Oberon's Glade

Tag: Lar Lubovitch Dance Company

  • Lar Lubovitch @ The Joyce – Program B

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    Above: Kate Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis in Lar Lubovitch’s CRISIS VARIATIONS; photo by Kokyat

    Sunday matinee October 20th, 2013 – Lar Lubovitch Dance Company‘s 45th anniversary was celebrated this afternoon at The Joyce as the Company marked the finale of their two-week season. Two familiar works – Transparent Things and Crisis Variations – were followed by a trio of new pieces: a stunning all-male ensemble work called As Sleep Befell, a new duet choreographed by Company dancer Kate Skarpetowska entitled Listen, and an over-the-top cowboy caper Crazy 8s. If the dancers were feeling any end-of-season fatigue, it didn’t show. They danced their hearts out.

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    Lar Lubovitch was inspired by the Picasso painting ‘Family of Saltimbanques‘ (above) for his 2012 ballet Transparent Things, set to the Debussy string quartet in G-minor. With the score performed live onstage by the Bryant Park Quartet, the union of music and dance was celebrated by the charming characterizations of the six dancers, each costumed exactly like a figure in the painting. 

    This ballet weaves a very particular spell; the melding of art, music and movement gives it a Ballets Russes feeling – Diaghilev would approve, I am sure. The musicians played so well, and the dancers excelled. Attila Joey Csiki gave a wonderfully expressive performance as the Harlequin figure, his movement so fluent and graceful. As the quartet’s third movement draws to a close, the dancers invade the musicians’ space and wriggle their way between the chairs; as the light fades, Attila gently lays his head against the cello. A lovely murmur passed thru the house at that moment.

    But the quartet has another movement still to come, and although it seemed to me that a perfect ending might have been forsaken, the actual end of the ballet is equally well-judged and drew more sighs of admiration from the crowd. The dancers – Katarzyna Skarpetowska, Laura Rutledge, Brian McGinnis, Clifton Brown and Reed Luplau (a dreamy Blue Boy) – were all endearing as individuals and, in addition to Attila’s perfect rendering of Harlequin, made the ballet a poetic experience.

    Lar’s CRISIS VARIATIONS is set to a nightmarish score by Yevgeny Sharlat which features the unusual juxtaposition of harpsichord and saxophone; glimmers of melody shoot thru a dark, dense cloud of sound. This turbulent ballet is essentially an extended pas de deux for two remarkable dancers: Kate Skarpetowska and Brian McGinnis. Their partnering is risky, passionate but unromantic, and they perform it with unfettered physicality and angst. The ensemble – Nicole Corea, Laura Rutledge, Jonathan Alsberry, Reed Luplau and Anthony Bocconi – lay down, writhe. pile up, and periodically seem to try to escape from this ongoing dream. The ballet ends on a quizzical note as Kate suddenly vanishes beneath a mound of bodies.

    Both of these first two works seem to have taken on new depths and fascinations since their premieres, showing that the more we devote ourselves to watching dance the more we will see.

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    Above: from AS SLEEP BEFELL, photo by Steven Schreiber

    After the second intermission, new works were brought forth: the first of these, Lar’s AS SLEEP BEFELL, was a staggeringly beautiful experience. Once again the unity of music, dance and setting combined to please, and to seduce. The musicians of Le Train Bleu are ranged in a semi-circle at the rear of the stage: all dressed in casual summer whites, they are barefooted. They strike up Paola Prestini‘s multi-hued score, conducted by Ransom Wilson. A tall, white-gowned priestess -vocalist Helga Davis – begins her chant which takes her from distrubing growls in chest voice to uncanny, sustained high tones; a throaty quality imbues her singing with a raw earthiness.

