Tag: Monday November

Rehearsal: Cherylyn Lavagnino’s Monsters of Grace

Above: Dorrie Garland and Dervia Carey-Jones of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance

Monday November 26th, 2019 ~ In the early afternoon, I went down to the NYU/Tisch studios where Cherylyn Lavagnino was running a rehearsal of her latest creation, Monsters of Grace, set to the aria “In The Arc of Your Mallet” from the almost-forgotten Philip Glass opera Monsters of Grace.

Here is the text of the aria, drawn from the writings of the Persian poet and scholar Rumi (1207-1273):

“Don’t go anywhere without me.
Let nothing happen in the sky apart from me,
or on the ground, in this world or that world,
without my being in its happening.
Vision, see nothing I don’t see.
Language, say nothing.
The way the night knows itself with the moon,
be that with me. Be the rose
nearest to the thorn that I am.
I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,
in the arc of your mallet when you work,
when you visit friends, when you go
up on the roof by yourself at night.
There’s nothing worse than to walk out along the street
without you. I don’t know where I’m going.
You’re the road, and the knower of roads,
more than maps, more than love.”

It seems very…contemporary, doesn’t it?

And here are some photos from the rehearsal, courtesy of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance:

Dervia Carey-Jones, Dorrie Garland, Kaitlyn Yiu, and Lila Simmons

Corinne Hart and Dervia Carey-Jones

Kaitlyn Yiu and Dorrie Garland

Kaitlyn and Dorrie

Cherylyn’s choreography strikes me as ideally suited to the music; the ballet has the feeling of ritual…a feeling I love.

My thanks to Cherylyn and her beautiful and generous dancers Dervia Carey-Jones, Dorrie Garland, Corinne Hart, Lila Simmons, and Kaitlyn Yiu for this engaging studio experience.

~ Oberon

November 27, 2019
Rehearsal: Cherylyn Lavagnino’s Monsters of Grace

Above: Dorrie Garland and Dervia Carey-Jones of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance

Monday November 26th, 2019 ~ In the early afternoon, I went down to the NYU/Tisch studios where Cherylyn Lavagnino was running a rehearsal of her latest creation, Monsters of Grace, set to the aria “In The Arc of Your Mallet” from the almost-forgotten Philip Glass opera Monsters of Grace.

Here is the text of the aria, drawn from the writings of the Persian poet and scholar Rumi (1207-1273):

“Don’t go anywhere without me.
Let nothing happen in the sky apart from me,
or on the ground, in this world or that world,
without my being in its happening.
Vision, see nothing I don’t see.
Language, say nothing.
The way the night knows itself with the moon,
be that with me. Be the rose
nearest to the thorn that I am.
I want to feel myself in you when you taste food,
in the arc of your mallet when you work,
when you visit friends, when you go
up on the roof by yourself at night.
There’s nothing worse than to walk out along the street
without you. I don’t know where I’m going.
You’re the road, and the knower of roads,
more than maps, more than love.”

It seems very…contemporary, doesn’t it?

And here are some photos from the rehearsal, courtesy of Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance:

Dervia Carey-Jones, Dorrie Garland, Kaitlyn Yiu, and Lila Simmons

Corinne Hart and Dervia Carey-Jones

Kaitlyn Yiu and Dorrie Garland

Kaitlyn and Dorrie

Cherylyn’s choreography strikes me as ideally suited to the music; the ballet has the feeling of ritual…a feeling I love.

My thanks to Cherylyn and her beautiful and generous dancers Dervia Carey-Jones, Dorrie Garland, Corinne Hart, Lila Simmons, and Kaitlyn Yiu for this engaging studio experience.

~ Oberon

November 26, 2019
Salonen Conducts WOZZECK

Monday November 19, 2012 – The Philharmonia Orchestra under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen (above) offered a concert performance of Alban Beg’s WOZZECK at Avery Fisher Hall. Incredibly, it was the first time I have experienced this opera in a live performance that was conducted by someone other than James Levine.

