Images from the dress rehearsal of Amanda Selwyn Dance Theatre‘s production of DETOUR; all photos by Kokyat. Above: Joori Jung.
Catherine Coury
Jenny Gillan
Robert Vail
Robert Vail, Catherine Coury
Robert Vail
Justin Lynch, Francsco Silvino
Justin Lynch, Francisco Silvino
Francisco Silvino
Joori Jung
Catherine Coury, Francisco Silvino
Final ensemble
Click on the images to enlarge.
Saturday May 26, 2012 evening – Following her memorable performance in SWAN LAKE last season at ABT, I was keen to see Polina Semionova (above) again. Tonight she danced Nikiya in LA BAYADERE with the Company for the first time, partnered by premier danseur David Hallberg. It was a performance I’d been anticipating for a long time and it was well worth the wait.
The House, though better-populated than at the week’s earlier performance, was far from full. Some idiot brought a baby…WTF? After some whimpering in Act I, the kid konked out for Act II; then she took him home. What was the point? People are so vain and thoughtless.
David Hallberg (above) now bestrides the dance world like a colossus – and a very elegant colossus at that. His dancing was splendid of course, with his stretched-out jetés and his imperial line. What struck me most about David’s performance tonight was the depth of poetic resonance that shone thru in his every moment onstage. He’s always had a beautiful presence onstage but it seemed to me that he’s now more intense in his emotional focus and superbly responsive to the dramatic nuances of the role.
Ms. Semionova is a thrilling Nikiya, her impeccable technique and supremely lissome physique investing her performance with a very personal radiance. From her first entrance it was clear we were in for a fascinating embodiment of the role. For all the inspired dancing that Semionova and Hallberg gave us tonight, it was the electrifying chemistry of their partnership that put the performance in that rare echelon of great evenings of dance. Right from their first encounter, the tenderness and steadfastness of their forbidden love gave the evening a vibrant romantic quality, reaching its apex in their reunion in the Kingdom of the Shades. The cares and concerns of the daily world fell away as we watched them dancing together.
Hee Seo, a lovely Nikiya earlier in the week, was tonight appearing as Gamzatti. She gave an impressive performance despite a momentary lapse at the end of the fouette passage. A great beauty, Seo held the stage well, uneclipsed by the star-power of the Semionova/Hallberg duo. Joseph Phillips danced brilliantly in the Bronze Idol solo, effortlessly filling the stage with his leaps and turns. In a particularly appealing trio of Shades, Luciana Paris, Maria Riccetto and Yuriko Kagiya danced superbly and were well-contrasted in personality, each exuding her own perfume. Bravissimi!
Thursday May 24, 2012 – This concert performance of Richard Strauss’ SALOME by the Cleveland Orchestra under the baton of Franz Welser-Most has been on my calendar for months. Photo of the conductor above by Roger Mastroianni. The maestro and his musicians gave a spine-tingling account of this most dazzlingly colourful of operatic scores. From the massive onslaughts of ominous themes predicting the opera’s brutal outcome to the shimmering delicacy of filagree harp or the sensuous spinning of mid-East exotica in the winds, SALOME has never sounded better. The great sway and sweep of the Dance of the Seven Veils was enthralling, and the maestro’s fingertip control of dynamics helped soprano Nina Stemme turn the arduous final scene into a personal triumph.
One unfortunate aspect of the presentation though was that the singers were seated on raised platforms along the outer walls of the stage. This meant that for 1/3 of the audience in the hall’s upper reaches, the protagonists were simply not visible. We had a great view of the Nazarenes, Jews and Soldiers but had nary a glimpse of Ms. Stemme all evening. It seems like presenters are always trying to do something clever when giving an opera in concert form; it’s best just to line the singers up across the front of the stage and let ’em rip.
Nina Stemme scored a huge success in the title-role. I’ve had a great run of Salomes in my years of opera-going: Rysanek, Bumbry, Niska, Marton, Behrens, Malfitano, Mattila. Ms. Stemme’s final scene was on a par with the finest of these, though earlier in the opera the tone was a bit edgy, not always in focus, and some top notes were a shade flat. There’s also not a lot of sheer beauty in the Stemme timbre although – like the immortal Behrens – she can persuade you through vocal colouring that certain notes are disturbingly lovely. But any misgivings were swept clean away by the power and expressivity of her vocalism in the opera’s magnificent closing pages.