    Ranged on the floor are six male dancers – Clifton Brown, Jonathan Alsberry, Reed Luplau, Anthony Bocconi, Oliver Greene-Cramer and Tobin del Cuore. They are bare-chested and wearing long diaphanous white skirts. They rise in a tribal ritual of dance that is primitive, sensuous, and hypnotic to behold. Expressive port de bras, fluid torsos, and long, muscular legs emerging from the white gowns create an alluring vision of male beauty. To a seductive rhythm, they link arms and sway in unison: a provocative passage.

    AS SLEEP BEFELL might be viewed as a male counterpart to the sisterhood Jerome Robbins created in his masterpiece ANTIQUE EPIGRAPHS. Both ballets evoke communal rites and timeless visions of ancient realms and forgotten gods. 

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    Above: Nicole Corea and Reed Luplau in LISTEN, photo by Steven Schreiber

    Kate Skarpetowska also turns to the music of Paola Prestini for her new pas de deux LISTEN. This duet will eventually be half of a longer work but even as it stands now, it’s another excellent entry into Ms. Skarpetowska’s catalog of work. In a shaft of bright light, Nicole Corea and Reed Luplau seem to be having a conversation set against Ms. Prestini’s elaborate clockwork score. The movement is restless and quirky as the energy passes back and forth between the two dancers. The interjection of a soulful cello theme brings a new element to the ballet; then Nicole suddenly vanishes, leaving Reed to dance an animated solo. 

    Nicole and Reed make a perfect pairing, and I’ll look forward to seeing the resolution of this duet. This was my fourth experience with Kate Skarpetowska’s choreographic work; in her musicality, her sense of visual poetry, and her imaginative use of both the physical and emotional characteristics of her dancers, she is already taking a distinctive place in the choreographic community.

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    Above: from CRAZY 8s, photo by Phyllis McCabe

    The afternoon ended with a terrific little ballet called CRAZY 8s. After a half-century of creativity, a choerographer is entitled to a bit of fun, and Lar Lubovitch took off on a totally unexpected tangent with this piece which spoofs hoe-downs, square dancing, the Grand Ole Opry, the rodeo, and the whole cowboy culture. The score is a fractured mash-up of Wild West rhythms, square dance calls, and a country-Western heartbreak song. The dancers, clad in garish bright yellow tights and ten-gallon hats, threw high-falutin’ artsy hogwash to the prairie winds and set to it with tongues-in-cheeks and a glint in their eyes. A special howdy-do to Jonathan Alsberry for his crazy/sexy-boy solo. This deft little romp sent the crowd home in high spirits.

  • Lydia Johnson Dance @ Peridance – Part 4

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    Above: Kokyat’s image from Lydia Johnson’s CROSSINGS BY RIVER

    Sunday June 24, 2012 matinee – Seeing a vast number of dance performances every season – to say nothing of the invitations I must turn down due to my packed schedule (and sometimes – admittedly – due to my sheer lack of interest) – I’m always glad when the annual performances by Lydia Johnson Dance come round. Lydia’s programmes are rewarding on so many levels: her musical choices are astute; her danceworks are thoughtfully crafted and pleasing both to the eye and the spirit; her dancers – whether those long associated with her style or guests invited for specific projects – are invariably beautiful, committed and moving. Lydia steers wonderfully clear of empty theatricality, and of vapid sentimentality, and of the twin dance crimes of cleverness and cuteness (which is not to say that playfulness is abjured, nor wit for that matter). Her works resonate with a direct emotional link to the music and with an expansive view of the human condition, whether they be imtimate domestic dramas, or reflections of the rites of community, or simply abstract visions of the sheer joy of the human body in motion.

    In what I now consider to be her most beautiful work to date, Lydia opened her engrossing programme today with a piece for female ensemble entitled CROSSINGS BY RIVER. Set to mystical sacred music by Osvaldo Golijov, this dance – so expressively executed – gave me those deep tingles of emotional response that come but rarely these days, indicating that the choreographer has taken the music – already striking in its own right – and given it a visual aspect that seems inevitable.

