Category: Dance

Yoo & Dancers at the Korean Cultural Society

Above: dancer Yuki Ishiguro, photographed by Kokyat.

Wednesday January 30, 2013 – These words from the Yoo & Dancers press release piqued my curiosity:

“Glass Ceiling” turns the audience upside-down and inside out. The dancers defy the audience’s understanding of the traditional physics of dance by performing as if various walls and surfaces in the space were in fact the floor…by shifting traditional notions of orientation for a dance performance, “Glass Ceiling” opens the viewer’s mind to different perspectives, new ways to think of their relationship to the space. New aspects of movement and physicality emerge when the focus is rotated and the audience is no longer the dancers’ focal point. When the dancers are presenting towards imaginary audiences, real viewers are given the opportunity to question their own role in the performance environment.”

Then I noticed that my friend Yuki Ishiguro was listed among the participating dancers. I decided to attend the performance: I seldom have an opportunity to add new dance groups to my calendar but by chance this evening was open and so I walked over to the East Side on a cool, damp night to see what Yoo & Dancers had to offer.

The work, at least the part of it that I saw (“Without A Net”) is truly inventive and was expertly performed by Yuki and four fellow-dancers. The far wall of the space has become the floor for the dancers and they balance, stagger and climb across the actual studio floor with disorienting commitment. To live piano music – a collage of familiar and unknown works – real dance elements are woven into the choreography – a tango, a ballet pas de deux – but they are danced inside-out and sideways, so to speak.

The audience were clearly intrigued by the piece, and of the dancers Yuki seemed most at home in this off-kilter world: often balancing for long periods on one hand, he scrambled about the space with the grace of an earthbound Spiderman. Meanwhile his gestures and expressions were genuinely amusing. Since I’m unfamiliar with these dancers I can’t say who the girls were (the Company’s other male dancer, Sean Hatch, gave an engaging performance) but they all had the spirit of the work well within their grasp.

The space is perhaps not ideal to present this floor-oriented piece since only viewers in the front row have a clear sightline. Those seated further back had to stand or move about. Nevertheless I truly enjoyed it.

After the intermission, the seating had been re-configured and I was fortunate to still be placed in the front row – and very eager to see the rest of the performance. But as the lights went down, four very small children came and sat on the floor at my feet. I hastily grabbed my coat and left.

January 30, 2013
Dance From The Heart 2013

Above: Kile Hotchkiss and John Eirich of TAKE Dance rehearsing the men’s quartet from Take’s SALARYMAN, the closing number on this evening’s DANCE FROM THE HEART programme at Cedar Lake Theater. Photo by Kokyat. Click on the image to enlarge.

Tuesday January 29, 2013 – This cloudy, drizzly day was a bright and
dance-filled day for me, starting with a visit to Luca Veggetti’s
rehearsal at the Martha Graham studio where Luca and five Graham
beauties were polishing up his new creation which will be shown at the
upcoming Graham season at The Joyce. Then a brisk walk up to 26th Street
to Cedar Lake for the annual Dancers Responding to AIDS gala.

The evening offered a nice diversity of dance styles, opening with an impressive tap solo by Ayodele Casel. Its title, ACID, seemed to herald an edgy and ominous piece yet it was anything but: the dancer was lovely and her dancing was lyrical, with delicate nuances in her tap technique.

Christina Noel Reaves and Lonnie Poupard in tangy orange costumes used the space beautifully in a Jody Oberfelder duet THROB in which the dancers are called upon for bold physicality, momentarily pausing from time to time in geometric constructions. The duet was well-sustained by Andy Akiho’s score, and the dancers were excellent.

A shift in programmme order produced a slight glitch when the ‘wrong’ music started to play, but the tall and stately Julia Burrer of Doug Varone’s troupe simply held her pose and her composure until things were set to rights. The excerpt from Varone’s TUGGING UNDER was darkly entrancing: beautifully restless quality of movement with passing punctuations of stillness. A Julia Wolfe score set the dancers on their speedy trajectories with partnering motifs worked into the flow. Aside from Ms. Burrer, the dancers were Erin Owen, Hollis Bartlett, Alex Springer and Eddie Takata: a very handsome ensemble.

