Due to the extraordinary demand for tickets, New York City Ballet have announced an additional performance of the Peter Martins SWAN LAKE for Friday February 11th. Sara Mearns is scheduled to dance Odette/Odile that evening. Photo of Sara by Damon Winter.
It’s amusing to hear people attribute the great interest in these SWAN performances to the recent film BLACK SWAN. But the last previous revival of Martins’ SWAN LAKE was also a sellout, and that was long before the movie was made.
Friday January 28, 2011 – Went dashing thru the snow (now slush, actually) to the East Side to watch a class at Peridance offered by a choreographer whose work I especially like: Lydia Johnson. Lisa Iannacito McBride of Lydia’s company (above, a studio photo by Kokyat) called the large group of about thirty students to order promptly at 11:30 AM and started to teach them a passage from Lydia’s work entitled DUSK, set to music of Henrych Gorecki.
I’ve seen Lisa dance many times but she’s also a really fine teacher; looking chic in a deep-purple satiny leotard, Lisa began the phrase and the students immediately picked up the basics. Laura DiOrio and Jessica Sand of Lydia’s company were on hand to help the dancers with tips on how they each execute the phrase. From watching the three girls, I saw how they are each able to achieve their unique shading of a danced expression while always remaining in the context of the basic qualities of movement.
These classes where a phrase is taught are always so interesting to me because as a frustrated shoulda-been dancer, I’m continually amazed by how quickly the dancers in the studio can translate the instructor’s movement into their own bodies. Once Lisa went beyond the initial steps and gestures, I was throughly lost but the young dancers picked it up and ran with it. Within minutes they were working the passage and then the group broke into smaller units and took turns spiffing it up.
Lydia sometimes addressed the dancers, speaking of the imagery that she had in mind when creating a given movement, but she steered clear of saying what the dance was supposed to ‘mean’; her remarks were more in terms of finding the freedom of each dancers’ individual expression than in trying to impose an interpretive boundary. I think this is why her own dancers always look so good: they filter the steps and gestures thru their own bodies and spirits, making individual statements while always maintaining the atmosphere that the music creates.
As the session progressed, the group was broken down still further into four units and each performed the phrase as a canon, starting in different corners of the room. By the end of the class, they were starting to look like a Company.
Lydia’s dancers Eric Vlach and Or Sagi were dancing, and so were two dancers I was familiar with: Justin Lynch and Danielle Schulz. There were other familiar faces but I can’t put names to them. The time sped by and all too soon the studio was emptying as another group of dancers stood waiting for the space. Many of the participants in Lydia’s class were headed to other classes or rehearsals, or to the jobs they hold down to pay the bills since dance jobs are not all that plentiful these days. Still, I find the idea of this life of dancing – of physical work to an artistic end – so fascinating.
Even if I’d known that one could make a life in dance and even if I’d pursued it, by now I would be retired. But who knows? I might have gone from dancing to having my own dance company. There are certainly plenty of dancers in New York City who would look great performing, and who deserve the opportunity to do it.
Wednesday January 26, 2011 – Christopher Wheeldon’s POLYPHONIA returned to the New York City Ballet repertoire tonight in a striking performance with a cast led by Wheeldon muse Wendy Whelan. Photo of Christopher above is by Peter Hapak.
Opening the evening was the stunning image of the NYCB corps women, pony-tailed and is white leotards, in the iconic diagonal which heralds the start of Balanchine’s SYMPHONY IN THREE MOVEMENTS. Moments after curtain-rise, Daniel Ulbricht came bounding into view; he was soon joined by the vibrant Sterling Hyltin in a high-jump contest: so great to see these two very accomplished dancers giving such vitality to their every move. Savannah Lowery has been out for a while but she came roaring back with a grand performance where she pulled off a triple series of pirouettes climaxing each set with a wonderful Balanchine-off-kilter moment. Sean Suozzi’s energy stood out. In the pas de deux, which starts with that whimsical tune, Abi Stafford and Sebastien Marcovici looked great together; I cannot recall having seen this partnership before and it’s a good one. The ten demi-solistes kept my opera glasses on high alert and the corps girls – including some of the newest Company faces – did well. Faycal Karoui and the orchestra gave the Stravinsky score a fine flourish.
Wheeldon’s POLYPHONIA premiered at NYCB in 2001; for me it’s the work that put the choreographer on the map. I was at the first night and was bowled over by it. And I had the same reaction to tonight’s performance. The Ligeti piano music, by turns quirky and mysterious, was played by Cameron Grant and Alan Moverman. Mark Stanley’s lighting sets the dancing off with some marvelous shadowplay, and the deep-purple Holly Hynes costumes are an added asset.