    Having watched this work evolve from one of its earliest rehearsals, I found the experience of seeing it staged and lit to be extremely moving both in its innate spiritual quality and in the serene and dedicated dancing of the five women: Laura DiOrio, Lisa Iannacito McBride, Jessica Sand, Kaitlin Accetta and Sarah Pon. Putting me in mind of the ritualistic works of Martha Graham, CROSSINGS BY RIVER carries on the great dance tradition of memorable works for female ensemble. It needs to be seen and savoured.

    Here is a gallery of Kokyat’s images from this Golijov dancework:

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    Laura DiOrio, Lisa Iannicito McBride, Jessica Sand

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    Jessica Sand

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    Jessica Sand, Lisa Iannacito McBride, Kaitlin Accetta

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    Sarah Pon

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    Lisa Iannacito McBride

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    Kaitlin Accetta

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    Laura DiOrio

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    Jessica Sand, Laura DiOrio, Lisa Iannacito McBride

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    Jessica, Lisa & Laura

    The costumes for CROSSINGS BY RIVER – soft, satiny skirts and lacy black bodices – were designed by Jessica Sand. The photos are by Kokyat, taken at the dress rehearsal.

    More about this evening of dance here, with still more to follow.

  • Lydia Johnson Dance @ Peridance – Part 3

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    Above: Reed Luplau of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in a guest appearance with Lydia Johnson Dance @ Peridance. Photo by Kokyat.

    Haunting and unique, Lydia Johnson’s SUMMER HOUSE is set to chamber works by Philip Glass. In this dreamlike piece, a man and three women recall a period of time spent together in a small Summer cottage far from the world’s hustle and bustle. There is no set narrative, and we do not know who these people are or how they came to be in the same space at the same time. Cross-currents of desire, despair and jealousy weave thru the dance though we can never be sure whose point of view we’re experiencing at a given moment. Thus SUMMER HOUSE leaves much to the imagination of the viewer, and for me – who once spent a marvelous summer in an old Victorian house on Cape Cod – it stirs up all sorts of memories.

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    Reed Luplau gives a deeply poetic performance in SUMMER HOUSE. Though he interacts with each of the three women, there’s no way of telling where his heart lies; it may in fact lie elsewhere altogether. Reed uses his entire body as an expressive instrument, keeping the physicality of the movement ever-flowing and with his beautiful face illuminated by the emotional colours of the music.

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    The three women dancing in SUMMER HOUSE – Laura DiOrio, Lisa Iannacito McBride and Jessica Sand – are steeped in Lydia Johnson’s style. Maintaining the mystique that surrounds the piece, we do not know if the girls are sisters, longtime friends or simply strangers who have come together for a brief span of time. Though each relates to the male character individually, there’s also an undeniable bond between the three of them. Thus another layer of enigmas wraps itself around the SUMMER HOUSE. The questions remain unanswered as the lights fade at the end.

    Here are some of Kokyat’s images from SUMMER HOUSE:

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    Jessica Sand & Lisa Iannacito McBride

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    Laura DiOrio & Reed Luplau

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    Reed Luplau, Jessica Sand

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    Laura DiOrio, Lisa Iannacito McBride, Jessica Sand

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    Laura DiOrio, Reed Luplau

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    Laura, Reed & Lisa

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    Reed Luplau in Lydia Johnson’s SUMMER HOUSE. Reed will soon be appearing in the feature film FIVE DANCES, written and directed by Alan Brown.

    All photos by Kokyat.

  • Lydia Johnson Dance: Rehearsing SUMMER HOUSE

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    A gallery of Kokyat’s images from a rehearsal of Lydia Johnson’s SUMMER HOUSE. Read about this rehearsal here. Above: Reed Luplau (a guest dancer from Lar Lubovitch Dance Company) and Jessica Sand. In this dancework, set to some of Philip Glass’s most haunting music, a man and three women reflect upon a Summer spent together in a small house. The exact relationships between the four people are never stated; visions of their desires, dreams and disappointments suffuse the work with an Autumnal sadness as they prepare to move on from the time they have shared.