Mark Dendy’s opening solo to Peggy Lee’s “My Analyst Told Me” was witty and wonderful; but then there was a lull with too much talking and a bagpiper…until a ravishing goddess, Catherine Miller, rose spot-lit in the audience and took the stage for a shadowdance as Ms. Lee’s sultry voice intoned “Me And My Shadow”. Clinging to the brick wall, Ms. Miller looked sensational.

In gorgeously fitted quasi-Baroque Santo Loquasto costumes, two of the dance world’s most marvelous creatures – Michelle Fleet and Michael Trusnovec – appeared to dance the courtly duet from Paul Taylor’s Bach ballet CASCADE. Heavenly bodies? Look no further than these two superb dancers. They moved with measured elegance yet an undercurrent of sensuality is ever-present. A delicious appetizer to the upcoming Taylor season at Lincoln Center.

Tom Gold’s SOME KIND OF ROMANCE takes wing on the lilting music of the Vitamin String Quartet. Stylish, witty and rooted in the vocabulary of classical ballet (the girls are on pointe) the fast-paced choreography has a touch of contemporary spice here and there, and the three sexy boys look enticing in their sparkly silver briefs. Tom culled his ensemble of young dancers from Pennsylvania Ballet (Abigail Mentzer – who also designed the costumes – Alexander Peters and Amir Yogev) and Miami City Ballet (Zoe Zien and Ezra Hurwitz). Last week I’d seen a rehearsal of this work, at which Tom told me he plans to expand on the currrent structure; we should be seeing the finished creation during his New York season.

The evening came to a fittingly exciting climax as the beautiful boys from TAKE Dance set the stage afire in Take’s murderously demanding male quartet from SALARYMAN. To the relentless driving percussive throb of “Soul’s Ville” by AUN, the guys (in suits and ties) stunningly fling themselves around the space, crashing into one another, leaping and swirling in competitive combinations and improbably off-kilter phrases, hitting the floor only to rise again and literally climb the walls. A momentary pause for a battery-charge and they are off again in this mad and magnificent masterwork for men dancers.

The boys – John Eirich, Kile Hotchkiss, Brynt Beitman and Jeffrey Sykes – bought down the house with their remarkable performance. In a brief respite, Take’s girls – Kristen Arnold, Gina Ianni, Marie Zvosec and Lynda Senisi – appear as coat-check girls and divest the boys of their jackets. Then the wildness continues. Great finale for an evening of dance.

January 29, 2013
A Dance Experience to Cherish

Above: Attila Joey Csiki and Clifton Brown. Photo by Nir Arieli. Click on the image to enlarge.

Sunday January 27, 2013 – I’ve had the great good fortune in recent years to witness some truly unforgettable moments in dance that the rest of the world isn’t privy to. In the Autumn of 2012 Wendy Whelan gave me a precious gift when she arranged for me to sneak into one of her rehearsals – it was such a transformative experience, though I never wrote about it on my blog for fear of getting her in trouble with the powers that be. I had the memorable opportunity of watching Adrian Danchig-Waring’s first-ever rehearsal of APOLLO. And I was at a MORPHOSES rehearsal when Pontus Lidberg kept dancing after the scheduled studio time had run out. He didn’t ask me to leave, he simply danced on in his own private world and I sat there in a breathless state. Yuan Yuan Tan, Katherine Crockett, Maria Kowroski, Laura Halzack, Veronika Part…I’ve seen them all at their most beautiful – up close and personal – freed from the theatricality of a performance and simply working on their craft, immersed in the music and the movement.

Dancers and choreographers have been so kind and generous, welcoming me into their studios and sharing the creative experience with me. In this way I have gotten as close as one can get to dance without actually dancing. At the end of a rehearsal, the dancers invariably will come up for an embrace and always they will say: “I’m all sweaty!” Your sweat is my holy water, please don’t apologize.

