Category: Dance

Catherine Gallant’s THE SECRET

Above: The Secret in rehearsal; the dancers are Janete Gondim and Eleanor Bunker

Catherine Gallant’s The Secret, one of my favorite danceworks experienced in recent seasons, may be seen on Vimeo here.

Seeing The Secret in 2016 prompted this response from me:

“The evening could not have a had a more propitious start than Ms. Gallant’s The Secret; like white-clad angels, the two dancers – Janete Gondim and Eleanor Bunker – continually conveyed the sense of wonder which permeates this dancework like a delicious fragrance.

With Ygor Shetsov at the piano, playing the Scriabin Poeme in F-sharp major, the two dancers moved about the space with a sort of quiet urgency, pausing to marvel at the treasure they had found, and which they were holding in the palms of their hands. The choreography flows gorgeously on the music: simple moves which take on a poetic resonance in the personalities of the two women; Janete and Eleanor were captivating to watch, and The Secret joins a short list of danceworks I’ve encountered in the past 20 years that ideally meld music, mood, and movement, leaving a lasting impression.”

~ Oberon

November 25, 2018
Catherine Gallant’s THE SECRET

Above: The Secret in rehearsal; the dancers are Janete Gondim and Eleanor Bunker

Catherine Gallant’s The Secret, one of my favorite danceworks experienced in recent seasons, may be seen on Vimeo here.

Seeing The Secret in 2016 prompted this response from me:

“The evening could not have a had a more propitious start than Ms. Gallant’s The Secret; like white-clad angels, the two dancers – Janete Gondim and Eleanor Bunker – continually conveyed the sense of wonder which permeates this dancework like a delicious fragrance.

With Ygor Shetsov at the piano, playing the Scriabin Poeme in F-sharp major, the two dancers moved about the space with a sort of quiet urgency, pausing to marvel at the treasure they had found, and which they were holding in the palms of their hands. The choreography flows gorgeously on the music: simple moves which take on a poetic resonance in the personalities of the two women; Janete and Eleanor were captivating to watch, and The Secret joins a short list of danceworks I’ve encountered in the past 20 years that ideally meld music, mood, and movement, leaving a lasting impression.”

~ Oberon

November 24, 2018
Upcoming: Lydia Johnson Dance ~ Studio Showing

On Sunday December 2nd at 3:00 PM, Lydia Johnson Dance will present the latest in their ongoing series of studio presentations in which excerpts from works-in-progress and from the repertory will be shown in an intimate setting.

The event takes place at the Ailey Studios, 405 West 55th Street.

November 23, 2018
Weilerstein|Bychkov ~ All-Dvořák @ Carnegie Hall

Above: cellist Alisa Weilerstein

Author: Ben Weaver

Saturday October 27th, 2018 – The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of its chief conductor and music director Semyon Bychkov, rolled into Carnegie Hall on Saturday, October 27th for a two-concert visit. The first concert was an all-Dvořák program which featured two of the composer’s greatest works: the Cello Concerto (with soloist Alisa Weilerstein) and Symphony No. 7.

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto was composed in New York City in 1894-95. Dvořák had long-held reservations about a concerto for the instrument: an early effort to write one in 1865 was left unfinished and lost until 1925; attempts by scholars to reconstruct it for performance have met with mixed results. But Dvořák was so impressed by a New York Philharmonic performance of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 that he decided to try again. (Herbert, a highly successful composer of operettas in his own right, was principal cellist of the NY Philharmonic.) The resulting cello concerto by Dvořák, in the key of B minor, is arguably the greatest one of all. Brahms, for example, exclaimed: “Why on earth didn’t I know that a person could write a violoncello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago.”

