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!

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!

Philip was really sweet and sent me some pictures taken by his friend, Kokyat, of the Morphoses / Martha Wainwright performance Saturday night in Central Park. Above are my three favorites from ABT and NYCB respectively: Marcelo Gomes, Gonzalo Garcia and Tiler Peck (seated). They’re dancing Christopher Wheeldon’s Fool’s Paradise.

It was a fun night. For people unfamiliar with Martha Wainwright’s music, she’s kind of a folksy, bluesy, country mix. So, the dances, mostly choreographed by Wheeldon, a couple by Edwaard Liang, complemented that with lots of wavy-armed, lyrical, softly jazzy, almost social-dance-like movement, with ruffly dresses for the women and open t-shirts, casual vests and buttoned Oxfords with ties for the men.

Here’s a photo by Andrea Mohin of the NYTimes, of Bleeding All Over You, chor by Liang and set to Wainwright’s song. Teresa Reichlen is in the middle, surrounded by Jason Fowler and Adrian Danchig-Waring of NYCB. See Mohin’s slide-show here.

Here’s another favorite of mine by Mohin from the NYTimes slide show, of Gonzalo Garcia and Tiler Peck in Love is a Stranger (set to Wainwright’s re-interpretation of the Annie Lennox hit). This was one of my favorite dances of the evening because, well I love both these two, and it kind of reminded me of when they danced Other Dances together at NYCB this season.

And my other favorite from that slide show, of Rory Hohenstein dancing a solo in Far Away, the first piece of the night.

I don’t know if it was Craig Salstein and the wine or the promise of seeing Marcelo in the second act or what, but everyone seemed to have an extra glow or something; everyone seemed to dance so much better than I’ve ever seen them before — particularly Hohenstein. He was really fluid, really beautiful in this dance.

See more photos in the Times slide show here. And read the accompanying review by Sir Alastair in which he gets just a bit caught up in the spelling of the word “Whither.” I don’t see that anyone has blogged about the review, but it’s certainly making its way around via email because of that paragraph. It’s like the critics are becoming part of the performance…

Anyway, Marcelo danced in the last two ballets — Wheeldon’s well-regarded Fool’s Paradise, and Tears of St. Lawrence (a new collaboration between Wheeldon and Liang). Paradise was set to recorded music by Jody Talbot (the only non-Wainwright music of the night) and Tears to Wainwright’s song of the same name.

Marcelo danced the opening pas de deux in Paradise with Tiler Peck and I feel like I saw things anew and like I was more connected to and moved by some of the twisted, unique, two-body shapes just by seeing a dancer I connect with in the part — his covering her ears, his bowing down to her in arabesque… No one could make the arabesques Marcelo was making, and there were several parts where he and another male dancer — at the beginning Gonzalo — would frame the women with those arabesques and Marcelo’s raised leg was always significantly higher. I always love Gonzalo, and it could just have been my seeing him next to Marcelo, but he didn’t seem as stretched-out Saturday night. His extensions weren’t as heavenly as they usually are. Actually, there was nothing in any of the ballets that really brought out the qualities that make Gonzalo Gonzalo. No Mercurial Manoeuvers, no Hallelujah Junction, no MNS Oberon, no Other Dances, no Concerto DSCH where he could fly all over stage and charm you to death. He doesn’t excel as well at the slower, pretzel-shape pas de deux-heavy dances. Well, it’s not that he doesn’t excel, it’s just that his personality doesn’t have the chance to shine. I want Wheeldon to choreograph something high-flying for him and put it in the Morphoses program

Back to Paradise: I have to say, upset as I was over not being able to see the dancers up close, I was able to see the patterns better from sitting back in the sky box. Wheeldon and Liang both came back there and stood beside us to get a view of the overall, so I guess Susan and I ended up in the kind of ideal Balanchinian viewing area. From there I really could better appreciate the patterns and the look of the whole.

For all the “whither wather” goofiness, one of Macaulay’s lines in the afore-linked-to review really resonated with me: “I like the control with which Mr. Wheeldon keeps making you pay attention, but I can’t get interested in these dances as thought or drama.” I think that’s what prevents me from getting entirely into a Wheeldon ballet (at least his ballets for Morphoses; some of his ballets for NYCB have been far more dramatic or expressionistic); I feel like I need to come away from a work of art with something other than just a beautiful image. I need more in order to keep thinking about the piece over and over again, which is the effect I want a work of art to have on me.

But I’ll keep trying with Wheeldon — I’m sure if I liked Mercurial Manoevers and the After the Rain pdd, other dances of his will eventually grow on me. Especially if he uses my favorite dancers more often

Here are some more Kokyat photos of Fool’s Paradise:

And here are some of Tears of St. Lawrence:

Cast taking a bow, with Wainwright and Wheeldon in center. Look how cute they are

As I said earlier, there was a lot of music and it almost felt like a music concert with some dance thrown in, but, like others have mentioned, I’m glad the program exposed Wainwright fans to dance. Toward the end, Wheeldon came up onstage and introduced the dancers the way Wainwright introduced her band. He called his dancers “his band” and jokingly noted this wasn’t often done in the dance world. At one point, he remarked to Wainwright that he thought she might dance some and she responded, “Oh … no … oh, I don’t know… I could lie down and let people do things to me?” Everyone laughed. “Maybe it could be you,” she tacked on. “Ah, I don’t think it would be me,” he said after a long pause. He seemed a bit embarrassed. It was cute.

