightful display of dexterity. Ms. Ohuchi nailed it, and she was rightly given sustained applause which wouldn’t quit til she returned for a solo bow (personally, I was hoping for an encore of the piece!)

In Étouffée for solo viola, Kenji’s panoramic exploration of the viola’s possibilities was truly impressive and enjoyable; his playing is mesmerizing – there’s no other word for it. Inspired by a favorite dish from the Cajun culture, the work opens with a hazy, out-of-focus quality as if the viola was drunk on Southern Comfort. This evolves into a big country dance-tune, captivating in its combination of rhythmic drive and sexy rubato. Bravo, Kenji! His entire set was really impressive.

Having musicians of the caliber of the Opus One quartet (above) play the New York premiere of your work must have given composer CHRIS ROGERSON a thrill. His Summer Night Music for Piano Quartet is full of musical marvels and how superbly it was played tonight by the Opus One artists: Ida Kavafian, violinist; Steven Tenenbom, violist; Peter Wiley, cellist; and Anne-Marie McDermott, pianist.

In four movements, Summer Night Music opens with a sense of quietude at Twilight. First the cello, then viola, and then the violin introduce themselves in gentle motifs. Ms. McDermott reaches inside the body of the Steinway to pluck the piano’s strings as the cello murmurs plaintively and the violin plays high and pensive. In Fireflies, the piano spins forth with fluttering restlessness and sparkling little interjections. There’s a dense passage from all four players until, until – with a high fade-away from violin and piano – the memory of a Summer night slips away.

The third movement, Evening Prayers, sounds like a gentle lullabye; the violin lingers on high and the viola and cello blend thru the music in simpatico phrases. The concluding Sleep Music commences with a gently vibrant quality, soft and high; a mellowness of cello and viola evoke deepening night. There is a broad melody for unison strings – and a passionate piano theme – before the music finally vanishes into thin air on Ms. Kavafian’s violin strings.

In researching some of the participating artists, I came upon the above quote from the young violinist Paul Huang. He has expressed something here that I have always felt.

February 17, 2015
Gallery: Graham @ The Joyce 2015

Above: Blakeley White-McGuire in Martha Graham’s CHRONICLE; photo by Brigid Pierce

Here are some images from the Martha Graham Dance Company‘s 2015 season at The Joyce. Read about the first of three programmes the Company are presenting here.

Click on each production photo to enlarge:

Above: the women’s ensemble in CHRONICLE, photo by Brigid Pierce

Above: Abdiel Jacobsen as Adam and Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch as Lilith in Graham’s EMBATTLED GARDEN; photo by Brigid Pierce

Above: Tadej Brdnik (at the right) in Nacho Duato’s RUST; photo by Brigid Pierce

There are new additions to the Graham company’s on-going LAMENTATION VARIATIONS project this season:

Above: from Sonya Tayeh’s LAMENTATION VARIATION, an ensemble work; photo by Christopher Jones.

Above: from Kyle Abraham’s LAMENTATION VARIATION, as danced by XiaoChuan Xie and Ying Xin, photographed by Brigid Pierce

Kyle’s Variation is being performed by alternating casts of two women (Ying Xin and XiaoChuanXie, above, in two more Brigid Pierce images)…

…and two men: Lloyd Knight and Lloyd Mayor, photographed by Christopher Jones. [Note: the Lloyds are wearing shirts in this photo; in performance they danced bare-chested.]

Peter Arnell’s marvelous photo-montage of the Graham dancers, which is being shown at every performance during the current Joyce season, may now be viewed here, at VOGUE. A couple of stills, below, will give you an idea of what this ‘moving picture’ is like:

Catch these fabulous dancers thru February 22nd at The Joyce. Details here.

