Above: Martina Calcagno rehearsing at Ballet Hispanico today; photo by Nir Arieli
Monday March 28th, 2016 – In anticipation of Ballet Hispanico‘s upcoming season at The Joyce, photographer Nir Arieli and I stopped by the Company’s home space on West 89th Street to watch a rehearsal.
The Hispanico dancers are among the most vivid in New York City’s vibrant community of dance. Watching them in the up-close-and-personal studio setting, their power, unstinting energy, and sheer sexiness are a testament to their generosity and commitment.
For their impending Joyce performances, Ballet Hispanico will offer the New York premiere of Gustavo Ramírez Sansano’s Flabbergast. The Company have previously performed Mr. Sansano’s dramatic narrative ballet CARMEN.maquia and his charming El Beso.
Flabbergast is a complete joy to experience: lively, sexy, and playful, the choreography calls for non-stop action. And the dancers are even called upon to sing, which they do enthusiastically. Here are some of Nir’s images from today’s run-thru of this exciting dancework:
Eila Valls and Lyvan Verdecia
Kassandra Cruz
Chris Bloom
Melissa Fernandez
Mark Gieringer
Mark (foreground) & Company
Kassandra Cruz
Cole Vernon
Mark Gieringer
The Flabbergast ensemble
As an ideal contrast to the extroverted Flabbergast, choreographer’s Ramón Oller’s darkly ritualistic Bury Me Standing will also be on the Joyce program. A section of this ballet, in which a cortege of mourners move slowly across the space while a male soloist performs an expressive dance of lamentation, was being rehearsed today with Hispanico’s charismatic Mario Ismael Espinoza in the featured role.
Above, and in the following images: Mario Ismael Espinoza
During this run-thru from Bury Me Standing, I had one of those unusual experiences that you can only get at a rehearsal: while Mario was performing the solo and Nir was capturing it, I was at the other end of the studio where Mario’s alternate, Christopher Hernandez, was also dancing the solo directly in front of me. Mario and Christopher have very different physiques and stage personalities; shifting my gaze between the two, I was able to experience their interpretations simultaneously; an exciting finale to our studio visit.
I want to thank publicist Michelle Tabnick for arranging everything, Mr. Sansano for his cordial greeting and very appealing choreography, Hispanico’s Michelle Manzanales – ever the gracious hostess – and every single one of the Company’s incredible dancers.
And I’m particularly grateful – as always – to photographer Nir Arieli.
I want to draw your attention to Nir’s upcoming gallery show of Flocks at Daniel Cooney|Fine Art on West 26th Street, which will run from April 21st thru June 4th, 2016. Ballet Hispanico is among the companies featured in this series. More information below:
Oberon's Glade 