Tag: Elizabeth Brown

NCB Farewells ~ Gallery

Above: pianist Melody Fader and dancers Elizabeth Brown and Sarah Atkins in Miro Magloire’s Klavierstück

Photographer Arnaud Falchier provides these images from the Saturday November 23rd, 2019, performance at Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet. The evening marked the farewell performances of two longtime Company dancers: Elizabeth Brown and Sarah Atkins. Read about the performance here.

Sarah Atkins in the solo For Another Day, created for her by Miro

Sarah Atkins in For Another Day

Miro’s gift to founding Company dancer Elizabeth Brown: the solo Morning Song

Elizabeth Brown in her solo Morning Song

Former members gather to celebrate the community that is New Chamber Ballet in As One

Alumni and current NCB dancers in As One

Elizabeth Brown and Sarah Atkins taking their final New Chamber Ballet bows

All photos by Arnaud Falchier

~ Oberon

November 24, 2019
Farewells @ New Chamber Ballet

Above: Elizabeth Brown and Sarah Atkins of New Chamber Ballet, photo by Kokyat

~ Author: Oberon

Saturday November 23rd, 2019 – While I felt happy to be part of New Chamber Ballet’s 15th anniversary season, tonight felt bittersweet as two dancers long associated with Miro Magloire’s company were giving their farewell performances: Elizabeth Brown (a founding member) and Sarah Atkins.

Over the years since I began following Miro’s work, his Company has undergone many changes in roster. Inevitably, with smaller dance troupes, one forms an attachment to individual dancers, and this is especially true of New Chamber Ballet as Miro has frequently invited to me rehearsals over the years, so that I’ve often felt like I’m a non-dancing member of the family. Watching Elizabeth and Sarah tonight brought back so many memories, not only of their own performances but of all the other women they have danced with thru the years. This kind of nostalgia is lovely in its way, but it also means we’re all getting older.

The evening’s program opened with Klavierstück, to solo piano music by Karlheinz Stockhausen. The grand piano had been rolled into the center of the space, where pianist Melody Fader deftly took in stride the composer’s demands. Danced by the evenings two honorees – Elizabeth Brown and Sarah Atkins – it’s a work in which the piano becomes an altar or shrine.

Above: Sarah Atkins, photo by Kokyat

Next came a solo, For Another Day, created by Miro specially for Sarah Atkins. With the piano now back in its usual place at the point of the seating diamond, Melody Fader played the sixth of Franz Schubert’s Moments musicaux to which Ms. Atkins danced with a deep sense of the music’s lyrical flow. Circling the space, the dancer made eye contact with audience members: a beautiful expression of leave-taking. To dance this gorgeously at one’s farewell speaks volumes for Sarah’s technique and artistry. As the solo ended, a tidal wave of vociferous applause cheers was unleashed; everyone stood up to salute the dancer, who had to bow many times.

For an excerpt from Miro’s full-length work Phantom, music of Wolfgang Rihm, which veers from dreamlike to dramatic, was marvelously played by Ms. Fader and the enormously talented violinist Doori Na. Here we must pause to praise the technical assurance of the fearlessly adventurous Melody and Doori, who tackle any score Miro sets before them with flair. Over the years, they – as much as the choreography and dancing – have made New Chamber Ballet so distinctive. A chance to peer over Doori’s shoulder at his illuminated score for the Rihm was a highlight of my evening.

The dancers – Amber Neff, Rachele Perla and NCB newcomers Anabel Alpert and Megan Foley – coped well with the choreography, which is often floor-oriented and includes demanding passages of the same-sex partnering that Miro has been developing in recent works. Tonight, in this gala setting, it seemed earthbound and over-long. Matters were not helped by the audience seating configuration, which feels like a airport boarding lounge when the flights have been delayed.

Above: Elizabeth Brown rehearsing Morning Star with violinist Doori Na, photo by Nir Arieli

This was my third viewing of Morning Song, the solo Miro made in 2017 for Elizabeth Brown to John Cage’s violin piece “Cheap Imitation”. A new costume for this ballet tonight was less to my liking than the original, but that became irrelevant during this sensational performance by Ms. Brown and Mr. Na.

