Above: Lydia Johnson Dance‘s Brynt Beitman, Laura DiOrio, Blake Hennessy-York, and Sarah Pon; photo by Dmitry Beryozkin
Sunday January 25th, 2015 – Lydia Johnson Dance offering another event in their Salon Series this afternoon at the Gelsey Kirkland studios; arriving guests got to watch part of a Company class led by the Australian dancer/actor Reed Luplau; excerpts from Lydia Johnson’s danceworks (including a work-in-progress) were performed by the Company, followed by a discussion of the influence of classical ballet on the performing of contemporary dance.
Reed Luplau (above) performed with Lydia Johnson Dance in 2012, dancing in Lydia’s SUMMER HOUSE and CHANGE OF HEART, and he continues to work with LJD in a teaching role. In 2013, Reed had a principal role in the award-winning film FIVE DANCES. He is currently in rehearsal to reprise the role of Bosie (which he created) in Theodore Morrison’s opera OSCAR with Opera Philadelphia.
Images from Reed’s Company class:
Above: Chazz McBride and Oliver Swan-Jackson take a flying leap; Oliver has just signed on with Lydia Johnson Dance
Above: appearing for the first time with Lydia Johnson Dance, Katie Keith Dettling and Grant Dettling have had only a couple of LJD rehearsals to date but they very kindly agreed to be part of today’s Salon presentation
Above: Reed Luplau
The first of the afternoon’s danced excerpts were then presented: from WHAT COUNTS, set to jazz-based music by The Bad Plus. Here are some moments from this work, which is set for five dancers:
Above: Girl’s trio – Sarah Pon, Laura DiOrio, Katie Lohiya
Lift: Chazz Mcbride, Sarah Pon, Blake Hennessy-York
All that jazz…Katie…
…Chazz…
…Sarah…
…Laura.
Central to WHAT COUNTS is a pas de deux danced by Blake Hennessy-York and Sarah Pon (above).
Blake and Sarah were married in September 2013; there’s a gorgeous portfolio of their wedding photos – some of which I’d never see before! – here.
BARRETTS MILL ROAD: A REMEMBRANCE is Lydia’s lyrically nostalgic 2013 dancework set to piano works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Katie Keith Dettling and Grant Dettling – another married couple! – performed an excerpt from this work today, having only just begun working on it a few days earlier. They showed the serene confidence of beautifully-trained dancers, accustomed to dancing together:
The afternoon’s final dance offering was of excerpts from a new work-in-progress which uses music by Mark Mellits and Osvaldo Golijov. Calling fora large ensemble, the piece features a lot of partnered sequences. Here are some images from this new creation:
Brynt Beitman, Laura DiOrio, Blake Hennessy-York, Sarah Pon, Chazz Mcbride, Min Kim
Chazz Mcbride, Min Kim
Brynt Beitman, Blake Hennessy-York
Chazz and Min
Chazz and Min
Chazz and Min
Brynt, Laura, Blake, Sara
Laura, Brynt, Sarah, Blake
Sarah and Blake
Above: At the end of the presentation, the dancers posed for a photo with Lydia Johnson Dance founding Board member Rayna Pomper who, with her husband Marc, held the first party in support of LJD 15 years ago. Left to right: Min Kim, Chazz Mcbride, Laura DiOrio, Katie Keith Dettling, Grant Dettling, Ms. Pomper, Oliver Swan-Jackson, Katie Lohiya, Blake Hennessy-York, Sarah Pon, Brynt Beitman, and Reed Luplau.
All photography by Dmitry Beryozkin.
The works performed today will be seen on February 28th, 2015, when Lydia Johnson Dance appear at the South Orange Performing Arts Center in New Jersey. Details here.
Oberon's Glade 