No one speaks Wheeldon with such clarity and expressiveness as Wendy Whelan; returning to this role that was crafted on her body, the great and enigmatic ballerina astonished once again with her supple movement, daringly stretched poses and her flair for creating drama from the abstract. Everyone who recalls Jock Soto in this ballet will have kept a mental gallery of images of the great Whelan/Soto partnership: they were unforgettable together. But Tyler Angle has put his own stamp on this work with his cool, magnificent partnering and his dancing, which in the past couple of years has taken on a unique lustre. He’s now among the most riveting danseurs I’ve encountered over the past four decades. Photo of Wendy and Tyler above by Erin Baiano.
Power and beauty seem to have been the watchwords in casting this revival, encapsulating in the 30-minute work the current state of NYCB’s roster: an embarassment of riches. Teresa Reichlen and Amar Ramasar are spell-binding not only in physical allure but in the way they channel their personal magnetism into the movement. They are just so great to watch together. Tiler Peck continues to show us in every performance what an astonishing and versatile dancer she is: her technique amazes, her ever-deeping artistry is a true pleasure to behold. In their enchanting waltz, Tiler and the equally impressive Andrew Veyette made me smile in admiration. Andrew has really got the knack for being a contemporary cavalier, and he and Amar turned their duet into a highlight of the ballet.
Sara Mearns danced with quiet radiance in her solo (created originally on Alexandra Ansanelli) and added another compelling performance to her catalog. Her Raymonda in CORTEGE HONGROIS last week was equally fascinating, these two ballets testifying to her expressive range. In the company of these stars, Chase Finlay looked wonderfully at home, his dancing and partnering not only impressive in the moment but also as a promise of things to come.
Normally I don’t stay when I’M OLD FASHIONED (Paul Kolnik photo, above) is the closing work on the programme due to my general aversion to Hollywood or Broadway-style ballets. But Maria Kowroski is having such a glorious season that I felt like I really wanted to see her dancing tonight. She was just splendid of course, dancing with Tyler Angle (who subbed for his brother Jared). And Rebecca Krohn and Jenifer Ringer looked and danced divinely as well, partnered by those handsome dudes Justin Peck and Robert Fairchild respectively. The corps looked spiffy and the choreography is actually pretty good.
But tonight I realized what’s always really killed this piece for me. No, it’s not the comparison people always make between how Fred and Rita move in the film to how the NYCB dancers move onstage. No, that doesn’t irk me: Fred and Rita are in their element and the ‘live’ dancers are working in a hybrid style for all that it’s grounded in classic technique.
No, it’s the music that ultimately makes this ballet unappealing to me. Of course the actual Jerome Kern song I’m Old Fashioned is a gem. But Morton Gould’s arrangement of it is lackslustre, and it’s sad to see great dancers dancing to third-rate music.
The ballet also suffers from cliches: “You bumped into me!”, “That guy cut in on me and stole my girl!” “Let me gaze at the skyline for a moment.” After a while, despite the excellence of the dancing, the piece makes me restless. But it was good to see Maria, Becky and Jeni.
Photographs by Paul Kolnik from the current revival of Wheeldon’s POLYPHONIA at New York City Ballet. Read about it here. Above: Teresa Reichlen and Amar Ramasar.
Above: Wendy Whelan and Tyler Angle.
My thanks to the folks at NYCB for their swift photo service!
This is the first of two galleries of photographs that Kokyat took at the Peridance presentation by Lydia Johnson Dance of an as-yet-untitled work to music of J. S. Bach. Read about the evening here. Pictured above are dancers Robert Robinson and Lisa Iannacito McBride.
These images are from a pre-performance run-thru:
Laura Di Orio & James Hernandez
Or Sagi & Lisa Iannacito McBride
Robert Robinson & Jessica Sand
Or and Lisa in the foreground
Ensemble
Eric Vlach and Shannon Maynor
A second gallery of pictures from this evening will be found here.
Lydia has classes running at Peridance this week; you can drop in for a single class ($20) on Thursday or Friday at 11:30 AM. On Sunday from 1:00 PM til 4:00 the Company will hold auditions at Peridance for upcoming projects.
Thursday December 30, 2010 @ 2:00 PM – Today’s treat: Hot Chocolate!
This was one of those difficult days at the ballet – nothing to do with the dancing, which was super all afternoon. But my usual safe-haven in the 5th Ring was full of chatty, cell-phone prone, camera clicking and food-consuming persons (a group, so it seems – they all knew each other). They were pretty quiet during the overture and then there was some commotion and they started going in and out and there was lots of whispering. Apparently they did not like the 5th Ring view and went to complain or find other seats. I gave up and went to standing room, But there was a kid up in the gallery who talked all the way thru the party scene with no attempt from his parents to shut him up. Other people were shushing and one woman said: “Take him out!” but the parents didn’t budge.
