Category: Dance News

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BENJAMIN MILLEPIED CHOREOGRAPHING FOR "BLACK SWAN" MOVIE

There were rumors swarming around that NYCB’s Ben Millepied would be choreographing for the upcoming film starring Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis, and they appear to be true.

Says Director Darren Aronofsky:

“My sister was a dancer growing up and I was always in the background, so I always thought it would be a really interesting world to film in. And after wrestling and working with maybe the lowest form of art [in ‘The Wrestler’], it was kind of interesting to move to the highest form of art,” he said, adding that dance appreciation can be an acquired taste: “It’s taken a long time to develop an understanding of the details, and the more you get exposed to it, the more complexity you see.”

Click on that first link, by the way, for an interesting script analysis.

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MIA MICHAELS' NEW SHOW(S)!

There’s an interview with Mia Michaels in the Wall Street Journal about why she left SYTYCD. In it she reveals that she has not one but potentially three new shows in the works:

“Are the rumors that you might get your own show true?

These rumors are very true. I can’t go into details about it, but there are three separate shows we’re working on, and all three of them are very different. One is a choreography show, one is a doc-reality show of a stage show that will be touring the states and the third one was inspired by a Web site called ‘Mia Michaels, Please Choreograph My Life.'”

Wow. Read the rest of the interview here.

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ABT IN BEIJING

I’m surprised there’s been so little written about American Ballet Theater’s recent, historic trip to Beijing. It seems that newspaper art reviews are declining everywhere, not just in the U.S. Anyway, the company was recently in China to participate in the Beijing International Drama and Dance Festival. They presented the same three new works they performed at Avery Fisher here in October: Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas, Barton’s One of Three, and Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once. You can see part of the Ratmansky in the video posted here, on CCTV.com, an English language website.

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LADY GAGA: "ONE OF THE NIJINSKYS OF OUR EPOCH"

Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art celebrated its 30th anniversary with an evening of performances, including one by pop star Lady Gaga, who debuted her new Speechless while members of the Bolshoi danced along. Milan-based artist Francesco Vezzoli orchestrated the pairing, telling the Daily Beast, “Gaga is one of the Nijinskys of our epoch. So I don’t know if it’s going to be great artwork. But so far I think I made a good choice.”

Hmmm, not completely sure what he means by the Nijinsky ref (unless he means she has scattered moments of genius mixed with a bit of insanity, or that she’s iconoclastic…), but anyway, here’s a sampling of what happened:

Via Black Book.

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ANNA MIKHED AND VICTOR FUNG HAVE SPLIT

 

According to Dance Beat magazine, US and World Standard finalists Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung have broken up. Though not technically the best in the world, I’ve often found this couple just oozing with charm and charisma, as have others — they’re kind of America’s Sweethearts. They placed third in the world this year and they’ve long been second in the US Nationals. I don’t get it — first Mirko Gozzoli and Alessia Betti — well, and before them, Karina Smirnoff and Slavik Kryklyvyy– these couples break up when they’re on top.

Anna tells DB she’s “thoroughly enjoyed these last 6 years of dancing with Victor,” saying they’ve grown individually and as a partnership. “There was no incident that took place, just a recognition, perhaps mostly by myself, that our paths in partnership and in dancing were going in different directions.”

She tells fans to watch for each individually, and DB says Victor has begun looking for a new partner. Still, I’ll miss seeing them together.

Here they are Viennese Waltzing in Hong Kong earlier this year:

(photo from PBS.org)

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PARIS OPERA BALLET STARS TO DANCE IN NYCBALLET OPENING NIGHT

 

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!

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WINONA RYDER & NATALIE PORTMAN IN MOVIE BASED ON NYCB DANCER

 

 

Oh cool — apparently, Winona Ryder, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis are to star in a film called Black Swan, a thriller that follows the story of a fictitious NYCBallet dancer who may or may not be having delusions about a rival. All actresses play dancers with the company, and supposedly, there is some kind of “extreme” sex scene between Portman and Kunis. Hmmm… Can any of them dance, or will they have doubles to do the dancing, I wonder. Or will there actually be much dancing?

Directing is Darren Aronofsky, who last directed The Wrestler, and filming is expected to begin in New York next month, with a release date sometime in 2010.

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AMERICA DANCES HONORING PATRICK SWAYZE MONDAY NIGHT

 

Just a reminder that this Monday night, November 2, is the America Dances! gala fundraiser for Career Transitions for Dancers at City Center. This year’s gala performance will honor Patrick Swayze (who will be given a posthumous Rolex Dance award), and include performances by Desmond Richardson, Ashley Bouder and Andrew Veyette of NYCB, Stephen Hanna and Tony winner Kiril Kulish of Billy Elliot the Musical, Dancing With the Stars dancers (who are as of yet unspecified), and Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, amongst others.

Career Transitions for Dancers is a very important organization that helps dancers (who retire young and often without much education outside of dance) to transition into other careers. Swayze strongly supported the organization and was planning to attend the event and receive his award before he passed away.

For more info, go here.

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NEW YORK CITY BALLET PROMOTIONS

 

Practically all of SLSG’s NYCB favorites who were not already principal dancers in the company have just been promoted: the always magical Kathryn Morgan (above, with Seth Orza in Martins’ Romeo + Juliet), heartthrobs Robert Fairchild and Amar Ramasar, the always dramatically compelling Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle, and the statuesque Teresa Reichlen.

Here are Tiler Peck and Robert Fairchild rehearsing Robbins’ Afternoon of a Faun for the Vail International Dance Festival over the summer.

And here are Tiler Peck and Tyler Angle performing the adagio from Christopher Wheeldon’s Mercurial Manoeuvres at said festival:

All promos are from soloist to principal, except young ‘un Morgan who was moved up from corps member to soloist.

All of the new principals will make their debut as such at NYCB’s winter season opening night gala, on November 24th, in Peter Martins’s new ballet set to John Adams’s Naive and Sentimental Music, which will make its world premier that night.

Visit Oberon for more dancer pix and info.

Above photo by Paul Kolnik from Voice of Dance.

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WOO HOO — MARY MURPHY AND VAIDOTAS SKIMELIS IN BURN THE FLOOR!

Thank you to reader Jonathan for sending me this. On December 22nd, for one night only, Mary Murphy (of So You Think You Can Dance of course) will dance with the Broadway cast of Jason Gilkison’s Burn the Floor. Very very significantly, she will be partnered by SLSG longtime favorite Vaidotas Skimelis (nicknamed Vaidas), a U.S. National Latin finalist whom I’ve long thought of as the Marcelo of ballroom.

How excellent!

Above, Skimelis dancing with partner Jurga Pupelyte in America’s Ballroom Challenge, photo by Jeffrey Dunn; top photo of Murphy from Broadway World.

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CAROLINA BALLET PAYS HOMAGE TO PICASSO

 

 

From now through Nov. 1, Carolina Ballet is putting on an evening-length set of dances in homage to Picasso, who designed sets for the legendary Ballets Russes. Sounds v cool.

“Picasso’s influence on 20th- and 21st-century dance was profound. His various strategies to evoke multiple perspectives simultaneously on the same body invoke the possibility of radical movement, potentially on the part of both the subject and the viewer. One can hardly call the subjects in earlier works like “Woman Playing the Mandolin” still: In shattering the human form into a complex aggregate of shifting planes, Picasso seems to be trying to capture a range of motion and a span of time in the single image.”

Top photo: Picasso’s Woman Playing Mandolin, taken from here; bottom, Carolina Ballet in Picasso from above linked to article.