Anyway, thank you again to Philip for letting me use some of Kokyat’s photos. Definitely visit Philip’s blog where he has several posts filled with more gorgeous photos. The photos begin with this post (keep clicking on previous posts titled “Starry Night” to see more).

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.

Above photos of Footsteps in the Snow by Phil Echo.

TAKE Dance Company began its season at Dance Theater Workshop on Thursday night. There were four dances on the program — all choreographed by artistic director Takehiro Ueyama: two pieces from last year (the upbeat Linked, and Love Stories, a haunting duet about three stages in the life of a relationship that was inspired by a Magritte painting); the New York premiere of Shabon; and the world premiere of Footsteps in the Snow, both rather abstract pieces that I found a bit unsettling.

Nana Tsuda and Kile Hotchkiss in Love Stories, photo by Angele.

Nana Tsuda and Francisco Gracinao in Shabon, photo by Phil Echo.

Shabon, set to Steve Reich music, is bookended by a solitary woman walking across the stage blowing bubbles. Bubbles are blown onstage throughout the dance, by bubble machines, which would seem to make the mood of the piece playful. But there’s a lot of intense partnering and the dancers seem to be characters who struggle somewhat with each other. During the climax of the piece, a small woman walks atop the shoulders of the other dancers, who together make a kind of human pyramid. She does this twice, then falls backward, hoping the others will catch her, which they do. But it still made me jump, because it doesn’t seem like she’s really trusting them so much as that she doesn’t care about her own well-being any more, like she’s given up. Then, in the end, when the solitary woman is walking across stage blowing her bubbles again, it’s like she’s in her own world. To me, it was about the solitariness of human existence or the fragility of connection.

The last piece, Footsteps, seemed to echo those themes as well as hint at the impermanence of human existence. Set to the rain-drop-like music of Arvo Part (the same used by Christopher Wheeldon in his famous After the Rain pas de deux), the stage was covered with fake snow (confetti) and there were some “snow-blowing” machines used from time to time to cover the dancers’ tracks, which made me think of the way it’s impossible to leave a lasting footprint in the snow. The dancers danced by turns in solo, in pairs, and in ensemble, the mood shifting between violent, tender and pensive. In one part, Francisco Gracinao (who regularly dances with Paul Taylor and was guesting with TAKE) throws himself violently to the floor, ending in a balance on the side of his neck, his legs in the air. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone throw himself down that way and then basically land on his neck. It made me jump. In other places, the men dangle the women upside down. In one moment — my favorite – -a man and woman, both crawling on the floor, find each other, and rub necks, entwining them and kind of locking them into place, fitting together perfectly like the pieces of a puzzle. It’s a beautiful image and at first I was hoping the piece would end there, but no, the pause in the music and the dimmed lights were only a pause; there was another, more disconcerting section that followed. I guess, thinking it over, I’m glad it didn’t end there — it would probably have been too pat, too happy, and I don’t think Take does happy endings!

I really like TAKE’s dancers. Ueyama has a good, diverse group — about half of them are kind of  “all American” in a Paul Taylorish way (Ueyema danced with Paul Taylor before forming his own group) — kind of carefree and sunny and spacious in their use of the floor, and then the other half are these really intense Asian women who captivate you with the depth of their gaze and the small details in their movement. They’re kind of opposites in a way but both are equally compelling and together I think make for a really unique company.

This is a good, varied program. It runs at DTW through this Sunday afternoon.Visit the DTW website for details and video excerpts, and see Philip’s blog for more pictures by his friend Kokyat.

Okay, just one more post before I settle down for the weekend.

Next week is going to be pure insanity. Practically every single Giselle cast at ABT is a must-see. Retiring ballerina Nina Ananiashvili is dancing her last two Giselles Monday (with Marcelo Gomes) and Friday (with Jose Carreno); Tuesday Diana Vishneva dances the lead (whom many critics consider best in the role); Wednesday matinee David Hallberg and Maria Riccetto make their debuts; Wednesday night Veronika Part dances the Queen of the Wilis with Irina Dvorovenko in the lead; Thursday night La Scala superstar Roberto Bolle makes his debut as the newest company principal; Saturday matinee Herman Cornejo dances Albrecht; and Saturday night is visiting Bolshoi ballerina Natalia Osipova in the lead. (By the way, Saturday night casting has recently been changed to David Hallberg as Albrecht, dancing in place of the apparently still-injured Ethan Stiefel.)

Across the plaza at New York City Ballet, the newish ballet Lifecasting by Douglas Lee (which is your only chance to see Ashley Bouder dance this season) shows on Wednesday night, Friday night, and the Sunday matinee along with the critically acclaimed Christopher Wheeldon ballet, Mercurial Manoeuvres (one of my personal favorites of his). And their always fun Dancers’ Choice program is on Sunday night. (Visit Oberon for more deets on that).

I had also wanted to see Jennifer Muller’s The Works 35th Anniversary program at the Joyce in Chelsea but just don’t know if I’m going to be able to pull it off.

(at top of post, Julie Kent as Giselle in Roy Round photo)

Also, the following week, on Tuesday, June 16 from 5:30-7 pm, Roberto Bolle (photo from here) will be at Rizzoli Bookstore (on 57th Street between 5-6th Avenues) signing copies of his book (of photos of him dancing at La Scala).

Happy weekend, everyone!