on Dance Channel TV. He talks with Los Angeles critic Lewis Segal about his injuries, his return to the stage, the meaning of classical dance, his role models, his work in Center Stage, and his future. Pretty good interview.
PICKING BONES FROM ASH
My new balletomane friend (who I met this past ABT season), Marie Mutsuki Mockett, has a book due out at the end of September. It’s her debut novel, Picking Bones From Ash (published by prestigious indie house Graywolf), and so far it’s received a couple of great reviews. Go Marie!
It’s the story of two women, a mother and daughter, one Japanese, the other Japanese-American, and it takes place between Japan (past and present) and San Francisco. I haven’t read it yet but can’t wait! I love novels that examine gender across cultures and generations, and it looks like it has a fair amount of suspense to boot.
NO REALLY, ARE YOU THE DEVIL?: ANNA WINTOUR ON LETTERMAN
For those who missed it last night (as I did; was out watching this excellent albeit very disturbing film), here is a clip of Anna Wintour’s David Letterman appearance last night. I love how he gets her to talk about Devil Wears Prada and how real the character is who’s allegedly based on her, when it’s so obvious she really doesn’t want to go there. Hehe, go Dave. No seriously, Ms. Wintour was spotted several times at ABT during the recent Met season so we like her for that reason alone. Plus, DWP is fiction…
She does seem a lot more nervous than I’d expect, and a lot younger.
MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, MORPHOSES, AND MARCELO IN THE PARK
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).
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…
ABT, LARRY KEIGWIN, AND DANCES INSPIRED BY KANDINSKY AT GUGGENHEIM THIS FALL
The Guggenheim Museum has just released its Works & Process events schedule for the fall and there’s some good stuff coming up.
On October 11 and 12 ABT will give a program, entitled, The Art of Adaptation, in which dancers will perform portions of the company’s upcoming contemporary season, held this year at Avery Fisher Hall, and panelists will discuss how they’re adapting work for a non-dance venue. (The company is performing at Avery Fisher this year because City Center, where they usually have their fall season, is going to be temporarily closed for remodelling). It hasn’t yet been revealled who the dancers or moderators will be, but I’ll let you know when I do!
On September 23 and 25 there will be a new dance / music commission inspired by artist Vasily Kandinsky’s Blue Rider Almanac of 1912, performed at the Miller Theater at Columbia University. Music is by the Brentano String Quartet, soprano Susan Naruki, and pianist Sarah Rothenberg; the dancing will be by Armitage Gone! Dance. This, along with a couple of art installations in the museum and another music piece, is commissioned in conjuction with a Kandinsky retrospective to show in the main museum.
On September 11 and 12, young choreographers Larry Keigwin and Peter Quanz are each showing a piece they’ve made to Steve Reich’s Pulitzer-winning Double Sextet. Dancers will be from Keigwin + Company and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. Reich will participate in the panel discussion on the 12th.
And, finally, on October 24 and 25, Shen Wei Dance Arts will perform in celebration of the company’s 10th anniversary and Shen Wei will discuss his creative process.
There are other, non-dance events as well, including a talk on “Sex Stress and Music,” a world premiere by composer Charles Wuorinen, and a spoken word performance inspired by Kandinsky’s Yellow Sound (1912) in which actress Isabella Rossellini will read and Mexican artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer will generate an array of colors from the sound of her voice. Very cool-sounding!
The schedule’s not yet on line but it’ll be here when it is.
CORELLA BALLET CASTILLA Y LEON SET TO MAKE U.S. PREMIERE!
March 17-20, 2010 at NY’s City Center. The program will feature four ballets, one of which is a U.S. premiere by the company’s founder, our own Angel Corella, called String Sextet and set to Tchaikovsky — his first work of choreography! Dancers include Angel Corella himself, Herman Cornejo(!), Carmen Corella(!), and other principal dancers and first soloists from around the world including Iain Mackay, Adiarys Almeida, Natalia Tapia, Kazuko Omori, and Joseph Gatti.
I’m so excited — I’ve been waiting for this! Tickets go on sale September 8, 2009, at which point you can call Citytix at 212-581-1212 or visit the website.