So, all I remember about Act I today was that Vincent Paradiso seemed to be doing twice as many flat-footed entrechats as usual in the Soldier doll solo. I love it when the dancers improvise like that. The snow scene was very pretty and perhaps that music finally lulled the blabbering brat in the Fourth Ring to sleep.
The main reason I went to the performance today was to see Rebecca Krohn’s Sugar Plum Fairy. Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows that Rebecca is one of my ballerinas of choice: I singled her out soon after she joined the Company and I’ve been very pleased with her progress – most especially in the last two or three years where she seemed to really take things to another level in terms of presence and presentation. She has the look, the technique and the artistry and she showed them all off to perfection today with a very impressive performance of this difficult role.
Right from her first entry, everything looked so polished and clear. The solo was attractively danced in the lyric style with just a trace of prima ballerina hauteur here and there to keep things fascinating. Her cavalier in the pas de deux was Zachary Catazaro, one of the handsomest guys in the Company. I’d mostly only ever seen him in the large corps works so I had no idea how he would fare in this testing adagio or how he would register as a stage presence beyond his good looks. He did really well; he and Rebecca had clearly worked hard to develop a strong partnership and things went smoothly, they looked great together and they had a flair for finishing things off with just the right flourish. The audience seemed very taken with them and gave them a big cheer at the curtain calls. After this, I would look for Zachary’s partnering stock for go way up; as for Rebecca, one might say ‘a star is born’ but she’s been a star in my book for a while now.
Zachary Catazaro and Rebecca Krohn; headshots by Paul Kolnik.
Tiler Peck’s Dewdrop was spectacular, full of sustained balances and brilliant pirouettes. She varied the pacing of certain phrases, such as her spins en attitude which seemed to linger on the music to delightful effect. A phenomenal dancer in every respect.
Marika Anderson and Gwyneth Muller were poised and gracious as the demi-flowers. Mary Elizabeth Sell repeated her excellent Spanish senorita from yesterday; today she danced with Devin Alberda, one of the corps de ballet‘s most accomplished young men. Both Mary and Devin seem ready for more and bigger assignments. Megan LeCrone’s Arabian is all mysterious allure, and superbly danced. Antonio Carmena (Tea) and Giovanni Villolobos (Candy Cane) were on fine form.
As the Marzipan’s back-up quartet Likolani Brown, Alina Dronova, Callie Bachman and Meagan Mann danced charmingly and remained unperturbed when the fire alarm started going off during their piece. Brittany Pollack was the main Shepherdess, adding another sparkling performance to her list. In the finale, Brittany treated us to three beautifully elongated grand jetes: no signs of NUTCRACKER fatigue from this rising star.
Brittany’s vibrant performance was one more reason to celebrate the perfection of the Balanchine staging of this ballet. There’s been a lot of controversy about the new ABT/Ratmansky production, but one thing is clear: the set pieces of the Act II divertissement in the Balanchine version are surely more rewarding to dance than their Ratmansky counterparts. Spanish, Arabian, Marzipan, Dewdrop – these Balanchine roles give young up-and-coming dancers great opportunities to step out and show what they can do. Ratmansky’s Spanish and Marzipan are nothing-special ensemble pieces, his Arabian is a bare-chested guy doing a walk-about, and there’s no Dewdrop at all.
It was interesting today to listen to the Battle of the Mice music while leaning against the back wall of the gallery, not watching the action. You don’t even need to see the stage to know exactly what’s happening because Balanchine uses every militaristic ruffle and flourish in the music – right down to the smallest instrumental nuance – to depict the conflict in theatrical detail.
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.
Wednesday December 29, 2010 @ 2:00 PM – Today’s treat: candy canes!
In the final week of New York City Ballet‘s annual NUTCRACKER season I decided to brave two matinee shows – knowing they’d be packed with tiny tots – in order to see some of my favorite dancers who have taken on new roles in this ballet this Winter. This afternoon I saw Lauren King as the Dewdrop and Vincent Paradiso as Drosselmeyer. Both of these dancers had made their debuts in these roles earlier in the month. Tomorrow I will see our newest Sugar Plum Fairy, Rebecca Krohn who just debuted in this role opposite Zachary Catazaro (another first-timer).
In the week between Christmas and New Year attendance sometimes falls off a bit at the NYCB NUTCRACKER but today the House seemed pretty well packed. Aside from one terribly loud cellphone ringing, the audience was pretty well-behaved.
