Category: Dance

Notes on a Voyage

Tuesday September 16th, 2014 – Whenever I come away from a performance (or rehearsal) of the Martha Graham Dance Company, I feel the need to invent new adjectives to describe both the works being danced and the people dancing them. Tonight, as part of the on-going GRAHAM/Deconstructed series, we saw an open rehearsal of the 1947 Graham classic, Errand Into the Maze, and a new work, Notes on a Voyage, created by former Graham dancer Peter Sparling.

Errand Into the Maze, with its powerful score by Gian Carlo Menotti, seems startlingly fresh and meaningful each time I see it. Though billed as a ‘rehearsal’, the dancers – PeiJu Chien-Pott and Ben Schultz – gave a performance of deep commitment and generous physicality. Pei-Ju, luminous in a white shift, painted the terror and the ultimate triumph of her journey in a vividly nuanced performance. With his handsomely inked torso, Ben seemed an unconquerable force as he stalked his prey. Yet in the end, PeiJu overcomes her fear and casts him down. The packed house watched this masterpiece with intense focus and burst into an enthusiastic and richly-deserved applause for the two dancers at the end.

And now let me take a moment to congratulate the award-winning PeiJu Chein-Pott (above)! Read the story here.

Above: Blakeley White-McGuire and Ben Schultz in Notes On A Voyage, photo by Antonia K Miranda

In his striking multi-media work, Notes On A Voyage, Peter Sparling has summoned up a vision of Martha Graham’s lost 1953 work, Voyage. Stuart Hodes, who was among the original cast, gave valuable insights into the creation (and ultimate disappearance) of Voyage which evolved out of Martha Graham’s sessions with Jungian analyst Francis Wickes. No filmed or notated record of the dance remains, but it has been written about and spoken of in Grahamian circles over the intervening decades.

Mr. Hodes revealed that, after a two-year period of creation, Voyage premiered and Martha Graham was not pleased with it. She immediately began re-working it, but it never again saw the light of day outside the studio…until now, in Mr. Sparling’s thoughtful and provocative rendering.

The original Voyage had a Noguchi setting. Martha’s notes indicate she viewed the piece as taking place in a house on the edge of a desert; yet Noguchi’s design showed a boat. This paradox was somehow resolved at the time. For the current re-imagining, the space is empty aside from an extremely high stool in one corner, and a bolt of red fabric.

Mr. Sparling found the William Schuman piano music, and he conceived a brilliantly executed film to accompany the dance. The voice of Ellen Lauren is heard, reading excerpts – fragments, really – from Martha Graham’s journals and letters. The overall atmosphere compellingly fuses the elusive past with the vibrant presence in the personages of the four magnificent dancers: Blakeley White-McGuire, Tadej Brdnik, Lloyd Knight, and Ben Schultz.

Descibed as ‘a woman seeing herself thru the eyes of three men’, the central character takes on – in a succession of duets – the aspects of a goddess, a warrior, and a lover. Shirtless in fitted trousers, the three men display the agility and strength that Graham always demanded of her male dancers. Dancing first with Lloyd, then Ben and finally Tadej, Blakeley filled the space with both restless energy and moments of pensive calm, sometimes skittering up to the high seat from which she could view her own world. Blakeley’s performance was a pure astonishment of personal magnetism, her alluring physicality and her compelling gift for turning movement into magic gave me one heart-racing thrill after another. What a remarkable and generous artist she is.

A great night, then, in every regard. So lovely to find Xiaochuan Xie, Alessandra Larson, Abdiel Cedric Jacobsen, and Ian Spencer Bell among the crowd.

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Upcoming: On October 30th, the Martha Graham Dance Company will present Appalachian Spring Up Close and Personal – a complete performance of Appalachian Spring in costume and with the classic Noguchi set pieces. This performance marks the 70th anniversary of the work’s premiere on October 30th, 1944. This one-night-only event will also feature film and photos from the premiere, and an introduction with quotes from Graham’s correspondence with Aaron Copeland as they created this beloved American classic. Mariya Dashkina Maddux will lead the cast in Graham’s role of The Bride. She will be joined by Lloyd Mayor, Natasha Diamond-Walker, Lloyd Knight, Xiaochuan Xie, Ying Xin, Charlotte Landreau, and Lauren Newman. Ticket information will be forthcoming.