February 15, 2015
New Chamber Ballet: Gallery

Images from New Chamber Ballet‘s February 2015 performances at City Center Studios have come my way. Read about the evening here. Above, from Miro Magloire’s ballet ENTANGLED; the dancers are Sarah Atkins and Traci Finch. The above photo and the following images from Miro’s ballet RAW are provided by courtesy of New Chamber Ballet:

From RAW: the dancers are Traci Finch and Amber Neff

RAW: Traci Finch, Amber Neff

RAW: Amber Neff, Traci Finch

RAW: Amber Neff, Traci Finch

From Miro Magloire’s RAW: Amber Neff, Traci Finch

The costume designs for both RAW and ENTANGLED are by Sarah Thea. She provided the following photos from ENTANGLED, used with permission:

Traci Finch, Sarah Atkins

Traci Finch, Sarah Atkins

Above: pianist Melody Fader; photo by Cherie B

Live music is a key element at all New Chamber Ballet performances. Pianist Melody Fader has been Miro’s collaborator for several seasons and, along with violinist Doori Na, she makes the music an integral factor in the audience’s enjoyment of NCB evenings. Melody is currently in the midst of a Kickstarter campaign to develop funding for her chamber music project, something that’s dear to her heart. You can find out all about it – and help make it happen – here.

New Chamber Ballet‘s next performances will be April 17th and 18th, 2015. Information about repertory and tickets will be forthcoming.

February 14, 2015
First Breath: Photography by Travis Magee

On January 31st, 2015, photographer Travis Magee opens a solo show entitled First Breath, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery. The gallery is adjacent to the Walter Reade Theater, on the upper tier of the north side of the Lincoln Center campus.

“Travis Magee’s photographs are like compelling choreography. There seems always to be an implied narrative, but it is up to the viewer to decipher and to decide for themselves what the hell is going on!” says acclaimed dancer and choreographer Sean Curran.

I first met Travis thru his work as a dancer with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. He recently produced a vivid portfolio of images from a rehearsal of Parsons Dance for Oberon’s Grove, and I’m looking forward to working with him again in the near future.

Check out Travis’s striking photographs at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery where the show – in conjunction with the Dance on Camera Festival – runs thru February 11th, 2015.

January 30, 2015
Ax/Robertson @ The New York Philharmonic

Above: Emanuel Ax

Thursday January 29th, 2015 – The esteemed pianist Emanuel Ax, enormously popular with New York Philharmonic audiences, was warmly cheered tonight after his performance of the Chopin piano concerto #2. David Robertson was on the podium for a programme that proved highly enjoyable and that allowed several of the individual players of the orchestra to shine.

Above: David Robertson

As a brief and savorable prelude, the Vocalise of Sergei Rachmaninoff was rendered in full romantic bloom by Mr. Robertson and the orchestra. Originally a wordless composition for soprano, the Vocalise was written in 1915; the composer went on to orchestrate the work which is perhaps his best-known melody, whether performed in the arrangement for soprano and orchestra or for orchestra alone. So many of Rachmaninoff’s best-loved works are in a minor key, giving the music a mood of melancholy and gentle regret. The orchestra played it with distinction; the melodic familiarity of the piece has the poignant effect of encountering an old friend one has not seen for many years.

Mr. Ax then appeared for the Piano Concerto No. 2 of Frédéric Chopin. In the summer of 1829, the 19-year-old Chopin, recovering from the breaking of an unhappy romantic attachment, sketched out the F-minor concerto and when he returned to Warsaw for the winter season, he performed this new concerto at the National Theatre the following March. The concerto gained Chopin the public exposure and audience acclaim that his numerous private salon performances could not have achieved.

As the years passed, musicologists began to denigrate the Chopin concertos as being inferior to much of his writing for solo piano. Tonight’s superb performance made an emphatic stand in the concerto’s favor: it’s simply a beautiful piece of music.

A contemporary account from the concerto’s premiere in 1830 records: “How beautifully (Chopin) plays. What fluency! What evenness!” And the same could be said of Mr. Ax’s performance tonight. In a refined partnership with Maestro Robertson, the pianist let the music flow with grace and charm, allowing us to savour the thematic generosity of Chopin in an illuminating performance. The unfortunate ringing of a phone just as the concerto’s first movement ended prompted a witty exchange between pianist and conductor. But order was immediately restored as Mr. Ax commenced the Larghetto, a movement full of lyricism in which the pianist’s glowing tone captivated the audience. With flourishing agility, the pianist then took wing in the final Allegro vivace. Near the end, trumpet calls herald the concerto’s final rippling cadences; it all ends with Mr. Ax striking a single low note as the orchestra takes the final chord. The audience’s warm expressions of admiration drew Mr. Ax to offer us a Chopin encore, summoning up visions of the Jerome Robbins ballet DANCES AT A GATHERING.