The opening Allegro begins with a mournful clarinet solo, a melody that reappears throughout the movement – and returns in the second half of the final movement. The cello enters playing the same melody, though in a different key. Alisa Weilerstein is one of the finest cellists in the world today and she held the audience spellbound with her passionate, emotionally generous and technically precise playing. With Maestro Bychkov, and an orchestra that has Dvořák in their bones, this was a performance from all that could not be improved. (Special recognition for the magnificent, soulful horn solo playing by, I assume from the roster, Kateřina Javůrková.) The lovely second movement, Adagio, contains Dvořák’s tribute to his dying sister-in-law Josefina (with whom he was secretly in love). He revised the finale of the concerto after returning to Prague and learning that Josefina had died. Dvořák inserted a melancholy section right before the end of the work. He wrote to the publisher: “The finale closes gradually, diminuendo – like a breath…”

The audience greeted Ms. Weilerstein’s performance with a warm standing ovation. Weilerstein’s control of the instrument is superb. She manages to produce a million colors of sound, the rich and warm tone of her cello glows. The audience kept calling her to return, no doubt hoping for an encore. Alas, not on this night. But it’s hard to top perfection anyway.

After the intermission the orchestra performed what many consider to be Dvořák’s finest symphony, No. 7, commissioned by the London Philharmonic Society in 1884. Dvořák himself conducted the premiere in 1885. The symphony opens with a sinister theme from the lower strings. This melody, and the dark mood, dominate the movement and haunt the rest of the symphony. No. 7 has a reputation as Dvořák’s tragic work and many conductors emphasize the darkness. But maestro Bychkov and the orchestra find more nuance here. Despite the somber mood of the opening movement there is plenty of humor too, including a lively Scherzo that could have been rejected from Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances. It is a truly great Symphony, even if has not gained the popularity of Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9. And the Czech Philharmonic plays it better than anyone.

The glowing strings, warm brass (no barking here), and the obvious love they have for this music are incomparable. Although most great orchestras can play everything well, there is something to be said for orchestras of a composer’s native land taking precedence in how their music can and should sound. Russians play Tchaikovsky better than anyone, Czech musicians do it with with Dvořák and Janáček, the French play French in ways most others simply don’t, an Italian voice can do things with a Verdi line that no one else can, etc. It’s not just about all the notes being played – any decent orchestra can do that – it’s about how the musicians feel about those notes. And this great orchestra clearly feels Dvořák’s music in a singular way. It’s not just love for the music, it’s pride in the music. It is impossible to replicate anywhere else.

You could hear and feel this uniqueness tonight, especially in the two encores: two Slavonic Dances, the lilting Starodávný (Op. 72, No. 2; surely one of Dvořák’s most memorable melodies) and the thrilling Furiant (Op. 46, No. 8). If you didn’t sway or tap along to this music, if you didn’t sing it to yourself, you weren’t doing it right.

~ Ben Weaver

October 28, 2018
Percussion and Piano @ Carnegie

~Author: Scoresby

Friday October 26 2018 – As the first concert in her six-part Perspectives residency at Carnegie Hall, Yuja Wang decided to do a thought-provoking collaboration with percussionists. It is great that instead of playing standard repertoire, Ms. Wang is using her platform to push her audience into more unfamiliar repertoire, such as her recital in Carnegie last season and this performance. Here, she was working with some of the all-stars of the percussion world: Martin Grubinger, his father Martin Grubinger Sr, Alexander Georgiev, and Leonhard Schmidinger for an incredibly fun evening. Unfortunately, the performance was billed as “Yuja Wang, piano and Martin Grubinger, percussion” with the other percussionists relegated to small lettering. The program didn’t even mention which percussionists played on which of the works. Oddly, no instrumentation was given for each work, instead just “piano and percussion”, despite a litany of different percussion instruments used. Nonetheless, Ms. Wang and Mr. Grubinger did give credit to their colleagues and this truly was a collaborative performance between all five musicians.

Above: In the throes of the Bartók (from left to right): Leonhard Schmidinger, Alexander Georgiev, Yuja Wang, Martin Grubinger Sr, and Martin Grubinger; Photo Credit: Chris Lee

The program began with Bartók’s Sonata for Two Piano and Percussion arranged for one piano and percussion by Martin Grubinger Sr. This was the most successful of the arrangements of the evening. Along with the Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, this is Bartók at his most avant-garde with many references to jazz, interesting instrumentation, and spiky melodies. The biggest change to the score in this arrangement was splitting one of the piano parts into two marimbas played by exceptionally like one instrument by Mr. Grubinger and Mr. Georgiev – their coordination was almost surreal. The traditional percussion was played by Mr. Schmidinger and Mr. Grubinger Sr. The impact that this changed the entire timbre of the piece, becoming less incisive in a way but far more colorful. In a way it made the music sound even more avantgarde. In the mysterious opening chords after the rumbling timpani played by Martin Grubinger Sr, the aggressive playing of Ms. Wang was contrasted with the light tremolos on the marimba.

