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MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, MORPHOSES, AND MARCELO IN THE PARK

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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:

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And here are some of Tears of St. Lawrence:

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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).

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DANCING WITH THE STARS SEASON NINE CAST ANNOUNCED

 

For people who missed Good Morning America this morning, the DWTS season 9 cast has been announced. I think I know about five of the contestants. Most excited about model Kathy Ireland and actor Debi Mazer at this early point. Also, they’re including more dances: Lambada, Charleston, Bolero and Two-Step. So it appears the show is veering away a bit from competitive ballroom and into the social-dance sphere (social dances both past and present, both in and outside of the U.S.). Will be interested to see how it pans out…

The show premieres Monday, September 21, 8 p.m. ET, on ABC.

 

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CRAIG SALSTEIN TO THE RESCUE

 

 

So last night I went to Christopher Wheeldon’s Morphoses at Central Park’s SummerStage, who were performing to live music by Martha Wainwright. Of course I would have gone no matter, but hearing that my favorite, Marcelo Gomes, was guest-performing with the company, made it all the more urgent.

Anyway, Morphoses events are often very well-attended and there was a bit of a mix-up with my tickets — they’d issued me a guest, rather than press pass and so my friend and I got ousted from the section up front. I understand these things happen, especially with very popular dance companies and it wouldn’t have been a big deal if I could see well at long distances at night (and if I hadn’t helped others get in whose tickets weren’t mixed up….) But whatever, I could deal I thought, even though I felt like a total loser.

So, my friend and I walked to the back dejectedly. But, then, when we got all the way to the back, it ended up our tickets weren’t for the reserved risers but for the skybox, a tent-covered, elevated section that put us far above the standing crowd. And in that elevated section, sat (among others) ABT soloist and one of my favorite dancers, Craig Salstein! He was sitting next to a really cute dancer-looking guy who turned out to be Marcelo’s bf 😀 Then a waitress came by serving us free wine and I knew this was THE place to be, not down there on the ground with those earthlings! I still couldn’t see tremendously well, but I can always see Marcelo from wherever I am and I kind of felt better being with the ABT peeps anyway.

So my friend Susan and I ended up chatting with Craig and Marcelo’s friend throughout the show and they are the sweetest guys! Craig seemed so different than he is onstage! For people who don’t know him, he’s the type of dancer who always gets the bravura roles that require a big personality, and very good acting (not to mention dance) skills, like Mercutio in R&J and the bespectacled nerdy guy who can nevertheless dance up a storm in Taylor’s Company B, and the poor guy who gets girls tossed at him from every which way in Tharp’s Baker’s Dozen, etc. etc. So because he has such a way with comedy I expected him to be cracking jokes every five seconds and acting all clownish and all. But he wasn’t like that at all – -he was really serious and calm, albeit gregarious and easy to talk to. I told my friends, who I went out with afterward, the same and one said, “well, he can’t be Mercutio ALL the time; he’d go crazy.” True.

He’d just got back from vacation (in Italy, where he saw “Roberto Bolle and Friends” — hmmm, didn’t know there was a “Roberto Bolle and Friends”!), and was sporting a serious tan. We talked about ABT’s upcoming season at Avery Fisher Hall and Italy and his choreography and how much I liked it and how great Marcelo is and what I tweet about (you, tossing your mandolin into the wings instead of Jared Matthews’s hands during R&J I said; he seemed bemused) and other chit-chat. Fun fun fun to meet a favorite dancer and another favorite’s boyfriend 🙂

Okay, I’m running off to another Morphoses performance today and have to get going but will write about the actual show tonight or tomorrow morning. Obviously Marcelo was god, Martha Wainwright was good but to me it was too much about her — too much music, almost a music performance with some dancing thrown in — highlights were Edwaard Liang’s premiere and Wheeldon’s Fools’ Paradise (which I saw anew thanks to Marcelo), Tiler Peck, Gonzalo Garcia, a duet between Maria Kowroski and Jared Angle, Wendy Whelan, Rory Hohenstein, a funny joke by Wainwright about lying down and having people do things to her and Wheeldon’s somewhat embarrassed response, and did I mention Marcelo Gomes…

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A SHORT NOTE ON ARTISTIC DIRECTORS AND PROGRAM SELECTIONS

 

 

In light of the recent downpour of Tulsa Ballet reviews, many of which critized the selection of dances artistic director Marcello Angelini chose to bring to NY, my friend Christopher Atamian writes a note on programming selection. Chris also talks about Pilobolus, who were recently at the Joyce and big shame on me for missing them (I was recovering from an insanely exciting ballet season — the best EVER in my NY lifetime– and hystericizing over putting the finishing touches on my novel, so please forgive me for failing to cover this most exciting troupe).

