in 2010 includes NYCB’s Robert Fairchild (& SLSG fave, pictured below in Paul Kolnik photo), ABT’s Eric Tamm, and SYTYCD alum William Wingfield (pictured above with Whitney Jensen of Boston Ballet), and Alex Wong (also of Miami City Ballet of course).

And go here for a behind-the-scenes video of the January 2010 cover shoot.

via SYTYCDism.

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.

(photo by Lucretia Diaz, taken from here)

I was originally going to title this post “WHOSE PUBLICITY STUNT WAS THIS?” because I couldn’t imagine how someone who was just promoted to principal at one of the most prestigious dance companies in the U.S., helmed by one of the most famous names in dance, could possibly want to jeopardize his career by doing something so publicly that is explicitly forbidden by his contract and then admitting on national TV that he wasn’t fulfilled at his job and wanted more — like the chance to dance ballroom and hip hop. And then I did a Google Image search of Alex Wong for this post and found two pictures of him dancing, and that was after I had to narrow it down substantially to exclude all the many other Alex Wongs in the universe. Even given all I said at the top of the post, he hardly has an internet presence.

For those who didn’t watch tonight’s SYTYCD, it was the last day of Vegas-round auditions, when the judges called each contestant onstage and told him / her whether they’d made the top 20. Of course everyone in the ballet world was ecstatic over Alex being on the show — it would be just like Danny Tidwell; we’d actually have someone brilliant to watch. When Alex was called up, the judges all confirmed how brilliant he was. Then Nigel told him that, given that he was under contract with “Miami Ballet,” he’d spoken with Edward Villella to see if the artistic director would allow Wong out of his contract for the time necessary to be on the show. Villella said no, we need him. Nigel said he didn’t blame Villella. Nigel, completely blowing me away here with actual wisdom, looked at Wong like he was completely off his nut and told Wong he was currently enjoying the opportunity to work with one of the greatest dancers  in the history of dance. Enjoy that time, learn everything you can, he said, and then maybe in the future if you still want, you can be on the show. Nigel actually shrugged at those last words. Like he knew how it sounded to anyone who knew the least bit about dance. Good for Nigel, for once. Seriously, I have a completely newfound respect for the man.

Wong cried — as if he didn’t know this was coming — and said he was so limited in his company; here he’d seen so many people enjoying so many different kinds of dance, he’d been exposed to so much here. His tears looked real.

So, my first thoughts were – -just like Count Albrecht — WHAT THE F— WAS WONG THINKING???? Did he not talk to Villella beforehand? Did he not read his contract? Was he never asked these questions when he auditioned for the show? Did he talk to Villella about, you know, having just a little time off? There are the auditions, the several months of the show, and then, if you go far, the whole year-plus-long tour. Was none of this really considered? So, I thought — and am still wondering — was this a publicity stunt? And if so whose? Villella’s to get Miami City Ballet on the map (even though that backfired a bit by Nigel’s failure to say the name of the company correctly), the show’s producers’ to get fans of serious dance interested in the show, Wong’s to get famous?

But then, considering how horrendously, ridiculously, unjustly little known ballet dancers are these days, maybe I can understand Wong’s desperation. Maybe he really didn’t think. Or maybe it was a publicity stunt — I half expect it to be announced on the show next week, that, yay, Villella came through!

All I know is that I really don’t want to watch the show now. Does anyone else?

I spent practically the whole weekend at Miami City Ballet (at City Center). Wow, what a great, world-class company! They presented two programs of almost all Balanchine (one Tharp) and they really brought Balanchine to life for me. The company’s director is Edward Villella, who performed with Balanchine and was a very renowned dancer in the fifties and sixties, still considered by many to be the greatest American male dancer ever. He was there of course and took bows with the dancers. Twyla Tharp was also there for the program showing her In The Upper Room, bouncing around  during the curtain calls in jeans and sneakers with her gray hair tied back into a pony tail, and of course her signature glasses. What fun!

Anyway, program one was: the excellent Symphony in Three Movements (my first time seeing it), La Valse (also my first time — gorgeous ballet), and Tharp’s Room; program two was: Square Dance, “Rubies” (the second section of Jewels), and Symphony in C.

My favorites were mostly from the first program.

Continue reading ‘Miami City Ballet’

By posing questions like, “how old am I?” And, “who am I?”

Karina Smirnoff, Blackpool 2006, photo by Tonya Plank

Regarding the first: apparently 10 years old, as I just became ridiculously giddy on Facebook’s pronouncement: “Tonya is now friends with Karina Smirnoff.” My longtime Latin ballroom IDOL

Regarding second question:  one of my new FB friends asked me, “Hey, what’s up with all this Miami City Ballet stuff? Are you a dance critic?” (My status updates lately have been about going to see Miami City Ballet, where I spent the past two days).

So, hmmm. I honestly don’t know. Do bloggers = amateur (or in some cases pro) critics in this new media world? I guess it depends on the blogger and how s/he defines him/herself.  I guess I want to be taken seriously as someone who gives her honest opinions and assessments of things and certainly don’t want to be seen as a lackey to any dance company, but I also try to make my connection with dance personal in a way that a newspaper critic really can’t. Ie: writing in a bit of a persona, calling dancers I really like by their first names, etc. Makes it more interesting albeit less “objective” I think.

I also want to try to avoid being too hard on an artist. I have been and it’s really upset a couple of them. As someone who’s really trying to segue from a career in law to a career as a writer — and especially a writer of fiction — I can relate to and have a deep respect for how difficult the artistic process is and how much you are really putting yourself out there when you subject yourself to public scrutiny. But then again, we all need to have thick skin if we are doing that. And writers do have to keep in mind that our readers are relying on us for our honest opinions; we’re not writing for the artists but for other dance-goers. I do make a distinction between creators who it seems are primarily interested in entertaining and maximizing profit above all else. That’s why I don’t feel badly about being harsh on the TV show producers

Oscar Wilde says a critic is a kind of artist.

So, I basically didn’t answer my the second question at all… Anyway, any other thoughts on the roles of blogger vs. critic in the age of new media, or on critic as artist?

Last night marked the start of Miami City Ballet’s New York City Center season, which is very exciting because, not only is this that company’s Manhattan debut, but it marks the return of the company’s director, the famous Edward Villella, to the stage on which he began his career as a ballet dancer, in 1957, with Balanchine’s company — New York City Ballet. NYCB’s current home, the State Theater (now known, after recent renovations, as the David H. Koch Theater) wasn’t yet built then so City Center was the company’s main stage. I’ll be going to a couple of their performances later in the week and can’t wait. I especially can’t wait for Tharp’s In the Upper Room, one of my favorites. So psyched they’re doing it!

Last night was also San Francisco Ballet’s opening night gala. The co-founder of Twitter was there and he mobile tweeted that the event was like an unofficial Twitter headquarters. Most cool! Hopefully, we’ll be getting a full report of the evening from Jolene.