…after the Fall For Dance finale in the FFD lounge.

Top photo from the Trocks’ website; bottom photo (Grant is in back) by Sascha Vaughn, courtesy of City Center.

I was actually pretty proud of myself for recognizing him without his makeup on! After seeing them perform in the festival last weekend — they were my favorites from Program 3 — I did some research, particularly on Grant / aka Katerina Bychkova and found this interesting article, which happened to contain the only photo I could find of the guys not in costume (scroll down, on the right side); it wasn’t hard to figure out which one was him.

Anyway I was with my friends Michael and Taylor in the FFD lounge and, when I noticed him walking around I pointed him out to them. Michael initially wouldn’t believe me that he was the “big guy” — it’s really crazy how dancers DO always look so much smaller in person!! — but I was pretty sure. So of course outgoing as he is, Michael was soon off to confirm whether I was correct! After he did so, he made me and Taylor (both of us very very shy) go over and talk to him and some of the company people at his table.

And I’m happy we did. Mr. Grant was sooo nice! I love it when favorite dancers are all warm and fuzzy He’s the type of guy you feel like you could talk to forever.

Anyway, I liked all of the dancers — all of whom have superb classical technique and of course immense acting skills — but because Grant is the largest and had a main role, he stood out, and his body is naturally the most subversive for this kind of gender parody. At the festival, they performed Go For Barocco, one of the troupe’s earliest ballets, from 1974, a light spoof of several Balanchine ballets, including Concerto Barocco, after which the ballet is named. Here are some clips of it (which Grant isn’t in; he’s too new to the company):

I love their intentional humor — the way they present pretty, innocent ballerina faces to the audience but then get into little cat-fights with each other — but I also think in a way it’s more subversive when they dance seriously, especially when they dance Balanchine, who idolized / objectified women in so fervently declaring that “ballet is woman.” Ballet to him may have been woman, but of course one with a certain body type. When they do that, what I call a “group grapevine” so ubiquitous in Balanchine ballets (clip one around the 4:42-4:57 mark), of course their bodies are going to get all twisted around each other; that weaving in and out of each other in complicated patterns requires skinny, lithe little bodies. And those kind of showgirl-ish “strutting hip juts” (clip one: 3:56-4:12)– they don’t even need to give them any oomph; with their male bodies, they’re  going to look different, and funny in a way you never noticed on, for example, the ballerinas in “Rubies.” I just can’t stop laughing at the 5:18 point on clip one — it’s so Balanchine taken to a hilariously ridiculous extreme. And I love the wrapping of the hands atop each other (clip two: 2:21-3:01) that here takes on lesbian undertones, which in Balanchine’s similar patterns and gestures looks innocuously sweetly girlish. They mean everything in good fun, but because it’s not completely off the wall, it makes you think, it makes you see things in a different way.

Anyway, unbelievably I haven’t seen this troupe since college. I don’t know how I’ve missed them all these years in New York but I’m definitely going to see them more often now.

More Fall For Dance reviews coming this week.

Sorry posting has been kind of lame over the past week. I’m working really hard on finishing the final read-throughs of my novel and, as always, it’s more involved than I expected. I have several exciting Fall For Dance programs still to write about — a puppet-performed Petrushka, Bronislava Nijinska’s Les Biches, the fabulous Trocks, Dance Brazil’s unique capoeira / samba / modern blend, Tiler and Gonzalo , the best Afternoon of a Faun (involving two fauns actually) I’ve ever seen — this is by far the best FFD Festival I can remember — and I plan to write about it all at the end of the weekend or early next week; after, hopefully, I’ve finished my rewrites.

In the meantime, above is my final cover. Took me forever to okay something I was happy with. At first I was going to go with this one:

But then I had dinner with a gay male friend, who said of this bottom one, “Okay. This looks like it’s about a girl who goes around New York giving blow jobs.”

