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.
Tuesday night, the Pacific Northwest Ballet opened its 5-day run at the Joyce. This was my first time seeing this company, and it has a reputation as one of the most prestigious in the U.S. Helmed by Peter Boal, a former dancer with New York City Ballet, the company is already familiar to many NYCB fans, but not yet to me.
I really wish they could have brought the whole company and danced at City Center, a more suitable stage for ballet. The Joyce is small and known for modern dance and so they could only bring a small portion of the company. And, the small stage limited their choice of choreography and prevented the dancers from dancing full-out. So I felt it lacked a certain balletic grandeur, although I still greatly enjoyed the evening.
For one thing, I was thrilled to finally be able to see Brazilian ballerina Carla Korbes dance, after being introduced to her on the Winger. She had a part in just about every ballet and she did not disappoint — she has great charisma and dances with great dramatic intention.
I was also happy to be able to see Seth Orza again đ (Everyone who’s read this blog for a while knows how downright devastated I was when he left NYCB…) He’s so sharp and precise, and so strong — I think he definitely needs to be promoted to principal (he’s now a soloist, as he was when he left NYCB).
So, there were four pieces on the program: Opus 111 by Twyla Tharp, Fur Alina by Edwaard Liang, Mopey by Marco Goecke (my favorite, and pictured above, James Moore dancing), and 3 Movements by Benjamin Millepied.
I’ll start with my favorite — Mopey, by Goecke, danced very intensely by Moore.
I’d always been curious about this young German choreographer ever since this little exchange (the “Evan M.” being Evan McKie, a principal with Stuttgart Ballet).
Anyway, Mopey is hard to describe — basically just a solo for a man who by turns twists and contorts his body into awkward shapes, bounces up and down, makes muscle-man poses, waves his arms about gracefully, appears to be possessed and struggling to control his limbs — his fingers bent and curved down somewhat grotesquely, almost monster-like. It was short but really engrossing.  Here’s a YouTube clip of a dancer from Stuttgart dancing an excerpt from the piece. Unlike in the clip, which is danced only to one piece of music, Moore danced first to silence, then to Bach, then to pop punk by The Cramps.
I also liked Millepied’s 3 Movements, pictured below (dancers are James Moore and Lucien Postlewaite).
All photos by Angela Sterling, by the way.
It was abstract but I thought I detected a bit of a men versus women showdown (I think this is a recurring theme of his — at least in his recent works). It was set to rather unsettling Steve Reich music and filled with original movement, the way the groups of men and women would go at each other at times, almost like they were from separate clans. But the costumes were contemporary: almost casual work attire for the men and little flirty dresses for the women. Costumes were designed by Millepied’s girlfriend, Isabella Boylston, corps dancer at ABT.
I also liked Fur Alina by Liang. It was a man woman pas de deux danced by Carla Korbes and Karel Cruz and it seemed to be the somber story of two lovers slowly deciding to part. It was set to Arvo Part (who it seems, understandably, is becoming the most used composer for contemporary ballet these days — at least for these despairing pas de deux).
Oddly, the Tharp was my least favorite (below: dancers in front are Korbes and Batkhurel Bold).
I’ve never seen Opus 111 before and this one (set to Brahms) didn’t seem to have any of Tharp’s signature comical character roles or her theme of ballet versus other kind of dance (fill in the blank: American social —Â like in Deuce Coupe, Scottish folk, hip hoppy aerobics —Â like in Upper Room) or her crazy, almost death-defying lifts. It was pretty and lyrical and the dancers lightly flew around the stage, at times coupling off. But sweet as it was, it just seemed to lack something. Might have been the small stage though and they just couldn’t dance it full-out?… Sir Alastair saw something more in it though.
I hope the company comes to NY again — to City Center.
With all of my book hysteria, I’d missed this news (which was released the same day as the novel): a favorite dancer of mine was finally promoted to soloist.
Here is a YouTube video I found of her (dancing a modern piece with a small company, not ABT):
Top photo by Gene Schiavone, taken from Time Out NY; headshot from ABT website.
Former Royal Ballet ballerina and current American Ballet Theater mistress Georgina Parkinson has died of cancer. She was 71. In addition to her work with ABT, she was apparently coaching Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis for their dance roles in the upcoming film, Black Swan.
Photo above, by Ruby Washington, of Parkinson rehearsing, it appears, Gillian Murphy and Ethan Stiefel, taken from the NY Times.
Alvin Ailey audiences are always so fun! Last night was their “Target night” (tickets were severely discounted, sponsored by Target), and these kinds of audiences are the best — people screaming and cheering throughout; yelling “yeah” and “go girl!”, unable to help themselves from taking pictures — with the flash (!), and this one guy kept yelling out “Praise the Lord” during Revelations.
