Category: Ballet

Amy Marshall Dance Company: Rehearsal

Wednesday November 24, 2010 – The dancers of Amy Marshall Dance Company are preparing for a studio showing on November 29th for friends of the Company at which Amy will unveil a new logo and announce the launch of their new website which features a collaboration with designer Norma Kamali and photographer Lois Greenfield. I dropped in at City Center studio for an hour today to watch the dancers running thru Riding the Purple Twilight, a section of which will be performed at Monday’s fete.

During a break, Chad Levy gave me a sneak peek at the new website. It’s stunning. I look forward to ‘introducing’ it on my blog.

Having my camera with me was of little use when the choreography is as fast-paced as this. Most of my images were just blurs of motion. A least in the above picture you can tell who that these are people.

Shannon MacDowell and Louis Acquisto, above.

More about Amy Marshall Dance Company after Monday’s event.

November 24, 2010
Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company: Rehearsal

Tuesday November 23, 2010 – I went down to Harlem today to watch part of a rehearsal of the Nai-Ni Chen Dance Company in preparation for their upcoming performances. The Company will perform at the Harlem School of the Arts from December 2nd thru 5th. Details here. The performances are a collaboration with the Ahn Trio and composer Kenji Bunch. In addition, dances set to works by Pat Metheny and Ronn Yedidia will be premiered.

We discovered Nai-Ni Chen earlier this year when a dancer we’d met, Jamison Goodnight, joined Nai-Ni’s company. Both Kokyat and I so thoroughly enjoyed the programme we saw and have been looking forward to seeing the group again. Kokyat’s photo of Jamison, above.

At today’s rehearsal I watched a preview of the works to be shown at the upcoming performances. Each piece is like a visual poem; certain stylistic elements run like silken threads thry the tapestries of dance but each work is also a unique response to the respective musical composition. Above: dancers Riyo Mito and Justin Lynch.

Central to the Chen/Ahn/Bunch collaboration will be a piece entitled CONCRETE STREAM. The work – which begins with a finely-wrought solo for Jamison Goodnight – will feature the musicians’ participation onstage. For another Kenji Bunch composition, GROOVEBOXES, the choreographer departs from her signature style of spacious, lyrical movement and has the dancers sailing thru fast-paced, energized combinations with perfect grace.

I am not sure who has the finer fortune here: the dancers who have Nai-Ni’s entrancing choreography in which they can give wing to their expressive artistry, or Nai-Ni Chen herself in having such an appealing and polished roster of dancers to turn her visions into danced reality. It’s an ideal situation for all concerned.

The dancers were kind enough – at the end of a long day in the studio – to pose for some photos which of course made me wish that Kokyat had been there. It does seem that he will be photographing one of the performances next week so then I should really have some exciting images of this radiant Company to share. Above: Riyo Mito and Justin Lynch.

Wei Yao and Jamison Goodnight…

…performed an impromptu adagio for me.

Jamison and Wei

Francisco Silvino…

…tries on a new costume, and he looks great.

November 22, 2010
Columbia Ballet Collaborative @ MMAC

Sunday November 21, 2010 matinee – The Columbia Ballet Collaborative under the artistic direction of Elysia Dawn gave an afternoon of dance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center with a new work by Pennsylvania Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence Matthew Neenan starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar, as well as a premiere work by CBC’s resident choreographer Emery LeCrone. The programme also featured new works by Zalman Grinberg, NYCB soloist Adam Hendrickson, Summer Jones and Amanda Lowe. Photo at the top: from a rehearsal of Emery LeCrone’s new CBC work entitled Palindrome; photo by Kokyat.

The afternoon started well and built from there; each choreographer’s voice was clearly expressive and there was a fine variety of musical styles to keep the ear as content as the eye.