The particpating artists:

Philharmonia Orchestra
Westminster Choir  - Joe Miller, director
The American Boychoir – Fernando Malvar-Ruiz, music director

Conductor: Esa-Pekka Salonen

Simon Keenlyside Wozzeck
Angela Denoke Marie
Hubert Francis Drum Major
Joshua Ellicott Andres
Peter Hoare Captain
Tijl Faveyts Doctor
Henry Waddington First Apprentice
Eddie Wade: Second Apprentice
Harry Nicoll Idiot
Anna Burford Margret

The performance was compelling both in the awe-inspiring magnificence of the orchestral playing and in the powerful simplicity of the semi-staging: the singers, clad in contemporary everyday chic, moved thru the drama in a narrow space at the lip of the stage. Direct and uncomplicated in its presentation. the drama was expressed with stripped-down clarity. Thanks to a cast of singing-actors each vividly inhabiting his or her character, this tale of madness, despair, bullying and betrayal cast its extraordinary spell.

The score unfolded under Maestro Salonen’s baton like a vast dark tapestry; individual orchestral voices shoot thru the fabric of sound like shimmering threads. As in SALOME, the musical imagery often evokes moonlight seen thru sooty, scudding clouds…but here the moon is blood-red. The conductor struck an ideal balance of unleashing the insane power of the orchestra yet never overwhelming his singers. The cumulative effect was electrifying..

In the early scenes of the opera, dark comedy runs rampant: the Captain and the Doctor who hold Wozzeck their mental hostage are so deranged and their words so far-fetched as to evoke laughter. Brilliant characterzations from Peter Hoare and Tijl Faveyts respectively set their vignettes in high relief. Hubert Francis was the swaggering bully of a Drum Major and Joshua Ellicott as Andres – one of Wozzeck’s few links to normalcy – sang with clarity. Anna Burford as Margret delivered her Swabia-lied with drunken blowsiness; Harry Nicoll was an eerily happy Idiot. I took special pleasure in the robustly earthy singing of Henry Waddlington and Eddie Ware as the two apprentices. Their scene simply crackled with verbal and vocal power and they steered clear of the comic cliches of acting out drunkiness, making their performances all the more impressive.

Angela Denoke, a soprano still talked-about in Gotham for her only Met performances (a series of Marschallins in 2005) was a wonderfully feminine and vunerable Marie. For all her toughness (“better a knife in my heart than lay a hand on me”), Marie is a marvelously human woman torn between desire and guilt, and Ms. Denoke’s portrayal struck an ideal balance while providing vocalism of gleaming lyricism and intriguing colours. She now proudly joins my gallery of memorable portrayals of this character over the years: Janis Martin, Anja Silja, Hildegard Behrens, Katarina Dalayman and Waltraud Meier.

As Wozzeck, Simon Keenlyside enjoyed a great personal triumph. Hurling himself into the drama with a dazzling affiinity for the expressive physical manifestations of madness and with tortured facial responses to Wozzeck’s downward spiral, the baritone sang with unfettered power and a full palette of vocal colours which he drew upon to project the character’s ravaged humanity. Keenlyside’s performance was nothing short of perfection.

And so, one of the most thrilling nights of opera in recent seasons…and the proof of it was in the utter silence of the audience in those unexpected stillnesses that Berg applies from time to time. They are as key to the dark glory of WOZZECK as the shocking power of the great post-murder crescendos. Salonen and his mighty forces gave us an exciting evening, reaffirming the still-powerful desire of the New York public for meaningful operatic experiences.

November 19, 2012
The Current Sessions

Monday November 28, 2011 – Down to the Wild Project in the East Village (or would we say NoHo?) for The Current Sessions, a programme featuring works – both live and on film – by nine choreographers. The Wild Project venue is a very neat space for dance, seating about 90 people in raked rows. The lobby is small, immaculate, welcoming – with a ‘garage door’ that I imagine would be open on Summer evenings. Earlier in the day, photographer Nir Arieli and I had watched the dress rehersal where he recorded the images you see here.

Photo at the top from Allison Jones’ Listen to Me.

The evening gave me an odd sensation: I was by far the oldest person in the audience. Aside from Kokyat and I, it was a twenty-something crowd: swigging form beer bottles, they were attentive and enthusiastic. The danceworks were created and performed by people of their generation with music that suits their frame of reference. All the works presented – even the witty ones – showed seriousness of creative intent as well as committed and always enjoyable dancing. The sold-out crowd were keenly receptive to it all.

