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Dance Against Cancer: Tech Rehearsal

Monday April 25, 2011 – Since I was unable to attend the Dance Against Cancer benefit performance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center this evening, I had the good fortune to be invited to watch the technical rehearsal which started at noon today. Above: a snapshot I took of Matthew Rushing of the Alvin Ailey Company. Matthew was the first artist to tech today.

A lot goes into staging a dance production and while the major companies have lighting and sound crews and stage directors and stagehands all on staff, for a one-time gala like DANCE AGAINST CANCER, all these elements need to be brought together at the venue in a short span of time on the day of the performance. Having performers from several companies on the programme, the gala coordinators need to mesh schedules with classes and other rehearsals that the dancers might be involved in. Since several of the gala participants are member of NYC Ballet, they were having their traditional Monday off in the midst of preaparing for their opening week of Spring Season which starts on May 3rd. Stars from Ailey, Lar Lubovitch, Keigwin & Co and Carolina Ballet along with special guests Martin Harvey, Alex Wong and Tara Jean Popowich all had to be scheduled for tech sessions for the individual numbers in which they are involved.

What happens at a tech rehearsal? Musical and lighting cues are coordinated; spacing, timings, entrances and exits, even the bows are all worked out in minute detail so that the dancers will know their way around the performance space and the wings. Musicians who are playing ‘live’ for the individual numbers also get a feel for the space, find out where to enter from (invariably in the dark!) and how they will maintain visual contact with the dancers during the showing.

Dance Against Cancer is presented by MMAC‘s Erin Fogarty and New York City Ballet’s Daniel Ulbricht.

Here is the announced programme:

On The Other Side; Choreography: Benjamin Millepied; Dancers: Janie Taylor and Tyler Angle
Love Songs; Choreography: Larry Keigwin; Dancers: Kristina Hanna and Aaron Carr
Mozartiana (excerpt); Choreography: George Balanchine; Dancer: Maria Kowroski
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Robert Fairchild; Dancers: Tara Jean Popowich and Alex Wong
Little Rhapsodies; Choreography: Lar Lubovitch; Dancer: Attila Joey Csiki; Piano: Kathy Tagg
Tatum Pole Boogie; Choreography: Daniel Ulbricht; Dancer: Daniel Ulbricht
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Earl Mosley; Dancer: Matthew Rushing
Who Cares (excerpt); Choreography: George Balanchine; Dancers: Sterling Hyltin and Amar Ramasar
Untitled World Premiere; Choreography: Attila Bongar (Principal at Carolina Ballet) Dancers: Lara O’Brien and Attila Bongar
Carmen (excerpt); Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon; Dancers: Maria Kowroski and Martin Harvey
After the Rain; Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon; Dancers: Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall; Piano: Cameron Grant; Violin: Arturo Delmoni

I’ve arranged with photographer Erin Baiano, who is shooting the actual performance, to have some of her images for my blog. They will be posted here soon.

April 25, 2011
The Godfather

Michelle and Abrar

On Saturday April 23rd my god-daughter Michelle is getting married. It seems centuries ago that I first saw Michelle and her tiny twin sister Melissa at the hospital in Hartford where their mom, my Filipina co-worker Rose, had given birth just hours before. I was one of the first visitors to the hospital nursery that day and the nurses assumed I was the father; they made quite a fuss over me – I even received a round of applause from the staff and visitors – til I convinced them all that I was merely the god-father.

The christening was a huge affair since each of the little twins had two sets of god-parents. So there were eight of us (plus their parents, of course) on the altar and at the party that followed, where the babies – now referred to as The Twinkies – were passed around between their parents, grand-parents, god-parents, aunties, cousins and friends.

For a couple of years god-parenting was part of my routine but as The Twinkies grew up we saw them less and less. Everyone was busy and they lived just far enough away to make frequent visiting something of a chore. Their mom took another job and left the Company where we had met and worked together; once the girls were in school their lives filled up with friends and activities and the god-parents drifted out of the picture.

So now Michelle is all grown up and about to become a bride. I would guess that it’s been 20 years since I last saw her. So the wedding will also be a reunion. Let’s see how many of the eight original god-parents show up.

This will be the first wedding I have attended since the mid-70s when my friends Helen and Larry got married in a tiny civil ceremony just a few close friends in attendance.

