Category: Dance

Lydia Johnson’s Bach-In-Progress: Gallery

A gallery of more of Kokyat’s images from a rehearsal of Lydia Johnson‘s new work-in-progress, set to music of J.S. Bach. Read about our visit to Lydia’s studio here. Above: Kaitlin Accetta.

Kaitlin Accetta

Lauren Jaeger, Min-Seon Kim

Blake Hennessy-York, Attila Joey Csiki

Laura Di Orio

Lauren Jaeger

Katie Martin

Laura Di Orio, Katie Martin

Lisa Iannacito McBride

Sarah Pon, Blake Hennessy-York

Min-Seon Kim

Min-Seon, Laura and Lauren

Lisa Iannacito McBride

Lisa, Attila

Lauren Jaeger

Photos by Kokyat.

April 24, 2012
From Justin Peck

While anticipating the premiere of a new Justin Peck pas de deux scheduled to be danced on Friday April 27th at the Youth American Grand Prix gala by New York City Ballet principal dancers Teresa Reichlen and Robert Fairchild, a new filmed miniature from Justin has come my way. Watch it here.

The film is Justin’s second creation in collaboration with The Block magazine. The dancers are Janie Taylor, Emilie Gerrity, Robert Fairchild and Justin Peck. Above, a Tom Allen still from the film.

April 23, 2012
Paul Taylor’s BELOVED RENEGADE

Thursday March 29, 2012 – Nearing the end of their exciting seaon at Lincoln Center, the Paul Taylor Dance Company tonight presented one of the choreographer’s finest recent creations, BELOVED RENEGADE. In Tom Caravaglia’s photo above, dancers Michael Trusnovec and Laura Halzack.

BELOVED RENEGADE premiered in 2008 and was hailed not only as an outstanding example of Taylor’s choreographic genius but also as a perfect vehicle for one of the greatest dancers of our day, Michael Trusnovec. Danced to Francis Poulenc’s GLORIA and drawing inspiration from the poetry of Walt Whitman, this large-ensemble work is both sensuous and spiritual. Mr. Trusnovec gave a luminous performance which elicited a particularly warm response form the audience. The dancer’s slender, all-muscle form moved through this poetic dreamworld with consummate power and grace.

With Michael Trusnovec at the work’s epicenter, the other dancers made vivid impressions: notably Laura Halzack, Amy Young, Parisa Khobdeh and Robert Kleinendorst all of whom have been at their finest during this wonderfully pleasing Taylor season.

Michael Trusnovec and Amy Young opened the evening in a performance of AUREOLE which – in its fiftieth year – still looks fresh and vital. Francisco Graciano, Michelle Fleet and Heather McGinley danced with great verve; Michael Trusnovec’s solo was a page of visual poetry and the lovely tenderness of his duet with Amy Young gave AUREOLE its gentle soul.

The evening in fact was something of a Michael Trusnovec festival as he finished off the programme in the exciting Bach/Stokowski PROMETHEAN FIRE. Parisa Khobdeh danced radiantly here, and indeed the entire Company seemed inspired tonight. The appearance of Paul Taylor at the end caused much joy in the House as the audience swept to their feet to acclaim both the dancers and the dancemaker.

Curtain call. Click on the image to enlarge.

March 29, 2012
Ballet Next @ MMAC

Wednesday March 28, 2012 – For the second in their Exhibitions Series at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center, Ballet Next presented a delightful programme of new and classic works performed by world-class dancers to live music. Above: Ballet Next’s founding artists Michele Wiles and Charles Askegard, photo by Kokyat. Click on the image to enlarge.

Cellist Elad Kabilio and the Ballet Next music ensemble struck up the celebratory processional from the final act of Tchaikovsky’s SLEEPING BEAUTY as the house lights dimmed. Ana Sophia Scheller and Joaquin de Luz then appeared as Aurora and her Prince to dance the celebrated wedding pas de deux. These two remarkable dancers gave an elegant interpretation of this duet. Ana Sophia is a beautiful and aristocratic young Princess, dancing with her signature polished technique and vastly pleasing mastery of classic style. Joaquin looks like the perfect teenaged Prince; his dancing vivid, his feet in 5th position right out of a textbook. It was so purely enjoyable to watch these beloved dancers at close range and bask in their musicality and artistry. Bravi! Bravissimi!!