With two pianos this texture sounds more like an attack, but the woodiness of the marimbas added a lighter atmosphere and made Ms. Wang’s piano seem more percussive. It was a brilliant play to highlight the piano playing while improving the music making. Ms. Wang for her part seemed to naturally get the score switching from whacking chords for emphasize to lyrical furtive blending into the ensemble. In the second movement, Bartók employs his night music in a classic tenary form. Ms. Wang’s evocative playing here with the military-esque sound of the percussion and softness of the Marimbas worked well in tandem to produce an unusual Messiaen-like ethereal sound.

Mr. Grubinger and Mr. Georgiev exchanged more and more agitated lines with Ms. Wang leading into the virtuosic agitato with ripples of arpeggios punctuated by chords. Ms. Wang silvery sound moved through the dead hits of percussion, a dialogue less apparent in the original score. The group whipped its way through the Stravinsky-esque finale capturing a raw energy.

The sold-out crowd seemed somewhat confused by the music, perhaps a little too avant-garde for their taste – but to me it was thrilling. Luckily for most of the crowd the group came back onstage to play Martin Grubinger Sr.’s arrangement of John Psathas’s Etude from One Study for three percussionists and piano. This work is a virtuosic piece that riffs through a bunch different sequences and Mr. Grubinger Sr. made sure that each instrument got its own fun solo to show off. It was the perfect piece for some levity after the serious Bartók and genuinely sounded more in the idiom of a rock concert by the end of the etude, causing the crowd to roar with applause.

The second half of the program began with another Martin Grubinger Sr. Arrangement: this time of The Rite of Spring for one piano and three percussionists. Mr. Grubinger Sr.’s arrangement of this was magical, using elements of the two piano and one piano versions of the piece combined with marimba, vibraphone, chimes along with Stravinsky’s percussion of timpani, woodblock, washboard etc… to produce a completely unique sound that still paid homage to the original. It is incredibly unfortunate that the Stravinsky Estate decided a few weeks before this tour to ban this group from performing the work anywhere in which the copyright of the piece is still in effect (US being the only place where it is lifted), so this ended up being the second and last performance of the tour.

The group after the final applause (left to right): Martin Grubinger, Leonhard Schmidinger, Alexander Georgiev, Yuja Wang, and Martin Grubinger Sr.

The opening was flush with color using the vibraphone as the bassoon mixed with humming tremolos from the piano and marimba to slowly build into the percussive attacks of the Augurs of Spring. The explosive last few movements such as the Ritual of the Rival Tribes and the Dance of the Earth of the first part were where this arrangement really shined, sounding at once razor-sharp and still managing to capture Stravinsky’s innovative instrumentation. In the introduction to Part II, the primordial timbres were still achieved by Mr. Georgiev bowing the vibraphone (and perhaps bowed glass too?) producing an eerie metallic sound mixed with the light woody marimba of Mr. Grubinger and a base structure of Ms. Wang’s piano playing the string part of the score.

After those first two movements of Part II, the balance seemed quite off with the percussion absorbing all of Ms. Wang’s sound. Nonetheless, all four performances gave a virtuosic and energized performance. Interestingly, the percussion seemed less precise than Ms. Wang’s piano, particularly in the final section of the piece during the complicated rhythmic playing. The percussion chosen wasn’t able to stop its vibration quick enough, so some of the crisp beats sounded muddier from the bleeding sound. Still, the group seemed in perfect sync with one another, this was true ensemble playing.

To end the performance (personally it seemed odd to me to have anything after The Rite, given how climactic it is already), the group played Mr. Grubinger Sr.’s arrangement of Leticia Gómez-Tagle’s solo piano arrangement the popular orchestral work by Arturo Márquez Danzon No. 2. This poppy but fun piece was thoroughly enjoyable if a little light after The Rite. Ms. Wang seemed to really dig into the opening tango and enjoy the many different Latin American rhythms that come as the piece develops. The group did a good job keeping this fun and energized. After a thunderous applause Ms. Wang and Mr. Grubinger gave an encore of the two of them playing Jesse Sieff’s Chopstankovich, which essentially a virtuosic snare drum part added to Shostakovich String Quartet’s No. 8’s intense second movement (in this case, the string part performed by Ms. Wang on piano). It was a fun little encore to cap the evening’s eccentric program. It was a wonderful collaborative program that broke the more staid conservative environment with some of the best musicians around.