The Firebird (Suite/1919) – Igor Stravinsky arranged three suites from the full score of The Firebird, in 1911, 1919 and 1945. It is the second of these which is most frequently played today, containing as it does approximately half the music of the complete score. This suite follows the narrative of the original ballet scenario, so familiar to admirers of the Balanchine/Chagall incarnation often seen across the Plaza at New York City Ballet. The atmospheric score – Stravinsky at his most colorful and melodious – casts a spell of enchantment. It includes themes from two Russian folk songs: one a lyrical melody danced by the captive princesses, and the second the regal anthem which closes the ballet.

Maestro Robertson and the Philharmonic players reveled in this extraordinary music, with oboist Sherry Skylar particularly impressive in her plaintive theme. The conductor drew forth some ravishing, shimmering piani as well as the lulling tenderness of the Berceuse; and the nightmarish Infernal Dance of Kastcheï’s ghoulish slaves was given the full, brilliant treatment.

The Miraculous Mandarin (Suite) is drawn from Bela Bartók’s pantomime-ballet of the same title. The original theatrical setting of the piece (written 1918-1919) was considered too vulgar in its portrayal of lurid sex, violence, and the macabre. After its 1929 premiere at Cologne, it was banned after a single performance. But Bartók, perhaps foreseeing that the ballet would not survive as a stage work, had already arranged the Suite, which we heard tonight in a thoroughly engrossing performance.

Opening with a big, noisy clatter of sound, the score employs a wide range of instrumentation to ear-tingling effect: piano, flute, harp, xylophone, and celeste all play a part in this sonically intriguing piece. Ms. Skylar’s oboe artistry and Anthony McGill’s remarkable clarinet playing were especially clear and colourful. And a broad, dancing passage with drums near the end served as a reminder of the Suite’s balletic beginnings.

I at first wondered how the Stravinsky and Bartok would play back-to-back, but the cumulative effect was indeed rewarding: both works have a similarity of texture at certain points, and there’s even some over-lapping of effects – trombone glissandi and frequent interjections of solo winds – which made second half of tonight’s concert every bit as satisfying as the first half.

January 29, 2015
Balanchine Classics @ NYC Ballet

Above: Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette in DONIZETTI VARIATIONS; photo by Paul Kolnik

Wednesday January 28th, 2015 – So pleasing to savour another all-Balanchine programme at New York City Ballet. Tonight’s line-up featured some prominent debuts, and there was excellent work from the soloists and corps. The audience, perhaps affected by the winter chill, didn’t seem to display the enthusiasm that the performance merited, and it wasn’t til the end of the evening that they finally roused themselves from their lethargy to give Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring a well-deserved round of cheers for their joint debut in CHACONNE.

DONIZETTI VARIATIONS is always a joy to experience, especially when it is danced with such flair and fabulousness as it was tonight by Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette. Ashley was beyond awesome and amazing (those two over-used words, but here thoroughly apt). Her dancing has reached a pinnacle of technique, artistry, and grace; but since she seems to take herself to ever-higher levels from season to season, it won’t surprise me if she continues to ascend. Tonight she was thrilling in her fluent rendering of the steps, her innate sense of stagecraft, and her sheer joy at being able to dance like this.

Few danseurs could hold their own onstage with such a paragon, but Andrew Veyette managed to do just that, filling the space with his virtuoso feats yet also displaying a cordial lyricism in his partnering as well as a wry bit of humour when inter-acting with the corps. Team Bouder-Veyette simply danced up a storm.

Outstanding corps dancing in DONIZETTI tonight: Mr. B gives them a lot to do and they went at it with élan. Caught without my opera glasses, I was left to admire their dancing from a distance: Mllles. Adams, Dronova, Gerrity, Johnson, Kretzschmar, and Segin along with those three genial virtuosos: Alberda, Applebaum, and Schumacher.

LA VALSE looks gorgeous with its recently-freshened costumes. It opens with a delectable trio of “Fates” – Marika Anderson, Gretchen Smith, and Lydia Wellington; they immediately drew us into the ballet’s atmosphere with their glamorous mystique.

Three pairs of soloists then engage us with some marvelous dancing: Lauren King and Antonio Carmena are suave and lyrical whilst the vibrant partnership of Georgina Pazcoguin and Sean Suozzi generated a very special electricity. Ashley Laracey (surely a candidate for the leading role in this ballet) was so lovely in her solo, and she and Zachary Catazaro were another marvelous match-up. Zachary, with the poetic appearance of a 19th century romance-novel heart-throb, really commanded the stage in his extended scene with Marika, Gretchen, and Lydia.

