Over the weekend, SLSG favorite Robert Fairchild had his debut in Robbins’ Fancy Free at New York City Ballet. This is one of my favorite short ballets: three sailors on shore-leave try to pick up women in a bar, but, there being only two women, they kind of get into a little competition, dance-off-style of course. Fairchild danced the role of the Latin guy, Tyler Angle the more head-in-the-clouds romantic one, and Daniel Ulbricht, the short Swing-y one with all the toe-to-finger splits jumps off the bar. The first woman was Georgina Pazcoguin and the one in purple who for a moment falls for the romantic one was Tiler Peck.

(photo above by Paul Kolnik, taken from Ballet.co, of, l-r Amanda Hankes, Tiler Peck, Damian Woetzel, Tyler Angle and Daniel Ulbricht)

Ah, Tiler Peck was so lovely! She dances that role so well — she really inhabits it, and when romantic guy cartwheels her over his head it just makes me swoon! I like her even better than the ABT ballerinas who dance this role – Gillian Murphy and Julie Kent. Peck brings the most to it I think — the dreamy girl who allows herself to get swept off her feet, at least until the guys get out of control. Pazcoguin and Kaitlyn Gilliland – who debuted in the ballet as well, as the third girl who comes on at the very end — did well too, although I thought Gilliland looked a slight bit unbalanced in the high heels.

(Robert Fairchild headshot by Paul Kolnik)

Ulbricht was perfect as the high-flying guy with his bag of tricks, and Tyler Angle was fine as the dreamy balletic one — the best role for him in this ballet, although I don’t really think this ballet suits him that well. I would really have preferred to see Robert Fairchild in his role though, rather than as the Latin sailor with bravado galore. I don’t think he has enough of the cocky shithead in him to quite pull it off. Of course I couldn’t stop thinking of Jose Manuel Carreno in the role — how he always cracks me up when he struts around with the lady’s purse after playfully snatching it, how he tries to please the ladies with those rumba basics that he thinks are oh so sexy but are really just silly the way he does them. I’m sorry Robert, I just couldn’t get Jose out of my head!

Also on was Prodigal Son, starring Joaquin De Luz (who I imagine really excels at the Latin sailor) and Maria Kowroski as the Siren. Joaquin is my very favorite Prodigal Son — including the ABT dancers I’ve seen (I never got a chance to see Daniil Simkin when ABT did it last Met season). De Luz’s jumps at the beginning perfectly emanate youthful restless angst without being too much about the acrobatics. And he acts it brilliantly. He really takes you on that journey with him from restless youth anxious to see the world, to seduction at the hands of the ruthless Siren, to beaten and begging his family for forgiveness.

Watch a tape of him performing and talking about the role here.

And last was Firebird starring the inimitable Ashley Bouder (photo above by Paul Kolnik from NYCB site). My favorite Firebird by far. I love the quick-changing shapes she makes during the pas de deux where she’s trying to break free of Prince Ivan’s (Jonathan Stafford) grip — her being caught by but also intrigued by him. And her liquid fluid arms with lush wingspan are so beautiful. And of course no one does the jetes around the perimeter of the stage like she does!

This program repeats a few times this week, alternating with Martins’ Romeo + Juliet and another program — which begins tomorrow night — and includes the world premiere of a ballet by Alexey Miroshnichenko.

Here are some photos Jade Young and Avi Scher sent me of Monday afternoon’s performance at City Center’s studio 4.

All photos by the fabulous Jade Young, who I was able to finally meet (along with Marcelo and Veronika’s agent — and former ABT dancer — Scott Schlexer)! It was a great afternoon — SO many people were there: James Wolcott from Vanity Fair, Mark Kirshner from TenduTV, Reese Thompson from Ballet.co, and practically all the bloggers I know of — like Philip and Taylor — and many many blog readers. It was a small room but it was so overcrowded I know there are several people there that I missed (which was probably a good thing since my laryngitis was so bad I really sounded like a frog). Apart from Veronika’s fame, I think Avi is just such a nice and talented guy that people turn up to support him and check out what he’s doing, even if the program is really short. Which this was … it was a couple of  excerpts he showed (for APAP) from his larger work, Touch, which will premiere at the Alvin Ailey theater later this spring. I will definitely post when I have more details!

You guys, Happy New Year!

…when I promise to be better about blogging I’m sorry about being so lame for the past month– I mean, two posts this week??? Getting this book out has just been so time consuming. Speaking of which, it’s now out in the Kindle version, so if you have a Kindle reader, it’s cheaper than the print version.

Anyway, happy New Year’s Eve, happy New Year’s Day! Will talk to you all again in 2010!

Above photo of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations by Andrew Eccles.

Friday night I went to see Australian choreographer Lucy Guerin’s Corridor at the Baryshnikov Arts Center. I love these more avant garde (for lack of a better term) kinds of dance pieces — where the choreographer clearly has an idea in mind and wants to make you think about it. I seem to see a lot of this kind of work at BAC.

Corridor is about the effects of modern forms of communication on the human body, and the body’s ability to receive and transmit those forms of communication. Guerin said the work was inspired by a scene from Kafka’s The Castle, which was partly about the comings and goings of various people down a long corridor.