So a week ago Attila Joey Csiki (above) contacted me and invited me to a reherasal of a Lar Lubovitch duet, set to Mozart, to be danced by Attila and Clifton Brown at an upcoming gala in Washington DC. Mozart, Lubovitch, Attila and Clifton…what could be finer? I arranged to meet photographer Nir Arieli at the MMAC studios; it turned out to be an hour of dance that I’ll never forget.

Lar Lubovitch created this dancework in 1986 – when the AIDS epidemic was decimating the world – and he named it CONCERTO 622 after the Mozart work usually referred to as “the Clarinet Concerto”. The pas de deux for two men is danced to the concerto’s adagio, music which became familiar to an audience that stretched far beyond the world’s concert halls when it was played in the epic film OUT OF AFRICA.

We arrived at the studio today for the final hour of the rehearsal; Clifton Brown has danced this work before but Attila Joey Csiki has not. Mr. Lubovitch had them ironing out the timing of certain passages, including a big lift which must be honed to perfection to make its effect. The boys ran thru the segment several times, and Clifton’s keen eye and astute preparation soon had it mastered: his wonderfully deep plié as Attila came hurtling towards him was something to behold, and he swept his fellow danseur overhead in one sweepingly seamless motion.

Then Mr. Lubovitch put the music on and the dancers began the first of two full runnings of the duet. Quite honestly my reaction surprised me: chills ran up my spine, my heart started racing, I could barely keep myself from crying. This is a piece that transcends its components – music, choreography and dancing – and speaks to us of things that can only be felt, not seen. The two men are tender and noble, they console and support one another and their passion pulsates just below the surface. The duet is not sentimental or overtly romantic; it has a luminous purity that springs from the celestial melodies of the genius Mozart. The choreographer has found the heart of the music and exposes it to us in movement that seems inevitable. I’ll never again be able to listen to this adagio without seeing Attila and Clifton in my dreamworld.

After a break and a bit more tweaking of certain partnering elements, the dancers began again and once again they moved me so deeply…words can’t express it. If they are this gorgeous in the studio, what will they be like onstage? I sincerely hope we will have a chance to find out.

I hated to see the hour drawing to its close, and was feeling deeply grateful to Mr. Lubovitch for his kindness in allowing us to be in the studio today. Attila and Clifton were packing up, beautifully drenched in perspiration; their mutual affection and admiration was so evident: “We used to be rivals,” Attila said. “And now we are friends dancing together.”

More images from the rehearsal:

Clifton Brown

All photos by Nir Arieli.

January 28, 2013
BalaSole: VOCES

Sunday January 27, 2013 – Roberto Villanueva’s current programme for BalaSole, entitled VOCES, was originally scheduled for late October 2012 but was postponed due to Hurricane Sandy. The presentation finally took place at Ailey CitiGroup Theater yesterday and today, with a slightly different lineup of participating dancers than originally planned. The performances played to sold-out houses both nights.

Roberto Villanueva created BalaSole Dance Company as a platform for dancer/choreographers to present their work in a concert setting. For each BalaSole presentation, ten artists are usually chosen in an audition process. In the time frame between audition and performance, Roberto mentors the dancers and helps them get their solos stageworthy. A week before the performances, the entire group work on new ensemble pieces which will open and close the show. Roberto creates a solo for himself, and his dancing is always a highlight of the evening – as it was again tonight. Fine lighting and sound enhance the work of the particiating artists, and Roberto has developed a faithful following so that the dancers have a chance to be seen in a very auspicious setting.

Tonight’s collection of dancers was a strong one, with some beautiful individual work. The ensemble pieces were set to the heavy, relentless beat of Black Violin as the dancers – all clad in black – moved in unison or in canonic phrases in smaller groups against deeply-hued changing colours on the back panel.

I sometimes wish the performers (both here and in general on the dance scene) would give a bit more thought to their musical choices. So many pieces seem to come with a rather anonymous, vaguely ominous sound track. It usually works, but if they would put a bit more thought into their music something really memorable might result.

