Tag: Travis Magee

Prelude: Claudia Schreier & Co

Claudia Schreier & Co will be at The Joyce on July 21st and 22nd, 2017, as part of the theatre’s two-week ballet festival. The performances are sold out.

On Wednesday evening, July 19th, photographer Travis Magee and I stopped in at the Barnard College studios where rehearsals have been taking place. The dancers were running thru CHARGE, Claudia’s large-scale ballet set to a vibrant score by the Dutch composer Douwe Eisenga. For this ensemble work, Claudia has gathered together an outstanding group of dancers; although it’s an ad hoc ensemble, they’ve already developed the feeling of a Company.

Here are more of Travis’s images from CHARGE:

Elinor Hitt and Craig Wasserman

Elizabeth Claire Walker

Claudia & Company

While the dancers caught their breath after two runs of CHARGE, members of the choral group Tapestry filed into the studio and arranged themselves in a semi-circle to sing the music of Tomás Luis de Victoria and Sergei Rachmaninoff which comprise the setting of Claudia’s breathtaking pas de deux, VIGIL.

VIGIL is danced by guest artist Wendy Whelan and Dance Theater of Harlem’s Da’Von Doane. Working together for the first time, Wendy and Da’Von have formed a partnership based on resonant technique and spiritual affinity. Their dancing is borne up by the heartfelt, resplendent harmonies of Tapestry, making this is a dance experience sans pareil.

More of Travis Magee’s photos from VIGIL:

The Joyce performances by Claudia Schreier & Co will further feature ballets set to music of Leonard Bernstein, Marc Mellits, Dmitri Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, and Ellen Taafe Zwilich. Unity Phelan, Jared Angle, and Cameron Dieck – all from New York City Ballet – will appear in prominent roles.

All photos by Travis Magee.

July 19, 2017
Pillow Prep: MADBOOTS

Above: studio showing of (SAD BOYS), the newest work from MADBOOTS; photo by Travis Magee

Thursday July 9th, 2015 – MADBOOTS, the daring and unique all-male dance company founded by Austin Diaz and Jonathan Campbell, will be presenting their newest work (SAD BOYS) from August 26th – 30th, 2015, at the Doris Duke Theatre at the Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival. Tickets and more performance information here. Support this production by donating here.

Today MADBOOTS hosted a studio showing of (SAD BOYS) for friends of the Company; my photographer/friend Travis Magee met me there to document the event. Joining Austin and Jonathan for (SAD BOYS) are dancers Robbie Moore, Dan Walczak, and Chuck Wilt.

Performed to a deftly assembled musical suite, (SAD BOYS) runs nearly an hour and unfolds in sequences of madly passionate movement laced with interludes of reflective stillness. It explores so many facets of the transition from youth to manhood: the desire for companionship, the hesitant awakening of sexual awareness, and the harsh lessons of mistaken affection. Tenderness, amiable horseplay fraught with desire, betrayal, brutality, and soul-rending despair are all elements of this journey which so many of us have made over the years. (SAD BOYS) resonates with both the wary pleasures and the terror of self-discovery.

The choreography is space-filling, alternating raw physicality with unexpected passages of lyricism. The five dancers are unabashed in the athleticism of their dancing and in the intimacy of their interaction. As the dance progresses, the boys gradually shed their clothing, leaving themselves in a state of touching vulnerability by the end.

Without giving away anything more about (SAD BOYS), here are some of Travis Magee’s images from the studio showing:

Jonathan Campbell and Austin Diaz

Austin Diaz and Dan Walczak

Dan Walczak

Chuck Wilt

Robbie Moore, Jonathan Campbell, Austin Diaz

Dan Walczak, Austin Diaz

Dan Walczak, Jonathan Campbell

Dan Walczak

Jonathan, Chuck, Dan, and Robbie

Jonathan Campbell, Chuck Wilt

July 11, 2015
Rehearsal: Omar Roman de Jesus’s SAAKASU

Above: “Saakasu” rehearsal, photo by Travis Magee

Sunday June 13th, 2014 – Omar Roman de Jesus, who dances with Parsons Dance, presents “Saakasu” at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Theater, 120 West 46th Street, on June 19th and 20th, 2015, at 7:00 PM. The program is under the auspices of Roschman Dance who will be premiering a new piece, “Crooked Creek”, and a revival of their 2012 work, “Learning To Fold”. Tickets here.

This evening, Omar invited photographer Travis Magee and me to a rehearsal of “Saakasu“, which translates to “circus” in Japanese; Omar’s dancework presents “a nightmarish vision of animalistic transformation”.

Ian Spring (above) of Parsons Dance has a pivotal role in “Saakasu”; his Parsons colleagues Geena Pacareu Rijnsburger and Eoghan Dillon are also in the work, along with an ensemble of dynamic young dancers.

Travis’s photos from the rehearsal:

Ian Spring (center) and the ensemble

Above: Eoghan Dillon

Above: a duet for Zoey Anderson and Ian Spring…

…and more of Ian Spring:

All photos by Travis Magee

June 17, 2015
First Breath: Photography by Travis Magee

On January 31st, 2015, photographer Travis Magee opens a solo show entitled First Breath, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery. The gallery is adjacent to the Walter Reade Theater, on the upper tier of the north side of the Lincoln Center campus.

“Travis Magee’s photographs are like compelling choreography. There seems always to be an implied narrative, but it is up to the viewer to decipher and to decide for themselves what the hell is going on!” says acclaimed dancer and choreographer Sean Curran.

I first met Travis thru his work as a dancer with Cherylyn Lavagnino Dance. He recently produced a vivid portfolio of images from a rehearsal of Parsons Dance for Oberon’s Grove, and I’m looking forward to working with him again in the near future.

Check out Travis’s striking photographs at the Frieda and Roy Furman Gallery where the show – in conjunction with the Dance on Camera Festival – runs thru February 11th, 2015.

January 30, 2015