— Scoresby

October 28, 2018
Bychkov|Czech Philharmonic ~ Mahler 2nd

Above: Maestro Semyon Bychkov

Author: Oberon

Sunday October 28th, 2019 matinee – Attending a performance of the Mahler 2nd invariably fills me with memories of past performances of the work that I have experienced. By far the most meaningful of these came at Carnegie Hall in December 2001 when my late friend Makiko Narumi sang the solo alto part in a performance by the Juilliard Orchestra. She was suffering from a rare form of cancer, but heroically she sang…and moved everyone to tears with her “Urlicht“. She left Carnegie Hall in a wheelchair that night, and never sang in public again. She flew to Japan in March 2002 to seek treatment there, but she died at her parents’ home in Aomori within a month.

This afternoon, back at Carnegie, the great conductor Semyon Bychkov led the Czech Philharmonic in a rendering of this Mahler masterpiece that was not quite the soul-stirring experience I had been anticipating; the reasons for this were mainly extra-musical.

The conductor’s pacing of the work was flawless, and there were long paragraphs of superbly layered sound from the orchestra. The symphony’s epic climaxes and their ensuing ebbing away were impeccably judged by the Maestro. The courtly opening of the second movement, and the ‘Halloween’ dance of the third reminded me yet again of what a great work the Mahler 2nd truly is. Full-bodied strings and expert solo woodwind playing gave a great deal of pleasure, and the chorus played their part in the proceedings to wonderful effect.

These positive elements were somewhat offset by some fluffed brass playing, and by vocal soloists who were more serviceable than inspiring. Mezzo-Soprano Elisabeth Kulman sounded lovely in the very quiet start of the Urlicht; later, a trace of flatness crept in, and the concluding rising phrase of the song seemed a bit unsupported. She sounded fine, though, in the later O glaube! Soprano Christiane Karg’s upper notes were somewhat tremulous, though overall her sound is appealing.

But it was a series of noises in the hall that eventually took on a comic aspect – due to their frequency and timing – which made concentrating on the music next to impossible. It started during a dead silence midway thru the symphony’s opening Allegro maestoso; and it happened again during the Andante moderato. Then, just as Ms. Kulman was starting the Urlicht, there was a loud thud. And something else was dropped during an offstage brass passage.

In the final movement, everything at last seemed to be going smoothly – aside from some wonky brass notes and yet another dropped item – until the chorus made their hushed entrance. Here, atmosphere is everything. But the sound of a door closing somewhere ruined it.

When so many earth-bound distractions occur in the course of a single symphony, one feels battered down. My high expectations for this concert were slowly frittered away as the afternoon wore on.

Considering my abiding love for the Mahler 2nd, this is not at all the type of article I thought I’d be writing this evening. But an accumulation of ordinary annoyances – there were others that I haven’t mentioned – got the upper hand today.

NOTE: Ben Weaver writes about the Czech Philharmonic’s opening performance at Carnegie Hall, which took place on Saturday evening, October 27th, here. Ben was with me at the Mahler matinee, and said that the blips in the brass playing on Sunday were nowhere evident in the Dvořák program. He felt in general that the orchestra players might have been experiencing some fatigue on Sunday afternoon following a big program on Saturday night. He also said that the Dvořák program was free of audience distractions and extraneous noises.

~ Oberon

October 27, 2018
Aimard | Stefanovich @ Carnegie

~Author: Scoresby

Thursday October 25 2018 – The difference between hearing a particular musician live versus hearing a recording of them can be extraordinary. For Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich‘s two piano performance in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall, I was excited by the repertoire but unsure how it would be performed. Familiar with Mr. Aimard’s many recordings but never having heard him live, I have always thought of him as a thoughtful, but somewhat understated pianist. This duo proved me wrong in one of the most exciting and beautiful performances I’ve heard in the past few years.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich during last night’s recital; Photo Credit: Steve Sherman

This was a concert of equals, exchange, and contrasts. To begin the program, they selected seven works from Bartok’s Mikrokosmos. For those who haven’t studied piano, the Mikrokosmos occupy an odd place: wonderful short studies meant to illuminate aspects of technique/musical thinking ranging from the beginner (Book 1) to virtuoso performer (Book 6). Bartok made sure that each of these were compositionally interesting and many are imbued with folksy melodies.