Aaron Gregory’s choice of Zoe Keating is a good one, his solo #Lovesick had a nice hesitant stillness to it. Lauren Alpert, a beautiful dancer I know from her performances with Columbia Ballet Collaborative, brought elements of classical ballet to her spacious solo, Surface Interface. Emily Pacilio’s somewhat androgynous presence and her gorgeous dandelion-coloured leotard, maintained our focus as did her use of chiming Eastern/gamelan style music (her solo an except from Keeping Company With Cage). In 2 tears in a Bucket, Troy Barnes made a handsome impression in a solo limned in weeping and despair, though rays of hope seemed to manifest near the end. My companion Javier Chavez and I were both impressed by Sarah J Ewing in her solo Inside Looking Out which further benefitted from Dario Marinelli’s harp-textured, other-worldly score.

Excellent lighting enhanced Morgana Rose’s well-danced solo Sacred, and then Roberto Villanueva’s solo – again turning to Black Violin for his music – was so expressively danced in a tuxedo and open white shirt. Roberto moves so sinuously, his face always beautifully poetic in the lighting. the solo Ssssssssshallow was – he told me – rather a last-minute affair. I never would have guessed, so compelling was his presentation. Nicole Calabrese moved from a chair into a pool of light in her restless solo Chaos/Contained, and Javier and I both especially loved Jessica Cipriano’s moonlit solo We Could What If All Day with its opening setting of spoken poetry. The final solo came from Andrew Nemr, the first tap-dancer to appear in a BalaSole programme; his dancing was subtle and savory, performed to his own music in a solo called Node Beat.

The closing ensemble work had a sexy sway, and then Roberto bade us goodnight, inviting us to the next performances which will be happening in July.

I’d like to urge all my dancer-friends – in whatever genre and at whatever point in your dance-career – to take Roberto’s next audition (Sunday March 24th – details here). BalaSole‘s concept is a unique one which provides a rare opportunity to present your work in a theatrical context to an audience who really care about dance.

January 27, 2013
NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #5

Friday January 25, 2013 – There nothing like a late seating to ruin an evening at the ballet. And it’s particularly maddening when the opening ballet is BAISER DE LA FEE: a ballet where atmosphere is everything. Yet conductor Andrews Sill had no sooner begun to spin this delicious score when the ushers began tromping up and down the aisles with their little flashlights and urgent stage whispers and their footfalls on the uncarpeted floor: the magic of the Tchaikovsky/Stravinsky score went out the window. Once the spell of a ballet has been broken there’s no redeeming it, and so despite truly gorgeous dancing from Tiler Peck, Robert Farchild, the lovely demi-solistes Alina Dronova and Erica Pereira and the pretty flock of corps ballerinas, BAISER went for nought tonight.

There’s really no excuse to seat people after the conductor enters the pit: there are closed-circuit screens on each level where latecomers can watch the first ballet. Excuses like “the traffic”, “the MTA”, “the weather” don’t fly: that’s life in Gotham. Why should the seating of a score of stragglers infringe on the enjoyment of the vast majority of people who have made the effort to be there on time? I suppose there’s no point in kvetching: no one cares anyway.

Unfortunately, the bad vibe stretched into Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux also, and despite the charming dancing and daredevil flourishes of the beloved Megan Fairchild/Joaquin de Luz partnership, I was feeling grumpy. Soon the two dancers cheered me up, and Megan’s marvelous fouettes in the coda were a real treat. Joaquin’s solo drew sighs of admiration from the crowd, and even though the second fish dive in the coda was a bit off-kilter, this delightful duo already had their success sewn up.

BAL DE COUTURE is a Peter Martins ballet created to show off costumes designed by Valentino; it is a sort of pageant in which twenty principal dancers promenade and waltz to Tchaikovsky. A dreamy adagio for Janie Taylor and Sebastien Marcovici seems unrelated to the rest of the ballet, and their romance is intruded upon by Rob Fairchild who momentarily lures Janie’s attentions. The choreography throughout is formulaic with ballroomy touches. The women’s costumes are singularly unflattering, with Janie’s wafting pink a la SONNAMBULA bearing no relation to the black-white-and-red get-ups the other girls are wearing. The dancers went thru the motions sportingly, the music is so much more-than-pleasant (both dance numbers EUGENE ONEGIN are played) but the sum total effect of the piece is negligible: the time, expense and talent involved could have been better put to use elsewhere.