New choreography is a key element of Ballet Next‘s mission and tonight we were shown a new pas de deux choreographed by Charles Askegard. Charles mentioned that this was not his first choreographic endeavor, and he also spoke of the challenges of dancing your own choreography. Using excerpts from Stravinsky’s enchanting Baiser de la Fee, the opening duet passage has a frisky playfulness but also moments of romance. Michele Wiles and Charles each have a solo with jazzy inflections woven in, and the coda has a twist of irony. Excellent choice of music (very well-played) and – of course – great dancing.

We had previously seen the duet ENTWINED that Margo Sappington created as a calling card for Ballet Next. Now the choreographer is enlarging on this work, adding a solo for Michele Wiles and a marvelous pas de trois. Ms. Sappington spoke of her desire to fashion one more movement for this piece – a duet for two women. Pianist Ben Laude invested the Satie works with moody, dusky colours. In the opening pas de trois, Charles Askegard employs his renowned partnering skills as he manipulates the heavenly bodies of Ana Sophia Scheller and Georgina Pazcoguin with silken assurance. The new solo for Michele Wiles explores her more vulnerable, dreamy side. And then there’s the sensuous duet danced by Georgina Pazcoguin and Charles Askegard which gives us the feeling of eavesdropping on something very tender and very private.

The evening ended with the music ensemble, now harpsichord- rather than piano-based, playing Vivaldi’s rollicking La Follia as two majestic ballerinas, Michele Wiles and Drew Jacoby, danced in unison and ‘spoke’ to one another in a complex gestural dialect. In this Mauro Bigonzetti dancework, solo passages for each of the two women show off their unique feminine powers before they reunite in a fast-paced finale, settling at last into the same enigmatic pose that opened the piece. Brilliant dancing from Mlles. Wiles and Jacoby, and spirited playing from the musicians left the audience exhilarated.

The next Ballet Next Exhibition will be April 25th at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center. And it has just been announced that the Company will be at The Joyce for a week in October.

March 28, 2012
Superb AUREOLE/Paul Taylor Dance Company

Above: Michael Trusnovec of the Paul Taylor Dance Company photographed by Jordan Matter.

Sunday March 25, 2012 matinee – Among the many works being presented by Paul Taylor Dance Company during their premiere season at Lincoln Center, AUREOLE (celebrating its fiftieth birthday) looked outstandingly fresh and fine this afternoon. The cast was led by Michael Trusnovec who gave a performance of great clarity and lyric power in the role’s expressive solo. Michael has been dancing magnificently all season and today, both in AUREOLE and the afternoon’s concluding SYZYGY, he was on top form: one of the truly great male dancers of our time.

For AUREOLE’s beautiful but all-too-brief pas de deux, Amy Young was at her loveliest; she and Michael danced in perfect harmony in this Springtime duet. Mr. Trusnovec was not the only top-flight male dancer in the cast: Francisco Graciano gave a vivid performance of his athletic and very demanding role, his dancing crisp and crystal clear. Gorgeous dancing from Michelle Fleet and Heather McGinley put just the right finishing touch on this ballet. An all-star cast in a Taylor masterwork: life is good.

It seemed a bit odd to have back-to-back comedies as the central segment of the programme; perhaps being a matinee it was thought to play to the many kids in the audience. I would have chosen one or the other and in fact could have done without TROILUS AND CRESSIDA altogether, except that Robert Kleinendorst looks so hot in his underwear.

Poor Ponchielli! Walt Disney and Allan Sherman have conspired to make the ballet music from LA GIOCONDA a source of mirth for millions of people who wouldn’t know the Ca D’Oro from a bowling alley. Over the last half-century at The Met ballerinas like Sally Brayley, Nira Paaz, and Allegra Kent have danced to this music; in 2006 Christopher Wheeldon re-choreographed the ballet for the Met’s Montresor production: Angel Corella, Danny Tidwell, Gillian Murphy and David Hallberg have danced Christopher’s bravura and only slightly tongue-in-cheek version, while Ashley Bouder performed it splendidly with MORPHOSES at City Center. Paul Taylor’s take on the Dance of the Hours goes in for pratfalls and guffaws. It couldn’t end soon enough.

By contrast, GOSSAMER GALLANTS, which had seemed like a major bit of fluff when I first saw it, now looked more appealing. The Smetana score is entertaining, and there’s quite a bit of real dancing mixed in with the horseplay…and the bug-spray.

