They’re included with the special $22 prix fixe dinner tonight at Good Enough to Eat, a wonderful UWS eatery. Yum!  Unfortunately, don’t know if I’ll be able to make it; I’ll be at City Center for Corella Ballet’s United States debut!

Also currently showing in NY is Keigwin + Company at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea. It’s their first full season on that stage. They’re one of my favorite modern dance companies and if you’re in NY I highly recommend them. Here’s a promo video:

And here’s an early review from Oberon.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone!

Just a reminder that Angel Corella’s new company is making its U.S. debut at City Center next month (March 17-20 to be exact). Here are a few pictures to whet your appetite:

Angel with his sister, Carmen Corella (who, if you remember, was a SLSG favorite before she left ABT); photo by John Anderson;

Angel and dancers in String Sextet (Corella’s first piece of choreography), photo by Manuel de los Galanes;

Two pics of Angel, in Corsaire by Joseph Aznar (top), and in Bayadere by Rosalie O’Connor; and

Rehearsal photo of dancers Kazuko Omori, Ashley Ellis, and Alba Cazorla by Fernando Bufala.

In addition to Angel’s first piece of choreography, String Sextet (set to Tchaikovsky’s Souvenir From Florence), the program will feature new work by Russell Ducker, a new pas de deux by flamenco dancer Maria Pages danced by Angel and Carmen (which I am particularly excited about), and works by Christopher Wheeldon (DGV: Danse a Grand Vitesse, which was nominated for an Olivier award when it premiered in London in 2006) and Leonid Lavrovsky, and Vladimir Vasilyov and Natalia Kasatkina’s Sunny Duet to be danced by Adiarys Almeida and our Herman Cornejo (who is married to Carmen, for those who didn’t know).

Go here for more info and schedule.

This Saturday evening in the Alvin Ailey studio theater, there will be two dance performances to benefit the earthquake victims in Haiti. My friend, Taylor Gordon, is performing. Go here for more details.

Haha! So the gossip papers are reporting that Ben Millepied and Natalie Portman had gone to see Gyor National Ballet of Hungary on January 9th. But that’s wrong! Pacific Northwest Ballet was performing at the Joyce Theater (outside of which the above photos were taken) on that date. Gyor IS coming to the Joyce though — on January 26th, and I can’t wait. I’m very intrigued…

If you’re in New York (and you won’t be at work next Monday afternoon, Jan. 11th), absolutely do not miss SLSG favorite assoluta Veronika Part up close as she performs a duet choreographed for her and Matthew Renko by another SLSG favorite, choreographer Avi Scher. The free performance will be in City Center’s studio 4 (upstairs). It starts at 3:30 and should last an hour or two.

Top image of Part taken from here (this was when she arrived for her stint on the David Letterman show). Second photo by Kokyat, taken from the event’s Facebook listing. Visit Oberon’s Grove to see some more excellent photos by Kokyat of the duo rehearsing.

Also, the Ballet Bag has honored James Wolcott and SLSG by including our coverage of the fabulous Ms. Part as among their favorite blog posts of the year.  Thank you Bag Ladies!

If you’re in NY and you don’t yet have plans for New Year’s Eve, I highly recommend Alvin Ailey. They’re doing their Best of 20 Years program — a celebration of Judith Jamison’s 20 years as Artistic Director with the company that includes excerpts from the various ballets she’s commissioned in that time — including Ronald K. Brown’s beatific Grace, Lar Lubovitch’s intriguing North Star, Donald K. Byrd’s tantalizing disco-y Dance at the Gym, Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s thought-provoking Shelter — the list goes on! Excellent excellent program. And then, they end with Hans van Manen’s by turns beautifully lyrical and energetically fast-paced Solo (for three men), followed by of course Revelations. Seriously — is there a better dance to celebrate a new (and hopefully, please God, better) year? This is all to be followed by a grand grand finale.

For tix, go here.

