Two ‘lost’ scenes from Act II of GISELLE will be reconstructed and incorporated into Pacific Northwest Ballet’s upcoming new production of the Adam classic which opens on June 3rd.
Watch a video of the Company rehearsing the rediscovered scenes here. Read about the Works and Process presentation about this production at The Guggenheim earlier this year here.
Photo: Amanda Clark by Angela Sterling.
Sunday March 27, 2011 – Down at the DANY studios recently I ran into Alison Cook Beatty, a young dancer who told me that she’s working with C Eule Dance and suggested we might like to watch them rehearsing sometime. I got in touch with director/choreographer Caron Eule who told me that her company are preparing for their upcoming tenth-year anniversary performances at Peridance in June. She invited Kokyat and me to drop in at her studio this evening.
Sometimes I think that Kokyat and I must have seen all the beautiful dancers New York City has to offer, but tonight walking in to Caron’s studio we found still more we had not previously met, aside from Alison. When we arrived they were working on passages from a new piece ALTERED FIDELITY, set to music of Amir Khosrowpour, which will be featured on their June programme at Peridance.
Meanwhile, costume designer Arturo Vera and costume assistant Megan Grogan were busily measuring and putting finishing touches on the costumes for the new work which were being tried out today. The dancers slipped into this rich-coloured apparel and continued to dance as Kokyat snapped away.
Here are some of his images:
Chie Mukai
Aaron Atkins
Gisela Quinteros
Alison Cook Beatty, Faith Kimberling
Chie Mukai and Steven Melendez
Gisela Quinteros, Steven Melendez
Gisela, Chie, Alison and Faith
Alison Cook Beatty
Chie Mukai
Women of the Company
Chie & Steven
Gisela Quinteros
The hour in the studio slipped by so quickly but hopefully we’ll get to go back for another studio visit prior to Caron’s performances at Peridance in June.
Friday February 25, 2011 – Above, Tom Caravaglia’s photo of Amy Young and Robert Kleinendorst in Paul Taylor’s CLOVEN KINGDOM, the closing work on tonight’s programme at City Cente,r danced compellingly by the beautiful people of the Paul Taylor Dance Company. Two works from 1976 bookended the newest Taylor treat, PHANTASMAGORIA.
POLARIS, tonight’s opener, is probably unique among all dance works in that the same choreography is danced twice by two sets of dancers, the second group replacing the first as the music goes forward. Staged in an open cube of white metallic piping, the two sections seem so different even though the steps are the same. Each group is led by a Taylor diva: Amy Young in Part I and Annamaria Mazzini in Part II. Though dancing the same solo, Amy and Annamaria each make their own imprint on the music. In Part I, Eran Bugge, Aileen Roehl, Sean Mahoney and Michael Apuzzo looked striking in the simple black/white costuming. In Part II, their counterparts were Michelle Fleet, Parisa Khobdeh, Michael Trusnovec – a god of the dance if ever there was one – and Jeffrey Smith. I hadn’t seen POLARIS for many years and it looked and sounded (Donald York score) really fantastic tonight.
Taylor audiences are among the best on the New York dance scene: in general they are very attentive – even reverential – and they shower the dancers (and the works) with warm applause throughout the performance.
The new PHANTASMAGORIA (Tom Caravaglia photo above) is a sort of salade of unconnected vignettes woven together wittily and superbly danced. It opens with some rustic Flemish peasants – the men in exaggerated codpieces – having a romp. They reappear throughout the work, weaving in and out of the dream of dances. Parisa Khobdeh and Sean Patrick Mahoney, in lavish East Indian garb, re-tell the Adam and Eve story; Ms. Khobdeh’s big green stuffed serpent is playfully used as a phallic symbol. Their dance is interrupted by the most gorgeous nun ever to emerge from a convent: Laura Halzack. Sister Laura reappears from time to time, to admonish or to be tempted. In a tour de force, Michelle Fleet suddenly materilaizes to perform a brilliant Irish step-dance which the audience loved.
