Wednesday March 27th, 2013 – Choreographer Zvi Gotheiner is setting his dancework “Chairs”, which premiered in 1992, on the Steps Repertory Ensemble who will be performing it during their upcoming season at Ailey Citigroup Theater. My friend Joe and I dropped in at a rehearsal today to see how things are developing.
For this dancework, Zvi uses music culled from film soundtracks, Rachmaninoff etudes, and Russian Orthodox
sacred music. Today we were watching the dancers work on specific passages…
…stopping periodically to refer to a video of a live performance which gave us an idea of how the work will feel when it’s costumed and lit. Mindy Upin and Lane Haplerin, above, having a look.
There’s a tremendous sense of energetic flow in the choreography, particularly in a quartet passage…
…and Zvi spent some time working out partnering details with dancers Jake Bone and Lane Halperin (above); their duet has a restless, space-covering energy.
We’d just missed a sampling of a duet for two men (David Scarantino and Clinton Edward Martin, above) but just from the phrases we saw, and a few sneak peeks at the video, “Chairs” is clearly a very interesting piece.
Most of my photos today looked like this:
So we’ll have to wait for the performances to get the full impact of what “Chairs” will look like. Just as I did a few months when I checked out Manuel Vignoulle’s rehearsal, I really loved the atmosphere at the Steps Rep studio. And it’s lovely to chat with the Company’s director Claire Livingstone.
In addition to Zvi’s “Chairs”, and the Vignoulle creation, the programme will feature works by Shannon Gillen, Ricky and Jeff Kuperman, Yesid Lopez and Nathan Trice.
Oberon's Glade 