I think Chris makes good points about not only the selection of programs but the placement of dances within the programs. I think this is one thing that Judith Jamison of Alvin Ailey is genius at: that company always performs their choreographically richest, most upbeat piece at the end: either Ailey masterpiece Revelations, the versatile hip hop / modern / African combo Love Stories, or Tharp’s wild-ride, The Golden Section. And interestingly, now that I think about it, New York City Ballet usually puts their premieres in the middle of the program, ending with a Balanchine. I definitely think you’d want to put the less established pieces in the middle, and bookend them with the tried and true. I do wonder if we “cranky New Yorkers” in Apollinaire Scherr’s words would have received Tulsa’s program better had Hue’s piece been in the middle or the beginning and the Duato at the end.

Anyway, here is Chris Atamian:

It is presumably the role of the artistic director to choose the particular program or set of dances that a company will perform on any given night.  I don’t know if anyone else has noticed a rather curious phenomenon, but I have attended a few performances of late by some truly fine companies that would have benefited enormously from a more judicious dance selection.  There was of course the Tulsa Ballet’s amazing 1-2 MacMillan-Duato punch at the Joyce which was unfortunately followed by a much weaker This Is Your Life by Young Soon Hue.  Why not start with the Hue piece-if one must include it-and then work up to the Macmillan and Duato? The audience would then walk away with an even stronger impression of this wonderful company.

The week before, I attended all three Pilobolus programs, also at the Joyce.  Program One began with a fine martial arts/capoeira-inspired piece Redline choreographed by Jonathan Wolken.  This was followed by a stunning piece Darkness and Light developed in collaboration with the truly astounding puppeteer Basil Twist involving shadow play and a presentation of nothing less than the cosmos itself, whirring by at breakneck speed in front of a mesmerized audience.  Then after a short break, the company came back with the 1971 work Walklyndon, a cute, short piece which involves the company dancers walking back and forth across the stage and engaging in some wonderfully humorous gags and movement with elements of clowning, physical humor and even a touch of vaudeville perhaps. The members wear hilarious, lively costumes.

I compared the piece elsewhere to a jived up version of Romper Room and I meant that in the best way: it’s humorous and soulful and it gives the audience a good idea of the company’s history and evolution-how else will younger people ever see the early pieces of a company which has now thrived for close to forty years?  My beef is that it came as a complete anticlimax after the Basil Twist piece-you could literally feel the audience deflate: they were waiting for something stellar, fast-paced and acrobatic and instead were presented with a funny and somewhat tame amuse-gueule. (Of course a company that specializes in say baroque dance or a classical ballet company may have an easier time of things programming an evening of performances simply because they have a theoretically more restrained group of works to choose from than a contemporary company…) There are of course many ways to curate a night of performances: by similarity or contrast; by choreographer; by time or setting; by pace or style; etc) No one way is correct per se, one just wishes that the choices were sometimes more judicious or logical.  As with everything in a very difficult field, that is easier said than done and there is always something to be said for experimentation.  And of course this is just one critic’s opinion….others are free to disagree with me!

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THE TULSA BALLET AT THE JOYCE: DANCES FROM THE (HEART)LAND

 

Here is another take on Tulsa, written by my friend, the writer and critic, Christopher Atamian:

The Tulsa Ballet is a wonderful revelation, a group of exquisitely trained dancers with the ability to perform a wide variety of dances from different lexicons.  Indeed, it would be hard to pick two pieces more dissimilar than Kenneth MacMillan’s 1974 Elite Syncopations and Nacho Duato’s 1996 Por Vos Muero.