The short selection Ms. Stefanovich and Mr. Aimard drew from covered the range of styles. One was the Debussy like Chord and Trill Study in which Mr. Aimard played a constant Debussy-like trill to Ms. Stafanovich’s chordal melody. The light touch and exquisite pedaling made this short study shine. In the aptly named New Hungarian Folk Song (originally for voice and piano), they brought out the Messiaen-like textures in the base chords below the lyrical melody. To end the selections they played the Ligeti-like Ostinato trading accents and rhythms with each other. It was a nice launching point for the rest of the evening.

Next was Ravel’s very early work Sites auriculaires which consists of a Habanera in the first movement and a second movement titled Between bells. In the Habanera, Mr. Aimard plucked out a sensual low pulse that is kept quietly moving through the movement while Ms. Stefanovich brought a clean sound to the more melodic part. The performers made the most of the luscious bell-like sonorities in the opening of Between bells that sound like later Ravel, full of whole tones with large dynamics. The silken middle section was given a soft pedaling and lots of space to let the notes resonate.

The major work on the first half of the program was the US Premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s Keyboard Engine, A Construction for Two Pianos. Like the rest of the program, this piece is a study in opposites: ranging from dynamics, thematic material between performers, rhythmic contrasts, toccata like lines paired with heavy chords, and many others. The two pianos seem split in this material – always interrupting the other with its contrast, sometimes aligning to produce a new sonority altogether. After a dodecaphonic sounding start of quiet repetitious notes the music roars to life with sudden loud dynamics in the extreme registers of the piano. The pianos are slowly exchanging a call and answer type format and the dialogue between them becomes more frenzied. After a brief respite with dreamy material, a rapid pace ensues with an ostinato that is punctuated by polyrhythms in both instruments. Both performers seemed to gleefully indulge interrupting the other’s lines and hitting giant chords in sync.

These spacious and frenzied passages continue to alternate for the remainder of the work and each time a passage moves in to the opposite extreme it takes on slightly different material. Ms. Stefanovich and Mr. Aimard managed to capture the frenzy, intimacy, and mischievousness that this piece has – it would be fantastic for two dancers to stage given the many contrasts. One of my favorite sections was near the end when Mr. Aimard’s piano begins to create sympathetic vibrations with the other piano by holding down specific keys with the sustain pedal. These transfers of sound and timbre gave a bell like quality to some of Ms. Stefanovich’s chords. I found myself transfixed in the jazzy riffs of rhythm and spinning themes of the piano. It must take incredible coordination to pull off such an assured performance of this work that seemed to be perfectly both in and out of sync. It was a pleasure to see both pianists studying each other carefully for cues.

Above: Loriod and Messiaen many years later, still in love

The treat of the evening came after intermission in the form of Messiaen’s Visions de l’amen. This sprawling seven movement, 50-minute (small for Messiaen’s standards) work is a classic two piano piece with each of the movements dedicated to a vision of a reason to be thankful (or an amen as Messiaen puts it) – this is a cosmic, mystical piece of music in a way only Messiaen can deliver. Like the Birtwistle work, each piano has its own distinct voice – a fleeting, fast ethereal part that was written for Messiaen’s future wife Yvonne Loriod and an earthier chordal part written for himself. Ms. Loriod was perhaps the greatest contemporary music pianist of the 20^th century and the dedicatee of almost all of Messiaen’s piano music – they had a partnership of equals. Ms. Stefanovich took on Loriod’s voice and Mr. Aimard took Messiaen’s.