Unfortunately, I can’t go, and my Ailey season has now ended. I’m so sad — I always feel a hole in my stomach every time this year. No one combines balletic modern with African, with American social and street, with jazz and theater… no company’s dancers are more versatile (now if they were all to compete on So You Think You Can Dance, that would be a showdown!) , and no company’s product so far-reaching. I really love them. If anyone goes to the New Year’s Eve celebration, please report back!

Photo by Kwame Brathwaite.

Photos by Paul Kolnik.

I’m a little late on this news, but for NYers who haven’t heard, Erica Pereira was recently promoted from corps member to soloist at New York City Ballet. I first noticed her in 2006 when she was the youngest Juliet cast in Peter Martins’ Romeo + Juliet (she was still then only an apprentice with the company). I knew how special she was then, and so I think this promotion is very well deserved.

Getting so excited for NYCB’s Winter season to begin! Nutcracker shows through Sunday, January 3rd, then the regular season begins the following Tuesday, January 5th, when the new Peter Martins will show, along with Balanchine’s Who Cares?

Ballet preceded by cadillac margaritas and duck tortilla pie at Rosa Mexicano, then followed with Ed’s Chowder House martinis and scallop ravioli:) Or maybe Honoo & green tea martinis at the A-Rod / Wallace Shawn bar… Ballet season: yum!

Rasta Thomas’ new Bad Boys of Dance show, “Rock the Ballet,” opens tonight at the Joyce Theater. I’ll be there later in the week. Here’s what I wrote last time I saw Bad Boys; below is a video of some footage of the current show, in Barcelona, interspersed with audience interviews (in Spanish).

And here’s one from the group’s performance on a Spanish TV show:

It looks like they’re including women this time (at least one, at least one human ). I can never tell if he’s being ironic or not with the choreography… In any event, the reason to see this show is the man himself, Rasta Thomas, brilliant brilliant dancer.

Above image taken from here.

This week, playwright and actor Anna Deavere Smith will perform with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, who are currently in the middle of their winter season at NY City Center. Deavere Smith (remember Twilight: Los Angeles 1992, about Rodney King, and Fires in the Mirror, about Crown Heights) will join the cast for a performance of Judith Jamison’s Hymn, Jamison’s 1993 Emmy award-winning homage to Alvin Ailey. Deavere Smith wrote the libretto and acts in the piece, which I haven’t yet seen live, but saw in a film. The excerpt I saw was excellent. A definite must-see (photo below by Andrew Eccles).

She’ll be performing December 16, 18, 19, and in the matinee on the 20th. She’s taking a break from her latest one-woman show, Let Me Down Easy, to perform with Ailey.

In addition to Hymn, Ailey’s also putting on several premieres this season: Jamison’s breathtaking Divining and Ronald K. Brown’s equally wondrous, African-based Dancing Spirit (which received loads of applause the other night, well deserved!), dancer Matthew Rushing’s sweet Uptown (a tribute to the Harlem Renaissance), Jamison’s Among Us (which I haven’t yet seen but will soon), and Robert Battle’s In-Side (ditto).  In addition they’ve spiced up last year’s Festa Barocca, they’ve got a Best of 20 Years program — a compilation of the best work Jamison has commissioned during her time with the company, and company classics like Night Creature, Love Stories, Suite Otis, and of  course the always uplifting, quintessentially American (probably the best American dance ever made, imo) — Revelations.

If you’re in NY (or anywhere else in the world where they tour), definitely don’t miss them. Go here for more info on the City Center season.

Above photo of Deavere Smith from University of Chicago.

If you’re in NY and are free tonight, this looks pretty worthwhile.

Today I was invited to attend a rehearsal for a new company, DeMa Dance Company, at their studio in Brooklyn. For their first set of performances, which will be in May at the Alvin Ailey Theater, Sonya Tayeh, from So You Think You Can Dance is choreographing a piece, called When the Love Enters, the Light Shines, set to Bjork’s Unison. They let me sit in and watch her work, which was really thrilling!