September 16, 2014
CURRENT SESSIONS Volume IV, Issue II

Sunday August 24th, 2014 – This was the only performance of the ‘current sessions’ of the CURRENT SESSIONS that I could attend. I dearly wanted to see Colby Damon’s work but that will have to wait for another opportunity. Meanwhile, tonight’s line-up had the range and flair we’ve come to expect from these unique dance programmes. A big round of applause for the SESSIONS‘ co-Artistic Directors Allison Jones (photo at the top) and Alexis Convento for making it happen yet again.

Housed in a comfortable, intimate venue The Wild Project down on the Lower East Side, the CURRENT SESSIONS bring together works by established and emerging choreographers in mix-and-match programming, getting dance and dancers seen in smoothly-produced and finely-lit (by Mike Inwood) repertory evenings.

This particular programme offered three fascinating works for solo female dancers, an entracing film based on the legend of Narcissus, an extended selfie of imaginative wit and energy, and ensemble pieces of visual variety, all served up by inspired and inspiring dancers.

Jenna Pollack, a hypnotic mover, opened the evening in Nicole van Arx’s solo Wasserflut. Eerie and feral at first, Ms. Pollack expands thru the dance into a compelling presence; her backless black shirt reveals her expressive dorsal musculature. As the piece evolves, Jenna’s shadow becomes an element of the choreography. Fleetingly glimpsed through a sonic haze are fragments of the Schubert song from which the solo draws its title.

Enza DePalma // E|N|Z|A offered some bloom in darkness; this work for four dancers employs white chairs outlined in flourescent light. In this abstracted domestic drama revolving around our sense of security in our accustomed living space, the chairs are re-arranged as the dance moves forward. A distorted version of the Barcarolle from CONTES D’HOFFMANN is danced in-sync by the two girls; then the boys dance to a heavy beat. As the dancers re-claim their seats, we expect another vignette but instead a sudden blackout leaves us pondering what we’ve just seen.

Jay Carlon’s Dance Film Selfie showed this engaging dancer/choreographer in a variety of public settings (starting on an escalator at Sochi) all caught on his own camera. Charmingly mixed, the scene of Jay dancing to “The Man I Love” while waiting for a bus was especially poignant; later he’s ticketed by the police: it’s a misdemeanor to dance in Brooklyn? As the film ends, Jay appears live onstage, sets his camera in the corner, and records another selfie solo to add to his repertoire. When the soundtrack, for solo violin, starts skipping like a broken record, it’s over. Jay’s timely and wonderfully whimsical work was a direct hit with the Wild Project crowd. Check him out here.

Playback, a duet choreographed by Bryan Arias, was performed by Roya Carreras and Elise Ritzel to music played on an old cassette deck. Evoking both memory and expectation, the duet becomes intimate as the girls move to a collage of Mozart, a mostly incoherent spoken-word passage, and Max Reger. Bryan Arias’ choreography brought out a dark side in his two beautiful dancers.

Above: Nico Archambault in the film Stagnant Pool

Stagnant Pool, a film by Kevin Calero co-choreographed by Wynn Holmes and Nico Archambault, transports us to a mythic land’s end where – inspired by the legend of Narcissus – Mr. Archambault moves like a demi-god across the seascape from which rise other-worldly rock formations. Shards of a broken mirror allure the dancer to his own image as fantastical music of the spheres becomes transportive: the cumulative effect is breath-taking. And then the vision evaporates into a nightmarish coda.

Allison Jones presented the evening’s second solo work, SUBCYCLE, in which she performed to a Sam Silver composition. Deep sonics anchor the work in which Allison, bathed at first in golden light, moves with an intense sense of plastique gesture, pausing briefly to rest on the floor before brighness floods the space and she revives: an absorbing and definitive performance.

Choreographer Kat Rhodes has tirned to Cormac McCarthy’s novel The Crossing as inspiration for LOBO (Wolf), an excerpt of whch was shown tonight. A young girl in a homespun dress is roused from her sleep by three other women in prairie denim garb appear in this ritualistic and evocative work: the three women may variously represent men, or wolves. Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis, as well as Mike Inwood’s lighting, enhanced the committed work of the four dancers.