Here, there was a long walkway, a corridor that looked a bit like a catwalk, and chairs for the audience were set up on each side. The piece opened with one dancer receiving a call on his cell phone. He was sitting in one of the audience seats so it wasn’t at first clear that he was a performer and this was part of the performance. He sauntered around on the walkway as other dancers, likewise seated, received phone calls as well and followed him onto the walkway. As soon as the audience realized the performance had begun and quieted down, a sharp buzz sounded over the speakers (some of which were seated under our chairs) and the dancers immediately put their cell phones in their pockets, widened their eyes and, as if on command, began making lots of sharp, angular movements. Ambient sound (traffic, construction, chattering voices, chirping birds, etc.) now played over the speakers.

There was so much going on in this piece, which was, unbelievably, less than an hour long, and there were so many different parts to it, it’s almost impossible for me to remember them all (which is one of the things I liked about it). So I’m just going to talk about what I most remember.

At one point, toward the beginning, the dancers broke into pairs. There were three men and three women and each pair (comprised of one man, one woman) stood in three different sections of the corridor. The man of the couple would make various movements — an arm circling above his head, another arm jutting out, bending over sideways, etc. — and the woman standing facing him would follow him. Each man was facing the same direction, each woman was facing each man. At one point, it became clear that the man and woman farthest to the west end of the corridor were the “leaders.” Or rather than man was the leader. The men farther down the corridor kept watching him, and imitating him. Their women followers, who could not see that man since they were facing their own men instead, imitated their man. The more rapidly the first man moved, the crazier and more chaotic and confused was the movement of the other couples, particularly the women who basically were following a man following another man. It was really interesting, and you could see the frustration growing on the faces of the male followers and their women.

Continue reading ‘LUCY GUERIN’S KAFKAESQUE, FOUCAULDIAN “CORRIDOR”’

Wow, there are a lot of video clips up of the many many companies and dancers that performed at this year’s Vail International Dance Festival. Here are some of my faves:

Dance Brazil in a modern / capoeira combo, Luna:

Daniel Ulbricht and Misa Kuranaga doing a Corsaire pdd:

Sofiane Sylve and Simon Ball in Forsythe’s In the Middle Somewhat Elevated:

Wendy Whelan and Edwaard Liang (dancing with Morphoses) in Forsythe’s Slingerland pdd:

Matthew Rushing in Ailey’s beautifully bluesy Reflections in D:

Linda Celeste Sims rehearsing Ailey’s classic Cry:

Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel’s Black Swan pdd:

Tyler Angle and Tiler Peck in the pdd from Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvers:

Some Lindy Hop with Naomi Uyama and Todd Yannacone:

And some Argentine Tango by Natalia Hills and Gabriel Misse:

There are many more vids and photos though, so visit the festival’s blog. I don’t see any up yet of the Ballroom evening — Hanna Karttunen and Victor DaSilva and J.T. Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki, et al. Hoping to see some of those soon. Excellent blog though, letting peeps who couldn’t be there in on what all went on. And splendidly diverse festival!

Maria (who is based in DC) has the story here.  (above photo by Evan Vucci from AP)

I’m re-posting the post. I don’t know how to retrieve comments from Disqus so I’m re-posting the comments in the body of the post.

Parsons: An Evening of Classics, Some of Which I Love, Some of Which I Still Have Issues With

January 8, 2009

Tuesday evening I went to the opening night of Parsons Dance at the Joyce Chelsea. The season opened with Program B, all classics by founder David Parsons; later in the week the company will premiere Program A, a new rock opera.

I like this modern / contemporary company and always find them to be a lot of fun. They’re smallish but have a diverse repertoire (some dances are more lyrical and set to more classical music, others more jazzy and disco-y, set to light rock or soul music, some focused more on lighting effects), and a kind of cult following.

Actually, my favorite dance of the night was a short duet called Ebben, which is going to be part of the larger work premiering later in the week. It was just oozing with sexiness and passion, and I can’t wait to see the whole! Abby Silva, probably the most stand-out dancer in the troupe stood on high releve and kind of tip toed around Kevin Ferguson, standing with his back toward the audience, as if she was just kind of discovering him, then searching, maybe trying to understand him, to breathe in his essence.

Continue reading ‘Re-Post’

I know you’re not ever supposed to start posts saying ‘I’m sorry for not posting in forever.’ But I normally write once or more per day, so, really, I’m sorry for not posting in forever! I’m just working on this ridiculously hard short story that really should be a novel (it’s 20,000 words right now and I’ve already cut out a bunch of stuff)– and hopefully it will be someday. Well, it will be, but I don’t know if it will ever be a published novel. The industry isn’t looking too good these days and I don’t know if I have the nerve to self-publish…

Anyway, I went to see Alvin Ailey on Sunday night (Blues Suite — my first time seeing it– liked but didn’t love it; Flowers, about Janis Joplin, which grew on me, especially the dream sequence with all the hilarious but uber sexy ’60’s  era bootie shorts and leg fringe; and Revelations, which I could honestly see about 30 times per season — basically every night they do it — and never tire of it). I still have to blog about the two Ailey works that were new to me this season — Blues Suite and Masekela Langage, the second of which I loved. More about that later.

I always get very depressed around this time of year and I think it has a lot to do with Alvin Ailey ending their City Center season. I always get depressed when dance company seasons end but more so with this group than any other.

I also need to write my end-of-the-year favorites list (probably going to go with Nimrod Freed’s PeepDance as my overall favorite and Craig Salstein’s Time for ABT for new choreography, ABT’s Tudor Centennial and Alvin Ailey’s 50th anniversary celebrations for events), but I want to do links, and I don’t have time to do that now. Also desperately trying to make myself well. I somehow caught a nasty cold, which I want to be gone by tomorrow night so I can go out with friends and have a reasonably good time.