Thrilling also because none other than Billy Bell (who, all regular readers of this blog will remember, I was going on and on and on about at the start of this SYTYCD season) just became a principal dancer with this company. So I got to watch him rehearse too

And then, I got to do little mini-interviews with both Tayeh and Bell. (A first for this blog!) Billy is one of the sweetest, most enthusiastic people I think I’ve ever met and I’m just so intrigued by Sonya’s unique work; she’s really endlessly fascinating, as was just watching her work — and this is the first time I’ve ever been invited to a rehearsal when the dance is at its beginning stages; you learn so much more about how a dance is actually created by watching at this stage than when you only see the finished, or almost-finished product. So I’m really thankful to DeMa for inviting me today.

It may be a couple of days though before I’m able to get the interview and rehearsal notes up because I have Alvin Ailey tonight and then tomorrow I’m leaving for Art Basel in Miami for the weekend. But I wanted to at least get some of the photos up now (all taken by DeMa’s photog Kim Max).

Above are Tayeh and Bell with the founders and artistic directors of DeMa, Despina and Matina Simegiatos (Matina is on the far left, Despina on the far right). Below is the whole company. All of the dancers (at least those I saw today) are very good, with strong technique and loads of energy (you need it to work with Tayeh). More on the rehearsal and the interviews to come, but in the meantime, check out their website — I think they’ll be a promising company. And check out the videos — I particularly like the top one — Zaloggos — about the Greek women.

Photo by Andrea Mohin, from NY Times, of Complexions’ cast of Mercy, Desmond Richardson center.

Complexions is currently at the Joyce in Chelsea and they’ve got two nice new pieces (both by artistic director, Dwight Rhoden) — Dirty Wire and Mercy. I liked both but particularly Mercy. It’s spiritual but uses a medley of both classical and contemporary music, is very dramatic, and has themes of sin and treachery. I found the movement original and expressive, and the miraculous Desmond Richardson has a rather intense, mysterious solo. All of the Complexions dancers are excellent though. Rhoden really works them hard — his movement is almost always very fast — sometimes almost spastic, on purpose — and great precision is required in order to make those lightning-fast changes of shape.

They’re on through November 29th. Go here for details.

My friend, Michael Northrop, and I were invited to a rehearsal of a rated R Nutcracker on Sunday evening. I had to leave early but Michael kindly stayed and wrote up this review. I took the photo above with my iphone. Here’s Michael:

Did you see the movie Bad Santa? No, me neither, but you get the idea. Holiday traditions are familiar and tend toward the precious and that makes them excellent targets for parody and irreverence. The thing about parody in the dance world, of course, is that it has to be well danced. The examples that leap to mind, en pointe, are the bounding “ballerinos” of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo. The modern ballet Nutcracker: Rated R fits the bill nicely, as well.

This raunchy, entertaining Nut is set in early 1980s New York, the era of subway trains tagged tip-to-tail with graffiti, collapsing tenements, and a drug dealer on every corner, rather than a Starbucks. I got an early Christmas present when I got to watch a rehearsal of Act I on Sunday night.

Choreographer/director Angela Harriell got right to business working through the kinks, so to speak, in an intricately choreographed fight scene pitting rats vs. the soiled soldiers of the Department of Sanitation. The rats knew martial arts, which was bound to happen in this city sooner or later. Hyosun Choi, a Mighty Mouse of a rat, flew over the top of a leaning Sanitation worker with a perfect miss of a kick only to take on another.

Harriell gave the dancers plenty of freedom to improvise: “And then it’s whatever you want,” she said. “Wrestle! wrestle! And then there’s the hitting sound.”

Many hitting sounds later, a quick run-through revealed a fun, feisty fight scene, and it was on to the next piece: the Party Scene. The Tchaikovsky was cued up and the partners took their places. A few more quotes from Harriell should give you a good idea of the action:

“Then there’s the moment when you pick up the dildo and you’re like, ‘Nobody needs to know about that,’ and you keep it for yourself.”