Eric Owens sang with powerful commitment as Jochanaan. His tone has a somewhat covered, throaty quality and in a few spots the force of the orchestra almost overwhelmed him. He stayed the course and was clearly well-liked by the audience. Rudolf Schasching sang with cutting power and verbal subtlety as Herod and Jane Henschel made the most of every phrase of Herodias’s neurotic music: these two singers contibuted much to the evening’s success. Jennifer Johnson Cano, a Met Rhinemaiden, sang with seductive, darkish appeal as the Page, and Garrett Sorenson was a strong Narraboth. Oddly, Mr. Sorenson remained onstage after his character’s suicide and was still there as Salome met her fate. Sturdy excellence from a trio of lower voices – Evan Boyer, Sam Hindley and Brian Keith Johnson – who doubled variously as Nazarenes and Soldiers. The Jews were a noisy, annoying lot but that’s exactly what Strauss wanted.
Tuesday May 22, 2012 – Choreographer Jeremy McQueen invited me to a rehearsal of his ensemble work Incandescent Paths today at Battery Dance Studio. The piece will be presented at the Young Choreographer’s Festival, which will be held at Symphony Space on Saturday, June 2nd. Jeremy is one of eleven choreographers whose works will be presented at the festival this year.
Incandescent Paths is set to the Ahn Trio’s recording of ‘Swing Shift: Prelude & Night Flight’, composed by Kenji Bunch. Jeremy will also present this piece (and other works) on Friday, July 27th as part of Jacob’s Pillow‘s Inside/Out series.
As the dancers continued working on Incandescent Paths today, I realized it’s much too fast-paced a dancework for me to capture with my limited photographic skill. Most of my images were lovely blurs of action (above). I did manage to catch a few of the dancers in moments of stillness:
Danielle Schulz
Amanda Mondoro
Tina Jackson
It was really good seeing my dancer/buddies Norbert de la Cruz and Matthew Tiberi again but they were dancing so fast that my camera couldn’t capture them.
The day after I visited Jeremy’s studio, he received some excellent news: he has been commissioned to create a full-length ballet for the 2012 Dance Gallery Festival. ‘What Lies Within‘, an ensemble work for seven male dancers, will receive its world premiere on October 14, 2012 at the Ailey Citigroup Theater, as part of the Dance Gallery Festival’s “Level UP” series. Two other choreographers will also be represented, selected along with Jeremy from a field of over 250 applicants.
Tuesday May 22, 2012 – Three works, all of them new to New York City, held the stage as Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet started their second week at The Joyce. Above, an image of the Company in Simply Marvel by Regina van Berkel.
On a stage illuminated by huge hanging parchment-shaded lamps, Ms. van Berkel’s work commences with a solo danced by Oscar Ramos; the music, for solo piano, is ultra-slow and so is the movement. The dancers arrive one-by-one, the women in stylized tutus and toe shoes. Sculptural formations assemble and dissolve in this slow-motion universe.
The mood then shifts to a brighter, more animated vision as solo violin music by Nicolo Paganini sets off the three women – Acacia Schachte, Ebony Williams and Soojin Choi – in a series of on-pointe vignettes, partnered by the men. Quirky, witty and jagged, the work maintains an odd sense of formality thanks to the music. Impressive dancing from the entire cast brought the work to a close, signaling the first of many ovations during the evening.
Halfway thru the intermission, the curtain rose on the stagehands preparing for the second work: Tuplet by Alexander Ekman. As the crew busy themselves setting up, Harumi Terayama stands alone in an illuminated square, gesticulating rapidly or conducting an imaginary orchestra. As the house lights dim, five other dancers take up their own squares.
After an introductory sequence, the work’s highlight comes with a solo brilliantly danced in silhouette by Jon Bond which he – one of Gotham’s most incredible dancers – delivered with astonishing clarity and power. Throughout this ballet, the sounds of the dancers’ movements – and even of their breathing – mesh with the musical score to create a personalized soundscape.
The audience went wild after a wonderfully inventive passage in which the six dancers lined up across the front of the stage and danced to the sounds of their own names being spoken. This tour de force was so perfectly delivered by the dancers. Performing in Tuplet, in addition to Harumi and Jon, were Jubal Battisti, Oscar Ramos, Joaquim de Santana and Ebony Williams: an all-star cast.
In the closing work, Necessity, Again by Jo Stromgren (World Premiere) the stage is strewn with sheets of paper; pages hang from clotheslines strung above the space, and periodically the dancers bring in more and more sheaves of pages; occassionally someone flings a fistful of papers into the air. In this messy, cluttered setting the dancers appear alternately bored, bemused or borderline manic. There is a stylized rape scene and at one point the dancers strip down to their underwear (some people go to Cedar Lake just for the bodies). Meanwhile an annoying voice lectures on the meaning of ‘necessity’; this is offset by a series of Charles Aznavour songs. Somehow out of this chaos a dancework is built, and – thanks to the individuality and dramatic capacities of the Cedar Lake dancers – it becomes a necessity to watch.