So, will blog soon! In the meantime, please check out dance tweeters and their tweets (see previous post). And have a most festive New Year’s eve!

So, the first ever “Shorty Awards”, for the best Twitter microbloggers, is underway. This competition has actually received a bit of attention — in NYTimes, BBC, and MediaBistro, as well as a bunch of techie mags. According to Shorty stats, more than 23,000 nominations have taken place in the past two weeks, since the competition was launched.

The competition is broken down into several categories. Of course there wasn’t a Dance category (or a Performing Arts category, or an Arts category), but, unlike with the Bloggies and other big blog awards, the Shorties allows users to create their own. So a few of us (and there really aren’t many; most dance people are still on Facebook only and don’t use Twitter) created a dance category and then nominated each other within it. According to Shorty rules, if there aren’t enough nominees, the category will be eliminated. But they don’t define “enough.” Not that it’s an enormous deal, but it’s always nice to put dance on the map, and Twitter does seem to be the next big thing.

Anyway, according to an email I just received from the Shorty people, Epicurious is sponsoring a food category. They asked if anyone out there was interested in sponsoring any other categories, to let them know. I have no idea what all is involved in sponsoring a category, but if any big, Epicurious-style magazine (Dance, Dance Spirit, Pointe, Ballroom Dance Channel, etc. etc.) is interested, you can email them at: info at shortyawards dot com. Just thought I’d put it out there. Nominations close at midnight on December 31st. Noms are followed by a round of voting and then an awards ceremony in NYC.

So, my new, upgraded blog is almost up. Well, I guess it is up but there are still some kinks to be worked out, such as the comments. I am told all comments transferred, but for some reason they are not all showing up yet. Hopefully, Disqus will work it out.

Anyway, I will write a longer post as soon as I become un-intimidated by this crazy new software! In the meantime, everyone have a wonderful holiday, and New Yorkers, do go see Alvin Ailey if you have a chance. They’re showing through January 4th but there are only two more performances of Blues Suite. (Omg, there are like 20,000 options for links; hopefully the Alvin Ailey highlight will actually link to City Center…)

Okay, talk soon Let me know if you guys have any problems with comments. My web guy wanted to set me up with Disqus because I was getting overrun by spam. It’s supposed to be a cool comment system. We shall see…

Again, very happy holiday everyone!

Time warner cable sucks

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Internet service out for over 24 hours already. Just called and they said it may be another 48 hours. Do they realize how many people rely on internet for work?

Happy night at ailey, bad night at home

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Dead modem. So sick of time warner. Wrote a big alvin ailey post and about to publish when connection bit the dust.

I feel a bit flippant wishing everyone a happy Thanksgiving given this. Watch real time “citizen j” updates here.

(photo by Andrea Mohin, NYTimes, of Desmond Richardson and S. Epatha Merkerson, in “I Will Not Be Broken”)

Sorry, am very behind again on my review posts — so busy with all manner of stuff to get done before Thanksgiving! Anyway, both of these two programs — Complexions Contemporary Ballet at the Joyce’s Chelsea theater, and Andonis Foniadakis’s new version of “Rite of Spring” at its SoHo location — were both danced brilliantly — big huge kudos to all of the dancers, but especially to Ioanna Toumpakari (below, in photo I swiped from Oberon’s Grove), who did what appeared to be an extremely emotionally intense and physically vigorous 40-minute solo in “Rite.”

I didn’t feel as strongly about the choreography of either though.

Complexions (I saw program A; there is also a program B) included five pieces, my favorite of which by far was “I Will Not Be Broken,” choreographed by Dwight Rhoden and having its world premiere this season. This ballet is on both programs, by the way. It began with S. Epatha Merkerson (an actor on Law & Order) first speaking the words of a poem, then breaking out into song — a set of slavery spirituals. Desmond Richardson — who is amazing beyond belief — sat on a bench at the front of the stage, body contorted, hunched over, then arms moving quickly, waving something off, brushing off shackles — binds not only physical but mental — then fanning himself with quick flicks of the wrists, like cooling himself down from being taken by the spirit. He’d lift his feet flexed-footed, as if tense, very alive, a body occupied by another force — then kick out violently, fall to the ground, jump up into an amazing flexed-footed split, come up for air. More jumps, then he’d sit on the bench again, cover his eyes, cradle himself.

While he rested, another couple — a man and woman sitting on another bench — danced a duet. But I just found myself unable to wait for Richardson to catch his breath, start up again. I’m not even sure what each specific movement meant or was intended to evoke, but overall I got the sense of a man being lifted out of himself, out of his pain, to freedom, letting the spirit free him — which is of course what slavery spirituals were all about. He brought the words Merkerson spoke and sang vividly and compellingly to life, to say the least.

The rest of the program was so-so choreographically, though danced very well. “Ave Maria” was performed by a couple — Hiroko Sakakibara and Simon Sliva — who lifted and wrapped their limbs around each other lovingly and with beautiful intensity; “Rise”, a set of dances set to U2 music; “Routines” a piece that started out with a group of dancers warming up, then donning exaggerated Forsythian ballet costumes — the women in saucer-like tutus, the men in short skirts danced to a collage of industrial music (with clanking bells, train whistles, etc.); and “Constructs for 4″ a nice lyrical piece for three men and one woman to soft violin music by Bach.