Laura Halzack made a quick costume change to appear as one of the Isadorables along with Annamaria Mazzini and Amy Young. In their wafting white Grecian tunics and with peonies in their hair, the three women drew amused chuckles from the audience; on the other hand, I thought how lovely it would be to see these three beauties dancing some serious Duncan. But then Robert Kleinendorst stumbled in as a Bowery bum, swigging whiskey from a brown bag. In a final scene, Michael Trusnovec infected everyone with a dose of the St. Vitus virus. PHANTASMAGORIA, set to Renaissance dance tunes, may not go down in history as a Paul Taylor masterpiece, but it is certainly a charming interlude and gives the dancers opportunities to shine in diffferent styles. (In Tom Caravaglia’s photo above the Isadorables are Annamaria Mazzini, Laura Halzack and Amy Young)
CLOVEN KINGDOM has been one of my favorite Taylor works ever since I first saw it a quarter-century ago at Jacob’s Pillow:
Tonight CLOVEN KINGDOM seemed ever-fresh and alluring as the women in their flowing evening frocks and the handsomely tuxedoed Taylor men move with a mixture of ballroom-style sweep and primitive, almost animalistic grace as the work deepens beyond the mere pleasantries of watching attractive people in a social setting. (Dancer Francisco Graciano talks about doing this athletic choreography in a tux here). Mirrored headdresses cast shards of white light into the auditorium while the score mixes the Baroque elegance of Arcangelo Corelli with the vastly different soundschemes of Henry Cowell and Malloy Miller, often with an hallucinatory effect created by jagged editing. The cast of twelve provide great oppotunities for Taylor-watching; these are some of the greatest movers on the planet.
It’s always a joy to see Paul Taylor come out for a bow at the end of a performance: he doesn’t always, but tonight he did and the entire house rose in tribute to the great man.
It was great running into our young dancer-friends Michelle Puskas and Yon Burke this evening.
In Spring 2010, Kokyat had the oppportunity to photograph Taylor luminaries Laura Halzack and James Samson as they rehearsed for a guest appearance with Amy Marshall Dance Company. You can view the images here.
Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle of the New York City Ballet recently made their joint debuts in the Peter Martins production of SWAN LAKE, a sold-out performance that I wrote about here. The Company have now provided two photos by Paul Kolnik from this performance: Tyler and Tess in the Black Swan pas de deux, above…
…and Tess as Odette, above.
Kokyat’s images from the December 19, 2010 photoshoot at The Secret Theatre in Queens. Above: Bennyroyce Royon.
Paul Monaghan and Justin Lynch
Paul Monaghan and Justin Lynch
Justin Lynch
Justin Lynch & Bennyroyce Royon
Justin Lynch & Bennyroyce Royon
Bennyroyce Royon
Paul Monaghan and Christopher Ralph
Justin Lynch
All photos by Kokyat. Click on the images to enhance.
More of Kokyat’s images from the photoshoot at The Secret Theatre in Queens in December 19th, 2010. Above: Christopher Ralph. Click on the above picture to enlarge.
Justin Lynch
Bennyroyce Royon
Paul Monaghan
Bennyroyce Royon
Justin Lynch
Paul Monaghan
Christopher Ralph
Kokyat’s photo from the day I met Tom Gold at his studio; Tom was preparing to take a troupe of New York City Ballet dancers to Tel Aiv. Seated at left are artist Luma Rouge and NYCB’s principal ballerina Abi Stafford. Read about the afternoon here. Click the above photo to enlarge.
A gallery of Kokyat’s rehearsal photos here. Photos of Tom and Abi rehearsing a Twyla Tharp duet here. Link to a portfolio of Tel Aviv performance images here. Watch a brief excerpt from Tom’s ballet SHANTI here.
Wednesday October 27, 2010 – New York City Ballet dancer and rising choreographer Justin Peck invited me to watch a rehearsal of the ballet he is creating for the upcoming performances of the New York Choreographic Institute (at the Miller Theatre @ Columbia University on November 5th and 6th) Above photo of Justin at work in the studio by Rosalie O’Connor, courtesy NYCI.
Justin’s using music of Sufjan Stevens, a composer who inspired Justin’s most recent choreographic effort: the duet ENJOY YOUR RABBIT which he danced with NYCB principal Teresa Reichlen at Columbia Ballet Collaborative’s performances earlier this year. This duet, along with the ballet QUINTET which Justin created at the NY Choreographic Institute in Autumn 2009 have me thinking of Justin in terms of being a delivering rather than a promising choreographer.
Justin is very fortunate to be dancing at New York City Ballet and to have access both to the dancers of the Company’s roster and to the students at SAB as his ballet-building colleagues. For this work, entitled TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC, he assembled a really fine group from SAB. I’ve seen some of these young dancers in class but it’s quite different to see them actually dancing choreographed patterns. Justin apologized for the absence of one key dancer, however the ‘substitutes’ were both perfectly fine so there was no feeling of anything missing. It was great to see the developing dance-personalities of these students today and to know that it won’t be long before we see some of them onstage at NYCB.