In her solo a room, home Jenna Otter used the space beautifully and set a standard for the works to come. At close range, the dancer’s breathing became part of the texture of her performance as she veered from restless to subdued. Her excellent choice of Bach was the only nod to anything remotely classical in terms of music this evening, however I would like to express a hope that dance artists will stop using Glenn Gould’s versions of Bach with the pianist’s vocal ‘commentary’ always a distraction. There are a million recordings of all things Bach. Choose a different pianist.

In a duet by choreographer Allison Jones, dancers Hayley Jones and Amir Rappaport put their intimate and intense relationship on public view. Entitled Listen to Me, this duet on the surface is about two friends each trying to make a point. But there’s a sexual undercurrent as well, of control and of unspoken passion. The two dancers were beautifully expressive of the work’s wide-ranging emotional setting. The music was pleasant, innocuous, forgettable – a drawback shared by by most of the rest of the works we saw all evening.

Here are more of Nir’s images from Listen to Me:

Above: from Allison Jones’ Listen to Me.

In the solo Ragerian’s Vignettes, Genna Baroni showed an interesting mixture of technical strength and personal modesty. This dichotomy made her quite fascinating to watch, with the dancer immersed in herself though also warily aware of the audience. Again the music was simply there, neither enhancing nor distracting from the dance.

Above: Genna Baroni

Bennyroyce Royon’s duet Wander seems to portray a couple in an on-going relationship who have lost their focal point. As they vocalize their thoughts, which shift from the mundane to the profound, they move around one another, close but not connecting. Clad in casual summer-wear, Benny and his partner Marie Zvosec look great together. Benny’s choice of a sentimental waltzy song from Pale White Moon suits him and Marie very well here.

In the end, they find a new beginning.

A brief film 4PLAY from Yarden Raz concluded the first half of the evening. It had a Chaplinesque feel to it.

At the dress rehearsal, dancers Christopher Ralph and Gregory Dolbashian had simply marked thru Jonathan Royse Windham’s Oh! Darlin’ so that I really couldn’t get a feeling for what it would be like. But at the actual performance, Jonathan delivered a truly droll performance of this little vignette about a boy’s livelong love for his teddy bear. As Chris and Greg removed layers of Jonathan’s clothes, starting with his jammies, the dancer aged perceptibly. By the end, he was a bent old man…but still steadfastly attached to his bear. The familiar Beatle tune gave the piece an ironic twist.

In Alexis Convento’s raucously charming duet la baggare, rival French femme fatales (dancers Allison Sale and Lynda Senisi, above) each attempt to get the upper hand in this fast-paced romp with a Moulin Rouge feeling.

Allison and Lynda gave their on-going competitive spat a distinctive flair.

Jordan Isadore’s two-part film SARA began with a blonde-wigged dancer striking balletic poses, perfectly in sync to an antique music box. This truly funny flick gave way to a four-panel display of two dancers shot from four different angles; this was amusing for a minute, then went on too long. Brevity is still the soul of wit.

In the end, it was Yin Yue’s mysterious and well-crafted we have been here before that stood out among the evening’s offerings in its use of more than two dancers and its darkish, dreamy atmosphere. An abstract work, we have been here before shows Yin Yue’s fine sense of structure and – in addition to her own dancing, which has a specific perfume – her choice of persuasive individual fellow dancers to shape her work: Sarah F Parker, Jacqueline Stewart, Grace Whitworth and Daniel Holt.

Daniel Holt in Yin Yue’s we have been here before.

All photography by Nir Arieli.

November 28, 2011
Ballet Next!

Monday November 21, 2011 – In one of the most-anticipated dance events of recent seasons, BALLET NEXT have made their world debut with a single calling-card performance at The Joyce. The theater was filled to over-flowing and many luminaries from the Gotham dance scene were on hand, lending the evening a special air of excitement. Rehearsal photo of Michele Wiles and Charles Askegard at the top by Nir Arieli. Click on the images to enlarge.

In the Summer of 2011, two of ballet’s premiere dancers made their farewell appearances with their respective resident companies: Charles Askegard had a full-scale grand gala as his last performance with New York City Ballet. But ABT‘s Michele Wiles simply slipped away without fanfare, leaving New York balletomanes wondering why.

Not long afterward came the announcement that these two tall and tremendously talented artists would be launching their own ballet company: Ballet Next. Their plan: to present classic and new works with world-class dancers, calling upon top choreographers of the day and working with live music. Tonight their initial offering was an emphatic success.