Since I’ll be without the Internet for a few days (my friend Richard who I am staying with doesn’t own a computer, amazingly enough) my blog will be dormant til Easter evening.

April 21, 2011
At the Cherry Blossom Festival in DC

Gina Ianni of TAKE Dance, photo by JR Cook.

When I mentioned to my friend JR that TAKE Dance would be performing SAKURA SAKURA at the annual Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC on March 26th, I thought it would be something that she’d enjoy watching. But she decided to try her hand at dance photography (for the first time) and arranged with the Festival to shoot the performance. Here are some of her images:

Gina Ianni, Nana Tsuda Misko

Nana & Gina

Gina Ianni, Lynda Senisi

Nana Tsuda Misko, Marie Zvosec

Kristen Arnold

Jill Echo, Marie Zvosec

Nana, Marie, Lynda, Jill, Gina

SAKURA SAKURA (Cherry Blossoms) was created in 2005 by Takehiro Ueyama and is set for six women to traditional Japanese music and Mozart; it’s a perfect Festival piece for its ritualistic feeling and its clarity of expression.

TAKE Dance will premiere their newest work, SALARYMAN, at Dance Theater Workshop May 18th – 21st. Information here.

March 27, 2011
MORPHOSES 2011: The Company

Jonathan Ollivier and Gabrielle Lamb (photographed by Kokyat, above) are among the dancers who will appear with MORPHOSES in their current season which will feature the New York City premiere of Luca Veggetti’s BACCHAE in October.

Kokyat and I were invited to the final afternoon of the audition process where he photographed some of dancers who will be part of the MORPHOSES Company for the Veggetti project:

Willy Laury and Yusha-Marie Sorzano

Luca demonstrating with Gabrielle Lamb

Luca working with Jonathan Ollivier

Luca coaching Sarah Atkins

Jonathan Ollivier, Gabrielle Lamb

Willy Laury, Yusha-Marie Sorzano

On March 20th two of the other Company dancers, Frances Chiaverini and Emma Pfaeffle (above) participated in a demonstration of a special platform that will be part of the MORPHOSES staging.

The complete roster of dancers for MORPHOSES 2011 will be:

Sarah Atkins

Yusha-Marie Sorzano

Brittany Keefe

Frances Chiaverini

Gabrielle Lamb

Emma Pfaeffle

Christopher Bordenave

Brandon Cournay

Willy Laury

Morgan Lugo

Jonathan Ollivier

Kokyat and I plan to follow the various stages of the creation of BACCHAE for my blog and we are very grateful to Lourdes Lopez and Luca Veggetti for opening their studio doors to us.

March 24, 2011
Loni Landon/Gregory Dolbashian @ The Playground

Thursday March 24, 2011 – The Playground was founded by Loni Landon (above) and Gregory Dolbashian as a dance laboratory where choreographers and dancers can meet in an informal setting to explore movement ideas and share in a creative process, all at a price so reasonable that it’s almost impossible to resist. Over the past few weeks at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center some wonderful young dancers have reaped the benefits of working with choreographers like Bennyroyce Royon, Alexander Ekman and Emery LeCrone. I went once a week, always wishing that I was participating rather than observing.

It’s great to walk into a studio and see so many familiar faces; aside from Gregory and Loni, Cat Cogliandro, Christopher Adams, Giorgia Bovo, Marie Zvosec and Lynda Senisi (both of TAKE Dance) and Lauren Birnbaum were all taking the class.

Gregory started things off with a slow warm-up, commencing on the floor and then having the dancers rise to “awaken the space and fill it…”: what a nice image that evokes.

In small groups, a tactile passage got everyone on the same wave-length…

…then Loni and Gregory (above) started with phrase-making; it was a large class so it took a few run-thrus for everyone to get into it. IBroken down into smaller groups the movement began to illuminate the individual dancers.

Lauren Birnbaum and Giorgia Bovo trying out the phrase.

Gregory and Loni then split the group in two and commenced on an exercise called Adjective/Action. Half the dancers were assigned adjectives and the other half were assigned specified actions. Each dancer had time to work out a movement-sentence based on their word or activity and employing the stylistic tone of the phrase they’d just been taught.

Lauren Birnbaum working on the improvisation.