I guess my main issue with Rhoden’s choreography (aside from “Broken”) is that the dancing, while very rhythmic and musical, doesn’t really amount to a discernible theme or create a specific feeling. For example, the “Rise” music was great fun, it was like traveling through time, remembering all those U2 songs from when I was in college. But the songs are all about something and that’s their genius — the sentiment they convey, not just that they’re danceable. For example, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is in part about race relations and our society’s continual failure to achieve social justice. I didn’t see anything evoking that here — bodies moving rhythmically – jumping happily, skipping, running, doing brilliantly high battemants — but nothing that made the song’s lyrics, its spiritual rhythm, come alive. And it was that way with the rest as well — not only the piece danced to U2 songs, but Ave Maria, the one danced to the violins (though this one was choreographed by Igal Perry) — yes, the lifts were lovely, but neither created an atmosphere for me or told a story or made me really feel anything. Still, I have to say, Complexions is worth seeing for “Broken” alone. And for the dancers and their sculpted muscularity — some are quite built — and which they somehow spectacularly combine with hyper flexibility and an air of feathery lightness. And the other dances are fun — the music is great, and the dancing is rhythmic, just not evocative enough or emotionally all there to me.

And same with the Foniadakis. Actually, I was going to wait until I had some time to do research on the history of “Rite of Spring,” and watch some of the other versions (there are many!) but then my post wouldn’t go up until the run is long over. I know the original Stravinsky music and Nijinsky dance involve violence, sexuality, fertility rites, and depictions of young girls dancing themselves to death. And I know many versions — like that by Pina Bausch, and the Joffrey — are danced by an ensemble. This was danced by one woman — the seemingly indefatigable Toumpakari. She was dressed only in a tribal thong, a grassy-looking fabric lining the waist, with paint marks on her forearms, calves and forehead.

Before the music began, she walked around stage, with kind of a prancing limp, as if performing a tribal custom. When the Stravinksy began, she seemed on the verge of a sexual awakening, her hip-jutting, pelvis-rolling movements and facial expressions very sexually suggestive. Then, she began performing more of an African dance, throwing her arms and shoulder over her waist, kicking out with flexed feet. She began fighting an imaginary person, lashing out, scratching, growling at him. This was followed by more frenzied movement, until she worked herself up so she nearly collapsed. She fell to the floor, slowly rose, bent over deeply from the waist, looked at her hands, horrified — they appeared to be turning into claws before her eyes, she couldn’t control the fingers. Finally, she gained control over her body and began the African-like movement again, running around stage with the limp, starting the process anew. Each phase seemed to repeat several times until, finally, at the end, out of breath, she slowly looked over to the side of the room, where her street clothes lay, walked over very slowly and calmly, and changed from costume into jeans and white t.

I feel like I’d need to do more research on the dance history to form a better judgment of the choreography, but I was highly impressed by Toumpakari.

For other perspectives, here is Roslyn Sulcas and here Christopher Atamian on Complexions; here is Claudia La Rocco and here and here Oberon on Foniadakis.

Complexions shows through November 30; “Rite of Spring” through this Sunday.

At molyvos awaiting fall for dance

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What kind of person orders a second glass of wine during a Recession?

Anyway, FFD was good / decent tonight. I especially liked: Houston Ballet’s production of Tchaikovsky Pas De Deux – wonderfully lively dancers (Sara Webb and Connor Walsh) who brilliantly brought both Balanchine and Tchaikovsky to life; BeijingDance/LDTX’s Cold Dagger, which I found nicely enigmatic and visually arresting in places; and The New 45 by Richard Siegal / The Bakery, a company I will most definitely be looking up the next time I am in Berlin. Full review coming soon…

What did you guys think? I actually haven’t finished watching it yet! I got home from North Carolina late in the afternoon then had to go to a dance /fashion event at the Guggenheim (which I’ll write about later today), and arrived a bit early for the unveiling of the building’s restored facade. When I got home I was too tired to watch all of DWTS and only watched the tail end and about the first quarter of the tape. I loved the last guy on though (Warren Sapp?), and I also liked Maurice Greene, and Toni Braxton, and thought Rocco DiSpirito was a little cutie with an adorable personality. And who doesn’t love a man who can cook I love his attempted bribe… I haven’t yet seen Cloris! How did she do??!! Will write more when I’ve seen it all.

Update: Okay, now that I’ve seen the whole thing, I want to add Lance Bass to my list of favorites. I thought Kim did better than expected, judging from the practice clips. Latin will probably be the real test for her though, balance-wise and all. I thought Cloris did well (particularly with the turns and pivots), particularly taking into account her age (which is part of what makes this show so different from SYTYCD, and so much harder to judge). And I agree with you guys (see comments) that she went a bit too far after dancing, though I can’t help but still love her! Len was so good-humored about it though — I sometimes just want to squeeze him he’s so cute And so sweet of him to say, “Everyone who comes on this show is a winner,” after the comedian danced. I think he’s going to be the first to go tonight…

In fall for dance lounge

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Where you can get $2 glasses of wine. Woo hoo!

Update: Review coming soon (after I see the program again tonight). Thank you to Philip for letting me use his boyfriend Wei’s ticket last night!

The festival got off to a good start last night. There was some initial confusion over ticket lines out front, but the audience was excited (and, expectedly, huge), every seat taken. The lounge though could use some improvement I think. Though they were selling food and drinks at pretty good prices, they had very few chairs. Instead, they had an area that seemed to be marked off for a dance floor, and DJs blasting away. But no one seemed to be dancing or enjoying the raucous music; instead were trying to find a piece of wall to lean up against while eating.