The audience – including danceworld luminaries Miki Orihara, Stephen Pier, David Hallberg and Larry Keigwin – gave the Cedar Lakers a rousing reception at the end of the evening.
Sunday May 21, 2012 – On this beautiful, sunny day Kokyat and I climbed the many steps to Battery Dance Studio where Lydia Johnson was rehearsing with her dancers for their upcoming performances at Peridance, June 23rd & 24th, 2012. Lydia will be showing a new work to music of J S Bach, a darkly luminous female ensemble work to music of Osvaldo Golijov, a revival of her 2006 FALLING OUT, and a poignant domestic quartet entitled SUMMER HOUSE. Both FALLING OUT and SUMMER HOUSE are set to music of Philip Glass. In the photo at the top, dancers Lisa Iannacito McBride and Kaitlin Accetta.
For her June performances, Lydia has inviited two guest dancers from the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company: Attila Joey Csiki (above)….
…and Reed Luplau (above); Reed will be dancing in both the new Bach work and in SUMMER HOUSE. These two dancers, steeped in the Lubovitch style, look perfect in Lydia’s lyrically expressive choreography.
The rehearsal was underway when we arrived: working on the new Bach piece which is basically all mapped out but still open to editing or embellishment. Lydia works from instinct; she is likely to put refining touches on her work right up til curtain time. Her dancers are all accomplished performers who are able to find the nuances in the movement that make the choreography looks its best.
Here are some of Kokyat’s images from today’s rehearsal of the Bach:
Lisa Iannacito McBride & Attila Joey Csiki
Katie Martin, Lisa Iannacito McBride, Jessica Sand
Min-Seon Kim & Blake Hennessy-York
Kaitlin Accetta, Lisa Iannacito McBride
Sarah Pon, Blake Hennessy-York
Reed Luplau, Attila Joey Csiki & Sarah Pon
Attila & Blake
Katie Martin
Reed Luplau
Sarah & Blake
Attila & Lisa
Images from the rehearsal of SUMMER HOUSE appear here.
All photography by Kokyat.
A gallery of Kokyat’s images from a rehearsal of Lydia Johnson’s SUMMER HOUSE. Read about this rehearsal here. Above: Reed Luplau (a guest dancer from Lar Lubovitch Dance Company) and Jessica Sand. In this dancework, set to some of Philip Glass’s most haunting music, a man and three women reflect upon a Summer spent together in a small house. The exact relationships between the four people are never stated; visions of their desires, dreams and disappointments suffuse the work with an Autumnal sadness as they prepare to move on from the time they have shared.
Click on each image to enlarge:
Reed Luplau
Lisa Iannacito McBride, Jessica Sand
All images by Kokyat.
Thursday April 26, 2012 – It’s always a great pleasure to visit Jennifer Muller and her dancers at her unique studio space on West 24th Street. This afternoon I was invited to watch a rehearsal of LOVERS, a 1978 work that Jennifer is reviving. I asked photographer Brian Krontz to meet me at the studio; above, two of the excellent dancers of Jennifer Muller/the Works: Jen Peters and Duane Gosa.
Inspired by the paintings of Gustave Klimt, LOVERS presents a series of four duets which trace the development of a single relationship: infatuation, lust, trust, and finally deep and committed love. The score is by Keith Jarrett. Those are the facts, but the back-story about the evolution of the piece as Jennifer related it to me is fascinating.
She had commissioned a score from Keith Jarrett; she had the dancework completed but the composer wasn’t sending her any music. He told her he wanted to see what she’d created so it was arranged that the dancers would run thru the entire piece while Keith improvised at the piano. The session was recorded and – miraculously – Jennifer had her score in one fell swoop. And what a great score it is, bursting with colour and rhythmic vitality.
Observing the rehearsal today, I could see how inspired Keith Jarrett must have been watching this choreography: the movement is spectacular, the partnering uncanny in its pacing and physicality. To be honest, I’ve seldom felt so blown away by the sheer dynamics of dance partnering: dancing at high-speed with incredible lifts and swirling motifs across the floor woven in, there’s no room for even the slightest error. The dancers of Jennifer Muller/The Works have mastered her complex and ultra-demanding choreography and the result is truly breath-taking.
One of the best things about watching a studio rehearsal at Jennifer’s is: the dancers go into full-performance mode. They fling themselves full-tilt into the choreography and immerse themselves in their characters, producing the same dramatic energy you’d experience in the theater: only here they are just inches away. Unfettered by any thought of restraint, these dancers – some of Gotham’s most fascinating movers – give the viewer a sense of exhilaration.