Sara Mearns brought a voluptuous quality to the role of the doomed girl; any ballerina taking on this iconic part must contend with memories of Rachel Rutherford and Janie Taylor, each of whom owned it during their NYCB careers. Sara, ever-lovely to watch, already draws a convincing portrait of the girl’s mixture of vanity, vulnerability, and palpitating curiosity. More nuances will doubtless develop as she goes deeper into the role (this was her debut). Tyler Angle was pale and distraught as her lover – what a courtly presence he can create – and Justin Peck, livid of visage, portrayed Death in a tour de force performance of frightening stillness and surety of domination.

In CHACONNE we could welcome the debuts of Teresa Reichlen and Adrian Danchig-Waring, those gorgeous creatures. As a counter-poise to SERENADE, the ballerina in CHACONNE first appears with her hair down, a Grecian goddess wandering through Elysium; later she reappears in full ballerina mode: hair up, and wearing a bejeweled wisp of a frock. Tess was radiant throughout: so expressive, and with her revelatory extension. Adrian looks like Apollo re-incarnated.

The two dancers experienced a minor partnering glitch late in their first duet, a spot where others have glitched before. They covered it beautifully, but it left me wondering what is happening here choreographically that causes the problem (my fourth time to see it happen, in exactly that same spot) and whether it might be altered slightly to assure a smooth transition.

Thereafter Tess and Adrian were truly splendid: wonderful mutual rapport, with their dancing elegant and so musically inspired. They built their duet – where they exchange solo passages while the other observes – with dazzling assurance and together they shook the audience out of its collective winter dream into a well-deserved round of cheers.

In the pas de trois, Aaron Sanz re-affirmed his nobility and long-limbed grace, dancing with the queenly Gwyneth Muller and – a rising favorite of mine – Claire Kretzschmar: all three so appealing to behold. Lauren King and Antonio Carmena sustained the excellent impression they’d made in LA VALSE with a polished performance of their CHACONNE pas de deux which features fast-paced, rather tricky partnering elements. In the pas de cinq, Indiana Woodward brought a light freshness to her supple dancing. And in the finale, some expert demi-soliste dancing from Ashley Hod, Unity Phelan, Devin Aberda, and David Prottas.

So nice to run into Jessica (Sand) and Casey Blonde, and Carol Weil tonight!

DONIZETTI VARIATIONS: Bouder, Veyette

LA VALSE: *Mearns, *T. Angle, *J.Peck, Kayali, King, Carmena, Pazcoguin, Suozzi, Laracey, Catazaro, Smith, Wellington, Anderson

CHACONNE: *Reichlen, *Danchig-Waring, King, Carmena, Muller, Kretzschmar, Sanz,*Woodward, Hod, Phelan, Alberda, Prottas

January 28, 2015
Gallery: Intermezzo Dance Company

Above: Amber Neff, Abi Stafford (NYC Ballet principal), and Shoshana Rosenfield in Craig Salstein’s THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS; photo by Sarah Sterner

On January 17th and 18th, 2015, Intermezzo Dance Company, founded and directed by ABT soloist Craig Salstein, offered a programme of works by five choreographers at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. The theme of the evening, From Myth to Philosophy, was echoed in a gallery of artwork by four New York City-based artists in the theatre lobby.

Since I was involved in the planning stages of the programme, I feel I cannot write a review per se, beyond saying that the five ballets were well-contrasted in style and music, and that there was some very fine dancing to be seen.

Photographer Sarah Sterner has provided some images from the Myth to Philosophy programme, and I am sharing them here as a representation of the works performed and the dancers who took part:

Mauro Villanueva in Craig Salstein’s THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

Amber Neff in Craig Salstein’s THE MYTH OF SISYPHUS

ABT’s Nicole Graniero with the Intermezzo ensemble in Gemma Bond’s MYTHOLOGY

Tanner Schwartz in Gemma Bond’s MYTHOLOGY

Rina Barrantes, Alfredo Solivan, and Temple Kemezis in Cherylyn Lavagnino’s HERA’S WRATH

Temple Kemezis and Rina Barrantes in Cherylyn Lavagnino’s HERA’S WRATH

Kaitlyn Gilliland in Adam Hendrickson’s BLACK IS THE COLOUR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S HAIR

Kaitlyn Gilliland in Adam Hendrickson’s BLACK IS THE COLOUR OF MY TRUE LOVE’S HAIR

Nicole Graniero (ABT) in Ja’ Malik’s JOURNEY TO PANDORA

Oliver Swan-Jackson in Ja’ Malik’s JOURNEY TO PANDORA

Rina Barrantes, Nancy Richer, and Giselle Alvarez in Ja’ Malik’s JOURNEY TO PANDORA

Nicole Graniero in Ja’ Malik’s JOURNEY TO PANDORA

All photos by Sarah Sterner.