At last the evening bloomed in full with DIAMONDS; I don’t like the gaudy tinsel-town decor of the current setting but from a musical and choreographic viewpoint DIAMONDS always glows. Sara Mearns danced with meltingly magical style in the adagio passages: she gracefully incorporates the allusions to Odette and Raymonda into the ballet, and she is simply gorgeous to watch. In the allegro section, her bravura dancing did not quite have its usual impetuosity but in the finale she was grand in every way. Ask LaCour made his debut in this ballet tonight: his partnering was very supple, his expression noble and poetic, his sense of the underlying courtly romance of the piece right on the mark. Long-legged danseurs do not always command the allegro footwork in a given ballet, but Ask came thru very nicely in the showy moments. As the ballet drew to its final minutes, Sara beamed her luxuriant smile on Ask and it seemed this rather last-minute partnership had worked out well in every regard: Sara and Ask basked in a very warm ovation and took and extra curtain call, very well-deserved. The demi-soliste quartet of Lauren King, Ashley Laracey, Gwyneth Muller and Megan LeCrone and the excellent work of the corps helped to compensate for the evening’s unsavory start: thoughts of the late seating were gone. But not forgotten.

DIVERTIMENTO FROM ‘LE BAISER DE LA FÉE’: T. Peck, *R. Fairchild, Pereira, Dronova

TCHAIKOVSKY PAS DE DEUX: M. Fairchild, De Luz

BAL DE COUTURE: Kowroski, Reichlen, Krohn, Scheller, Hyltin, A. Stafford, T. Peck, M. Fairchild, Bouder, Taylor, J. Angle, la Cour, Danchig-Waring, Veyette, R. Fairchild, Ramasar, Finlay, De Luz, Carmena, Marcovici

DIAMONDS from JEWELS: Mearns, *La Cour

January 25, 2013
Carrie & Kate

Carrie Ellmore-Tallitsch (above, photographed by Brian Krontz) will be dancing a solo made on her by Kate Skarpetowska during the upcoming Buglisi Dance Theatre season at The Joyce. Details of the season are here; the new Skarpetowska solo entitled Sjawa is scheduled as part of Program B.

Kate, an outstanding dancer from Lar Lubovitch‘s company, has in the past two seasons created two very distinctive works for Parsons Dance: A Stray’s Lullabye and Black Flowers. I first encountered Carrie when she was dancing with the Martha Graham Dance Company; more recently she made a beautiful impression dancing with Martin Lofsnes’ 360° Dance Company. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what the collaboration of Kate and Carrie will produce.

January 24, 2013
In the Studio with Tom Gold & Willy Burmann

Monday January 21, 2013 – Tom Gold is creating a new ballet to be premiered at the upcoming Dance From The Heart gala performances. This annual dance event, which benefits Dancers Responding to AIDS, will take place this year at the Cedar Lake Theater on January 28th and 29th. Details and ticket info here. Tom’s ballet will be performed on the 29th at both the 6:30 PM and 8:30 PM shows.

The new ballet is entitled SOME KIND OF ROMANCE and will feature five dancers: Abigail Mentzer, Alexander Peters and Amir Yogev from Pennsylvania Ballet, and Zoe Zien and Ezra Hurwitz from Miami City Ballet. Earlier in the week, Tom invited me and photographer Brian Krontz to a studio rehearsal at DANY where the three Pennsylvania-based dancers were working on the piece.

We arrived near the end of the rehearsal period and watched the dancers run the ballet twice: it is fast-paced, witty and physically demanding, and I was constantly wondering how it will look with the two additional dancers.

Above: Willy Burmann with Amir Yogev.

Willy Burmann is Tom’s ballet master, and at the rehearsal he was giving a virtual master-class in technical refinement. His suggestions and his hands-on shaping of the dancers at various points in the rehearsal are a revelation to observe and a key element in preparing the ballet for the stage. Willy’s spot-on analysis of the steps and combinations and his wry sense of humour create a tension-free work environment; he treats the dancers like colleagues and his advice invariably turns something that already looks really good into something that looks great. There were plenty of laughs but also a sense of diligence as the dancers took Willy’s suggestions to heart. As the rehearsal progressed the ballet took on a very nice polish. It’ll be interesting to see it onstage next week, and Tom spoke of his plan to expand on it in the future.