Andrea Murillo, a dancer I first saw work while she was working with the Martha Graham Dance Company, danced gorgeously in a Troy Ogilvie-choreographed solo Legacy Part One. The power and control of movement which Ms. Murillo developed while working at Graham were amply evident in her inspired peformance tonight. Spoken narrative and a kozmic big beat set the atmosphere as the radiant dancer held sway over the crowd, the lights coming up to a huge brightness as the solo progressed. Andrea’s perfomance was a knockout: I can’t wait to see Part Two!

August 24, 2014
Cedar Lab @ Cedar Lake

Above: Cedar Lake‘s Jon Bond

Wednesday July 30th, 2014 – I have always loved Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet‘s homespace on West 26th Street and I very much enjoyed this evening’s presentation of Cedar Lab, a new adventure for the Company wherein the dancers create choreography on their colleagues. Tonight, works-in-progress by Jon Bond, Navarra Novy-Williams, Matthew Rich, Joaquim de Santana and Vânia Doutel Vaz were presented.

Earlier this month I stopped in at a rehearsal of two of the works, those created by Navarra and Vânia, so I had a sampling of tonight’s programme. The Cedar Lake dancers are among Gotham’s most talented and alluring, and this opportunity for five of them to spread their choreographic wings did indeed make for a stimulating evening. A quote from dancer/choreographer Navarra Novy-Williams set the tone for this new initiative: “We explored a lot, and I’m certain we are still exploring.”

The only drawback to my enjoyment of the evening was that I was seated in the back row which, despite being on risers, caused my view of anything happening on the floor to be cut off by the rows of spectators in the intervening space. Since most of the choreographers made use of floor time in their danceworks, this aspect of the presentation went for nought from my perspective.

The opening work set a very high standard for the evening in terms of choreography, music, production elements, and dancing. Joaquim de Santana presented his duet DISTANT SILENCE, set to Sigur Rós’ “Fjögur Píanó” and “I Just wanted to Know” by Phillip Jack. The work opened with a brief film by Billy Bell in which the dancers – Jon Bond and Vânia Doutel Vaz – made a ghostly appearance. A large white drape is then torn down and Jon and Vânia appear in the flesh. They cross the space in a flow of gorgeously plastique moves, illuminating the music and choreography in a way that puts the viewer under a spell. Dancing in true sync or in partnered passages, Jon and Vânia were a compelling pair. Jon’s solo, with Vânia doing a walk-about, underscored his status as one of the great movers in the modern danceworld. Vânia is a marvelous match for him: her solo – in the second ‘movement’, set to spoken word and mechanical music – was very finely wrought. Mr. de Santana knows his dancers well and employed their incredible gifts to the finest advantage. There were no bows after the individual works, but if there has been Jon, Vânia and Joaquim would have brought down the house.

Vânia was the next featured choreographer: her ensemble work THEM THERE was danced to an original score by Tom Sansky. The dancers wear simple white shirts and black briefs. One by one they step into the spotlight to pose and emote as their colleagues dance quietly in the background. Combining solo opportunities and in-sync ensemble passages, the overall effect was excellent though I wish I could have seen what was going on on the floor. Ebony Williams, that paragon of contemporary dance, was the last to step into the solo spotlight; she was soon engulfed by her fellow dancers.

I was dazzled by RESIDUAL REACTION, a film in which Matthew Rich combined his ‘double-major’ of dance and fashion, working with Billy Bell who directed and edited the work. A fabulous dance track from Nalepa and Flume sent the movie into orbit with incredible footage of Cedar Lake‘s sexy and spellbinding dancers. And they have never looked more sensuous: Nickemil Concepcion, Joseph Kudra, Navarra Novy-Williams, Guillaume Quéau, Ida Saki, Rachelle Scott, Madeline Wong, with guests Patrick Coker and Daphne Fernberger. The camera invades their privacy, lingering on their skin and muscle with provocative investigation as they move with seductive glamour to the music. Baby powder is an unexpected element, and later – dancing on a rooftop – we are enslaved by the emblematic gorgeousness of the Cedar Lake dancers. I hope this film will soon be available on the Company website, or on YouTube. It makes a super-enticing trailer. The moment it ended I wantd to watch it again.