Before the opening Amen of creation, the performers took a good two minutes on stage letting the audience quiet down and the rumbling of the subway beneath to pass before beginning. Mr. Aimard managed to make the ppp in the score for his primordial opening sound like a whisper coming out of the slight noise from the crowd earlier before introducing the main melodic theme of the work. Meanwhile, the pppp high-pitched bells from Ms. Stefanovich rang in a soft, but lucid texture. The creeping in Ms. Stefanovich’s part is classic Messiaen – a song of the stars that is continually moving atop Mr. Aimard’s expanding chords. The interaction between the two is like light hitting stained glass and creating refractions – the light being Ms. Stefanovich’s bending colors. The music continued getting faster and louder as the “Creation” unfolded until the resonance from the piano held in the air with one last loud chord. In the next movement’s long introduction, Mr. Aimard nailed the jazzy harmonies and riffs barrowed from the Quartet from the End of Time’s sixth movement in the low register. Ms. Stefanovich’s managed to play through the rapid bird like sequences in the high reaches of the piano in a sing-song fashion in perfect time with beefy chords from Mr. Aimard. This exchange and dialogue of thematic material was so much fun to both watch and hear.

One of my favorite moments from the evening was after the first outburst of passion in the Amen of desire. The music got very quiet producing a moment of éblouissement. Mr. Aimard played a tender love theme while Ms. Stefanovich in the tinkled a taught, but honeyed variation of the original ‘star’ melody in the upper registers. The quiet sensitivity of Ms. Stefanovich’s made the music sing. This gave way to a loud run of manic, effervescent love at the climax of the movement with both performers seemingly investing all of their energy. It was clearly that this work is personal to both of them. Only the ending of the Amen of the consummation got even louder, more manic, and extreme in its sound.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich; Photo Credit: Steve Sherman

Through all the dense textures, both performers managed to emphasize Messiaen’s stunning language taking through the virtuosic runs of Ms. Stefanovich’s high register and the huge chords of Ms. Aimard’s lower register. In the fffff final, organ like chords spanning the register of the entire piano the audience gave a well-deserved rapturous applause before the notes even decayed. They ran the gamut of textures, timbres, and emotions – ending in exaltation. As one more conservative in taste neighbor near me put it “I never thought I’d like that sort of modern music, but hearing that piece in person was like a religious experience!” Indeed it is and it is difficult to get a sense of the proportions of such a piece from a recording.

— Scoresby

The Performers:

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

Tamara Stefanovich, piano

The Repertoire:

Bartók: Seven Selections from Mikrokosmos

Ravel: Site auriculaires

Birtwistle: Keyboard Engine, A Construction for Two Pianos

Messiaen: Visions de l’amen

October 25, 2018
At Amanda Selwyn’s Open Rehearsal

Above: Sarah Starkweather, Manon Halley, and Misaki Hayama of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre; photo by Hayim Heron

~ Author: Oberon

On Monday, October 15th, 2018, I caught up with Amanda Selwyn when her company presented an open rehearsal at the Ailey Studios.

Over the past few years, my interest in dance has slowly been fading. But there are a few choreographers who will always draw me back, and Amanda is one of them; I can honestly say I’ve never seen a Selwyn work I didn’t like…or love.

So when I received an invitation to an open rehearsal of Amanda’s new work-in-progress, CROSSROADS, I rearranged my schedule so as to attend. Inspired by the art of Magritte and Escher, Amanda is collaborating with scenic and costume designer Anna-Alisa Belous for this production. CROSSROADS will be performed June 20th thru 22nd, 2019, at New York Live Arts.

Amanda Selwyn’s danceworks are always a collaborative effort on the part of choreographer and her dancers. In the early phases of creation, the individual dancers come up with phrases or gestures. These movement motifs are taken up by the company, tried in unison. If the consensus is positive, the phrase becomes an experimental element which may be elaborated upon, broken down or re-shuffled, and finally assimilated into the dance. These motifs may appear in various guises – as solo, duet, or ensemble passages – as the work develops. Amanda is the mastermind who assembles, enhances, and molds the finished product.

So this evening, I was really happy to see Amanda again, she being one of my favorite danceworld personalities. Three women I’ve met before – Torrey McAnena, Manon Halley, and Sarah Starkweather – are pillars of the Selwyn ensemble. I was delighted to see that Misaki Hayama, who danced recently with Roberto Villanueva’s BalaSole Dance Company, has joined Amanda’s troupe. Alex Cottone has danced for Amanda before, but I had not previously met him. Two new male dancers have just recently joined the Company: tall and athletic Fabricio Seraphim, and a vibrant, energetic young man named Yoshio Pineda.