What strikes me most about Justin’s choreography is his clear and imaginative grasp of structure; I’ve seen enough aimless dance works to last a lifetime so it’s really pleasing to see how Justin creates patterns, breaking the ensemble into smaller groups and organizing passages of visual polyphony. Justin’s work is also clear in the Balanchinian theory of ‘seeing the music’; he catches the undercurrents of the score without being a slave to metronomic devices. This gives the work a fresh and vibrant appeal.
The witty aspects of the choreography are not over-played; they seem to occur naturally and thus avoid any feeling of cuteness. In using the established vocabulary of dance, an imaginative choreographer will create original sentences from familiar words. Both here and in his Mendelssohn ballet, that is exactly what Justin is doing.
It’s always fun to be in SAB‘s home at the Rose Building…you never know who might peek into the studio to see what’s happening. Today it was Albert Evans.
The dancers Justin is using for the Miller Theatre performances are not the same ones as shown in Ms. O’Connor’s photos which were taken at an earlier studio presentation of the work. The current cast has some standouts who I am sure will be noticed by the eagle-eyed fans at the Miller – always in search of new talent.
Here is the announced programme for the Miller Theatre performances:
TALES OF A CHINESE ZODIAC Choreography: Justin Peck Music: Sufjan Stevens Danced by: Students from the School of American Ballet
MANDALA Choreography: Darius Barnes Music: Kyle Blaha Dancers: Ashley Isaacs, Lauren Lovette, Erica Pereira, Kristen Segin; Zachary Catazaro, Chase Finlay, Allen Peiffer and Taylor Stanley
DROPLET Choreography: Jessica Lang Music: Jakub Ciupinski Dancers: Wendy Whelan & Craig Hall
FOR SASCHA Choreography: Marco Goecke Music: Matthew Fuerst* Dancers: Marika Anderson, Gretchen Smith, Daniel Applebaum and Sean Suozzi.
Three short works composed by Daniel Ott:
FALLING Choreography: Larry Keigwin Dancers: Tiler Peck, Megan Fairchild, Antonio Carmena, Joaquin de Luz and Andrew Veyette
SARA SOLO Choreography: Christopher Wheeldon Danced by Sara Mearns
UNTITLED Choreography: Alexei Ratmansky Dancers: Ashley Bouder, Ana Sophia Scheller, David Prottas and Christian Tworzyanski
The performances are November 5th @ 8:00 PM and November 6th @ 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM.
Ticket information: 212-854-7799
The Miller Theatre is located at Broadway and 116th Street. Take the #1 train right to the door.
Composer Matt Fuerst is a friend and former co-worker of mine. He composed the score for Albert Evans’ 2005 ballet BROKEN PROMISE at NYCB.
UPDATE: Erin Fogarty has sent me a couple of pictures she took of Wendy teaching.
Monday October 25, 2010 – Sometimes I cannot believe my own good fortune. This evening I sat in a studio at Manhattan Movement and Arts Center watching the ballerina who has been driving me mad for the past few years with her matchless and unique interpretations of Balanchine, Robbins and Wheeldon – Wendy Whelan – giving a Master Class. If you had told me five years ago that I’d be doing this sort of thing I would have just laughed out loud.
Wendy arrived – her forest-green leotard was so pretty – and the roomful of dancers came to order. There were four boys and approximately 16 girls in the class who seemed to be at various levels of accomplishment, including some professional dancers.
I promised myself that I would watch the students rather than watching Wendy but this very soon proved to be impossible: when Wendy Whelan is in motion, you are simply drawn to her. It was great fun to observe people outside the studio looking in thru the windows to watch Ms. Whelan teaching.
Wendy’s barre was quite interesting although I am not sure she was getting the music she wanted for each exercise. But she wisely didn’t waste time worrying about that; she simply adapted the steps to the rhythm being offered. Her descriptions of the flow of energy thru the body and of certain small details of technique to give a polished look helped me to understand what makes her such an intriguing dancer.
The class went by so quickly and all of a sudden the dancers were in the center where Avi Scher and Mary Sell danced with the full-out breadth of style to Wendy’s beautiful combinations. Another girl who made a big impression was Amy Gilson; she stood out for the poise and clarity with which she danced.
I felt that Wendy would like to have gone on for another half-hour or so and I’m sure the dancers would have loved it but the time had flashed by and the pianist slipped away. MMAC is such a cool place – you always feel the energy of all the dance that is going on there whenever you visit; Erin Fogarty’s doing a great job…and she took Wendy’s barre.
Wednesday September 29, 2010 – Above: a Paul Kolnik photo of Craig Hall and Ashley Bouder in Mauro Bigonzetti’s LUCE NASCOSTA, the closing work on tonight’s programme at New York City Ballet. (Craig unfortunately did not dance tonight though he was announced.)