Some audience members are summoned to the stage to observe MUSE, Navarra Novy-Williams’ series of three solos, danced in turn by Acacia Schachte, Madeline Wong, and Rachelle Scott. Acacia, with her very personal mystique, snaps her fingers to turn on the spotlight for her solo which includes some very witty moves and covers the space fluently. Madeline, in a fanciful puff-skirt, dances to a big lyrical theme by Ennio Morricone, and then Rachelle displays powerful balance and control as she dances to “Moon River“. Here, more than elsewere, my inability so see the floorwork of the dancers was especially disheartening. But enough of the flavour of Navarra’s work emerged, and the music was particularly well-used.

Jon Bond produced a nightmarish work, THE DEVIL WAS ME, dealing with the aspects of sin – one of my favorite topics! Music by Murcof and Peter Broderick summoned excellent work from the dancers – those already mentioned above plus Billy Bell, Gwen Benjamin, Joaquim de Santana and Jin Young Won. The work begins with a deeply ominous theme, Rachelle Scott in the spotlight; later she will endure a satanic ritual performed on a table. The dark gathering of masked feral creatures is briefly relieved by a passage where the dancers appear in silhouette before a yellow-gold sunset. But the overall tone is sinister and sinful. The one thing that might have made this purgatorial work even more fascinating would have been to have Jon Bond dancing in it.

The house was packed, and when I emerged into the lovely summer evening light there was a long line of dance-lovers waiting to get in to the second show. This sort of initiative is a feather in Cedar Lake‘s cap, and I sincerely hope Cedar Lab becomes an annual event.

July 30, 2014
Off to Edinburgh

Above, dancer Marie Vestermark at today’s open rehearsal

Sunhwa Chung/Ko-Ryo Dance Company have been invited to participate in Danceforms’ 67th International Choreographers Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2014 in Edinburgh, Scotland, from August 5th through August 9th, 2014.

The Company will perform a trio entitled It Doesn’t Matter, It Already Happened: Life is Every Day III choreographed by Sunhwa; she will also dance in the piece along with Dorothy Chen and Marie Vestermark. Sarang West will perform the solo violin part, and the music will be drawn from works of Evelyn Glennie, Doug-Chang Lim, and Fazil Say.

Today I went down to SoHo to watch an open rehearsal of the piece at a very interesting studio space on Wooster Street. Unfortunately it was a bit too dark to make successful use of my camera, but Sunhwa, Dorothy and Marie ran thru the piece twice, with Sunhwa giving us some background between the two runnings.

Dorothy Chen

Sarang, Sunhwa and Marie

Sunhwa’s young daughter Sarang West (above) performs a violin solo, and later the dancers begin to sing.

A group of visitors commented on the work during the break as Sunhwa (above) explained that the piece was originally created as three inter-connected solos for one dancer and now she’s set in for a trio.

This will be Sunhwa and her colleagues’ first trip to Scotland, so we wish them “Bon Voyage” and hopefully they will send back some photos from Edinburgh.

July 27, 2014
Fadi J Khoury Dance @ NYLA

Above: the artists of Fadi J Khoury Dance, photo by Nir Arieli

Wednesday July 23rd, 2014 – Fadi J Khoury Dance enjoyed a highly successful opening night at New York Live Arts, the first of two sold-out evenings. Founded by Fadi Khoury, a native of Iraq, the Company boasts an international roster: dancers from Turkey, Spain, Italy, France, Costa Rica, and Colombia join together to present danceworks in a style in which Fadi, as choreographer, has skillfully merged elements of ballet and ballroom, with a dash of distinctively Middle Eastern spice thrown into the mix.

I met Fadi and his partner, Sevin Ceviker, when they were dancing with Nejla Yatkin’s troupe; another of tonight’s dancers, the lovely Karina Lesko, has also danced for Nejla and for Morales Dance.

The opening work tonight, TANGO UNFRAMED, was danced to a collage of tango-oriented music by Ron Jackson, Emilio Solla, and Rosa Antonelli. Judith Daitsman’s lighting designs were an intrisic element in the evening’s visual appeal.