Then the dancers were called to the center of the floor in pairs – one ‘Adjective’ and one ‘Action’ per couple. They each ran their improv standing a few feet apart; then they were told to transform them into an intimate duet. The results were exciting to watch, with some real chemistry and energy flowing between the participants. Contemporary-style dancers are so good at improv and I found out from talking to some of them afterward that they really love doing it.

It’s been a great run for The Playground @ MMAC this month. I appreciate the access that Loni and Greg gave me and wish I could have gone more often. Here are a few more photos from today:

Cat and Lynda did a teriffic improv-duet. Sorry the photo is so fuzzy.

March 23, 2011
More Paul Taylor @ City Center

Saturday February 25, 2011 evening – DUST, set to Francis Poulenc’s Concert Champetre. opened the evening at City Center as Paul Taylor Dance Company continued their exciting season there. In the collage-photo above by Tom Caravaglia, the dancers are Laura Halzack, Jeffrey Smith, Michelle Fleet and Parisa Khobdeh.

In this work, first performed in 1977, Taylor hobbles his dancers with various physical infirmities. While the movement suggests struggle and despair, the Poulenc music with its eerily tinkling harpisichord – which the great Wanda Landowska who premiered the piece in 1929 said made her feel “insouciant and gay” – sounds in direct contrast of mood to what we are watching onstage. This is one of those cases of a choreographer going against the grain of the music and making something unique out of it.

One of the most memorable sequences in the darkly unsettling DUST is a solo danced by the majestically lovely Laura Halzack where she is surrounded by blind people moving hesitently around her. There were extraordinary performances by Annamaria Mazzini and Amy Young as well, with the ensemble completed by James Samson, Robert Kleinendorst, Michelle Fleet, Jeffrey Smith, Eran Bugge and Jamie Rae Walker.

One of Paul Taylor’s newest creations, THREE DUBIOUS MEMORIES, evolves around a romantic triangle. Anyone who has ever been involved in one of these three-sided relationships knows that each party will have his or her own take on the situation: how it started, how it is kept going and how it might end. Taylor, using a multi-faceted score by Peter Elyakim Taussig (photo above) entitled Five Enigmas, sets his new work so that we see the story told from each point of view: from the woman’s and from each of the two men. Each of the men – Sean Mahoney in blue and Robert Kleinendorst in green – see the other man as the interloper while the woman – Amy Young wearing a bright red dress – seems to think the men are actually attracted to one another and she is the unwitting third party. This third vignette brings a humorous vein to a basically serious and thoughtful work.

Amy Young (above in Tom Caravaglia’s photo) gave a wonderfully expressive and beautifully danced performance as the woman while the two men duked it out in stylized fist fights. When Sean and Robert were later depicted as happy and relaxed gay lovers, Amy gave a decisive portrayal of a woman scorned. To all of this a chorus of dancers led by James Samson made visual comments on the action. The work is complex and each of the three stories is set to music with a different feeling: pulsating rhythms for the man in blue, chant-like spitituality for the man in green, and minor-key jazzy for the woman’s narrative. I’m glad that I’ll get a chance to see this new work again next week; now that I know the premise and structure I will be able to savor the details. On first viewing the last minutes of the work, after the three tales have been told, seemed a bit long but maybe that will sort out in future encounters.

I rate CLOVEN KINGDOM (created in 1976) very high among my favorite Taylor works, not least for its fusion score. So I had no problem seeing it two nights in a row (with a third viewing set for next week). This evening the four men in the cast gave a teriffic performance: Michael Trusnovec, Robert Kleinendorst, Francisco Graciano and Michael Novak. The four women in mirrored headwear were also superb: Amy Young and Laura Halzack – in an interrupted duet that picks up where it left off – along with Aileen Roehl who, in diagonals of spirted jumps, pursues the enigmatic Eran Bugge who is clad in lime green and balancing a silvery globe on her head. Annamaria Mazzini, Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh and Jamie Rae Walker weave beautifully in and out of this mysterious ballroom where things are not always as they seem.