Which my novel is NOT about! I sought others’ opinions — nearly drove all of my friends crazy — and most people agreed that, since it’s about a young woman with a disorder, the cover should indicate that. It’s just that the disorder she develops is due in part to her moving into the city — a city she feels largely alienated by — and so it’s partly about her ability to make her own home here. Which is why I thought an arty cityscape would work.

But apparently not with this title!

I’d gotten the idea for the arty cityscape cover from my favorite Breakfast at Tiffany’s edition.

I also love this cover, for Charles Jackson’s The Lost Weekend:

This is as large as I could blow it up, but it’s one of my very favorite covers. I’d asked my design team to come up with something similar (with a woman looking into the abyss), and they couldn’t. I showed a friend and she kind of burst out laughing and told me I’d need to hire an artist to make me something wholly original if I wanted something approaching it. I have that Lost Weekend edition (which I found at a rare bookstore in Durham, NC) and the cover is an actual piece art — it’s actually painted onto the cover, which is made of a sturdier material than regular covers — the result being that once the years go by and the cover ages, you literally can’t open the book without breaking it. So, the irony is that that book is unreadable; it must simply sit on my bookshelf facing out, to showcase the piece of visual art that it’s now solely become.  In any event, even if I did want a book that could only be enjoyed for its cover, I don’t have the money to hire my own artist.

But I think my design team came up with something that works anyway.

My biggest problem with having a photo of a woman on the cover is that I was afraid it’d be taken for Chick-lit, a moniker I think every female writer has some kind of issue with, or at least thinks about. I thought an illustration would make it look like it’s about art — which it partly is: one of the protagonist’s friends is an artist and he’s an important character. And I thought a photo of a woman would alienate male readers. But then a friend who works as an artistic director of a magazine said illustrations don’t sell; you gotta have a photo, which she insisted was pertinent to books as well as magazines (and she has two published books of her own out). She’s one of four or five people (as I said, I drove all of my friends stark raving nuts) who helped me come up with the idea for my final cover.

…which I’m happy with — I think it hints at what the book is about and is dramatic and somewhat provocative without being over the top. I just hope it doesn’t alienate potential male readers. But then, as practically everyone I know (of both sexes) have told me ad nauseam, men don’t read anyway — especially fiction; women read and Chick-lit sells. So just embrace it.

Anyway, there are many other issues involved in the whole Chick-lit quandary, and in book cover art, but I’ve blabbered for too long. Have to get back to my rewrites… And I need to go out for my Friday cupcake.

Have a good weekend everyone!

I came home from my first night at the Fall For Dance Festival and turned on Jimmy Kimmel before I had a chance to watch my tape of Dancing With the Stars. I honestly thought he was kidding when he announced who was kicked off.

Even though I liked him, I can see Ashley, but Macy? I thought she had a good attitude toward the competition but maybe people interpreted it more as haughtiness? She definitely wasn’t the worst woman Tuesday night, and that’s not what the show’s about anyway. Why vote for the best person on the first night; why not vote for someone you can watch improve? Sucks that she never got to do Latin because I think she would have been a lot better at that than Standard.

I don’t get it at all.

She didn’t end up going on Jimmy Kimmel because, as Jonathan Roberts said, she was too upset, thinking she let her fans down.

Anyway, at least my whole evening didn’t suck:

(photo from here)

Fall For Dance last night consisted of four companies, four dances (more about them all later), but my highlight was definitely Savion Glover. I know he’s been on one of the TV shows before — either Dancing With the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance — can’t remember which one. But this was my first time seeing him live and ooooh! You have to see him dance live; there’s nothing like it. This is one of the best dance performances — one of the best performances period — I’ve ever seen. And he’s such a cutie in person and he dances with so much genuine happiness, so much joy. And he’s small — smaller than I thought! Ah, I came out of City Center feeling like I often feel after seeing Alvin Ailey — I just wanted to dance all the way home.

Here’s a nice video of clips from the Dancers Responding to AIDS performances, which took place during the Fire Island Dance Festival in July. Watch for Danny around the 1.43 and 3.24 marks. You can also spot Keigwin + Company (in the towels) and members of Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (around the 1.38 and 3.11 marks), as well as others whom I didn’t recognize. Anyone recognize the classical ballet dancers? They’re good! What a gorgeous setting.