Here’s a very nice collective tribute to writer David Foster Wallace. And here’s one literary agent’s homage. I was struck by one line of the agent’s in particular: “Whether you liked his work or not, he was at the very least the kind of writer you had no choice but to form an opinion on, and we need more writers like that.” I think we need more artists in general like that. What’s the point of making art if you’re not going to really say something, if you can’t be fearless?

I went to the bookstore last night to get a copy of Infinite Jest but there was a big hole in the section of shelf where his books should have been.

Just wanted to remind New Yorkers (and anyone traveling to NY in the near future) that Fall For Dance tickets go on sale this Sunday, 9/7, at 11 a.m. Tickets are $10 if you choose to stand in line at the City Center box office (which I don’t recommend), or $15 (with $5 surcharge) if you book online. Tickets sell out very quickly, usually within a day or two. Here’s the schedule and lineup of artists.

Also, this weekend is the Evening Stars series of free performances at Battery Park. Tonight is Lar Lubovitch Dance Company, tomorrow night Rasta Thomas’s Bad Boys of Dance, and Sunday night Los Vivancos flamenco group. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Go here for more info.

Outside of New York, this weekend is the United States National Dance Championships (most important Latin Ballroom event in the country) in Florida, which for the first time in a couple of years, I am not attending. Sad day. I will definitely keep my eyes peeled for results. I expect Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko to take tops in Latin, and Arunas Bizokas and Katusha Demidova in Standard but am always happy for a surprise. If anyone is there, please let me know what’s going on, and who all’s there for the World events! If I miss Slavik or Sergey I am not going to be happy.

I can’t believe it’s already Labor Day weekend. Whoa. Where did the summer go??

Here are some pictures I took of the Downtown Dance Festival last Sunday in Battery Park. When it ended a brief wave of sadness swept over me. This festival kind of marks the end of summer. I feel like I was just returning from the Caribbean deeply annoyed that it was still in the 50s here…

Anyway, the first company on was Figures in Flight, which is a Modern dance school for kids.

One very cool thing about this school / company, as Artistic Director Susan Slotnick spoke about, is that they also teach Modern dance to men in prison. One of Ms. Slotnick’s former students who was just released from Woodburne Correctional Facility was there. The crowd went nuts with applause for him. Made the longtime former public defender in me very happy. I know there are many prison literacy programs, but haven’t heard of a dance program until now.

The kids of Figures in Flight. Slotnick said one thing she does is try to teach kids nonviolence through dance, teaching them choreography addressing or acting / dancing out issues they may be experiencing, like bullying at school. You could see some of that in the choreography. I met someone in an acting class I took years ago who taught drama therapy to mental patients at Bellevue Hospital here in NY. He basically helped patients learn to act out their problems, to use creativity to solve them rather than internalizing or using violence toward themselves and others. I can see Slotnick doing the same thing with dance and I love it.

Next on was Battleworks Dance Company, which presented Robert Battle’s energetic, mad fun Ella, set to Ella Fitzgerald and danced by Marlena Wolfe.

And Wolfe ends her frenzied fit of a solo by collapsing backwards, completely out of breath! This is the first time I’ve seen Battleworks at this festival. So cool to see what you normally only view in a large, distancing theater just feet before you.

Axis Danz’s Mermaids.

Dancewave’s Kids Company, whom I’d never heard of, did an excellent dance — a combination of African, Modern, and Samba. It was mesmerizing. One of my favorites of the day. And man can those dancers MOVE.

isadoraNOW presented Isadora Duncan’s lovely Southern Roses.

This was an interesting company, called Undertoe Dance Project. They combined Tap with Modern, having two dancers representing each style dancing onstage at the same time. Don’t think I’ve seen that done before. It worked.

On last, ending the festival, was Battery Dance Company, headed by Jonathan Hollander, the festival’s organizer. They performed his lyrical, beatific Where There’s Smoke.

Very pretty, very spiritual.

At the end, the Battery Dance Company dancers invited audience members onstage to learn some of their just-performed choreography.

exhibiting, as Hollander announced, that dance is for everyone…

Also, here are some more pictures I took of Hostile Takeover by Richard Move’s MoveOpolis! which was performed as part of the Sitelines series of downtown site-specific works, which I briefly mentioned earlier.

They held the performance at five different Financial District-area locations. The one I saw was at the Jeff Koons sculpture in the small park at 7 World Trade Center.

The dancer, dressed as you can see in a red lacey negligee, red ballet-like diaphanous chiffon skirt, long lacey gloves, patent leather red stilettos, and a clear plastic Butoh mask and platinum blonde wig, moved in extreme slow Butoh-style motion making various poses — some sexy, some more balletic (arms held wreath-like over head, toe pointed forward in tendu). She was very unbalanced on the heels — at several points went to do a low arabesque and couldn’t lift her back leg very high or it seemed like she’d clearly fall — and I couldn’t tell if it was because she was moving so slowly, if she wasn’t used to dancing in heels (so, not a Latin dancer ), or if she was faking it, only pretending nearly to fall so as to question the beauty and/or stability of a certain kind of hyper-femininity.