Summer Jones presented Sound in One Movement to a violin solo composed and played ‘live’ by Philip Wharton. Structured with an opening duet followed by a quartet and then an ensemble passage featuring a prominent pas de deux couple the choreographer showed an interesting grasp of having different people doing different things at the same time; the attractive music helped to blend these elements into a cohesive whole.

Matthew Neenan, resident choreographer of Pennsylvania Ballet, set the andante of Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in A minor as a pas de deux for Elysia Dawn and New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar. Both dressed in black, the dancers performed this duet with a quiet tenderness that never became saccharine. With his inherent star power, Amar could easily have turned this adagio into a personal showpiece but instead he gallantly kept the focus on his beautiful partner.

“A wonderful voice, not suited for singing” was my initial thought on hearing Joanna Newsom for the first time singing Sawdust and Diamonds as the score of Amanda Lowe’s Then and Never. I’d had the same reaction the first time I heard Alanis Morisette – til she won me over with The Uninvited. Anyway, after a few moments Ms. Newsom and her harp started weaving a spell. And the choreographer took up the thread and wove it into a really impressive piece for nine women which had an Isadora Duncan feel (or was I having a Duncan hangover from last night?) but which also had a clarity of structure that was refreshing in its appeal. The nine girls took the music and the choreographer’s vision and gave the piece a transportive feminine energy.

Last week Zalman Grinberg set Debussy to very appealing effect at the Young Choreographers Showcase. Today he scored again using a familiar piece (Chopin Impromptu #4) and creating a trio for three sylphs on pointe (The Impromptu Fantasise) that seemed on the face of it to be a reverie in romantic-style classicism; by incorporating subtle contemporary touches here and there Zalman gave the piece a unique quality. His three ballerinas – Caitlin Dieck, Kara Buckley and Katie Kantor – were attractive components of the work’s success. I look forward to following Zalman’s choreographic work in the coming months; he seems to have something unique to say and he isn’t afraid to use the classics as a basis for expression.

The afternoon was on an impressive roll and New York City Ballet’s Adam Hendrickson took up the torch with a wonderfully satisfying piece entitled Sun Will Set. The gently rhythmic score by Zoe Keating evoked cradles, rocking chairs or the endless thrum of a spinning wheel as this Americana ballet evolved with imaginative clarity. Four women in plain soft-coloured shifts gather, glean and weave in a gestural language of repetitive tasks. From their busywork, each has a solo phrase just long enough to make a personal impression before stepping back to the collective. Music, movement and mood were finely integrated; the piece really drew me in. Kudos to the four girls – Sophie Alpern, Lauren Alpert, Lauren DeMaria and Alexandra McGlade – who gave life to Adam’s vision. Past works of Adam’s that I’ve seen tended to feature virtuoso passages for male dancers; in extending his range here, I felt that Adam’s moving steadily along on a unique choreographic path. I will be watching to see where it leads him.

Above: Kokyat’s photo of Erin Arbuckle rehearsing Emery LeCrone’s Palindrome. Here Emery has produced another intriguing dancework to add to her treasury with Palindrome, a dark work set to an often ominous-sounding score culled from music of Chris Clark and Venetian Snares. Four dancers – Erin Arbuckle, Rebecca Azenberg, Paul Busch and Richard Isaac – move thru this stark soundscape with powerful individual performances.There are duets – Erin and Paul, Rebecca and Richard – and a passage of communal port de bras that seems to communicate some ancient language. The choreography flows forward and then at a point everything flows in reverse. Kokyat and I had seen a developmental rehearsal of this piece early on in the process, and a second rehearsal when it was fully set (photo of Erin Arbuckle above by Kokyat) but in the costumed and lit final product there was still a lot to discover.

Manhattan Movement and Arts Center is becoming one of my favorite destinations in the New York dance world. From ballet classes taught by Deborah Wingert to watching Joy Womack rehearsing an Avi Scher solo, Kokyat and I have had some great times at MMAC in recent months. I always look forward to going there.

November 21, 2010
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
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
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