Here are some images by Hayim Heron from this studio presentation:

Alex Cottone

Torrey McAnena

Fabricio Seraphim and Torrey McAnena

Manon Halley

Sarah Starkweather, Alex Cottone

Misaki Hayama, Sarah Starkweather, Yoshio Pineda

Torrey McAnena

Sarah Starkweather

All photography by Hayim Heron

It was simply great to watch these dancers, and to feel re-connected to Amanda Selwyn’s work. Now I need to get in touch with her and visit some upcoming rehearsals.

~ Oberon

October 24, 2018
At Amanda Selwyn’s Open Rehearsal

Above: Sarah Starkweather, Manon Halley, and Misaki Hayama of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre; photo by Hayim Heron

~ Author: Oberon

On Monday, October 15th, 2018, I caught up with Amanda Selwyn when her company presented an open rehearsal at the Ailey Studios.

Over the past few years, my interest in dance has slowly been fading. But there are a few choreographers who will always draw me back, and Amanda is one of them; I can honestly say I’ve never seen a Selwyn work I didn’t like…or love.

So when I received an invitation to an open rehearsal of Amanda’s new work-in-progress, CROSSROADS, I rearranged my schedule so as to attend. Inspired by the art of Magritte and Escher, Amanda is collaborating with scenic and costume designer Anna-Alisa Belous for this production. CROSSROADS will be performed June 20th thru 22nd, 2019, at New York Live Arts.

Amanda Selwyn’s danceworks are always a collaborative effort on the part of choreographer and her dancers. In the early phases of creation, the individual dancers come up with phrases or gestures. These movement motifs are taken up by the company, tried in unison. If the consensus is positive, the phrase becomes an experimental element which may be elaborated upon, broken down or re-shuffled, and finally assimilated into the dance. These motifs may appear in various guises – as solo, duet, or ensemble passages – as the work develops. Amanda is the mastermind who assembles, enhances, and molds the finished product.

So this evening, I was really happy to see Amanda again, she being one of my favorite danceworld personalities. Three women I’ve met before – Torrey McAnena, Manon Halley, and Sarah Starkweather – are pillars of the Selwyn ensemble. I was delighted to see that Misaki Hayama, who danced recently with Roberto Villanueva’s BalaSole Dance Company, has joined Amanda’s troupe. Alex Cottone has danced for Amanda before, but I had not previously met him. Two new male dancers have just recently joined the Company: tall and athletic Fabricio Seraphim, and a vibrant, energetic young man named Yoshio Pineda.

Here are some images by Hayim Heron from this studio presentation:

Alex Cottone

Torrey McAnena

Fabricio Seraphim and Torrey McAnena

Manon Halley

Sarah Starkweather, Alex Cottone

Misaki Hayama, Sarah Starkweather, Yoshio Pineda

Torrey McAnena

Sarah Starkweather

All photography by Hayim Heron

It was simply great to watch these dancers, and to feel re-connected to Amanda Selwyn’s work. Now I need to get in touch with her and visit some upcoming rehearsals.

~ Oberon

October 23, 2018
Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT: A Documentary

Above: dancers Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa and Joseph Jehle in a 2011 performance of Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT at the 92nd Street Y; photo by Kokyat

~ Author: Oberon

Thursday September 27th, 2018 – Having followed the development of Robin Becker’s profoundly moving anti-war dancework INTO SUNLIGHT from its early rehearsals in 2010, I was honored to be invited to a screening of the new documentary film about the piece this evening.

Robin Becker did not set out to create a dancework about the Vietnam War; her idea was to make a piece that would grow out of her sense of helpless despair when the US commenced its war against Iraq. In researching for her project, she came upon David Maraniss’s book THEY MARCHED INTO SUNLIGHT. She immediately felt its power as a depiction of the human aspects of war and of war’s effect on both the people fighting it and on their loved ones waiting at home for them to return (or not), as well as thoughtful citizens enraged by the policies and careless disdain for the value of human life of the politicians who wage wars.