After a series of poses in front of the Koons statue — and beside a small plastic red teddy bear propped up before a red umbrella and holding a little bright blue Jeff Koons ’sculpturette’ — the dancer turned toward the large sculpture. It’s funny but at this point I noticed how sexual that sculpture is, with the little orifice in the middle surrounded by the three others, and then the stamen-like arm shooting up to the side. It’s like an industrial Georgia O’Keefe figure.

She approached the little teddy bear, seemed to delight over his little toy, seemed to ask him if she could hold his “baby-doll.”

She did a little dance with the small Koons dog/doll…

… then took him to his larger cousin, and eventually placed him in its middle orifice.

The whole thing took nearly an hour, the movement was so slow. It was weirdly poetic, and rather entrancing, not only catching but holding the attention of many passersby. I wish I could have made it to some of the other locations because I liked the performance but thought it would have been more of a “Hostile Takeover” had this hyper-sexy, hyper-’feminine’, hyper-artful, hyper-slow-moving dancer been in the midst of all the crazed besuited Wall Street dudes. This little park was not only already arty but kind of removed from the hustle and bustle. Could have better illustrated the contrast between art and commerce, calm and fast-paced, perhaps masculine and feminine (the program describes the performance as a “glamorous collision of sexual desire with masculinity and femininity and real and imagined worlds”; I’d perhaps question the essentialist nature of words like ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’).

Anyway, there’s one more Sitelines performance, in early/mid September. And then that’s it. Summer dance season in NY is officially over.

Happy Labor Day everyone!

“His mother was a dancer. This meant that she could be found on certain afternoons on the second floor of a building on Eighty-ninth Street and Broadway, standing barefoot and in a leotard on a vast wooden floor, often in some strange position. His father had taken him a couple of times to the empty room with an upright piano in the corner. Together they walked up a long narrow flight of dimly lit stairs, at the top of which was a large sunlit space. Sweating men and women in leotards were either jumping around or standing and watching some other person jump around. Their leotards gave them the quality of something encased, like M&M’s. His mother always stood in their midst, panting.

She was also a choreographer. Alex understood this word to mean that she could tell people what to do, and they would listen. Once, when she told him he had to take a bath, he responded, ‘You’re not my choreographer,’ which had the desired effect of shocking her into a kind of marveling silence and therefore postponing, if only for another ten minutes, the bath.

She was a modern dancer. This distinction confused him. He asked his father about it.

‘It means she’s not a member of the Rockettes,’ he said.

One day, when he was seven, she told him that she would soon be having a concert.

‘What’s a concert?’ he said.

‘It’s when I perform in front of many people with my company.’

‘What does your company make?’ he said.

‘It’s a dance company,’ she said. ‘We make dance.’

‘Can people buy dance?’ he asked. At the age of seven he was demonstrating certain capitalist proclivities that had the effect of making his parents look at him with concern, as though he might be coming down with a fever.”

From The Sleep-Over Artist, by Thomas Beller (all italics in the original). I seem to be on a Thomas Beller kick lately and found the passage rather amusing; thought I’d share. I used to take Flamenco lessons at Alex’s mother’s studio, by the way. I think anyway… unless Steps used to be up at 89th Street…

For New Yorkers who don’t know, the Strand downtown — Fulton Street location — lost its lease and is moving out. They’re having a 50% off sale through, according to Galley Cat, the end of September. Above are some of my purchases — spent about three hours there and would have bought a lot more if the Joan Acocella and Balanchine hadn’t been so blasted heavy. I could barely carry my double bag-full home!

I bought The Dud Avocado because I remembered Terry Teachout had posted about it (and saw he’s written this edition’s intro.), and the White Swan, Black Swan looked interesting. It’s a collection of short stories written by dancer turned fiction writer, Adrienne Sharp.

There isn’t a whole lot left, but in the Dance section there are a couple more old-ish hardcover copies of the Balanchine for $7.50 apiece, an unused-looking copy of the newish Lincoln Kirstein bio for $9.00, and a bunch of huge photo books, some for as low as $2.50. The section doesn’t have its own label (what else is new?) but is within Opera and Classical Music.

One of China’s most revered classical dancers was seriously injured during rehearsals for Olympics opening night ceremonies when she leaped onto a floorboard that collapsed. She’s currently in the hospital unable to feel anything below her chest and is told she may never walk again. Here’s the Times article. (via Jolene)

On a side note, the NYTimes website can be rather ridiculous at times. They seem to have a policy that their writers are supposed to link only to articles within the Times’ own site. So, when this writer, David Barboza, tells you Liu Yan has become very popular on YouTube, you click on his (or his editor’s) link thinking you’re going to be led to a YouTube clip of her performing. But what do you get instead: a completely irrelevant article from the Times’ Business archive on the YouTube phenomenon. Why even link if it has nothing to do with the issue? I’m pretty sure everyone knows what YouTube is by now.

Anyway, since I’m a blogger and can link to websites other than my own, here, here, and here are some YouTube clips I found of her performing. And she’s listed as the main soloist in this beautiful piece. There are many more. Hopefully she’ll recover.

There’s a really good discussion going on over at Claudia La Rocco’s The Culturist about the Olympic coverage — people are even likening it to porn!

I couldn’t help get off on a tangent about male versus female gymnastics. During the last Olympics I remember going out to dinner with a group of my feminist friends and they were bemoaning how women’s sports are taken so unseriously by the public, giving as an example the prominence of the ’silly’ ‘girl-child’ sport of female gymnastics over the more ‘real’ sports of women’s softball, etc. — the team sports. I thought the criticism was so unfair given how incredibly hard those gymnasts work, and I couldn’t understand how anyone couldn’t be in absolute awe of them as they did those impossible-looking tumbling passes and balance beam maneouvers and flying-through-the-air vaults. On the other hand, I’d played girls softball when I was young and felt there wasn’t anything I couldn’t do that the women players were doing without practice. So, why were they privileging team sports — so popular in men’s athletics — over individual sports, which women tend toward?