Abigail Mentzer

Amir Yogev

Alexander Peters

Abigail

Stretch: Amir

Abigail

Tom Gold in a Bad Boy of the Ballet moment.

One of the best things about going to Tom Gold’s rehearsals is watching him demonstrate!

All photos by Brian Krontz. Click on each image to enlarge.

Tom Gold Dance will have their second New York season March 12th and 13th, 2013 at the Gerald Lynch Theater at John Jay College. Details will be announced soon.

January 23, 2013
NYCB Tchaikovsky Festival 2013 #4

Tuesday January 22, 2013 – Where better to be on January 22nd than in the house that Philip Johnson built for George Balanchine? Today we celebrate the great choreographer’s birthday and New York City Ballet saluted their founding father with a beautiful evening of Balanchine ballets set to the music of Tchaikovsky.

Conductor Gerry Cornelius and the NYCB musicians mined all the melodic gold to be found in these three marvel-filled Tchaikovsky scores. Six principal ballerinas appeared (including our newest two) along with four of the Company’s most impressive and unique cavaliers; two handsome boys from the corps de ballet assumed major roles, and two girls who should be soloists led the ensemble passages in SWAN LAKE.

No one who was there will ever forget the performance of Peter Martins’ SWAN LAKE in 2006 in which Sara Mearns – then a young unknown from the corps de ballet – stepped into the role of Odette/Odile and took her first leap to stardom. Tonight she re-created her Odette in the Balanchine setting and danced radiantly and with a quiet intensity that was enhanced by the nobly responsive presence of Jared Angle as her cavalier. Both the partnering and the poetry of this pairing made the familiar ballet seem fresh and ever-resonant. Megan LeCrone leading the Pas de Neuf has her own brand of magic – a truly intriguing dancer – while Lauren King, always a pleasure to watch, seemed particularly ravishing tonight as she embraced the full-bodied lyricism of the Valse Bluette. Scanning the ranks of the black-clad corps de ballet, faces and forms both familiar and new to me continually seized my imagination.

Megan Fairchild’s plush technique finds a perfect expression in ALLEGRO BRILLANTE; she begins in a rather serious mode but as the ballet sweeps onward her smile illuminates the stage just as her silky-smooth pirouettes illuminate the music. Amar Ramasar’s space-filling dance, his deft partnering and sheer magnetism all add up to a top-notch performance in this ballet. The ensemble of King, Laracey, LeCrone, Gretchen Smith, Laurent, Peiffer, Tworzyanski and Andrew Scordato (stepping in unannounced) added nicely to this charming classic-style ballet all underscored by Elaine Chelton’s playing from the pit.

Rebecca Krohn appeared in the haunted ballroom of TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE #3 to dance the Elegie, which has over the years become one of my great favorites among all of Balanchine’s works. Bare-footed and beauteous, Rebecca seemed so Farrellesque to me tonight. Zachary Catazaro, his pale and handsome face recalling the great matinee-idols of the silver screen era, made a wonderful impression as the lonely lover who momentarily finds his ideal. As Rebecca wafted her gorgeous gown and hair thru the music, Zachary was an ardent dream-cavalier; yet when the moment of their parting came his downcast expression of resignation was so moving: his fingers brushed the spot on his face where her hand had caressed him – did her perfume linger there? – and then he looked at his hands which had held his beloved and which were now empty. A frisson swept thru me at that moment.

In the Valse Melanconique, Abi Stafford looked so angel-like and lovely with her hair down and clad in diaphanous white; as she swept about the ballroom amidst the bevy of beautiful corps ballerinas, Abi constantly kept us aware of the pulsing nuances of the waltz tempo. Justin Peck was excellent in the cavalier role here. And it’s always a real pleasure to see Faye Arthurs onstage.