“So let’s get back to the drunk parents dance . . . Yeah, you’re totally easy.”

“Then it’s open step and closed step and open and shake-a, shake-a butt.”

Sometimes the dancers had questions:

“So on the second triple thing,” said Eddie Gutierrez, “there’s no butt at the end?”

Harriell had the answers and kept them on the music:

“And roll in, and throw up, and 1-2-3-4!”

The party scene ends on a late-night subway platform. [I'll pause here so you can remember what that's like.] And then there was a final run-through of “most of Act I.” The marked steps and questions were replaced by muscular lifts-at a few points, dancer Michael MacLaren was defending three women against the ground-dramatic extensions, and long stretches of seriously good dancing. The dancers were having fun, and it came through in the movement. It was a blast, even in an unadorned studio after two and a half hours. I don’t see what chance the audience has to resist it when the full production hits the stage.

Nutcracker: Rated R begins its fourth season, December 17-31, at New York’s Theater for the New City in the East Village.

How funny — I was just going on in my last post about how I fell in love with the Paris Opera Ballet through Frederick Wiseman’s currently-showing film La Danse, and now I receive news that two etoiles with that company — Aurelie Dupont (in photo above, taken from Bailarinas) and Mathias Heymann — will be performing with New York City Ballet in their opening night gala, on November 24th. In exchange, NYCB’s Ashley Bouder and Gonzalo Garcia (both SLSG faves) will perform with Paris Opera Ballet, on November 12th. Both couples will dance the “Rubies” section of Balanchine’s Jewels.

Additionally, NYCB’s opening night performance will include Alexei Ratmansky’s Concerto DSCH (my personal favorite of his) and a premiere by Peter Martins set to John Adams music and starring all of the company’s principal dancers.

Photo of DSCH by Paul Kolnik, from NYTimes.

NYCB’s Nutcracker season begins the Friday following opening night, November 27th. Visit the website for tix and info.

Most exciting though about the dancer exchange. I’ve never seen Heymann perform live and I’ve only seen Dupont dance Trisha Brown, not full-out ballet.

Here are a couple videos of Heymann I found on YouTube: first as Bluebird in Sleeping Beauty and second in a contemporary solo:

And here is Dupont as Kitri in Don Q:

Sorry, you guys, I’m just so into videos these days!

Finally, ABT’s Contemporary season is here; it opens tonight at Avery Fisher Hall, at Lincoln Center, with premieres by choreographers Azsure Barton, Alexei Ratmansky and Benjamin Millepied (pictured above, left to right). Plus, there’s a special addition — a performance of Michel Fokine’s Ballets Russes classic, The Dying Swan, by SLSG favorite Veronika Park! (top photo, by Jade Young)

Another important dance event that opens tonight is William Forsythe’s company performing the U.S. premiere of his Decreation, at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Unfortunately, their performances are the exact same nights as ABT’s shortened season so most big dance fans are probably going to be at Lincoln Center for the next few days. But Forsythe is a very important choreographer and I strongly encourage all New Yorkers to try to make it out to BAM for at least one of the perfs between tonight and October 10th.

There’s a post-performance talk with Forsythe tomorrow night at BAM (October 8), and another talk between Forsythe and philosopher Alva Noe about consciousness as a kind of dance at the New York Public Library the following day. I find Forsythe to be brilliant and it’s always fascinating to hear him talk.

And in honor of that, I couldn’t resist posting more beautiful pictures of Diana Vishneva, taken by Nina Alovert. Vishneva is dancing Fokine’s Dying Swan late in the festival. Tickets to all nights are all sold out but you can wait in line for returns beginning at 6:30 p.m. each night, and you can have some food and wine in the lounge while watching performances via video. Tomorrow night is the first Ballet Russes-focused Dance Talk up in City Center’s Studio 5.