Blending the sultry sophistication of the tango with a fusion of ballet and contemporary movement, TANGO UNFRAMED opens with a striking vision of the lithe and charismatic Fadi Khoury standing in a pool of light. His solo dancing is marked by expansive port de bras and an elegance of phrasing which is underscored by a subtle sensuality. Sevin Ceviker, in high heels and a pretty frock, appears in her own spotlight and establishes a connection with Fadi.

The three other couples come and go from the dance; there is a female ensemble segment and then a finely-wrought duet for Sevin and Fadi, danced to a piano solo. They display a mystic affinity both for the music and for one another.

Fadi has been onstage all the time up to this point, but now the space clears and the stage remains empty for a piano interlude. Then there is an amusing quartet where two girls set their sights on two boys only to find that the boys have their sights set on one another.

Sevin and Fadi commence another duet which blossoms into the work’s closing ensemble for the entire Company. The audience responded with genuine enthusiasm to this evocative, passionate work.

The intermission stretched a bit long and though I usually dislike hearing music played during intermissions at dance performances – it tends to detract from the music the choreographer has chosen to set his dances to – some Middle Eastern melodies here would have been welcome.

ARABESQUE opens with Sevin Ceviker seated upstage in a lighted space as fog swirls about. The music is ominous, with an outer-space feeling. She remains on the floor for a while, then rises to dance on pointe. The other women join her, dancing to a big beat, then suddenly Fadi explodes onto the scene with a spacious jeté.

The bleak sound of the desert wind signals the start of a ritualistic duet for Sevin and Fadi; they are kneeling, facing upstage, and they remain on the floor for a long time but luckily Fadi is a choreographer who knows what to do with floor time and so the duet sustained our interest, especially when Fadi sank back in a pair of voluptuous backbends.

The ensemble intrudes, the boys bare chested in satiny midnight blue tights. Then Sevin and Fadi resume their duet, the music driving to a pounding beat: things get sexy, yet the movement remains balletic. The girls dance to a swirl of Arabic music, then the boys come leaping on one by one. Sevin and Fadi continue to dance in their own private realm.

In a new section, two couples appear, followed by a boy’s trio and a trio for the girls which melds into a dance for all six. Sevin and Fadi ignite another duet passage, which leads into the concluding ensemble for the whole Company.

The composers drawn upon for ARABESQUE are Mercan Dede, Samer Ali and Said Mrad: a very effective mixture, and again Ms. Daitsman’s lighting was excellent.

The evening ended with a rousing standing ovation and the Company dancers were all greeted with cheers, marking an auspicious start for Fadi J Khoury Dance. Let’s see where this success leads them!

July 23, 2014
Dancers Choreographing @ Cedar Lake

Above: Cedar Lake dancers prepare for Cedar Lab (above: from Vânia Doutel Vaz’s new work)

Monday July 21st, 2014 – Today I visited Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet at their home on West 26th Street. The Company are preparing for Cedar Lab, a new venture in which Company dancers create new choreography on their colleagues. The works will be presented at four showings on July 29th and 30th, 2014. Details here. It’s a free event!

Jon Bond, Navarra Novy-Williams, Matthew Rich, Joaquim de Santana and Vânia Doutel Vaz are the choreographers, and today I watched rehearsals of the works being created by Navarra and Vânia. I had met these two young women in 2012 when Kokyat photographed them rehearsing Angelin Preljocaj’s magnificent dancework L’ANNONCIATION.

I love watching danceworks under construction! Navarra is create a piece with three of the Company’s women: Madeline Wong and Acacia Schachte (above)…

…and Rachelle Scott (above). Each dancer has a solo, and Navarra was working with them today on the detailing process. I heard some of the music, which is quite lyrical, and Rachelle dances to a beautiful rendition of ‘Moon River‘.

Navarra (above, with Rachelle); I love observing the creative process and seeing the dancers at close range.

We moved from the theater space to the studio where Vânia Doutel Vaz (above) was working on her ensemble piece. She conducted her rehearsal in silence, so I am not sure what the musical setting will be. Or maybe it’s a silent dancework…which could be very interesting.

The dancers were mastering a complicated set of freeze-frame poses to which they had applied a numeric encoding. There was a light-hearted atmosphere as they worked to get the sequence right.