With an eye to upcoming performances, the duets have been double- or even triple-cast. Once I saw the complexity of the partnering I could thoroughly appreciate the energy and dedication the dancers have put into learning this work.
Buddy Valdez and Olivia Jordan (above) opened the rehearsal with a joyously expressive duet celebrating the discovery of mutual attraction; ardently flirtatious, the dancers frequently open their arms in expansive gestures that indicate their love knows no bounds. The ecstatic energy of the piece was beautifully caught by the two youthful and attractive dancers, while the choreography covered the space with the restless, questing movement. I was hooked on LOVERS within seconds.
Olivia and Buddy, above. The rehearsal moved on, with various partnerships evolving from one duet to the next. The Jarrett score constantly matched the dance nuance for nuance, quite amazing considering the spontaniety of its creation.
Here are some of Brian’s images from this series of duets:
Seiko Fugita and Eric Williams
Gen Hashimoto and Seiko Fugita
Gen and Seiko
Chellamar Bernard and Seiko Fugita
Chellamar and Seiko
Seiko and Chellamar
Duane Gosa and Jen Peters
Duane and Jen
Caroline Kehoe and Pascal Rekoert
Pascal and Caroline
Pascal and Caroline
LOVERS will be performed at the Katsbaan International Dance Center on May 5th, and will be in Jennifer Muller/The Works repertoire for the 2012-2013 season. I look forward to seeing (and hearing) it again.
All photos by Brian Krontz. Click on the individual images to enhance.
Friday April 27, 2012 – Winners from the 2012 Youth America Grand Prix competition joined a constellation of great dancers from the world’s top companies for this gala evening at Lincoln Center. New ballets by Jiri Bubenicek, Marcelo Gomes and Justin Peck were premiered. Unfortunately, what could/should have been a memorable dance experience was marred by jarring flaws in the presentation and an audience who seemed to think they were at a basketball game.
Not to dwell on the negatives, but a 7:00 PM start time means you’d better have the curtain up no later than 7:07. It was 7:20 and we were still sitting there, twiddling our thumbs as the fashionably-late crowd drifted down the aisles to their seats. Women teetering past us hilariously in way-too-high heels looked absurd. But despite not starting til 7:25, there were still large numbers of even-later latecomers and they were all allowed to stagger around in the dark trying to find their seats.
Worse still were the idiotic couple -TV personalities (I use the term loosely) supposedly – who hosted the evening. Their lame jokes, inept reading of a prepared script, and complete lack of personal dignity or charm gave the evening an air of low-class entertainment that even the great dancers who appeared after the intermission could not thoroughly dispel. Ballet is one of the last bastions of beauty and civility; why reduce it to a crude reality show?
Then there was the audience with its large percentage of screaming, whooping adolescents blended with adults who chatted throughout and came and went from their seats at whim. A disastrous second late-seating took place after the break as they darkened the house lights and started Justin Peck’s new ballet (the main reason I attended) long before the crowd were back in their seats. So, more distractions disrupted Justin’s work and the excellent dancing of Teresa Reichlen and Robert Fairchild. Inexcusable.
With these distractions, the first half of the gala went for nought. Although the Competition winners who danced in Part I were announced, I mostly had no clue who I was watching. A couple of the boys made outstanding impressions, but the announcer referred to a solo from LA SYLPHIDE as being from LES SYLPHIDES. A beautiful ensemble piece by Choo San Goh marked the high point of Part I, along with a dazzling performance of the DON QUIXOTE variation by a Korean boy whose name I know not.
Furiant, Justin Peck’s ballet to a beautiful Dvorak score (played live, and ravishingly) was rather lost in the shuffle of the post-intermission seating debacle, but I could tell it’s another nice addition to Justin’s catalog, and hopefully we can see it again under more favorable circumstances. Tess Reichlen and Rob Fairchild look wonderful together though I could have wished that Robbie had worn a fitted top rather than the billowy blouse. I continue to commend Justin Peck not only for his choreographic imagination but also for his inspired musical choices. So far, in my view, he hasn’t made a single false creative move.
Tamara Rojo gave a luminous performance in the mysterious duet for woman and goldfish entitled Life Is A Dream (choreographed by Fei Bo). The ballerina begins seated in a pool of light; opposite her is a second light-pool with a fishbowl globe holding a single, swishing goldfish. Intrigued by the fish, the dancer moves about the space in a reverie. Really nice.