Macmillan’s fun and lively ballet was performed with evident brio by the Tulsa dancers. If you could survive going blind from Ian’s Spurling’s remarkably bright costumes (think Pucci meets the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test) and overlook the fact that the stage sometimes looked too busy with too many dancers, then you were in for a real treat. The dancers performed the often eccentric arm movements and angled lifts, as well as the elements of mimicry and farce to perfection: the final group ensemble piece was bold and fast-paced. The “Bethena Waltz” pas-de-deux between Alfonso Martín and Karina Gonzalez  was particularly enjoyable as were sections with the lithe and elegant Kate Oderkirk. I don’t particularly like Joplin’s Ragtime, to which a large part of the ballet is set, so the fact that I enjoyed this piece was all the more to the Tulsa Ballet’s credit-there was something truly odd and exhilarating about the entire presentation.

Duato’s Por Vos Muero is sensuous and romantic whereas Elite Syncopations is more syncopated and humorous; the former is European in tone and musical selection while the latter is set to just about the most American music there is; MacMillan’s ballet is modern in atmosphere while Muero is medieval with elements of postmodern poetic recitation.  Again, the Tulsa dancers could have benefited from some more inspired costuming.  The women’s blue and brown dresses and bustles may have reflected historical Spanish fashion, but at times they also hindered our appreciation of the performers’ movement; the other contrasting semi-naked flesh-colored costumes seemed flimsy.  Por Vos Muero is set to exquisite 15th and 16th century Spanish music and illustrates a 16th century poem by Garcilosa de Vega, an extended love ode to an unnamed woman read here by the Spanish actor and pop star Miguel Bosé. The movement in Por Vos Muero mixes elements of Spanish court dance with a contemporary idiom developed by Duato which includes two-footed jumps, circular gestures of arms and legs, and the use of masks in one scene. When the male dancers come out in capes swinging incense censers, the entire theater becomes a dreamlike dominion, an oil painting come exquisitely to life. The dancers all acquitted themselves beautifully. Alfonso Martín, Karina Gonzalez and Ricardo Graziano were particularly stunning. The former two are powerful dancers that ally strength, grace and speed.

The last verses of Por Vos Muero are a stirring avowal of the heart:

 

I confess to owing all that I have to you

For you I was born, for you I am alive

For you I have to die, and for you I die.

By the time the two Tulsa dancers rush to the back of the stage and pose against a black background some of the audience members are also ready to symbolically die from pleasure, if not love.

As an endnote, along with a few other critics I was also disappointed by the final work, Korean choreographer Young Soon Hue’s This Is Your Life.  The piece begins with a staging of the 50’s TV show of the same name. After briefly being introduced to the show’s characters, the audience is treated to small vignettes illustrating their lives-the yearnings of their hearts and minds.  The actual dancing is quite good and some of the choreography engaging, but the piece feels disjointed and bland; at other times it looks like a strange mixture of Hairspray, Grease and West Side Story, without the excitement of any of the three. And yes, the orange-haired ridiculously effeminate hairdresser does border on the offensive. In fact many of the characters come off as stereotypes-the Chinese boy who wanted to be an actor but whose parents forced him to go into business; the girl with the Casanova boyfriend who must also be a bit short on self-respect, etc… More puzzling though, why the artistic director chose this particular piece to follow on the (literal!) heels of such fine works by MacMillan and Duato.  But no matter-the evening was fun, well-danced and enjoyable.  We hope to see the Tulsa Ballet again at the Joyce next summer.

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MARCELO GOMES TO DANCE WITH MORPHOSES THIS WEEKEND

 

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.

😀

 

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.

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DAVID HALLBERG AND ASHLEY BOUDER FOR REALS NOW

Okay, regarding the earlier controversy as to whether Ms. Bouder was dancing all out during the rehearsal, here she is with David dancing for real at Vail, albeit from a different section of the pdd. Personally, I think she looks beautiful — gorgeous arms. And surprisingly, you don’t even really notice the height difference, which has to be pronounced (she regularly dances with Joaquin De Luz at NYCBallet and David is well over 6′).

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REMEMBER ME, MORPHOSES, URBAN BUSH WOMEN, ET. AL.

 

If you’re in New York, don’t forget that David Parsons-choreographed rock opera, Remember Me, airs tonight at 7:30 on channel 21

 

Also upcoming in NYC, Morphoses takes Central Park’s SummerStage (photo above from that site) this Friday and Saturday nights at 8pm. Wheeldon’s company is performing a world premiere set to Martha Wainwright music (which I understand is to be performed by the songstress live) so this is a definite not-miss. The company also performs on Sunday at 4 pm at East River Park, where Wheeldon, according to New York magazine, is to give dance instruction to the audience.