    Click on each image to enlarge:

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    Reed Luplau

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    Lisa Iannacito McBride, Jessica Sand

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    All images by Kokyat.

  • Lydia Johnson’s Bach-In-Progress

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    Sunday August 22, 2012 – Kokyat and I stopped in at Lydia Johnson’s rehearsal at Battery Dance on this dreary, rainy day where guest artist Attila Joey Csiki (above) of the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company was rehearsing with Lydia’s company for the first time. 

    For her latest creation, a work for large ensemble, Lydia turns to the music of J. S. Bach. The piece is already well-developed choreographically and despite the fact that this was Attila’s first day working with Lydia, he’s already thoroughly at ease with the style; in fact his signature musicality and the silken flow of his dancing are a natural compliment to Lydia’s beautifully expressive motifs of movement. 

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    A central passage in this new dancework is a duet for Attila and Blake Hennessy-York (above). The boys have already mastered the structure of this duet and they ran thru it a few times, working out details of placement and trying various elements of partnering to achieve the desired smoothness.

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    Attila and Blake, above.

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    In a second duet, Attila dances with Lisa Innacito McBride (above).

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    This duet culminates with Attila falling into a beautiful swoon…

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    …and then re-awakening. 

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    Kokyat was silently moving around the studio to capture the many different elements of this ballet; above, Laura DOrio and Lisa Iannacito McBride. Since we were seeing it for the first time there was a lot to take in, often with multiple things happening – apropos of Bach – at the same time. In addition to Laura and Lisa, the dancers include:

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    Kaitlin Accetta

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    Blake Hennessy-York and Sarah Pon

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    Lauren Jaeger

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    Min-Seon Kim…

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    …and Katie Martin. 

    It’s always exciting to see the evolution of a new dancework and as always we felt very grateful to Lydia and the dancers for sharing their creative endeavor with us.

    Lydia Johnson Dance will perform at Peridance on June 23rd and 24th, 2012 in a programme which will feature the premiere of the new Bach piece as well as ballets sent to music of Philip Glass and Osvaldo Golijov. In addition to the dancers pictured above, Jessica Sand and Kerry Shea will be dancing. Reed Luplau appears as a guest along with his Lubovitch colleague Attila Joey Csiki. Max van der Steere will also be guesting with Lydia’s company. Ticket information here.

    All photographes by Kokyat, with more images here.

  • Lar Lubovitch’s MEN’S STORIES/Gallery

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    On November 19th. Kokyat photographed the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in a performance of the choreographer’s MEN’S DANCES. Read about the evening here.

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    Clifton Brown, Brian McGinnis, Milan Misko

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    Jason McDole

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    Attila Joey Csiki

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    Clifton Brown

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    Reed Luplau, Jason McDole

    All photos by Kokyat.

  • Nicole Corea

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    Over the past few months, Kokyat has had the opportunity to photograph some of the most beautiful and expressive dancers in our City. One for whom he and I share a special affection and admiration is Nicole Corea, a member of the prestigious Lar Lubovitch Dance Company. Nicole recently danced a solo created on her by choreographer Ursula Verduzco; entitled Nothing to Hide, the solo is set to music of Yann Tiersen. These images by Kokyat are from a rehearsal of the piece on October 18th, 2011.

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    We’re looking forward to seeing Nicole performing with the Lubovitch Company during their season at the Baryshnikov Arts Center, November 9th thru the 20th. Ticket information here.

  • Lubovitch Rep Workshop @ Peridance

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    Attila Joey Csiki of Lar Lubovitch Dance Company will be giving a workshop in Lubovitch repertoire at Peridance from November 29th – December 3rd. Information here. Photo of Attila above by Brian Krontz from our recent visit to Attila’s studio rehearsal.