Later the work expands dynamically into the space. Now that I’ve had a sampling from these new works, I look forward to seeing them – and the other new creations – in a performance setting next week.

Here are a few more images of the individual dancers rehearsing today:

Acacia Schachte

Rachelle Scott

Matthew Rich

Joseph Kudra

Guillaume Quéau

Jin Young Won

Ida Saki with Joseph Kudra

July 21, 2014
MÉLANGE @ BalaSole Dance Company

Friday July 18th, 2014 – Roberto Villanueva’s BalaSole Dance Company presenting MÉLANGE at the Ailey Citigroup Theatre. BalaSole’s evenings of concert dance afford a rare opportunity for dancers in all genres to present solo works in a professional setting, with expert lighting and sound, before a large audience. Roberto Villanueva has made a niche for his Company in the New York City dance world: I don’t know of anyone else who organizes this kind of programme, a boon for both emerging and established dance artists who need to have their work seen.

This evening’s program was one of BalaSole‘s strongest to date. Roberto likes to stress variety in his presentations, and this evening there was something for everyone. The audience – a packed house – watched in attentive silence and warmly applauded all the participating dancers. I had watched the dress rehearsal (a couple hours before curtain time) and I tried to take some pictures, but I wasn’t having much luck this time around.

BalaSole‘s programming follows a set blueprint: eight or ten artists are chosen by audition to present their solo works. They are mentored by Roberto, getting their dances stage-worthy. In the week prior to the show, ensemble pieces are created which will open and close the evening. This time around, Roberto chose wonderfully ‘danceable’ music by Franz Joseph Haydn for these group numbers, and the dancers – in vividly coloured leotards – evoked the joy of the sharing the stage with colleagues. Following a welcoming speech by Roberto, the solos began.

To an Al Kooper blues tune, Sara Braun strolls coolly onto the stage, wearing sunglasses. Removing her shades seems also to remove her self-confidence. The dance takes on a restless quality, though her poise is restored when she dons the glasses again. The dancework, entitled Amy W 27, clearly carries some meaning in the dancer’s life; the fact that we don’t know what inspired her to create the piece adds to the mystique of the character.

Tall and commanding, Steven Jeudy performs a balletic solo to the Callas recording of “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s GIANNI SCHICCHI. Moving with supple grace, the bare-chested dancer shows off a fine line and an impressive extension. He continues to dance after the aria ends. The title of the solo is Resplendent – a title that well-describes Mr. Jeudy himself.

In the solo Steady Tread (choreographed by Monica Hogan), Courtney Liu danced on pointe to music by the Carolina Chocolate Drops – music which somehow has a Mid-Eastern sway to it. Pausing in balanced arabesques or bringing a jogging motif into play, the pretty dancer covered the space with lively charm.

Alvaro Gonzalez danced a solo (choreographed by Tatiana Martinez) entitled En La Ausencia (In The Absence) in which the dancer, to a poignant Yann Tiersen score, is filled with loneliness. An empty embrace evokes the sense of loss; even Mr. Gonzalez’s hair seems to be expressive. The dance evolves to an agitated coda, until the dancer finally curls up on the floor in despair.

In a daffodil-yellow frock, Kendra Ross takes the stage with a striking command of sensuous musicality for Manifest Divine, danced to an Everett Saunders song. A natural mover, Ms. Ross explores her own private world for our delectation, at the end dissolving into marvelous laughter as she rushes away.

Exquisite artistry marked Misei Daimaru’s performance of her solo Stars in The Dark. Having seen Misei performing with Sunhwa Chung/KoRyo Dance Company and with Janusphere, I was very pleased to see her in a solo work. To music by Pierre and Gaspard Genard, Misei’s solo begins in a pool of light. Many dancers have used a chair in their solo works over the years, but few have made such compelling use of it as Misei; it became her virtual partner in the scheme of things. Misei’s dancing has a lovely internalized feeling, and a deeply expressive movement quality.

Roberto Lara’s personal magnetism underscored his spell-binding performance of Via Crucis (The Way of the Cross), a poignant rendering of Camille Saint-Saens’ classic Dying Swan. Dancing in toe shoes, Roberto’s black tutu contrasted with his creamy alabaster torso. This justaposition of male and female characteristics was played out without any hint of Trockadero-style camp from the muscular dancer with his dark eyes and scruffy beard. The audience responsed to this tantalizing solo with genuine enthusiasm.