I have no time to write — am off to Art Basel for the weekend — but it was an excellent night. In addition to the always moving Revelations (I will never tire of seeing that), they’ve done something to Bigonzetti’s Festa Barocca — it’s so much better now; they captured the humor this time, and they’ve really amped up the passion / sensuality / struggle in those pas de deux. The audience went wild for it, including myself.
And Judith Jamison’s Divining was so magnificent. It’s a beautiful combination of ballet and African and the music is fascinating. She made it in the 80s but they’ve restaged it. Don’t miss it!
ABT may have the world’s top ballet dancers, but this company has the best all-around dancers who can do just about anything and look like the best in the world at it. And does Antonio Douthit have a skeleton? That man’s body moves in ways I’ve just never seen a body move before!
Go see them — they’re at City Center through the very beginning of January.
More when I get back (and the interviews with Bell and Tayeh as well). Now off to Miami!
Photo above of cast in Jamison’s Divining, by Nan Melville.
Yesterday morning at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, ABT announced their plan to hold an annual Nutcracker season at BAM. Above is SLSG favorite, soloist Craig Salstein, enthusiastically speaking to the crowd. He was the only dancer to address the crowd; David Hallberg was there too but stood in the back the whole time. A group of young dancers from the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School of Ballet (associated with ABT) was there as well — they’ll be dancing in the party scenes when the production opens next year, on December 23, 2010. For the first year, the season will be two weeks, but after that the company hopes to have a longer run.
ABT resident choreographer Alexei Ratmansky will be choreographing.
Here’s a slightly better picture of him, by Fabrizio Ferri. Someday I will get a pro camera, I swear!
This was the first time I’d heard Ratmansky speak. He is very soft-spoken and has a heavy Russian accent and seemed to know what he wanted to say but struggled a bit to get the words out in English. And he makes the same grammatical mistakes as Pasha and Baryshnikov (mainly leaving out articles — there are no definite or indefinite articles in Russian — a, an, the — so they tend to leave those out: “…is great score,” etc.) I think English must be the hardest language to learn, especially for Russians. I know Russian is the hardest language I ever tried to learn…
Anyway, Ratmansky seemed shy and soft-spoken but genuinely excited, especially when talking about Tchaikovsky’s score, which he called the greatest ballet music ever written. I felt vindicated đ
But Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz really kind of stole the show with his little speech. He was so out of place in this crowd of rather gentle artists with that booming Brooklyn-accented voice! He of course praised ABT’s decision to hold the season in Brooklyn, then told Ratmansky he should move to the borough since it boasts the greatest Russian population in the U.S. He also called Brooklyn the dance capital of New York (in terms of studio space — which leads to the great number of companies rehearsing there), which is in turn the creative capital of the U.S. These politicians do kind of know how to make their constituencies proud. After bemoaning the fact that the last time ABT was in Brooklyn was before Baryshnikov defected, he called the ABT / BAM plan “a grand jete into the future for Brooklyn.”
The project is expected to cost $5 million and is being partly funded by David A. Koch (yes, of the Koch Theater — he’s matching dollar for dollar donations up to $2.5). ABT also plans to perform community outreach, particularly in Brooklyn schools, including pre-performance workshops for the children, attendance at dress rehearsals, and dance classes.
The rest of the production team includes Jennifer Tipton, lighting designer extraordinaire, and Richard Hudson, an award-winning theater designer, who will design costumes and scenes. Below are some of his sketches:
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.
There’s an excellent interview with young, newish ABT virtuoso (and very intelligent-sounding) Daniil Simkin at the Ballet Bag. Simkin talks about his experiences thus far with American Ballet Theater, dancing with major stars at the World Ballet Festival over the summer in Japan, and a gala he’s organizing next month in Athens. He also talks about how dance professionals can use social media to connect with fans and what he thinks ballet companies need to do to keep ballet alive. Excellent interview, superb questions, “bag ladies”!
And it gives me the opportunity to post, for people who don’t have the opportunity to regularly see ABT, some of his more astounding YouTube clips. Enjoy:
And The Flames of Paris, the first thing I ever saw him do (but with Sara Lane, at ABT). Look for the barrel turns around the 5:55 mark:
For more clips, go here.
Above photo, by Gene Schiavone, taken from Simkin’s blog.
I have been called a “bad Marcelo fan” for continuously chatting about Roberto Bolle, as I did, for ex., in the last post (I don’t think any current dancer promotes himself quite as much as Roberto, and he promotes ballet with himself, so you can’t help but love him for that reason alone).
Anyway, when I first started blogging there were practically no YouTubes of any of my favorite dancers, but that’s thankfully now changed. So, here are several of Marcelo, still SLSG’s favorite ballerino!, dancing with some of SLSG’s favorite ballerinas.