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOP 8: JANETTE, EVAN AND KAYLA SHINE
Sorry I’m late in posting again. Another problem with Godzilla last night — our run-ins are slowly coming to a head…
Anyway, one highlight to me last night was Mia Michaels echoing my love of Janette! She pronounced Janette “my favorite, favorite, favorite this season”! I of course love Janette too. There’s nothing she hasn’t been able to do. I don’t think she’s really received a single criticism yet on the show. Since this show honors versatility, at this point she is my favorite to win.
I also think though that Evan and Kayla are two of the best things to come out of this season. I honestly feel that the past two seasons generally have been duller than the first three, and sometimes I wonder what good this show really does for the dancers who appear on it. American Idol contestants go on to do huge things — acting in movies (and winning awards for their work), going on Broadway and becoming sensations, and of course becoming recording superstars — but I haven’t seen the dancers from this show reap those kinds of rewards. I do think with Evan and Kayla, Broadway could have found some new stars. I could see both of them up there on the Broadway stage, especially if, as Mia Michaels told Kayla, they can sing and act. I thought Kayla and Jasons’ Broadway routine was the hit of the night. The judges didn’t all agree with me and I think Nigel said they were “flat” but I thought it was fantastic. I thought Kayla in particular showed real star potential.
To me, Evan always shows that star potential. Another great Gene Kelly-ish solo from him last night. He reminds me so much of ABT’s Craig Salstein.
Continue reading “SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOP 8: JANETTE, EVAN AND KAYLA SHINE”
CARLOS ACOSTA PERFORMS WITH THE ROYAL BALLET IN HIS NATIVE CUBA!
Carlos Acosta, famed principal with the Royal Ballet in London, performing with his company during their historic visit to Cuba, his native country.
Cubans watching the performance outside the Garcia Lorca Hall, which seems to have been broadcast live on the big screens.
The legendary Alicia Alonso, credited largely with bringing ballet to Latin America and Latin America to Ballet, 88 years old now, surrounded by Acosta and Tamara Rojo (also with the Royal). Joel Carreno (Jose’s little brother), of Ballet Nacional de Cuba is on the far left. All photos from Getty Images, taken from the Sacramento Bee online.
Wow, I’ve been so busy first with ABT / NYCB season here, and now with trying to put the finishing touches on my novel (hopefully will be out by the end of the week, fingers crossed!) that I totally missed this amazing story. The Royal Ballet is currently making their first ever visit to Cuba. Thank you thank you thank you to Haglund for pointing it out. He’s been covering it (via the papers and online networks). Visit his blog to get all the updates — start here with the most current entry.
Last Thursday Alexandra Ansanelli gave the final performance of her career, in Cuba’s Grand Teatro. Ansanelli surprised everyone by retiring early (she’s only 28; she’s an American ballerina, much beloved by many New Yorkers, as she was formerly with NYCB. She joined the Royal a few years ago so that she could take on more classical roles). Read an interview with her in the USDaily; link also via Haglund.
And go here for a news video, “A Diplomacy of Dance,” on MSNBC — there’s some good coverage of Acosta, who is interviewed. Again via the awesome Haglund. Do read the rest of his blog; he’s got lots of stuff that I didn’t link to. Oh dear, what would we do without blogs?…
MANHATTAN DANCESPORT CHAMPIONSHIP HIGHLIGHTS
Sorry I am so late with this post, now that it’s been two weeks since MDC. Once again, ballet season kind of took over…
One of the biggest highlights for me this year was Emmanuel Pierre Antoine dancing with his new partner, Lianna, in the Pro Rhythm championships (pictured above). I like the way the pictures came out in sepia better than color, but if you want to see dress colors, etc. you can see all the color photos here. Emmanuel is a longtime favorite of mine and I always enjoy watching him. He has such character and his routines are always quite original. He and Lianna placed second in all dances, behind the champions for several years now, Joanna Zacharewicz and Jose DeCamps, but I actually thought they outdanced Jose and Joanna in a couple of dances, particularly with their expressive, jump-heavy Mambo and their Bolero, which was really beautiful with some nice spins. Dance Beat felt the same. But, as I’ve said many times before and I’ll say again, it’s definitely not unusual for the judges to give the top award (with wins in all five dances no less) to the same couple year after year, until that couple retires.