SYZYGY dates from 1987 but for me it’s a real 60’s piece. Watching the dancers whirl and swirl madly about the stage, I feel like it’s the Summer of Love and everyone’s more than a bit high. I half-expected Janis Joplin to materialize in her feathers and finery and sing “Try…Just a Little Bit Harder”. Donald York’s synthesizer-rich score amplifies this feeling: it’s kozmic, to say the least.

The title SYZYGY comes from a term used to describe those rare times when the sun, moon and Earth are in perfect alignment. It’s a great finale for a Taylor performance, and it was brilliantly danced today.

March 25, 2012
Three Paul Taylor Masterpieces

Above: Robert Kleinendorst and Eran Bugge in Paul Taylor’s ESPLANADE, photo by Paul B Goode. Click on the image to enlarge.

Saturday March 24, 2012 evening – To see ROSES again was a major reason to attend Paul Taylor Dance Company‘s performance at Lincoln Center this evening. The cast of dancers was the same as at the earlier performance I had seen, and they again made a profoundly satisfying impression. There is so much tenderness in this work, and it is very moving to see the relationships between the various members of the Company which – under the romantic surface of the piece – seem to reflect their affection and respect for each other as dancers and as colleagues.

As the poignant strains of the Siegfried Idyll fade away, Eran Bugge (above) and Michael Trusnovec appear like shining angels in white and dance a sublime duet in which time seems to stand still. ROSES creates such a heart-filling atmosphere; I wish it was being danced more often this season because I would go every single time.

Above: Fracisco Graciano and Parisa Kobdeh in THE UNCOMMITTED, photo by Tom Caravaglia.

THE UNCOMMITTED seemed an exact counter-balance to ROSES. Whereas the latter is all about settled relationships and the quiet joys of companionship and trust, THE UNCOMMITTED charts its craggy course amid the rocks and reefs of isolation and inability to connect. The incandescent music of Arvo Part gives the work an almost spiritual quality.

In the opening segment, each dancer (Michelle Fleet, above, in a Tom Caravaglia photo) has a solo passage expressing frustration, restlessness or dismay; these are people who cannot (or who don’t really want to) forge links with others in the group. Each soloist is ‘dropped off’ to dance, then re-absorbed into the collective but never really becoming part of it.

A series of duets ensue (Laura Halzack and Michael Trusnovec, above in a Tom Caravaglia photo) but the couples – though sometimes seeming to hover on the brink of romantic unity – always end up escaping one another. No one is really ready or willing to settle down, the conflict between desire and wariness always ending in turning away. THE UNCOMMITTED seems like a dancework that will continue eternally even after the curtain has come down. It’s a piece that speaks strongly to me.

The sheer, sunny simplicity of ESPLANADE – its structured and sometimes whimisical exploration of walking, running, jumping and falling – always makes for a joyful finale to a Taylor evening. Set to music of Bach, it builds to an exciting conclusion as the dancers fling themselves onto the floor in fearless sliding motifs. The cast of nine (but did I spy a tenth?) included the radiant Amy Young and the elegant beauty Laura Halzack (wearing pants), with Michelle Fleet in an especially dynamic performance.

Taylor audiences are the best: wonderfully focussed during the dancing and unbridled in their enthusiasm during the curtain calls.

March 24, 2012
Collaborators: Luca Veggetti & Paolo Aralla

Choreographer Luca Veggetti and composer Paolo Aralla have developed a new website dedicated to their collaborative work. Visit the site here. Above: Kokyat’s image of Gabrielle Lamb in the Veggetti/Aralla BACCHAE, created for MORPHOSES in 2011.

I’m particularly grateful for the souvenirs of MEMORY/MEASURE, a mesmerizing piece created for Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet in 2009; I would very much like to see this dancework again.

March 22, 2012
Lydia Johnson’s Workshop @ Peridance

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 – Thie past weekend, dancer Jessica Sand (above, photographed by Kokyat) performed a solo in Lydia Johnson’s newest work, an untitled piece set to music by Osvaldo Golijov. Today, Jessica was teaching this solo to a roomful of young dancers as part of a week-long Lydia Johnson Dance workshop at Peridance.

Jessica is a thoughtful and patient teacher; she, along with her LJD colleagues Kaitlin Accetta, Laura DiOrio and Lisa Iannacito McBride, demonstrated and coached the participating students in the phrasing on an individual basis. Lydia’s silky fluidity of style suits Jessica so well; imparting this feeling goes beyond just the execution of the steps. The dancers were soon settling into the flow and responding to the spirituality of the Golijov score.

