Category: Dance

Sunday November 21, 2010 matinee – The Columbia Ballet Collaborative under the artistic direction of Elysia Dawn gave an afternoon of dance at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center with a new work by Pennsylvania Ballet’s Choreographer in Residence Matthew Neenan starring New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar, as well as a premiere work by CBC’s resident choreographer Emery LeCrone. The programme also featured new works by Zalman Grinberg, NYCB soloist Adam Hendrickson, Summer Jones and Amanda Lowe. Photo at the top: from a rehearsal of Emery LeCrone’s new CBC work entitled Palindrome; photo by Kokyat.

The afternoon started well and built from there; each choreographer’s voice was clearly expressive and there was a fine variety of musical styles to keep the ear as content as the eye.

Summer Jones presented Sound in One Movement to a violin solo composed and played ‘live’ by Philip Wharton. Structured with an opening duet followed by a quartet and then an ensemble passage featuring a prominent pas de deux couple the choreographer showed an interesting grasp of having different people doing different things at the same time; the attractive music helped to blend these elements into a cohesive whole.

Matthew Neenan, resident choreographer of Pennsylvania Ballet, set the andante of Vivaldi’s Cello Concerto in A minor as a pas de deux for Elysia Dawn and New York City Ballet principal dancer Amar Ramasar. Both dressed in black, the dancers performed this duet with a quiet tenderness that never became saccharine. With his inherent star power, Amar could easily have turned this adagio into a personal showpiece but instead he gallantly kept the focus on his beautiful partner.

“A wonderful voice, not suited for singing” was my initial thought on hearing Joanna Newsom for the first time singing Sawdust and Diamonds as the score of Amanda Lowe’s Then and Never. I’d had the same reaction the first time I heard Alanis Morisette – til she won me over with The Uninvited. Anyway, after a few moments Ms. Newsom and her harp started weaving a spell. And the choreographer took up the thread and wove it into a really impressive piece for nine women which had an Isadora Duncan feel (or was I having a Duncan hangover from last night?) but which also had a clarity of structure that was refreshing in its appeal. The nine girls took the music and the choreographer’s vision and gave the piece a transportive feminine energy.

Last week Zalman Grinberg set Debussy to very appealing effect at the Young Choreographers Showcase. Today he scored again using a familiar piece (Chopin Impromptu #4) and creating a trio for three sylphs on pointe (The Impromptu Fantasise) that seemed on the face of it to be a reverie in romantic-style classicism; by incorporating subtle contemporary touches here and there Zalman gave the piece a unique quality. His three ballerinas – Caitlin Dieck, Kara Buckley and Katie Kantor – were attractive components of the work’s success. I look forward to following Zalman’s choreographic work in the coming months; he seems to have something unique to say and he isn’t afraid to use the classics as a basis for expression.

The afternoon was on an impressive roll and New York City Ballet’s Adam Hendrickson took up the torch with a wonderfully satisfying piece entitled Sun Will Set. The gently rhythmic score by Zoe Keating evoked cradles, rocking chairs or the endless thrum of a spinning wheel as this Americana ballet evolved with imaginative clarity. Four women in plain soft-coloured shifts gather, glean and weave in a gestural language of repetitive tasks. From their busywork, each has a solo phrase just long enough to make a personal impression before stepping back to the collective. Music, movement and mood were finely integrated; the piece really drew me in. Kudos to the four girls – Sophie Alpern, Lauren Alpert, Lauren DeMaria and Alexandra McGlade – who gave life to Adam’s vision. Past works of Adam’s that I’ve seen tended to feature virtuoso passages for male dancers; in extending his range here, I felt that Adam’s moving steadily along on a unique choreographic path. I will be watching to see where it leads him.   

Above: Kokyat’s photo of Erin Arbuckle rehearsing Emery LeCrone’s Palindrome. Here Emery has produced another intriguing dancework to add to her treasury with Palindrome, a dark work set to an often ominous-sounding score culled from music of Chris Clark and Venetian Snares. Four dancers – Erin Arbuckle, Rebecca Azenberg, Paul Busch and Richard Isaac – move thru this stark soundscape with powerful individual performances.There are duets – Erin and Paul, Rebecca and Richard – and a passage of communal  port de bras that seems to communicate some ancient language. The choreography flows forward and then at a point everything flows in reverse. Kokyat and I had seen a developmental rehearsal of this piece early on in the process, and a second rehearsal when it was fully set (photo of Erin Arbuckle above by Kokyat) but in the costumed and lit final product there was still a lot to discover.

Manhattan Movement and Arts Center is becoming one of my favorite destinations in the New York dance world. From ballet classes taught by Deborah Wingert to watching Joy Womack rehearsing an Avi Scher solo, Kokyat and I have had some great times at MMAC in recent months. I always look forward to going there.