As the audience settled into expectant silence, the ensemble of musicians struck up the White Swan prelude and moments later Michele Wiles (above, in rehearsal) made Odette’s iconic entrance to a burst of applause. Then Charles Askegard stepped onstage; the audience greeted him affectionately. The two dancers look so very fine together, with Michele’s long limbs shaping the classic poses with finesse and Charles giving a textbook lesson in the art of partnering: ardent but never fussy. Their partnership immediately made me start making a list of works I want to see them dance together: the BAYADERE Shades pas de deux comes first.

The first half of the evening was devoted to the classics and to Tchaikovsky; Ballet Next‘s musical director Elad Kabilio and his fellow musicians now introduced the Act III pas de deux from SLEEPING BEAUTY. San Francisco Ballet‘s delicious petite etoile Maria Kochetkova was exquisite as Aurora and New York City Ballet’s Joaquin de Luz was her blindingly handsome Prince. Their partnership had the youthful charm and elegance that makes the balletomane’s heart beat the faster; they held their finely-shaped final fish dive (of three) to the delight of the crowd. In their solos, the two dancers swept thru the demands with flair, re-uniting for a bravura coda. Their lovely performance extended to their gracious bows.

From ABT, soloists Misty Copeland (rehearsal image, above) and Jared Matthews gave a joyous, space-filling performance of Balanchine’s Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux. The Joyce stage could barely contain their ebullient dancing; their easy rapport as partners and the speed and clarity of their solo dancing won the audience’s vociferous approval.

Following the intermission, Ms. Kochetkova re-appeared in a whimsical costume: pink body tights, a head-wrap, and half a tutu. She danced a Jorma Elo solo entitled ONE OVERTURE set to music of Mozart and Biber. This solo calls for pure classical technique applied in off-kilter, witty combinations as the dancer occasionally whisks offstage only to re-appear. In the pit, Ben Laude switched from piano to harpsichord for an authentic Baroque texture. The choreography is clever and unusual but the piece is a trifle too long.

For Satie, Mr. Laude reverts to the piano and the curtain rises on New York City Ballet principal Jennie Somogyi with Charles Askegard (rehearsal photo, above) to dance a Margo Sappington duet, ENTWINED. This work is stylized in its shaping but there are erotic undercurrents in play, as one might expect from the choreographer who gave us Oh! Calcutta! The two dancers, in sleek body tights, look fantastic together. I hope Ms. Somogyi is at the top of Ballet Next‘s list of dancers for future return engagements; there are so many things I would love to see her dance. It was fun to see Ms. Sappington joining the dancers onstage at the end.

Misty Copeland then returned to dance a solo, ONE, choreographed by Robert Sher-Machherndl to music by Max Richter. In this solo, Misty showed off the power of both her technique and her ability to hold the audience in the palm of her hand. The choreography was not memorable, and the piece went on a bit longer than necessary, but as a vehicle for the dancer all was well.

Above: Michele and Misty taking a break at rehearsal.

The musicians then struck up Vivaldi’s beloved La Follia and the curtain rose on Michele Wiles and Drew Jacoby crouching in a pool of light. The two leggy ballerinas then took off in Mauro Bigonzetti’s demanding and fast-paced choreography, dancing in sync or in solo passages. Bigonzetti keeps throwing steps and gestures at the two girls; they take it all in stride and keep sailing on the music.

“Faster!”, Drew Jacoby (above, in the studio) called out to the musicians at a rehearsal I attended, although she was already moving at high velocity. In her solo Michele spun some silky pirouettes; there’s some very quirky footwork in the finale which then seems to evaporate at the girls return to their opening pose.

Above: Michele Wiles rehearsing the Bigonzetti.

As all the dancers came out to bow, I was thinking of the endless possibilities for future Ballet Next programmes. With their extensive network of friends who are also great dancers, Michele and Charles can call upon stellar line-ups in the wink of an eye. There’s a vast store of established works that they can dance, both popular and forgotten, which will fare well in their live-music settings. And there are many choreographers I’d like to see them working with – Jessica Lang, Melissa Barak, Emery LeCrone, Edwaard Liang, Andonis Foniadakis, Pontus Lidberg, Justin Peck and Luca Veggetti come immediately to mind. Let’s see what’s next for Ballet Next.

The rehearsal photos included here are by Nir Arieli.

November 21, 2011