Herman Cornejo’s marvelous dancing of his self-choreographed solo Tango Y Yo was a brilliant vignette, but Jose Manuel Carreno and his partner Karina Smirnoff couldn’t match Herman for sheer artistry; their tango was a more gaudy, reality-show version. And at one point Jose seemed about to lose control of Karina.
Yolanda Correa Frias (Norwegian Ballet) and Yonah Acosta (English National Ballet) paired successfully in the CORSAIRE pas de deux, the bare-chested and handsome Jonah winning applause for every leap and pose; the ballerina has a lovely quality but what was with the rhythmic clapping during her solo? Disgusting.
Marcelo Gomes (would that he had danced!) choreographed a movement-rich duet for his ABT colleagues Misty Copeland and Alexandre Hammoudi. Entitled Toccare, the pas de deux is set to a colorful contemporary score by Ian Ng, played live by the adorable-punk violinist Charles Yang and pianist Dmitri Dover. Misty and Alexandre make a radiant pair, and the ballet was further enhanced by huge black-and-white still images of the two dancers projected on the back wall. The images, by Jade Young, were so striking that they might have over-shadowed the dancing; but Marcelo, Misty and Alexandre made sure the whole performance was finely integrated. Bravi tutti!
Alicia Amatriain and Friedermann Vogel from Stuttgart Ballet gave a spacious rendering of the Cranko Romeo and Juliet pas de deux. The dancers held the audience in the palms of their hands with their lovely lyricism, though I found myself thinking that Sean Lavery’s version of this duet surpassses Cranko’s as a distillation of an immortal love.
Jiri Bubenicek’s Gentle Memories brought the great Mariinsky ballerina Ekaterina Kondaurova to the stage. This woman made such a stunning impression when she danced here in Gotham at the Mariinsky’s last visit (time for an encore, dear Russians!). Looking splendid in a long deep-rose gown, La Kondaurova held the center of this ballet as three men (Islam Baimuradov, Otto Bubenicek, and Jon Vallejo) vied for her favor. Yet in the end it was the pianist Simon Mulligan who won her heart. Mr. Mulligan played Karen LeFrak’s melodious yet very au courant score impeccably. This ballet and these performers generated a unique atmosphere; I’d love to see this piece again – and Justin’s and Marcelo’s as well. A single viewing of a new ballet is never enough.
Tamara Rojo and Sergei Polunin were announced to be dancing Esmerelda but they certainly looked like Diana and Acteon to me. Ms. Rojo seemed a bit out of focus early on but by the time she reached her uncanny set of fouettes she was back on the gold standard. Mr. Polunin danced quite grandly and together they brought the gala to a rousing conclusion.
Sunday August 22, 2012 – Kokyat and I stopped in at Lydia Johnson’s rehearsal at Battery Dance on this dreary, rainy day where guest artist Attila Joey Csiki (above) of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company was rehearsing with Lydia’s company for the first time.
For her latest creation, a work for large ensemble, Lydia turns to the music of J. S. Bach. The piece is already well-developed choreographically and despite the fact that this was Attila’s first day working with Lydia, he’s already thoroughly at ease with the style; in fact his signature musicality and the silken flow of his dancing are a natural compliment to Lydia’s beautifully expressive motifs of movement.
A central passage in this new dancework is a duet for Attila and Blake Hennessy-York (above). The boys have already mastered the structure of this duet and they ran thru it a few times, working out details of placement and trying various elements of partnering to achieve the desired smoothness.
Attila and Blake, above.
In a second duet, Attila dances with Lisa Innacito McBride (above).
This duet culminates with Attila falling into a beautiful swoon…
…and then re-awakening.
Kokyat was silently moving around the studio to capture the many different elements of this ballet; above, Laura DOrio and Lisa Iannacito McBride. Since we were seeing it for the first time there was a lot to take in, often with multiple things happening – apropos of Bach – at the same time. In addition to Laura and Lisa, the dancers include:
Kaitlin Accetta
Blake Hennessy-York and Sarah Pon
Lauren Jaeger
Min-Seon Kim…
…and Katie Martin.
It’s always exciting to see the evolution of a new dancework and as always we felt very grateful to Lydia and the dancers for sharing their creative endeavor with us.
Lydia Johnson Dance will perform at Peridance on June 23rd and 24th, 2012 in a programme which will feature the premiere of the new Bach piece as well as ballets sent to music of Philip Glass and Osvaldo Golijov. In addition to the dancers pictured above, Jessica Sand and Kerry Shea will be dancing. Reed Luplau appears as a guest along with his Lubovitch colleague Attila Joey Csiki. Max van der Steere will also be guesting with Lydia’s company. Ticket information here.
All photographes by Kokyat, with more images here.
Oberon's Glade 