New York City Ballet dancers will perform an adaptation of Robbins’ NY Export Opus Jazz tonight, September 10th, from 5-8 p.m. in McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn. See the latest comment to this blog post or go here for details.

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.

Mikhail Baryshnikov and Ana Laguna are in Santa Monica where they’re beginning a U.S. tour. Program includes choreography by Mats Ek (Laguna’s husband), Alexei Ratmansky, and Benjamin Millepied’s Years Later, which consists of a solo for Barysh juxtaposed with movie clips of his younger self dancing. Critics say it “should bring a new respect to middle-age dance performances.”

I’m excited to see the Millepied as well as the Ek piece. Here are some clips from another of Ek’s dances for the pair. Baryshnikov still looks like Baryshnikov — the way he moved in White Nights, the way he danced Tharp’s Push Comes to Shove…

(top photo from Hawaiitheater.com)

Very excited. One of my favorite actresses will be dancing at BAM’s Harvey Theater from September 15-21 with Akram Khan in their collaborative work, in-i (post-show talk with her and Khan is on Sept.17). I’d actually blogged about this a while back after seeing it reviewed in the English papers, so I’m very glad they are finally bringing this show to the US. Here’s a sampling of how it was received in the UK.

And, to coincide with the dance tour, BAM Cinematek is having a downright mouthwatering retrospective of her films. It begins with her latest movie, Paris, on September 11th. Following that 7pm screening, she’s to give an audience Q&A with the film’s director Cedric Klapisch. (Only prob with the retrospective: BAM doesn’t appear ever to be screening The Unbearable Lightness of Being…)

Also on September 11th, earlier that evening, at 6pm (I honestly don’t know how she’s going to fit all of this in…), she’s scheduled to be in uptown Manhattan at the Barnes & Noble Lincoln Square to talk about and sign copies of her new book, Portraits – In Eyes. (Binoche is currently taking a year-long hiatus from her acting career to fulfill other artistic passions — dance, poetry, and painting). This time B&N is making clear up front seating inside the little glass-encased area is primarily for book buyers.

All of this is exceedingly cool for Binoche fans, like me

(Above image taken from Aufemin.com)

Breaking news! SLSG absolute favorite will perform with Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses this weekend on Central Park’s SummerStage. I blogged about the performances earlier today but this of course makes attendance ALL THE MORE COMPELLING. So to repeat: Friday and Saturday evenings, Rumsey Playfield (69th and 5th Ave.), 8 pm. But get there early; collaborator Martha Wainwright’s expected to bring a slew of fans with her, which, when combined with Wheeldon fans, are going to completely overflow the house, or field.

See Oberon for a review of today’s rehearsal.

Photo by Jade Young.

P.S.: who’s watching David Parsons’s Remember Me right now (8:15 p.m., as I’m writing) on channel 21? Coming across pretty well on TV.

It’s just been announced that Pasha & Anya (from So You Think You Can Dance of course!) will join the Burn the Floor Broadway cast as the star dancers, replacing Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff, who depart the show August 16th. Pasha & Anya will begin August 18th.

Woo hoo! So excited for them!

I really think they’re going to make this show. (My review of the Maks / Karina cast is coming very soon — likely later today). I think Pasha and Anya are the quintessential Latin ballroom performers. Karina’s technically probably the best female Latin dancer in the world right now (imo, with the arguable exception of Joanna Leunis, or Yulia Zagoruychenko) and Karina & Maks are worth seeing in the show for that reason alone. But Anya’s a true diva like no other and she and Pasha really know how to melt you into a giant puddle, right there on your seat… I’m not kidding, they are to die for.

I don’t know which cast to recommend now… I recommend them both!

(Full disclosure of course: for newish readers to this blog, I am friends with Pasha; he is my former instructor).

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.

Photo by Mary Ann Moy, of TAKE Dance Company in Footsteps in the Snow.