Video via SYTYCDism.

Speaking of Larry Keigwin: I’d really really really wanted to see this at the Guggenheim — his new piece set to Steve Reich’s Pulitzer-prize-winning score from 2007, Double Sextet. Unfortunately I was horribly sick with a cold-turned sinus infection-turned several days-long TAC attack and just couldn’t make it. Anyway, Keigwin and ballet choreographer Peter Quanz each created dances to the same piece of music. Their creations, which were performed by members of their dance companies, varied greatly, showing the different interpretations and approaches dance artists can take to one piece of music. In addition to the Macaulay review in the NYTimes (which I linked to above), here is fellow blogger Evan’s take (with lots of pictures).

The Vail International Dance Festival website has finally posted a video of the festival’s ballroom night, Ballroom’s Best. I’d been waiting for this. There are interviews with the spectacular International exhibition champions Hanna Karttunen and Victor DaSilva (from South Africa; you might remember DaSilva from that TV show Superstars of Dance) and the sweet American Smooth champs J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki. For those of you who follow ballroom, there’s a bit of footage of American Rhythm champs Jose DeCamps and Joanna Zacharewicz in there too.

Sir Alastair did not so much like this show when he saw it.

I think this is pretty funny. Fall For Dance tickets go on sale this Sunday, September 13th, at 11:00 a.m. In the past crowds have been known to line up beginning at 4 a.m. (this festival is popular), and the line’s been known to wend its way practically all around midtown. Well, this year, festival participant Monica Bill Barnes (above, on the left), a modern / experimental dancer and choreographer, is going to entertain the queued-up crowd from 10-11 Sunday morn. She and her dancers can be rather amusing.

These pics are from a site-specific performance of hers I saw last summer downtown and wrote about here.

Also, during the festival there will be three free, open-to-the-public talks in City Center’s Studio 5 (which is upstairs, I think on the 5th floor). All three talks will be about the legacy of the Ballets Russes (in honor of their centenary this year).

The first, on September 23rd at 6:30 p.m. will be a discussion with three original members of the legendary troupe: Frederic Franklin, Raven Wilkinson and Eleanor D’Antuono and will be moderated by Robert Greskovic, author and dance critic for the Wall Street Journal.

The second, on Sept. 25th, same time, will be about how BR’s collaborations with clothes designers, painters, and musicians of the day created lasting change for the dance world. Panelists include Christopher Wheeldon, Alexei Ratmansky, Juliet Bellow and Simon Morrison and the moderator is Lynn Garafola, a dance historian at Barnard.

The third, on October 3rd, same time, will be about BR’s influence on today’s choreography. Panelists are choreographers Nicholas Leichter, Robert Johnson, Mark Dendy, and Virginia Johnson and the moderator is Wendy Perron, the editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine.

Speaking of Ballets Russes, one final reminder: if you haven’t yet seen the fantastic exhibit at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center, you only have until September 12th to do so. They’ve got videos of Baryshnikov dancing Balanchine’s Prodigal Son, of Anna Pavlova, of Fokine’s Les Sylphides, of Branislava Nijinska’s Les Noces, of original BR choreographer Leonid Massine instructing Joffrey dancers on reconstructing his Parade, they’ve got original costumes and poster designs by Picasso, letters and diary entries by Diaghlev, etc. etc. etc. Definitely worth seeing.

This is a most interesting pairing, and one I hadn’t thought of before. One of my NYCB favorites, Sebastien Marcovici, and ABT’s Michele Wiles will dance the Black Swan pdd this weekend in Miami at the International Ballet Festival. It’ll be their first time as a partnership. Apparently, they both take class with David Howard here in NY and he thunk it up. Wish I could be there… There’s a lot going on this weekend.

Headshots taken from ABT and NYCB websites respectively.