February 26, 2011
Millepied/Balanchine/Robbins @ NYCB

Wednesday February 23, 2011 – A really nice evening at New York City Ballet tonight with two beautiful Balanchine masterworks as the centerpiece, opening with a recent work by Benjamin Millipied and ending with a Jerome Robbins classic that still feels quite contemporary even though it’s a quarter-century old. Top photo: Sterling Hyltin & Tyler Angle in Benjamin Millepied’s PLAINSPOKEN, photographed by Paul Kolnik.

PLAINSPOKEN: Hyltin, Taylor, Reichlen, Somogyi, T. Angle, Marcovici, Ramasar, J. Peck

VALSE-FANTAISIE: T. Peck, De Luz

SQUARE DANCE: M. Fairchild, *Huxley

GLASS PIECES: Laracey, Hankes, Lowery, Whelan, Finlay, Thew, Tworzyanski, Hall

The curtain rose on the Millepied and I felt certain I was going to like it much better than I did the last time I saw it. The music is very good (especially the ‘Sterling Hyltin’ section), and the eight dancers looked great. But as the work progressed I found my interest fading, despite the high level of dancing and the individual personalities of some of the Company’s best and brightest stars. The audience applauded dutifully at the end but failed to muster a call for the dancers before the curtain. My feeling is that we won’t see PLAINSPOKEN again; as well-danced as it is, there is nothing in the ballet that really grabs the viewer either musically, emotionally or technically.

Thereafter the performance soared steadily upward with superb dancing from Tiler Peck and Joaquin de Luz in VALSE-FANTAISIE. Backed by a lovely quartet of ballerinas – Amanda Hankes, Ashley Laracey, Gretchen Smith and Lydia Wellington – Tiler gave a stellar performance where her musicality, technical wizardry, personal beauty and her elegant joy in dancing Balanchine’s steps combined in perfect measure to delight the audience. Joaquin tossed off the virtuoso passages with his accustomed brilliance. Watching Tiler and Joaquin is one of the great pleasures of ballet-going these days and they were at their finest tonight.

In SQUARE DANCE, Megan Fairchild has one of her most appealing roles. Whether wafting into balances or embroidering the stage with her fancy footwork, she gave a wonderful performance. Her partner was Anthony Huxley, debuting in his role with impressively precise technique. His quiet lyricism in the expressive slow solo kept the audience engaged, and he and Megan swept thru the allegro passages with easy charm. The audience responded enthusiastically to their dancing, calling them out three times before the curtain: a well-deserved success. The ensemble of twelve was comprised of excellent dancers from the NYCB corps and they all deserve mention: the ladies – Likolani Brown, Alina Dronova, Lauren King, Meagan Mann, Kristen Segin, Mary Elizabeth Sell – and the gentlemen: Devin Alberda, Cameron Dieck, Ralph Ippolito, Austin Laurent, Troy Schumacher and Giovanni Villalobos. They added so much to the pleasure of watching this beautiful Balanchine creation.

Wendy Whelan and Craig Hall danced the adagio of the concluding GLASS PIECES with cool intensity; the audience scarcely breathed as these two gorgeous dancers cast their spell, abetted by the mystery of the Philip Glass score. An excellent sextet of demi-solistes – Ashley Laracey with Chase Finlay, Amanda Hankes with Joshua Thew, and Savannah Lowery with Christian Tworzyanski – made a vivid impression in the first movement, and of course the finale of this ballet is a treat for corps watchers.

It was nice to see the house packed to the rafters tonight. Perhaps the sold-out SWAN LAKES this season have generated a desire among newcomers to the ballet to see more of the Company’s rep and more of this great troupe of dancers. I hope the management are planning a couple weeks of SWAN LAKE in the Autumn: strike while the iron is hot! In addition to generating good box office and buzz, there are some potential Swan Queens and Siegfrieds in the Company who I’d like to see have an opportunity.

February 23, 2011
Pointe & Pirouettes @ MMAC: Francois Perron

Monday February 21, 2011 – A day-long ballet fete at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center which featured classes taught by Francois Perron and Wendy Whelan as well as toe-shoe fittings provided free of charge by various manufacturers of the satiny slippers.

I arrived to watch Francois’ class at 10:30 AM. I had never met him before; he’s a tall and very charming gentleman and I really enjoyed listening to him give the exercises and combinations with his delicious accent from the Parisian boulevards. Francois had a studio full of students and he called them to order and plunged into the plies without preamble.