A few things to do this week and next if you’re suffering post-ballet season boredom:

This Thursday evening, TAKE Dance Company, a small modern company I like, founded by former Paul Taylor dancer Takehiro Ueyama, opens at Dance Theater Workshop in Chelsea. I’ve seen some of the works on the program before (and saw parts of Footsteps, which they’re premiering, in rehearsal). I’ve always found his work mesmerizing and I’m excited to see Footsteps in full. They show through August 2. Go here for details and to see a video; also visit Oberon who has been covering the company’s rehearsals.

This Friday night, Rioult, Pascal Rioult’s wonderful little modern dance company, is performing at Central Park’s Summerstage along with Germaul Barnes’s Viewsic Expressions. Two of my favorite dances of Rioult’s, his sexy version of Les Noces and his gorgeous Views of the Fleeting World, are on the program.

This weekend, Saturday and Sunday evenings and Sunday afternoon, Merce Cunningham Dance Company are to perform a collection of Cunningham’s work, past and present, in Rockefeller Park as part of the River to River Festival. Those performances will of course be all the more momentous (and heartbreaking) in light of the choreographer’s recent death.

Finally, Burn the Floor, the ballroom show by Jason Gilkison (of So You Think You Can Dance fame, and a former Australian ballroom champion) officially opens on Broadway next Tuesday. It’s in previews right now. I saw it last night and loved it (review coming soon). It’s great fun; makes you want to dance home I’m tempted to say it’s worth it just to see Peta Murgatroyd — WHOA. She’s a ballerina-turned Latin dancer and she just combines the best of everything… Try to go to a performance prior to August 16th so you can see Maks Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff in the cast as well. Maks is an absolute hoot to watch live!

(photo above by Tracy Martin, taken from Broadway World)

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.

Photo by Fabrizio Ferri of Cory Stearns, Alexandre Hammoudi and Grant DeLong, from ABT website.

The Guggenheim Museum has just released its Works & Process events schedule for the fall and there’s some good stuff coming up.

On October 11 and 12 ABT will give a program, entitled, The Art of Adaptation, in which dancers will perform portions of the company’s upcoming contemporary season, held this year at Avery Fisher Hall, and panelists will discuss how they’re adapting work for a non-dance venue. (The company is performing at Avery Fisher this year because City Center, where they usually have their fall season, is going to be temporarily closed for remodelling). It hasn’t yet been revealled who the dancers or moderators will be, but I’ll let you know when I do!

On September 23 and 25 there will be a new dance / music commission inspired by artist Vasily Kandinsky’s Blue Rider Almanac of 1912, performed at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. Music is by the Brentano String Quartet, soprano Susan Naruki, and pianist Sarah Rothenberg; the dancing will be by Armitage Gone! Dance. This, along with a couple of art installations in the museum and another music piece, is commissioned in conjuction with a Kandinsky retrospective to show in the main museum.

On September 11 and 12, young choreographers Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz are each showing a piece they’ve made to Steve Reich’s Pulitzer-winning Double Sextet. Dancers will be from Keigwin + Company and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Reich will participate in the panel discussion on the 12th.

And, finally, on October 24 and 25, Shen Wei Dance Arts will perform in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary and Shen Wei will discuss his creative process.

There are other, non-dance events as well, including a talk on “Sex Stress and Music,” a world premiere by composer Charles Wuorinen, and a spoken word performance inspired by Kandinsky’s Yellow Sound (1912) in which actress Isabella Rossellini will read and Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will generate an array of colors from the sound of her voice. Very cool-sounding!

The schedule’s not yet on line but it’ll be here when it is.

March 17-20, 2010 at NY’s City Center. The program will feature four ballets, one of which is a U.S. premiere by the company’s founder, our own Angel Corella, called String Sextet and set to Tchaikovsky — his first work of choreography! Dancers include Angel Corella himself, Herman Cornejo(!), Carmen Corella(!), and other principal dancers and first soloists from around the world including Iain Mackay, Adiarys Almeida, Natalia Tapia, Kazuko Omori, and Joseph Gatti.