For the past few evenings I’ve been partaking of the Met Opera’s outdoor Summer HD Festival on Lincoln Center Plaza. The first night I went was Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes. It was on a week night and the plaza was about half full. I’d bought a sack pique-nique dinner from Bar Boulud across the street — which was delic by the way (chilled gazpacho soup, baguette of brie and fresh fig spread, waffle chips, bittersweet chocolate tart, and bottle of Pellegrino). But when I took a seat in the back and began to unwrap my brown bag I realized what a commotion I was making, how dead silent it was. I waited until a noisy helicopter buzzed around above us for a few seconds to tear into my sandwich. I absolutely loved the quiet, but figured it must be because this opera was so serious and esoteric — only true opera-manes would go.

But then last night, Puccini’s far more popular La Boheme was the same. Plaza was packed. I mean, every single seat was taken (both of the fold-out variety set up by the event organizers and make-shift seats like construction cones aligning Avery Fisher Hall), there was hardly a square foot of ground to stand on all the way to the street — people were even camped out atop the temporary Koch Theater ticket trailer (until police came around telling them to get down). But once the music began, there was the same dead silence. Everyone stared up and the screen, completely captivated. It was even quiet around the food and liquor stands, where people were basically whispering their orders. Children (the few that were there) behaved, dogs (the many that were there) behaved. Well, dogs usually behave in a crowd, actually… But even the little kids seemed to know it was important to try to concentrate on the screens.

The noisiest part of the evening was when South Pacific, showing next door at the Vivian Beaumont, let out. But once the theater-goers realized there was something important going on out on the Plaza, they shushed each other and ventured up to watch — in total silence — as well.

Such a complete contrast with some of the outdoor dance festivals — Lincoln Center Out of Doors, the Downtown Dance Festival, site-specific summertime events, sometimes SummerStage. I’ve heard from several people now that the Saratoga Performing Arts Center where NYCBallet has their summer season, is much the same, making me honestly not all that excited to go up there. I mean, kids are running around, parents yelling, people talking to their friends at the same pitch as if they were in a noisy bar, people unwrapping food, opening soda cans, popping gum.

So what gives? Do people just think opera is mainly about music and so to enjoy it everyone must be able to hear it above all else, whereas dance is more visual — so you can make all the noise want and not bother people because they can still see? Maybe it’s about the children — people are much less inclined to bring small kids to the opera, but they somehow think their two-year-old is going to have a deep appreciation of Balanchine or Karole Armitage or classical Indian dance. Maybe they equate outdoor dance performances with outdoor social dance events like Midsummer Night’s Swing, where you’re hardly going to disturb social dancers by talking. Or maybe there’s something about a big ole screen being up there.

I wonder if it would be different if ABT would have a summer HD festival and show outdoor broadcasts of some of the spring season’s ballets. Probably not… although the crowds were pretty quiet for the David Michalek Slow Dancing exhibit two years ago (once Midsummer Night Swing ended anyway)…

Anyway, tonight (Saturday) is Mark Morris’s Orfeo ed Euridice. I mean Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice but Morris produced and choreographed. We’ll see how it goes when there’s some dance involved… The Met outdoor HD festival continues through Monday night, ending with Anthony Minghella’s production of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly.

It’s September — happy September everyone — and for New Yorkers that means Fall For Dance is just around the corner. Tickets go on sale 11 a.m. September 13th, so time to get thinking about what all you want to see. For people unfamiliar with this festival (which this year takes place from September 22 – October 3), three to four companies perform each night and tickets are only $10 a piece per night. A great opportunity for first-time dance-goers. Tix sell out out at the speed of light, though, so have your computer turned on and your browser pointing here by above said time on above said date.

In celebration of the centennial of Ballets Russes, many of the participating companies are performing BR classics like Nijinsky’s Afternoon of a Faun and Fokine’s Dying Swan and Spectre de la Rose. There are also several lectures in the City Center studio centered around BR and its influence today. Go here for the schedule and more info.

Here are some photos of the participating companies, all courtesy of New York City Center. Top photo by Nina Alovert, of Diana Vishneva in The Dying Swan.