Beauty and brilliance combine in Ana Sophia Scheller’s superb dancing of the Scherzo; she brings a touch of prima ballerina elegance to everything she does and she puts her own gracious signature on every ballet in which she appears. Viva Ana!! Antonio Carmena’s vivid leaps and the handsome polish of his dancing matched up so well with the remarkable Scheller as they flew about the space in high style.

Costume note: could we get rid of the blouse-like Pagliaccio tops for the men in this ballet’s first three movements?

Ashley Bouder whipped up a delicious frosting for this evening’s Balanchine birthday cake with her brilliant dancing in Theme and Variations. In total contrast to her wonderfully lyrical performance of SERENADE‘s Russian Girl last week, here was Bouder in full ballerina tutu-and-tiara mode and dancing with regal aplomb. Andrew Veyette’s dynamic series of stupefying air turns won the crowd’s cheers, and his partnering was strong and sincere. The demi-solistes Mlles. Hankes, Sell, Muller and Pollack were finely shown-off by their handsome cavaliers: Devin Alberda (welcome back), Cameron Dieck, Daniel Applebaum and David Prottas.

In recent seasons they’ve taken away the lyre and re-branded the Company
(like cattle?), changed the name on the theater’s facade, carved aisles
in the seating where Balanchine/Johnson wanted none, arranged an
alienating ticket-pricing scheme, scattered the faithful of the 4th Ring
Society, put butt-ugly furniture on the wonderful wide-open space of
the Promenade – where they have also (currently) piled up a useless
tower of mediocre MoMA PS-1-type artwork – and all for what? But it
doesn’t matter in the end because all that really matters is the dancers
and the dance, the music and the movement. And in those essential
elements, the Company stays strong.

There was no Balanchine Birthday Vodka Toast this year but I’d rather be intoxicated by the dancers than by any beverage that might be served up. Happy Birthday Mr. B !!

SWAN LAKE: Mearns, J. Angle, LeCrone, King, Dieck

ALLEGRO BRILLANTE: M. Fairchild, Ramasar

TCHAIKOVSKY SUITE NO. 3: ELEGIE: Krohn, Catazaro; WALTZ: A. Stafford, J. Peck; SCHERZO: Scheller, Carmena; THEME & VARIATIONS: Bouder, Veyette

January 22, 2013
Preview of Justin Peck’s New Ballet

Watch a brief video preview of Justin Peck’s new ballet for New York City Ballet here. Entitled PAZ DE LA JOLLA, the ballet is set to Bohuslav Martinu‘s Sinfonietta La Jolla and will premiere on January 31st, 2013 with additional performances February 2nd, 6th and 8th. Justin talks about the work and his choreographic career in a Time Out New York interview here.

Photo of Justin by NYCB‘s Paul Kolnik.

January 22, 2013
My Only 2012 NYCB NUTRACKER

Sunday December 23, 2012 matinee – Due to the rise in ticket prices at New York City Ballet, I’ve had to adopt strict budgeting rules: for the first time since moving to NYC, I found myself forced to skip NUTCRACKER season altogether. I’d been in the habit of going as many as eight times each year, seeing debuts and covering interesting casting combinations for my blog with genuine enthusiasm. I came to really love and admire the entire Balanchine NUTCRACKER experience, always finding fresh details in the thrice-familiar production.

But this year, with prices really out of my reach and with the Tchaikovsky Festival looming ahead (I want to go every single night!), I was forced to forego NUTCRACKER; I’ve looked at the casting each week, wishing I could be there but simply unable to deal with the monetary situation. Fortunately, my friend Monica very kindly offered me a ticket to today’s matinee.

The cast this afternoon included some debuts, and there wasn’t a principal dancer to be seen onstage. But the soloist and corps de ballet did the Company proud, stepping into the leading roles with confidence and charm. Clothilde Otranto led a lively performance, and special kudos to concertmaster Kurt Nikkanen for his ravishing playing of the Interlude, replete with shimmeringly subtle trills in the highest register.