A programme change brought a repeat of Peter Martins’ BARBER VIOLIN CONCERTO – one of his best ballets – in place of his charming but less profound GRAZIOSO. Portrait of composer Samuel Barber, above. The excellent cast for the BARBER – Sara Mearns, Megan Fairchild, Charles Askegard and Jared Angle – repeated their roles from the season premiere which I wrote about here. Tonight’s performance found all four dancers on top form and violin soloist Arturo Delmoni and conductor Faycal Karoui giving an especially moving and – in the final movement: edgy and witty – performance of the score. Kokyat was thrilled with Sara Mearns’ luscious dancing, and he and I both thought Megan Fairchild reminded us of the inimitable Rachel Berman, the great Paul Taylor dancer we met last year at the NYIBC.
Balanchine’s STRAVINSKY VIOLIN CONCERTO was likewise given an excellent musical rendering by violinist Kurt Nikkanen and Maestro Karoui. During this Fall season we have seen four fascinating ballerinas in this ballet: Sterling Hyltin and Janie Taylor shared one role, and Maria Kowroski and Rebecca Krohn shared the other. Each seemed perfect in her own way, and thankfully we don’t need to choose who’s better or best: we can simply relish the wealth of star-power on display. Tonight Rebecca danced with Sebastien Marcovici and I wondered if they would develop the same electric current that passed between Rebecca and Amar Ramasar at the earlier performance. They did, making for a exciting rendition of their duet. Janie Taylor is already digging deeper into her role – she was wonderful in her debut in this ballet but she’s finding it even more congenial as she repeats it: small nuances of gesture and expression making the ballet more her’s. Sebastien and Ask laCour danced powerfully and partnered the girls superbly in the demanding duets.
The Santiago Calatrava setting for LUCE NASCOSTA looks stunning, and the score by Bruno Moretti continues to reveal entrancing facets on each hearing. The sexy costumes (bare chested, black-trousered boys and the girls in bewitching black-ruffled skirts) add to the appeal of this dark yet curiously romantic (in the second half) ballet. An injury to Gonzalo Garcia (hopefully not serious) caused his original role to be danced by Adrian Danchig-Waring tonight, and the unannounced absence of Craig Hall necessitated further changes: Sam Greenberg appeared in the ensembles as did David Prottas who danced very well in the duet with Sean Suozzi; and Christian Tworzyanski took over one partnered passage with Tiler Peck. It also seemed to me that Georgina Pazcoguin and Vincent Paradiso had expanded opportunities which is fine with me since they are two of the Company’s most striking dancers.
Tiler Peck and Adrian Danching-Waring open the ballet, drawing us into the the mysterious world of this lost tribe. Their opening passage is danced in silence; Tiler’s dancing is so mysterious and intense that we are immediately in her thrall. One motif that threads thru the choreography is of the girls in a rather awkward balance on both pointes which they must sustain. Tiler stayed strikingly still as Adrian moved around her.
Adrian was nothing short of magnificent: his powerful physique and the intensity of his persona are riveting. In his duet with the gorgeous Tess Reichlen they were smoulderingly powerful. Maria Kowroski continued her top-notch season with a stunning perfomance; her duet with Amar Ramasar was jaw-dropping in its physicality and in the allure of these two spectacular dancers – people were screaming for them at the curtain calls.
Georgina Pazcoguin and Vincent Paradiso are such remarkably communicative personalities onstage and this ballet gives them the perfect opportunity to display both their physicality and their sense of risk-taking while meanwhile simply savoring the erotic undercurrents they bring to their duet passages.
The solos for Teresa Reichlen and Tyler Angle show us these two beautiful dancers at their most charismatic; Ashley Bouder & Jon Stafford in their duet bring a vivid tension to the partnering which is complex, angular and steamy all at once.
Maya Collins looks so great in this ballet, always catching my eye. I wish Ana Sophia Scheller had more to do here – I’d love to see one of Mr. Bigonzetti’s duets crafted for her and Sean Suozzi for example. The two blonde beauties Lydia Wellington and Sarah Villwock and the smooth-moving, exotic-looing Sam Greenberg were all excellent and I hope they will each have more opportunities to step out in the near future.
As LUCE NASCOSTA ends, the girls glide across the floor into the arms of their men – this striking motif seemed especially impressive tonight. As the music fades away, I felt I was awakening from a dream that I did not want to end.
Walking to the train after the performance, Kokyat captured this image which seems like a tribute to Santiago Calatrava’s floating disc and to LUCE NASCOSTA.
Oberon's Glade 