Puppeteer Basil Twist’s Petrushka Suite, photo by Richard Termine.

Afternoon of a Faun, by Boston Ballet, photo by Rosalie O’Connor.

Spectre de la Rose, performed by Australian Ballet, photo by Jim McFarlane.

Paul Taylor Dance Company in Taylor’s Offenbach Overtures, photo by Paul B. Goode.

Les Ballets Trockadero des Monte Carlos in Go for Barocco, photo by Sascha Vaughn.

If you’re in New York, I just received word that Pasha Kovalev (Broadway and TV star ) will be teaching a workshop at the New York Hustle Congress. The workshop is on  Sunday, September 6th at 6:30 p.m. and lasts one hour. He’ll also be participating in the Congress’s “Hustle with the Hounds” event — to benefit animal rescue organizations — the prior Saturday night (Sept. 5).

Most fun! I’ve been to this Congress before, a few years ago, and it’s pretty happening. There are workshops, performances by pros, pro/am competitions, and lots and lots of social dancing. It coincides with the New York Salsa Congress down the hall in the same hotel, which has the same. Go here for more info.

Also — this just in — Pasha and Anya are going to be on television several times this weekend with Burn the Floor’s creator Jason Gilkison. They’ll be on NY-1’s “On Stage” program, which airs four times throughout the weekend: Saturday, August 29th (today) at 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., and Sunday Aug. 30th at the same times — 9:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.

Finally, Pasha and Anya will appear on Channel 11’s Morning News Show this Monday, August 31st. The show airs 7-9 a.m.  They’ll perform a number from Burn the Floor.

Okay, isn’t it apparent from this picture alone that David Hallberg is the best Apollo EVER?! And it’s only a rehearsal photo! Oooh, I really may have to go to Vail next year…

Photo taken from The Winger, where you should read Carla Korbes’s post on her experiences at Vail and performing the Balanchine classic with the great DH. She’s also got several more photos posted including some of D and Ashley Bouder.

Linda Celeste Sims and Matthew Rushing of Alvin Ailey perform the adagio pas de deux from Mauro Bigonzetti’s Festa Barocca at the Vail International Dance Festival.

Okay, regarding the earlier controversy as to whether Ms. Bouder was dancing all out during the rehearsal, here she is with David dancing for real at Vail, albeit from a different section of the pdd. Personally, I think she looks beautiful — gorgeous arms. And surprisingly, you don’t even really notice the height difference, which has to be pronounced (she regularly dances with Joaquin De Luz at NYCBallet and David is well over 6′).

Our David Hallberg (with flying blonde mane and miraculous feet!) rehearses the Black Swan pas de deux with Ashley Bouder, which they’re currently performing at the Vail International Dance Festival. Great Paloma Herrera-esque fouettes, Ms. Bouder (with the multiple pirouettes thrown in; I haven’t really seen the NYCBallet ballerina in a dramatic part yet; she and David look good together!)

Bouder’s also performing Balanchine’s Who Cares with SLSG favorite Robert Fairchild, and David’s dancing Apollo with Pacific Northwest’s Carla Korbes. So wish I could be there…

Photo by Erin Baiano, of Alex Wong and Jeanette Delgado of Miami City Ballet dancing Balanchine’s Tarantella.

The company’s currently at the Vail International Dance Festival, performing a Balanchine spectacular, which includes, along with Tarantella, The Four Temperaments and Serenade. Visit Vail’s website to watch a video of the two talking with Erik Williams of Plum Vail in the beautiful Colorado mountains. They talk about the program, about their dancing lives, and about Miami City Ballet. So You Think You Can Dance watchers will of course remember Alex from earlier this season.

Here are a couple more breathtaking pics of Danny Tidwell dancing at the Fire Island Dance Festival last weekend, taken by photographer Fred Hecker who graciously sent me a link to them. Visit his full flickr album of the Festival for some gorgeous photos of the other dancers as well. Apparently Keigwin + Company performed “Water” (I love that piece!), and Karole Armitage performed, as did Miami City Ballet (Alex Wong’s company), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet. Danny danced “The Eternal Vow” by Lauren Adams, to music by Tan Dun and Yo-Yo Ma. Thank you so much, Mr. Hecker!