Next Tuesday (8/18) begins the Broadway debuts of my friends (and So You Think You Can Dancers) Pasha Kovalev and Anya Garnis in Burn the Floor (!&*%^&@#$%!!!) — sorry for outburst, just a little excited for that one…

 

Next Thursday (8/20) Urban Bush Women  perform at Damrosch Park as part of the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival.

And all of next week (8/17-23) is the Downtown Dance Festival in the Financial District, which showcases a variety of  small companies from both the U.S. and abroad every weekday during lunchtime in front of Chase Manhattan Plaza and all day Saturday and Sunday in Battery Park.

All events except for Burn the Floor are free.

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TULSA BALLET’S MOMENTOUS MANHATTAN DEBUT

 

 

Wow — exciting night Monday night when Tulsa Ballet, a small but well-regarded company founded by members of the legendary Ballet Russes and currently run by Naples-born Marcello Angelini, opened its Joyce season. The company, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, hasn’t performed in New York for 25 years and it was their first time in Manhattan. The governor and first lady of OK were there, along with the mayor of Tulsa, and other government officials. A Japanese TV station also covered the event (the troupe is very multi-national; many dancers are from Asian countries), and Oberon, our friend Susan, and I were interviewed by them outside during the first intermission. ABT dancer Arron Scott was interviewed outside as well, after the show. I desperately wanted to walk over there and listen in on what he was saying, but didn’t have the nerve…

Anyway, there were three dances on the program: Sir Kenneth MacMillan’s Elite Syncopations, Nacho Duato’s Por Vos Muero, and a newish dance from 2008 by Young Soon Hue called This is Your Life.

The dance that most captivated me was the first, MacMillan’s, which I guess isn’t surprising since he’s my favorite full-length story ballet choreographer. I hadn’t seen this shorter piece though. In terms of the movement, it’s typical MacMillan with the bravura leaps and turns and inventive partnering dominated by sweeping, crazy-hard-looking lifts. But I didn’t completely understand the character of the dance. It’s set to Scott Joplin and other American ragtime music but it’s performed by what appear to be commedia dell’arte characters, dressed in almost clownish costumes. See photo above.

See also this video, of an excerpt performed by the Royal Ballet, Darcey Bussell introducing it and then performing in one of the main duets. There wasn’t a band in the Tulsa version though — the music was recorded.

You get a sense from the video what the whole was like. The choreography is comical, complex and brilliant. And the Tulsa dancers did very well with it — particularly the acting. Definitely a very lively troupe. I got the sense that this would look very different performed by a company like ABT or the Royal on the large Met stage, but I thought the Tulsa dancers did a very good job with a very (despite the humor) difficult-looking ballet.

Next on was Duato’s Por Vos Muero 

 

 

I also really liked this piece. The movement was modern (no pointe shoes): grounded, sharp-lined and expansive. The music consisted of popular Catalonian tunes from the 15th and 16th centuries, with a poem read (in Spanish; Duato is Spanish and his company is based in Madrid) by Spanish music star Miguel Bose (at least he was a star,  in a heart-throbbish sort of way when I took Spanish in high school and college 🙂 )  The dance began on a contemporary note, with dancers dressed in simple nude leotards, then took on a historical flavor, the dancers now in dark costumes evocative of the era of the music. The themes (I think) were love and death; it was overall spiritual and mainly dark, with a few lighter moments interspersed throughout, like the one above, when two men playfully slide a woman between them, and she ends up near the edge of the stage and smiles out to the audience, resting her elbows casually on the floor, her chin in her hands. The two men lift their legs, bent at the knee, as if framing her like a picture.

The third piece, This is Your Life, is named after the American TV show (which I never saw). I have to agree generally with Gia Kourlas on this one. The characters first address the audience, telling you their stories of woe, but they’re mostly caricatures, like the flamboyant gay hairdresser dressed in a woman’s wig, and the businessman who wants to break free of his parents’ expectations and become an actor. The dancing parts are set mostly to Astor Piazzolla’s rich Tango music and much of them are Tango-based, portions of them on pointe. Normally I’d be into a ballroom / ballet mix, but the movement here, the combinations, were nothing I hadn’t seen before, and, honestly, I had a hard time getting over the stereotyped characters. This is a dance that may well get a different reception elsewhere though.

Tulsa Ballet performs at the Joyce through August 15th. Go here for more info. And go here and here for other, very different perspectives on the program.