In The First Ten, Katie Kilbourn appears in childish innocence. She evokes a nursery-like atmosphere while the music, by CoCo Rosie, makes us think of a music box. Sometimes sucking her thumb, the dancer moves with a doll-like feeling of naïveté. In the end, she slowly winds down while standing in a pool of light, her girlish white dress enveloping her in the virgnial purity of youth.

Schubert’s Ave Maria served as the basis for Journey, a solo by Chloe Cappo. Using her flexible physique, the dancer wove elements of pure ballet technique into her solo which used the space well and responded clearly to the music in its sense of phrasing.

In a slow progress along a lighted path across the stage, Roberto Villanueva displayed his physical control in the opening passage of Caught Up; the sound of clapping hands is later swept into ecstatic phrases for violin in a musical mixture of Steve Reich and Max Richter. Roberto pauses in a lighted circle to dance an animated section, seemingly wishing to escape. Then he continues on his way until the light fades to darkness.

BalaSole have announced their next audition for August 1st, 2014 with performances in October.

July 18, 2014
Lydia Johnson Dance: Returning to Newport

Above: Sarah Pon and Blake Hennessy-York of Lydia Johnson Dance

Sunday July 13th, 2014 – Lydia Johnson Dance will have a return engagement at the Great Friends Dance Festival in Newport, RI performing on July 18th, 19th, and 20th, 2014. Details of the festival here.

For these performances, Lydia has created a new work entitled WHAT COUNTS set to two songs by The Bad Plus: ‘Seven Minute Mind‘ (danced by a trio of women) and ‘For My Eyes Only‘ (a pas de deux). Today I stopped in at Lydia’s studio where she was putting the finishing touches on what is still a work-in-progress; in fact, she is considering adding a third section…but for now, it’s a two-movement dancework that will travel to Newport.

The music is jazz-oriented and really appealing, and Lydia has set it in her unique balletic style with a particularly pleasing stylized quality. More than anything, the ballet reminded me of Balanchine’s classic APOLLO, in part because it features a single man and three women and also because the music has a Stravinskyian tinge to it.

Sarah Pon, Laura DiOrio and Katie Martin Lohiya

Trio

Blake and Sarah: duet

Final pose

July 13, 2014
Tom Gold Dance: Images from Sofia

Above: Pacific Northwest Ballet principal Seth Orza and New York City Ballet principal ballerina Maria Kowroski performing Balanchine’s APOLLO with Tom Gold Dance on their June 2014 tour to Bulgaria; photo by Ani Collier.

Tom Gold has sent me some of Ani Collier’s photos from his Company’s recent performances at Sofia, Bulgaria:

Seth Orza in APOLLO

Maria Kowroski in Robbins’ CONCERTINO

New York City Ballet‘s Daniel Applebaum and Savannah Lowery in Twyla Tharp’s JUNK DUET

The ensemble in Tom Gold’s LA PLAGE

Pacific Northwest Ballet principal ballerina Carla Korbes with New York City Ballet‘s Andrew Scordato and Devin Alberda in LA PLAGE

Carla Kotrbes and Seth Orza in Tom Gold’s GERSHWIN PRELUDES

While in Sofia with Tom’s troupe, our beloved Maria Kowroski was the subject of a photoshoot.

In the week leading up to the tour, photographer Nir Arieli and I had stopped in at one of Tom’s rehearsals: read about it here.

June 29, 2014
Images from Jennifer Muller’s WHEW!

Above: Michael Tomlinson, Caroline Kehoe, and Shiho Tanaka of Jennifer Muller/The Works in a Carol Rosegg photo from Jennifer Muller’s jazzy dancework WHEW!

Click on each image to enlarge.

WHEW! had its world premiere performances recently at New York Live Arts on a programme shared by three choreographers: Jennifer Muller, Jacqulyn Buglisi, and Elisa Monte. Read about the performance here.

The ensemble

Seiko Fujita (foreground), Michael Tomlinson (background)

Michael Tomlinson

June 28, 2014