January 27, 2015
Afternoon Salon @ Lydia Johnson Dance

Above: Lydia Johnson Dance‘s Brynt Beitman, Laura DiOrio, Blake Hennessy-York, and Sarah Pon; photo by Dmitry Beryozkin

Sunday January 25th, 2015 – Lydia Johnson Dance offering another event in their Salon Series this afternoon at the Gelsey Kirkland studios; arriving guests got to watch part of a Company class led by the Australian dancer/actor Reed Luplau; excerpts from Lydia Johnson’s danceworks (including a work-in-progress) were performed by the Company, followed by a discussion of the influence of classical ballet on the performing of contemporary dance.

Reed Luplau (above) performed with Lydia Johnson Dance in 2012, dancing in Lydia’s SUMMER HOUSE and CHANGE OF HEART, and he continues to work with LJD in a teaching role. In 2013, Reed had a principal role in the award-winning film FIVE DANCES. He is currently in rehearsal to reprise the role of Bosie (which he created) in Theodore Morrison’s opera OSCAR with Opera Philadelphia.

Images from Reed’s Company class:

Above: Chazz McBride and Oliver Swan-Jackson take a flying leap; Oliver has just signed on with Lydia Johnson Dance

Above: appearing for the first time with Lydia Johnson Dance, Katie Keith Dettling and Grant Dettling have had only a couple of LJD rehearsals to date but they very kindly agreed to be part of today’s Salon presentation

Above: Reed Luplau

The first of the afternoon’s danced excerpts were then presented: from WHAT COUNTS, set to jazz-based music by The Bad Plus. Here are some moments from this work, which is set for five dancers:

Above: Girl’s trio – Sarah Pon, Laura DiOrio, Katie Lohiya

Lift: Chazz Mcbride, Sarah Pon, Blake Hennessy-York

All that jazz…Katie…

…Chazz…

…Sarah…

…Laura.

Central to WHAT COUNTS is a pas de deux danced by Blake Hennessy-York and Sarah Pon (above).

Blake and Sarah were married in September 2013; there’s a gorgeous portfolio of their wedding photos – some of which I’d never see before! – here.

BARRETTS MILL ROAD: A REMEMBRANCE is Lydia’s lyrically nostalgic 2013 dancework set to piano works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Katie Keith Dettling and Grant Dettling – another married couple! – performed an excerpt from this work today, having only just begun working on it a few days earlier. They showed the serene confidence of beautifully-trained dancers, accustomed to dancing together:

The afternoon’s final dance offering was of excerpts from a new work-in-progress which uses music by Mark Mellits and Osvaldo Golijov. Calling fora large ensemble, the piece features a lot of partnered sequences. Here are some images from this new creation:

Brynt Beitman, Laura DiOrio, Blake Hennessy-York, Sarah Pon, Chazz Mcbride, Min Kim

Chazz Mcbride, Min Kim

Brynt Beitman, Blake Hennessy-York

Chazz and Min

Chazz and Min

Chazz and Min

Brynt, Laura, Blake, Sara

Laura, Brynt, Sarah, Blake

Sarah and Blake

Above: At the end of the presentation, the dancers posed for a photo with Lydia Johnson Dance founding Board member Rayna Pomper who, with her husband Marc, held the first party in support of LJD 15 years ago. Left to right: Min Kim, Chazz Mcbride, Laura DiOrio, Katie Keith Dettling, Grant Dettling, Ms. Pomper, Oliver Swan-Jackson, Katie Lohiya, Blake Hennessy-York, Sarah Pon, Brynt Beitman, and Reed Luplau.

All photography by Dmitry Beryozkin.

The works performed today will be seen on February 28th, 2015, when Lydia Johnson Dance appear at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. Details here.

January 25, 2015