INTO SUNLIGHT was inspired by the David Maraniss book ‘They Marched Into Sunlight‘, an account of two days in October 1967 when “…war was raging in Vietnam as the anti-war movement was raging in America.” I’m eyeing my copy of the book on my bookshelf as I write this, and will start re-reading it in a few days.

The book – and the ballet – revolve around two events that took place on those days in October of 1967: the ambush of a battalion of American soldiers in the Vietnam jungle, and a protest against the Dow Chemical Company at the University of Wisconsin.

Robin Becker has given the tragic tale a new dimension thru her choreography. Set to a score Chris Lastovicka, Robin’s ballet entwines both threads of the book – the war abroad and the reaction at home – in a cohesive narrative, as dark and haunting as any dancework I have witnessed. Along with Jacqulyn Buglisi’s deeply resonant TABLE OF SILENCE, INTO SUNLIGHT stands as a truly meaningful dance experience. Both works share a common root: they are about something.

Watch a trailer for INTO SUNLIGHT here. And visit the documentary’s website here.

Above: Robin Becker and company photographed while in Vietnam in 2015 for performances of INTO SUNLIGHT

Ron Honsa’s film is outstanding on every count. He brings us gorgeously-shot performance footage, segments of Ms. Becker and David Maraniss speaking of the connection between the dancework and the book; and Mr. Honsa follows the Becker company to Vietnam, where INTO SUNLIGHT was performed in 2015.

But Mr. Honsa delves deeper, bringing us interviews with people whose lives were permanently affected by the events of October 1967: Consuelo Allen, Clark Welch, and Paul Solgin.

Consuelo Allen’s father, Lieutenant Colonel Terry Allen, Jr., had been home on leave and was saying goodbye to his family before heading back to Vietnam when his five-year-old daughter Consuelo cried out: “You can’t leave! You’re going to die!” On that fatal morning of October 17, 1967, as he led his Black Lions battalion on a search-and-destroy mission in the Long Nguyen Secret Zone, Terry Allen, Jr. and sixty of his men were killed in an ambush.

Clark Welch was one of Terry’s commanders. He suffers extreme mental torment over the loss of his men. Both Clark and Consuelo are deeply touching as the tell their stories for the film.

Paul Solgin was one of the demonstrators at the University of Wisconsin; many of the demonstrators sustained injury at the hands of club-swinging police. Ironically, their freedom of speech and of dissent might be thought to be among the ideals that the soldiers serving in Vietnam were fighting to protect.

Above: me and Robin Becker after the 92nd Y showing of INTO SUNLIGHT in 2011; photo by Kokyat.

Among the audience at this evening’s showing of the documentary was dancer Nicole Sclafani, who plays a major role in Robin Becker’s INTO SUNLIGHT. In the ballet, Nicole’s duet with Oisín Monaghan depicts a woman who dreamed of the death of her brother from a horrific abdominal wound sustained in battle, only to awaken the next day to find that her dream was prophetic.

Another true story that is told in INTO SUNLIGHT is of the death of West Point football hero Don Holleder, who – with his comrades – rushed headlong onto the battlefield that October morning and was immediately gunned down. Compellingly danced by Chazz Fenner-McBride, it’s one of the ballet’s heart-stopping moments.

Yet another of the most poignant scenes in the dancework is that of a young widow, danced by Yoko Sugimoto-Ikezawa, visiting the grave of her soldier-husband, portrayed in the film by Ricky Werthen. The distraught woman clings to the gravestone, unable to comprehend the loss of her beloved.

This was written by me after initially reading Mr. Maraniss’s book:

“For all the emotional power behind the factual re-telling of these events, by far the most overwhelming aspect of the story comes many years after the incidents when the leaders of the two factions who met on that battlefield that October morning meet once again – now old warriors – and explore the anonymous patch of Vietnamese land where so many young men (from both sides) laid down their lives. If only the two commanders could have met before the battle, they might have realized their differences were vastly outweighed by their common humanity. They could have shaken hands and walked back to their respective camps, refusing to kill each other simply because someone had told them it was the thing to do.”

UPDATE: This documentary will be shown at AMC Loew’s on Saturday October 20th at 4:00 PM as part of the Chelsea Film Festival.

~ Oberon

September 27, 2018