Morning Star is one of Miro’s greatest creations, and my favorite among all his works. Elizabeth Brown is the inspirational force behind the solo’s success, with its feeling of timeless ritual and quiet ecstasy. It is a portrait of feminine power and mystique, and Ms. Brown dances it divinely. It ends as the dancer circles the space in hypnotically slow turns, finishing with an Isadora-like greeting of the dawn, arms upraised.

As a founding member of New Chamber Ballet, Elizabeth has been an superlative muse for Miro, and an inspiration for dance-lovers; her technical prowess, unique persona, and deep devotion to the art merit the highest praise.

During the mammoth applause that greeted her after Morning Song this evening, Elizabeth and Doori bowed deeply to one another, underscoring the intrinsic connection between music and dance that is Miro’s trademark.

To conclude the program, Miro offered a pièce d’occasion entitled As One. Set to Antonín Dvořák’s Romance for violin and piano – played with impeccable verve, charm, and joy by Melody Fader and Doori Na – the work is Miro’s hymn to all the dancers who have performed for him thru New Chamber Ballet’s 15-year history.

As such, and in a celebratory move that seemed to take Elizabeth and Sarah by surprise, a bevy of former NCB dancers who had been seated randomly among the crowd suddenly rose and stepped into the dance space, performing an homage to the two departing stars whilst also celebrating the continuum of Miro’s tireless work, in which the dancers and the dance are one.

Above: Elizabeth and Sarah. Thanks for the memories, ladies…and please: keep on dancing!

~ Oberon

November 23, 2019
New Chamber Ballet: From Bach to Beat

Above: Elizabeth Brown of New Chamber Ballet

Friday September 22nd, 2017 – Kicking off their 2017-2018 season, Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet offered an evening of five ballets choreographed by Miro to music by J S Bach, W A Mozart, Luciano Berio, Beat Furrer, and the choreographer himself. Pianist Melody Fader and violinist Doori Na performed these stylistically varied scores to perfection: their playing illuminated the evening in a very special way. Miro’s five ballerinas – Sarah Atkins, Elizabeth Brown, Kristine Butler, Traci Finch, and Amber Neff – rose to every challenge the choreographer handed them, from brisk allegro combinations to extremes of partnering.

Miro has recently altered the seating configuration for his City Center Studio presentations: the audience now sit on all four borders of the performing space, with the piano in a permanent place at the far end of the hall. This worked exceptionally well. I chose a seat right next to the musicians which proved wonderfully congenial.

The revival of Lace provided a stunning showcase for violinist Doori Na: his playing of Luciano Berio’s Sequenza VIII was simply spine-tinglingly sensational. To revel in the exceptional clarity of Doori’s playing – the music’s fleet edginess, intensity, and wide dynamic range all captured to perfection – made for a perfect start to the evening. The choreography creates a sense of ritual as the three ballerinas – Sarah Atkins, Elizabeth Brown, and Traci Finch – seem to personify priestesses in the service of some ancient, long-forgotten goddess. Each dancer has solo passages while the other two sit or kneel, striking poses of reverence or ecstasy. The contrast between agitation and reverence creates an engrossing atmosphere.

Pianist Melody Fader brought a hypnotic, quiet radiance to the music of Beat Furrer for Voicelessness, a duet inspired by a poem of Sylvia Plath’s and danced by Kristine Butler and Amber Neff. Melody’s control of the music’s piano/pianissimo gradations was so atmospheric. The two dancers moved with intense assurance thru some very demanding partnering sequences; in this and other recent ballets, Miro has created a new mode of same-sex partnering.

The revival of 104 Fahrenheit, to Magloire’s own score, made me stop to think: have I seen any other ballets choreographed by their composer before? I can’t think of any. The ballet begins languidly, with Melody Fader again setting the mood with her refined playing. Traci Finch has the first solo passage: a danced agitato with cunning pauses. Kristine Butler’s slower solo reflects the sense of stillness in the music. Skittering motifs from the piano signal Elizabeth Brown’s space-filling solo, a vividly-danced montage of athleticism and repose in which the dancer’s hands create their own visual poetry. Throughout, Melody Fader’s inspired playing gave wing to the exceptional dancing.