Here, with Alessandra Ferri in Lar Lubovitch’s gripping Othello pas de deux:
Here with Veronika Part in Swan Lake (video quality is not the best, but oooh, the music!)
Here, his Albrecht variation from Giselle, which is timely since ABT is currently in Ocean County, CA, performing that ballet:
Here, as the wickedly sexy Von Rothbart in Swan Lake:
Here, with Gillian Murphy at the beginning of SL (again as Von Rothbart):
The guy who’s dancing the swamp-creature persona of Von Roth, above, is Isaac Stappas, whose new headshot, coincidentally, I was just sent by the amazing Jade Young, who is practically becoming ABT’s portraitist in residence!
I’ve posted it previously, but here is Marcelo’s which he did a while back:
And one more, with Gillian Murphy again in Coppelia:
I know, the videos are nothing compared the live versions, but the first, of Othello, comes kind of close, no? And the last you can see pretty well, especially around the 4 minute mark when the great one begins his solo.
The Royal Ballet in London recently opened their fall season with a revival of Kenneth MacMillan’s Mayerling (MacMillan of course is a SLSG favorite choreographer). It’s based on the true story of the apparent suicide / murder in 1889 of Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and his lover Baronness Mary Vetsera whose bodies were found in Mayerling, Rudolf’s hunting lodge. Prince Rudolf, sole son of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria, was heir to the thrones of Austria, Hungary and Bohemia.
Londoners seem to be loving the ballet. From Neil Norman’s Daily Express review:
“Like John Cranko and Michael Corder, MacMillan choreographs for full-blooded men. There is never any doubt about the masculinity and virility of his creatures. The brothel scene that opens Act II reeks of cigar smoke and a sense of political unease is brilliantly conveyed by the huddled quartet of officers who periodically grab Rudolf to whisper into his ear.
“As the tragedy slides inexorably towards its conclusion, Rudolf’s entanglement with his young mistress, Mary Vetsera (Maria Galeazzi) drives him into a paroxysm of violent frustration. Watson’s tortured solo as he clutches his head and writhes in a kaleidoscope of movement had me clutching my kneecaps until my knuckles were white.
“The denouement is terrifying. As Watson duets with Galeazzi in unhinged passion, the stage seems to smoke with some of the most eloquently violent moves in classical ballet. It really doesn’t get much better than this. If you don’t have a ticket, do something dangerous to get one.”
A few other reviews are here, here, and here. For a full list of reviews see here.
And this from our friends over at the Ballet Bag, which whom I was chatting on Twitter. They told me they think our Marcelo Gomes would make an excellent Prince Rudolf. I think maybe David Hallberg would as well — may give him a chance to get all of that aggression out of his system đ
Here’s a photo they posted of the Royal’s excellent Johan Kobborg in the role.
Photo of Kobborg by Bill Cooper; top photo by Tristam Kenton from the Financial Times.
What do you guys think? Would an American audience take to such “eloquent violence”? Haglund thinks so, as do I — we have with his other ballets. C’mon Kevin McKenzie, give us a Mayerling!
Here’s a Sarah Crompton interview with Christopher Wheedon in the London Telegraph. Morphoses is about to open their fall season there, debuting a new ballet by Wheeldon and one by Australian choreographer Tim Harbour. At the end of the month, New York audiences will get to see those premieres.
In the article, Wheeldon talks about trying to increase ballet’s appeal to new audiences. He surmises it may be certain ballet aesthetics, such as the toe shoes, that are a turn-off, that may make ballet inaccessible. I strongly disagree though. I think people are generally awed by the toe shoes and by the beauty and immense athleticism of the art form. They’re all the more awe-inspiring when you see them up close, a thought I had recently in the Guggenheim’s tiny theater watching ABT, their studio company, and the students at ABT’s Kennedy-Onassis School of Ballet perform in a Works & Process event there.
I really think people in general are drawn to stories. That’s what I hear anyway from other dance-goers, or would-be dance-goers (who patronize theater and opera but shy away from dance). I think abstract ballets can definitely be intriguing but I think if your repertoire consists of only the kind of story-less ballets Balanchine made it’s going to suffer. I’ll be very excited to see the Alice in Wonderland that Wheeldon’s doing for the Royal.
ABT principal ballerina Gillian Murphy (who I was just going on about needing a ballet choreographed especially for her) will receive a Princess Grace Statue Award , at the upcoming award gala, held at Cipriani on October 21, along with theater / film actor Mandy Patinkin (who is a multiple award-winning Broadway actor but whom I think most still know as Inigo Montoya). Ticket prices look pretty steep, but congrats to them!
Photo by Matt Albani from ExploreDance.