Speaking of Cedar Lake (of which fellow SYTYCD alum Sabra Johnson is, or at least was, a new member – she’s not currently on their dancer roster…), here’s an enticing video of excerpts from their recent performance of Orbo Nova at Jacob’s Pillow, which they’ll repeat in New York at the Joyce Theater in October.

And, speaking of the Joyce Theater, Haglund is excited about the Tulsa Ballet coming there August 10th. I plan to see them too, especially since they’re performing a MacMillan work I haven’t seen! Read up on that company and their upcoming Joyce program on Haglund’s blog.

Longtime Winger readers will remember David Hallberg blogging on and on about his enchanting experience dancing in Vail a couple years ago. Well, he is scheduled to dance again this year, with Gillian Murphy. Other performers include tap dancer Savion Glover (above, in photo by Rex Keep) and members of Morphoses. The festival begins today and runs through August 11th. You can follow updates and view photos and videos on the festival’s blog.

The Blackpool Dance Festival has begun and for the first time in four years I’m missing it. So sad. I felt like I needed to save on expenses this year with the recession and all, and I was disappointed that my favorite, Slavik Kryklyvyy, likely wouldn’t be competing again, and I was aggravated with the predictability of last year’s results and figured I’m going to get frustrated all over again. So, I decided to take a year off.

But, thankfully, two wonderful young ladies from England, Eleanor and Becca, who I met from this blog, are going to do some little write-ups on the goings on later this week. They are fans of Sergey Surkov and Melia, so they’re rather perfect for this blog In fact, today, they are modeling in the Chrisanne ballgown show in the pavilion, along with Melia!

(Here’s a picture I took in the past of the runway)

Chrisanne boutique in the pavilion.

I’ll also be keeping up via Dance Beat.

Today and tomorrow are the increasingly popular daytime Congress lectures on things like technique, performance quality dancing, and ballroom dance history by the top pros of today and yesterday, and tonight is the ridiculously exciting but somewhat goofy country team competition. The two most important nights of the week will be Wednesday and Friday, Wednesday being the Pro Latin and Friday the Pro Standard. I’ll be rooting for Sergey and Melia of course, along with the top U.S. couples Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko in Latin, Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas in Standard.

Standard champion Mirko Gozzoli from Italy giving a Congress lecture,

after giving a demo of mouthwatering splended perfection with partner Alessia Betti.

Former champs the charmingly funny Luca Baricchi, with his partner Lorraine, doing the same.

American team’s elegant team comp intro from two years ago.

And last year’s. Still not sure where we were going with that what goes on in the teepee theme…

I’m excited though to be in NY for all of ballet season, for the first time in a long time this year. Between ABT and NYCB I don’t think I’ve missed a day of ballet in the past week.

But, still, it’s always nice to go away. Some of my favorite pics from the past:

(an unusually warm May day in the northern sea-side town)

Riccardo Cocchi rocking it out with his former partner, Joanne.

Karina Smirnoff when she last competed.

Sergey and Melia the first time I saw them dance and the first time they placed in the finals. Kind of funny, it looks a bit like he’s spanking her here

On the train ride from Manchester to  Blackpool. Sheep! I know, why do Americans always take such pictures? It’s like we don’t have any such animals here…

Curry dinner from Taka Dance’s Japanese restaurant, which they set up in the base of the Winter Garden for the duration of the festival.

Slavik with Elena Khvorova, last time I saw Slavik compete.

Max and Yulia’s advert page in the program the year they made the top six.

The nearby beach. Pretty but cold.

Cheesy, Vegas-y “Eiffel Tower” that houses a lot of casinos and pinball machines, along with pseudo-Vegas-type shows.

Day trip to Liverpool, in between Latin and Standard finals.

The always happening Ruskin Hotel where people like Maks Chmerkovskiy can often be found.

Arunas and Katusha in last year’s finals.