These friends were all lawyers and feminist legal scholars and I thought it was in large part my love of ballet and dance that made me at odds with them over this, so when I read Claudia (NYTimes dance critic, if you don’t know her) liken the female gymnasts to Jean Benet Ramsey, I thought, oh no!

After watching the women’s gymnastics last night in comparison to the men’s the night before, I did see a difference. The men do tend to be older (20-25), the women younger (16-20). And of course for anyone who watched last night, there seems to be a controversy over the actual ages of the Chinese female gymnasts. The cut-off age is 16 in the Olympic year (so you can be 15 now as long as you turn 16 by December 31, 2008), but no younger, and Bela Karolyi, among others, is questioning that some of those Chinese girls are that old. They did look quite young, but Asians are generally smaller-boned than Caucasians, and, as commenter Meg on Claudia’s blog pointed out, intense athletic training can delay the onset of puberty.

Of course the issue with the delayed onset of puberty caused by intense athletic training (which I hadn’t thought of) is an issue in itself. I’d think that’d be the case with any sport though, including Ballet. Maybe that’s one reason why ballerinas tend to be so thin, and not anorexia… And of course you don’t want to discourage female athleticism; wouldn’t that be sexist if you didn’t say the same for males? Does intense athleticism delay puberty for males though?…

And why favor female athletes so young anyway? Because they’re smaller and won’t go out of bounds on the tumbling passes? Because smaller bodies can tumble higher and get around those uneven bars at more astounding speeds, without fear of hitting the floor? Because as Karolyi said last night, youth doesn’t have as much fear of failure? Why isn’t all this the same for the men then?

The Chinese girls did seem to have more makeup on than the Americans, and they did seem to be jutting their hips and pelvises out and making poses on the floor that we might deem too sexy for their young-looking ages. But Jolene pointed out that that may be a cultural bias, and I agree. I went to an African dance performance with a Ballet friend the other night and she couldn’t stop laughing embarrasingly at the hip and pelvic movement; she’d never seen African before and didn’t know what to make of it, other than laugh at it and feel embarrassment for the dancers. Maybe their style just isn’t something we’re used to. Jolene also pointed out that the makeup seems to be an American thing, and I agree. I rarely see Asian women wearing that harsh bright aqua eyeshadow, yet that was a real fashion statement here in prior decades. They know they’re on TV, the Olympics are heavily dominated by the American press, and they’re trying to be like us. Ironically, it’s backfiring.

Finally, we’re also hearing all these stories about how awful the Chinese are to their children — forcing them into the sport, making them stay away from their families when the little girls really just want to come home, in comparison to the American stories, where the families always insist they’ve let their children decide how much dedication they wanted to give to their sport. Let’s just keep in mind that we’re hearing this all from the perspective of the American press. They assume we’ll feel better about ourselves, about our losing gold medals to the Chinese if we believe our society is so much more just. Not that I don’t believe in being critical at all of other governments; I didn’t have time to write about it, but I attended a reading organized by the PEN American Center of works by imprisoned Chinese dissident writers on the night before the Olympics began. But let’s just remember that our press exercises its own form of propaganda.

Okay, I’m done blabbering! Have a look at Claudia’s post and the responses.

I love this post by Counter Critic. Jacob’s Pillow (the esteemed summer dance festival held in Massachusetts) accepted his friend’s work but then asked her to delete some parts because the venue at which the company was to perform was deemed “for family.” CC covers all the bases: what is “family,” why accept a work then ask the artist to censor herself, why are adults even so hysterical over their children hearing the word “sex,” etc. Taylor mentioned she was attending a discussion tonight held as part of the New York Fringe Festival on issues involved in gearing dance performances to “families.” I wonder if this kind of thing will be discussed…

I found this short story by Alfred Doblin about a ballerina’s struggle with her body in Words Without Borders, whose current issue is devoted to psychiatric themes. (via Maud)

I thought tonight’s finale was rather eh. Nothing blew me away; last week was so much better. Well, that’s not entirely true — I loved Twitch and Joshua’s Hip Hop / Russian thing choreographed by Youri Nelzine. At first I thought the choreographer was calling it a Chekhov dance; I was like, Chekhov choreographed? Then I realized he was saying “Trepak,” as in the Russian Dance from The Nutcracker. I thought it was actually pretty ingenious of him to combine Russian folk and Hip Hop like that, playing on both dancers’ strengths — Twitch’s amazing thigh muscles and all that movement close to the floor, and Joshua’s crazy jumps. Loved the splits jumps, that twisting corkscrew of a jump. I wonder if we’re going to see a Nutcracker this year somewhere with those two performing that dance, like we saw Sabra and Neil do last winter…

Anyway, too much fun, those guys. I really want one of them to win. Twitch grew on me this week, so now I’m divided between him and Josh.

I was also impressed by Courtney, who I think has improved tremendously. She’s standing out so much more now. She really has become so theatrical. She’s become a real actor, and her movements are so much sharper than before. I don’t think she’ll win — I think the others still have more overall clout by this point, but I think she should be very proud of herself.