Vincent Paradiso’s Drosselmeyer (seen in a backstage photo, above) is dance-oriented in its movement and his characterization is detailed and fully-formed. It seems that, aside from some basic blocking, the NYCB Drosselmeyers can develop the character each in his own way. Vincent leaves off the arthritic old-man stuff; just having white hair doesn’t automatically make you a senior citizen: my hair was completely white by the time I was 30. Vincent plays Drosselmeyer as a vigorous gentlemen, young and strong enough to lift Austin Laurent’s soldier doll and carry him back to his gift box after his solo. Using his arms and hands beautifully, Vincent’s is clearly a dance-based portrayal, and in fact he broke into a jig at one point and even added a touch of flamenco footwork. His rapport with the individual children and with the party guests was easy and natural. As the party was winding down, Vincent began sizing up the room and planning his magic spells for the upcoming scene where he will make everything grow. It’s good to see such a polished and well-thought-out portrayal – the latest in a long line of Drosselmeyers at NYCB that stretches back to Jerome Robbins and to Balanchine himself.
The party scene seemed especially pleasant today, perhaps as an antidote to Ramtamsky’s unfortunate concept as presented in the new ABT version. Amanda Hankes as the graceful Frau Stahlbaum and Henry Seth as her spouse welcomed their guests elegantly and worked hard to keep their naughty son under control. Aside from Austin Laurent’s tall soldier, Sara Adams and Callie Bachman were sweet and charming as Harlequin and Columbine. In the snow scene I very much enjoyed watching Lauren Lovette while in the meantime trying to figure out who some of these new faces in the corps belong to.
Teresa Reichlen’s Sugar Plum Fairy is so dreamy to watch: her beautiful floating-on-air quality in the solo is matched by the gentle radiance of her facial expressions. Her two big jetees just before she leaves the stage to the Spanish dancers were so remarkably stretched out and silky. In the pas de deux, Tess and her cavalier Ask LaCour use their height to exude a regal feeling; they moved securely thru all the many dangers that Mr. B has set in their path and reached a climax with an exciting balance from the ballerina. If Tess was an opera singer instead of a ballet dancer, she would be one of the great lyric sopranos of all time. I’m looking forward to what the coming Winter repertory season might have in store for her.
Mary Elizabeth Sell and Daniel Applebaum danced Spanish; Mary looks superb and – speaking of balances – she had one phenomenal one. She reminds me more and more of Alexandra Ansanelli, quite a high compliment in my book. She and Daniel were going great guns with some wonderfully spacious dancing; Daniel had to put a hand-down in the final pose but it really didn’t spoil the effect of their flavorful dancing.
The long-limbed Gwyneth Muller danced Arabian with evocative fluidity of movement; when viewed from above the dancer in this piece casts a triple shadow. Giovanni Villalobos was a musical and technically precise Tea, and Adam Hendrickson spiced up his Candy Cane by increasing the speed of his hoop-leaps as he came down the center line. Later in the finale Adam added an extra jump thru the hoop as he made his exit. Erica Pereira’s Marzipan reminds us how difficult this solo is – and how easy she makes it look. Cameron Dieck’s Mother Ginger has become a more detailed characterization in the course of the season; I expect we’ll soon see Cameron as lead dancer in Spanish and eventually as the Sugar Plum cavalier. He’s too princely of a dancer to keep him in a hoopskirt for very long.
Kokyat photographed Lauren King (above) when she appeared in a Zalman Grinberg pas de deux (with Vincent Paradiso partnering her) at the Young Choreographers Showcase at MMAC earlier this year. This fetching young ballerina caught my eye right from her first appearances on this stage and it was simply a great pleasure to watch her Dewdrop today. She was wonderfully quicksilver in her movement and with a smile that so clearly shows her pleasure in being able to dance as she does. After seeing her in the Grinberg duet, I feel certain she will be dancing Sugar Plum – and several other major roles – very soon. Georgina Pazcoguin and Rebecca Krohn were the demi-flowers, both thoroughly lovely.
Although the Balanchine NUTCRACKER has had a bit of friendly competition this Winter from the new ABT/Ratmansky setting at BAM, today’s performance at New York City Ballet – coming at a point in time when the dancers, musicians and stage crew are probably suffering keenly from NUTZ-exhaustion – served as a reminder that this timelessly classy version with which Mr. B brought the Tchaikovsky score back to prominence is the one that will endure. Its old-world charm may seem dated to some people, but its perfect fusion of music and choreography makes it indispensable.
From spotting the cat in the Stahlbaum’s window (who has been sitting there for a half-century) to that stunning moment at the end of the Sugar Plum Fairy pas de deux when the ballerina lets go of her partner’s hand in a sustained balance, the Balanchine NUTCRACKER continues to cast its spell, however often I see it.
Kokyat’s images of dancer Christopher Ralph from our December 19, 2010 photoshoot at The Secret Theatre in Queens.
Gregory Dolbashian’s DASH Ensemble are preparing for their performances at Dance Theater Workshop on January 7th and 8th where they are sharing the bill with Camille Brown, Helios Dance Theater and Corbindances. Above photo by Kokyat: Christopher Ralph and Marie Doherty of the DASH Ensemble.
Watch a cool video of Gregory talking about The Playground here.
Oberon's Glade 