Top photo: Carmen Corella, Iain Mackay and Adiarys Almeida in VII, photo by Manuel de los Galanes; bottom photo of Angel in Bayadere with ABT, by Rosalie O’Connor.

I’m so excited — I’ve been waiting for this! Tickets go on sale September 8, 2009, at which point you can call Citytix at 212-581-1212 or visit the website.

and I am not there.

(image taken from The Fashionisto.)

Photo by Jade Young.

I’ve been so busy, I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention this (and bouquets of thanks to one of my readers, Jennifer, for the heads up, which I confirmed by consulting an official Person in the Know):

Veronika Part, one of my favorite ballerinas of course, is going to be on Letterman this Thursday night, 7/9 at … whatever time and channel Letterman is on in your neck of the woods.

Unlike Haglund, I’ll be at ABT watching the young ‘uns take a shot at Romeo and Juliet (and watching Freddie Franklin celebrate his 95th birthday), but no way no how will I not record this. Please please please watch and tell me what you think! It’s on basically right after So You Think You Can Dance so no excuses. I can’t wait!

Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes, photo by Gene Schiavone from Ballet.co.

Finally, Pashmina week is here!

I couldn’t find any pictures of the pashmina lifts, but watch this video — two occur around 430-440 and 528-532. By the way, that clip, from a BBC broadcast apparently, is really good — the Royal’s Darcey Bussell talks about MacMillan’s gorgeous balcony pas de deux and then it’s performed by the great Carlos Acosta and Tamara Rojo.

Anyway, last night’s debut cast at ABT was Marcelo Gomes and Diana Vishneva in the leads. It was excellent. The audience collectively rose to its feet right after the curtain went down on the two lovers, dead in the crypt, and hardly anyone sat down or left until after the final curtain call. And a significant amount of people didn’t even want to leave then, after all the lights came up. I don’t think I’ve ever seen quite that kind of crowd reaction before. Diana was the best I’ve ever seen her (she’s really growing on me). The end was a bit melodramatic and overdone, but that aside, her performance was brilliant — perfectly and passionately danced and in character throughout. And the bourrees Marcelo is always perfect. He’s the lifting king in this very lift-heavy ballet. And he’s of course very romantic and passionate to boot He’s never not completely made my night at ABT. He kissed Diana on the lips during curtain call; audience went “awwwwwww!”

Herman Cornejo danced Mercutio, and, believe me, there’s no one better for that part. No one! Audience went wild over him, nearly as much as the leads. Veronika Part replaced Stella Abrera as Lady Capulet. It’s not a dancing role but a very serious acting one. I’ve never seen a more tragic Lady Capulet. I really felt her horror at Tybalt’s death. I almost cried with her. Isaac Stappas was a very good Tybalt, very virile, very threatening, but ultimately vulnerable. And Carlos Lopez was a very good Benvolio — he landed all of his jumps very well

And 95-year-old Frederic Franklin played Friar Lawrence (and got loads of applause for it when he first appeared onstage — for a minute I thought they were going to have to stop the music so he could take a bow!) Above photo of Franklin, with Marcelo Gomes as Romeo and Julie Kent as Juliet, from Liverpool Daily.

So the rest of the week: Marcelo will dance Romeo once more, on Wednesday night, with Paloma Herrera as Juliet. Tonight (Tuesday) and Saturday night Roberto Bolle dances with Irina Dvorovenko (a must-see performance). Wednesday and Saturday matinees are David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy. And Friday night are Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes in the leads. Thursday night’s performance should be special: the young Hee Seo and Cory Stearns are making their debuts in the roles, and, according to the Playbill, there is also to be a little celebration that night in honor of Franklin, who will again play Friar Lawrence.

Pretty amazing to still be onstage at 95!

At a celebration earlier this year, from Liverpool Daily Post (sweet article too).

Photo by Andrew Testa, of Franklin dancing in the 1940s, from Judith Mackrell’s Guardian column.

For ABT’s schedule and ticket info, go here.