Above: Kaitlin Accetta of Lydia Johnson Dance.

The studio was so crowded that it quickly became necessary to break the dancers into three groups so they had sufficient room to dance full-out. There were a lot of very appealing movers in the studio, including three dancers I’ve had my eye on over the recent months:

Bethany Lange…

Lauren Jaeger…

…and Yuki Ishiguro.

Kaitlin, Jessica and Lisa observing the dancers; moving on from the solo passage, the students tried a partnered trio motif which produced considerable mirth as they worked on being in the right place and the right time to catch a swooning fellow dancer. As the clock ticked down to the final minutes of studio time, it seemed that the dancers really wanted to continue.

I’ll never know how dancers manage to look like a million bucks (Kaitlin Accetta, above) before noon!

The workshop follows on Lydia’s highly successful presentation of the Golijov work along with her 2006 piece FALLING OUT, set to music of Philip Glass. Mary Cargill writes about the February 26th matinee performance here.

February 28, 2012
Lydia Johnson Dance @ Peridance: Golijov

Sunday February 26, 2012 matinee – Lydia Johnson Dance presented two works at Peridance this afternoon. The performance marked the first full presentation of Lydia’s new, as-yet-untitled work to music of Osvaldo Golijov as well as a revival of her 2006 piece to music of Philip Glass: FALLING OUT.

Kokyat and I have been following the creation of the Golijov work from its earliest days, visiting the studio periodically to view the work’s progress. Lydia is so generous in sharing her creative process, giving us an extraordinary insight into how ideas become danceworks.

Click on each image to enlarge:

In the Golijov, a trio of women first appear in soft golden gowns; their black-lace bodices provide a Spanish feel. Remaining in place, they perform a gestural ritual implying both spirituality and cleansing.

Quietly they move in a circular pattern…

…which is expanded by the entry of two more women.

With an unexpected juxtaposition of calm and urgency, the women continue their mysterious rites as the music takes on a soulful expression.

Images of silent despair and of consolation are evoked…

…blended with uplifting gestures of unity and hope.

The final movement of the Golijov is marked by themes of rocking as each girl in turn swoons into the arms of her sisters to be gently lulled.

In this work, choreographer Lydia Johnson seems to be telling a story yet the mystique of the five women – who they are and what their rituals mean to them – is left to the imagination of each viewer. One of the things about Lydia’s work that I most appreciate is her unerring taste in music: she always seeks out the best, whatever genre she might decide to work in. Here, the religious themes of the Golijov pieces she uses offer a wide range of interpretative images, from the earthy to the sublime. Darkly handsome in atmosphere, this dancework resonates with the bonds of sisterly unity and affection; it steers clear of sentimentality, thus striking a deeper chord.

Always a choreographer’s greatest good fortune: to have dancers who understand and communicate the imagined nuances of a given work. The lyricism and grace of the five women dancing in the Golijov maintained the spirit of the music and movement from first note to last. They are (above): Sarah Pon, Lisa Iannacito McBride, Kaitlin Accetta, Laura DiOrio, and Jessica Sand.

Details of the afternoon’s second work, set to music of Philip Glass, will appear here shortly.

All photographs by Kokyat.

February 26, 2012
Lydia Johnson Dance @ Peridance: Glass

The second work on the program at Lydia Johnson Dance‘s February 26th, 2012 matinee at Peridance was FALLING OUT, a 2006 dancework set to the 3rd Symphony of Philip Glass. Above: dancer Jessica Sand photographed by Kokyat.

FALLING OUT is a dramatic dancework revolving around the tempestuous relationship of a man and a woman (Max van der Sterre and Kerry Shea); their moody encounters range from tender to combative over the course of the piece.

A second woman (Jessica Sand, seated right above) creates the third corner of a romantic triangle. She remains an alluring object of desire for the man, though they never touch.

Meanwhile, a chorus of women remain on the sidelines; their synchronized movements rarely infringe oin the central drama yet they appear as additional enticements for the man…or possibly as lovers from his past.

The tension rises as the women observe each other warily; at last the central couple actually come to blows.

Things seem to resolve, and harmony is restored.

Yet in the work’s final moment, Max’s gaze is again captured by an elusive vision.

Read about the other work on this program here.

All photography by Kokyat.

February 26, 2012