The world premiere of a new duet to music from Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier has a simple working title for now: Bach. Commissioned by longtime friends of New Chamber Ballet, Leslie and Richard Curtis, the duet is lovely as it stands; but Miro already has plans to enlarge on it.

Wearing Sarah Thea’s frothy pastel frocks, Amber Neff and Kristine Butler drew inspiration from Melody Fader’s spot-on playing of the Bach prelude and fugue #14 in F-sharp minor. The two dancers move from joyous bounciness thru some stretchy give-and-take partnering, and lovely, ecstatic back-bends. It’ll be interesting to see how Miro develops this piece, and whether additional dancers might be included.

Amity is set to Mozart’s violin sonata in C Major K.296, and what a wonderful performance of that piece we heard this evening from Melody Fader and Doori Na. Sitting so close to these music-makers, I could really feel their resonance – Doori’s lower register had a nice contralto depth – while Melody’s choice of tempos seemed perfect.

Above: Amity dress rehearsal image by Nir Arieli.

Wearing Sarah Thea’s gossamer-gold costumes, dancers Sarah Atkins, Kristine Butler, Traci Finch, and Amber Neff affirmed the sense of joy in dancing to Mozart’s music with airy grace. From time to time, Miro has them fall to the floor: an unexpected move that at first seemed accidental. These little touches occur frequently throughout Miro’s choreography, and they keep things fresh.

September 22, 2017
Miro Magloire Goes Classical: New Chamber Ballet

Above: Elizabeth Brown of New Chamber Ballet, photo by Kokyat. Click to enlarge.

Saturday November 17, 2012 – Performances at New Chamber Ballet always feature live music, and quite often it is music that has been written in the 20th or even the 21st century. Tonight’s programme varied a bit from the New Chamber Ballet norm as three of the four works choreographed by the Company’s director Miro Magloire were set to works of Old Masters: Bach, Handel and Tchaikovsky. In such company, the fourth work – by Karlheinz Stockhausen – gave the evening a nice tangy jolt.

Super-familiar melodies from THE NUTCRACKER were transcribed for solo violin and played with alternating currents of delicacy and gusto by Clara Lyon. There were no candy canes or snowflakes to be seen, however: instead, three women (Elizabeth Brown, Nora Brown and Holly Curran) became obsessed with a gift-wrapped silvery pendant that changed hands several times in the course of the ballet. Technically demanding solos were spun thru the musical fabric, and elements of chase and deceit played out as each girl tried to claim the bauble for her own.

Melody Fader attacked the hammering motif that opens Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstuck IX with flair; Elizabeth Brown and Holly Curran sit on either side of the pianist as Miro’s KLAVIERSTUCK commences: a ballet that became a memorial to the composer who passed away in 2007, shortly after having given Miro his blessing to choreograph the piece. The piano itself becomes the central element of the ballet, functioning as a barre and as an altar. Miro’s affectionate gesture to the composer he so admired has become New Chamber Ballet’s signature work.

After a short break, Melody Fader switched modes and played a transcription of a Handel violin sonata (arranged by Miro) as the Company’s newest member Nora Brown gave lyric sweep to the pure classic vocabulary of the solo SPIEGELEIN. Wearing Candice Thompson’s fetching pale rose and white tunic, Nora’s graceful dancing had a lovely fresh quality.

Its premiere having been delayed a couple of months, Miro’s new ballet THE OTHER WOMAN proved one of his finest works to date. Set to Bach’s B-minor sonata (played by Clara Lyon and Melody Fader) this ballet about duplicity and its resulting emotional impact on the personalities involved struck close to home. Elizabeth Brown and Holly Curran are the two women – and who could choose between them? – while Sarah Atkins en travesti gives a wonderful performance as the object of their affections. Sarah, in a black suit and bowler hat, danced her jaunty solo with élan while the two girls vied for his attention in a situation where someone is bound to lose.

New Chamber Ballet‘s audience continues to grow, with new faces among the crowd of familiar long-time supporters. In their mixture of classic, on-pointe dancing and live music in an intimate setting, Miro’s evenings hold a unique place in the Gotham dance scene. Their next performances are slated for February 15th and 16th, 2013.

November 17, 2012