The best description of Francois Perron’s class is, it’s a lyrical experience. His style brings out the musicality and grace of the dancers. He said one thing that struck me as so essential: “Elegance is the key.” Beyond that were some more specific suggestions: “Glue your bellybutton to your spine” (if I could master that one I would look 20 pounds thinner!) and “You won’t gain any strength from (over-bending) your wrists.” He pointed out the importance of always closing tendus in a complete 5th, especially tendus to the back, and the necessity of keeping the feet fully pointed no matter how fast you are moving.

There were several notable dancers in the class; Kyle Hiyoshi (above), currently at SAB, stood out for clarity and smoothness of technique and a really nice presentation. There were others I’d love to single out but I don’t know their names: here are some of the girls I kept my eye on. Shoot me a comment if you recognize them:

There were others, too often too far out of the range of my small camera. I also felt a bit like an eavesdropper shooting them at their work, but I guess it is something they need to get accustomed to as dancers.

In many of my pictures the dancers flashing by me appeared on my little screen only as a blur of movement.

The class progressed to what seemed to me to be some pretty demanding center work. The students swept across the floor in pairs after which Francois gave them additional tips. If I was a young ballet dancer here in New York City, I’d want to take class from Francois every week. There’s an old-world feeling in his method that should not be lost.

Following Francois’ class I ran over to Thai Basil for a delicious solo lunch, then made a quick trek to Lincoln Center to check the NYCB lobby casting sheet for changes in their final week and there ran into Wendy Whelan – wearing the most fetching coat – who was en route to MMAC to teach. Half an hour later, I was in her studio along with Matt Murphy who took time from his busy schedule to come and photograph one of our mutually favorite ballerinas giving class. That story will be found here, along with Matt’s photos.

February 21, 2011
David Grenke’s VESPERS/Rehearsal

Sunday February 20, 2011 – Kokyat and I went out to Brooklyn where Shannon MacDowell, a young dancer we have met thru her work with Amy Marshall Dance Company and isadoraNow was rehearsing a duet by David Grenke, VESPERS, with her partner Brian Runstrom in preparation for the upcoming performances at the Cedar Lake theater by Dancers Responding to AIDS.

David Grenke, a former principal dancer with Paul Taylor Dance Company, created VESPERS in 1992. Set to the Tom Waits song ‘Tom Traubert’s Blues‘, the duet portrays a man attempting to raise his beloved from the dead.

You can hear the music here; If you aren’t familiar with the voice of Tom Waits – described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding “like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car” – it might take some getting used to. In the context of David Grenke’s dancework, the singing is strangely haunting.

As soon as Shannon and her partner Brian Runstrom began the rehearsal today I recalled seeing a film of this work up at the Pillow at the time Grenke was creating it. They were showing various dance clips on a screen in the Pillow’s visitors center and I remember some women were watching it; one said: “This is so sexist, I hate it!” and another asked: “Why is he abusing this poor woman?” I said aloud, “She’s dead. He’s not abusing her, he’s trying to wake her up!”

It was a powerful experience to re-encounter the duet today, danced to the raspy invocations of Waltzing Matilda. Shannon and Brian had been learning the duet from a filmed version and this was their first time actually being in the studio with David. The dancers have the basic moves and structure down, the choreographer was detailing their work and bringing it into focus.

The piece is intensely physical and full of body contact. “Don’t let it get sexual!” David admonished: “That’s not what it’s about.” Shannon and Brian responded keenly to all that David asked of them. Sometimes the choreographer would step in, taking the place of one of the dancers to show how he wanted something to be done. But he also let Shannon and Brian bring their own personalities into play.

Shannon MacDowell and choreographer David Grenke

Brian Runstrom, Shannon MacDowell

The light in the studio was quite evocative; Kokyat shot the duet in the available light and though we were there for less than an hour, the atmosphere of VESPERS radiated strongly as David and the dancers kept their focus on the process. Looking forward to seeing their finished work at the Cedar Lake performances.

All photos: Kokyat.

February 21, 2011
Sara Mearns in CORTEGE HONGROIS

Paul Kolnik’s photograph of New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns in Balanchine’s CORTEGE HONGROIS. Read about the performance here.

Click on the image to enlarge.

January 30, 2011

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