Lauren Lovette’s debut as the Sugar Plum Fairy was a major point of appeal in the casting today. This young ballerina has been doing excellent work in the corps, and she always makes a beautiful impression when she’s cast in a prominent role; her debut recently in Christopher Wheeldon’s POLYPHONIA was a real eye-opener, for she held the stage in mesmerizing fashion in her mysterious solo, danced to one of Ligeti’s most trance-like works. Her Sugar Plum today was lyrical and light in the opening solo, and showed the confident radiance of a seasoned star-ballerina in the pas de deux where her cavalier, the story-book-prince Chase Finlay, showed off his ballerina with élan. Together they sailed smoothly thru the duet’s many difficulties: difficulties that have been known to undo the most seasoned dancers. Lauren and Chase drew the audience in with their youth and poise, winning a particularly warm reception.

I met Mary Elizabeth Sell shortly after she joined the Company in 2006, and have kept an eye on her ever since. She and I share a birthday; I took the above picture of her one day a couple years ago when I ran into her on a rehearsal break. Always a dancer to draw the eye in any ballet because of her vivid presence and perfect smile (she was one of the few dancers to make an impact in the leaden OCEAN’S KINGDOM), her performances stand out in a way that have always made me think she could do well in major roles. This Winter the opportunity came her way – she had debuted yesterday as Dewdrop – and, just as I suspected she would, she seized the opportunity and gave a really exciting performance. Her Dewdrop was on the grand scale, able to make her own musical statement in the role by playing ever so subtly with the timing: holding an arabesque one moment, then swirling forward in a flurry of pirouettes. Her jeté was effortlessly brilliant, her extension regally unfurled, her attitude turns silky, her fouettés gracefully swift and sure. To all of this she added her dark eyes and gracious smile. Her performance had amplitude and (rare commodity:) glamour; in short, she put me in mind very much of one of my all-time-favorite Dewdrops, Colleen Neary. There’s no better compliment, in my book.

Other notable newcomers were Cameron Dieck (handsomely squiring the marvelous Gwyneth Muller in Spanish), Claire Kretzschmar (leggy and cool as Arabian), and Joseph Gordon (bouncing high in Chinese). Sara Adams was pretty, precise and perfectly pleasing as Marzipan; Anthony Huxley – he of the fabulous feet – a stellar Candy Cane (I was hoping he’d jump thru his hoop on his exit in the finale, as he did when he first danced the role); Andrew Scordato an amusing Mother Ginger; Lauren King and Ashley Laracey led the Waltz of the Flowers with distinction…two of my favorite ballerinas.

In Act I, Sean Suozzi replaced David Prottas as Drosselmeyer; the change was unannounced. Sean was superb, as we could expect from one of the Company’s most intriguing personalities; he even gave the grandmother a startlingly emphatic kiss. Amanda Hankes and Christian Tworzyanski were the appealing Stahlbaums, Kristen Segin and the very pretty Claire von Enck danced charmingly as Harlequin and Columbine, and Giovanni Villabos neatly executed the Soldier Doll’s solo.

It’s kind of amazing that there are now dancers in the Company I cannot
identify onstage; things seem to be changing more rapidly that ever in
terms of the roster. During 2012 some of my favorite dancers left the
Company unexpectedly; others are currently injured (an ongoing problem).
The total complement of dancers stands at 85, the smallest number in my
years of attending,; apprentices and (sometimes) senior SAB students
seem to be filling the ranks in the big ensembles.

SUGARPLUM: *Lovette; CAVALIER: Finlay; DEWDROP: Sell; HERR DROSSELMEIER: Suozzi; MARZIPAN: Adams; HOT CHOCOLATE: Muller, *Dieck; COFFEE: *Kretzschmar; TEA: *Gordon; CANDY CANE: Huxley; MOTHER GINGER: Scordato; FLOWERS: King, Laracey; DOLLS: Von Enck, Segin; SOLDIER: Villalobos, MOUSE KING: J. Peck; DR & FRAU STAHLBAUM: Hankes, Tworzyanski

The house seemed nearly full, and so nice to run into some of the Company’s most ardent supporters during intermission.

Thanks so much, Monica!

December 22, 2012