The two last dances were the worst, unfortunately. The Jive totally lacked energy and bounce and height. The kicks and the sailor shuffles, and just all the fancy footwork — not there at all. That’s what’s so fantastic about jive — the lightening-fast footwork, the crazy fun, the electric charge of the dance, not the aerials — which were excellent by the way, but it’s like they saved their energy for those. And what was that Mia Michaels number in the end? It looked like Shakers who’ve been kept from society for a little too long and have gone a bit haywire. I liked the very beginning though, with the unfolding of the satiny-looking crimson sheets. But that’s the only part I liked…

Anyway, my post on the results should be up on HuffPost on Friday.

Who do you guys think will win??? I predict Josh or Katee.

I went to Dance Brazil and RumbaTap at Central Park’s Summer Stage last night and damn was it crowded. The most crowded I’ve ever seen Summer Stage. I ended up only staying for RumbaTap; left before Dance Brazil because I was just too claustrophobic (in my mind they let way too many people in; I was near the top in the bleachers, my knees jutting into the guy’s back in front of me, my own back being probed by the knees of the guy behind me, serried between the man next to me and the woman on my other side illegally sitting on a bleacher step because there was nowhere to stand. They really need to turn people away next time for safety purposes). I’d already seen Dance Brazil anyway (which I wrote about here) and they were performing the same program — Ritmo — so I figured I’d let someone else get squeezed all to bits.

(sorry so blurry; I’m one of the few who actually obeyed the “no flash photography” rule)

Anyway, Max Pollack’s RumbaTap was good (and I recognized one of the dancers, Matt’s sister, Carson Murphy, right off the bat because of the big hair!). They danced to a variety of Latin rhythms — Salsa, Merengue, traditional Afro-Cuban, and even some Bulgarian (which is Mr. Pollack’s heritage). It was a bit hard, though, to see from so far away (one thing that annoys me greatly about Summer Stage is that no matter how early you get there, it’s hard to get a seat up front because they reserve practically all of them), and it was very hard not to be distracted by the hordes of people trying to find a seat, buying food, talking to each other and paying no attention to the dancing, etc. etc. etc. I think tap, like ballet, is probably too small, the movement too subtle and soft, to work well on a big, open-air stage like this where you don’t have crowd control. I’m thinking Dance Brazil’s Capoeira, with all the big, flashy acrobatics, probably captivated the crowd, especially in the back, much more successfully.

The crowd waiting for Dance Brazil…

Anyway, there’s one more Summer Stage dance event, next Friday, when Jennifer Muller and Erica Essners perform. Go here for info on Muller and Essners, and go here for the rest of the Summer Stage schedule (most of which consists of music events).

One of the great things about New York in August is the abundance of free outdoor events, most of which include dance: Lincoln Center Out of Doors, held in Damrosch Park, just behind the State Theater and facing Fordham Law School, is showcasing Armitage Gone! and Noche Flamenca, among other dance companies; the Lower Manhattan Culture Council’s Sitelines is a series of site-specific dance performances all taking place in lower Manhattan which are usually pretty good; the Downtown Dance Festival, sponsored by Battery Dance Company, takes place August 16-24 also at various Financial District-area locations; and, finally, my beloved Alvin Ailey continues celebrations of their 50th anniversary with several free performances and dance workshops throughout all five boroughs, including an all-day outdoor street festival on Saturday, August 9th in front of City Center in midtown Manhattan, with free performances inside that theater throughout the day.

Speaking of City Center, don’t forget Fall For Dance coming up September 17-27. Tickets for these $10 multi-company performances go on sale at 11:00 a.m. on September 7th and sell out in days if not hours. It doesn’t appear this year’s schedule is up yet (it’s on my mind because they were passing out flyers for it last night), but I’ll post it when it is. For those who don’t yet know about FFD, I don’t think there’s any greater value– you see a variety of top-notch dance companies for only $10 a ticket ($15 if you buy online, but STILL!)

Finally, as my art historian friend alerted me to, if you’re lucky enough to be in Paris in the near future, Sotheby’s is presenting what appears to be a magnificent collection of Ballet Russes material in celebration of that dance company’s 100th birthday. Looks fabulous.

(photo by Tom Caravaglia)

Again, I plan to have a full review coming soon, but just want to tell everyone to try to make it to Battleworks at the Joyce in Chelsea this week, if you can. They’re on Thursday night and Saturday (Keigwin + Co. is Friday night). I find Robert Battle’s work so engagingly complex. The meaning is complicated, but you get the definite sense there is something there, that you want to spend time thinking about, dissecting. And there’s so much emotion is his dances — dancers spin in a whirlwind toward each other, hurl themselves to the floor repeatedly, pick themselves up again, fall backward in exhaustion, do violent flips, at times seem to walk on a tightrope… emotions range from elation to anger to searching thought, to humor, to sad world weariness, and movements from African, tribal, Hip Hop, to Martha-Graham-esque modern… it’ll leave you stunned long after the show is over. Do try to go!

(photo of Mr. Battle by Tom Caravaglia).

Oh and Samuel Roberts is a MIRACLE! (photo, again, Tom Caravaglia).

Go here for Philip’s review.

Muchas muchas MUCHAS gracias to Philip for finding this. It’s a collection of absolutely stunning photographs by Richard Calmes of dancers taken in various locations throughout NYC. Above is Yannick LeBrun from French Guiana, newest member of Alvin Ailey (formerly with Alvin Ailey II, their studio company), and one of my new favorites.