Other highlights, as always for me were the Pro Latin and Pro Standard events, which Riccardo Cocchi and Yulia Zagoruychenko won rather easily in the former,
and Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas even more easily in the latter.
Both couples who normally place second in these events didn’t compete: Anna Mikhed and Victor Fung in Standard didn’t attend, and Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova (photo below of their heated Paso) showed but had to withdraw after the first round because of an injury (hers I’m told).
A shame since I always love watching Eugene and Maria.
Arunas and Katusha danced really really beautifully, as always, and according to Dance Beat, received perfect scores. Such an elegant couple, their dancing so radiant and rich and luxurious and full, you just can’t take your eyes off of them no matter what they’re doing, even when simply getting ready to take off.
And Riccardo and Yulia are so much fun. His Jive is to die for, as are her Rumba walks.
I kind of like this picture even though the light is obscuring Riccardo’s face because to me it shows the excitement of a competition, with the couples making full use of the floor, kind of darting across and seemingly coming right at you as such, no matter where you’re sitting. I think they’re doing Samba promenade runs here. Riccardo is a bit of a flirt, I noticed, flashing his cute smile, with raised eyebrows, at women sitting in the front seats. I think it’s an Italian thing, though. Maurizio Vescovo does the same thing (he dances for Hungary and so doesn’t come to these U.S. comps but I’ve seen him at Blackpool) and our fancy new ABT ballerino Roberto Bolle winks at audience members during curtain calls.
Speaking of Samba, interesting but Riccardo and Yulia actually messed up during the finals. He pushed her a little too far out at one point and she tripped. She didn’t fall but she was noticeably taken off balance. She recovered easily though and the judges apparently didn’t take any deductions, or else they did and it didn’t matter.
Second place couple was one of my favorites, a tall, thin pair from Bulgaria, Delyan Terziev and Boriana Deltcheva. Delyan is a really charming dancer and very personable too — he often wins awards for best teacher. And Boriana has such long limbs, she makes these really gorgeous, spidery lines. And, in my mind, she always wins the award for best costume 🙂
Even though it’s not centered, I like this picture. They’re married, they’re cute 🙂
Other highlights were JT Thomas and Tomas Mielnicki, always snazzy, winning Pro Smooth, with the very popular Mazen Hamza and Lisa Vogel placing right behind them (wow, did they get lots of applause).
(JT and Tomas above; Mazen and Lisa below)
And of course the Amateur Latin was as always a blast. Valentin Chmerkovskiy and his new partner Daria Chesnokova took first, and I loved them. I’d liked his old partner Valeriya Kozharinova, but I always thought he was significantly better than she and that it looked like she wasn’t as emotionally involved in the dance as he (as if she was just going through the steps). But Daria is not at all like that — she is more his equal. I think they’re going to go far.
And placing second were a couple I’ve long liked, Oleksandr Althukhov and Oksana Dmytrenko, who I’ve watched coached at my old studio, Dance Times Square. At first I didn’t recognize their names, since I’ve always heard him called Sasha 🙂 Russian nicknames!
Other highlights: Event founder (and former U.S. National ten-dance champion) Gary McDonald, dancing with two other guys, did a fun tribute to Michael Jackson complete with moon walks and floor spins. They also played Michael Jackson music in between the heats and during awards ceremonies, which was nice.
Judges and scorers and just people in attendance included Tony Dovolani, Mayo Alanen and Anna Demidova from Dancing With the Stars, which made me think of my friend Sharon Balik, who passed away several weeks ago and who I still think a lot about. She loved that show, especially loved Dovolani, and she so would have enjoyed this competition. Also partial to Maks Chmerkovskiy and so always very interested in hearing how his little brother placed, she would have loved to know how well he and his new partner are faring. I’m still so sad about her.
I missed watching Pavlo Barsuk — whose intensity is always mesmerizing to me — now that he has broken up with Anna Trebunskaya, but I saw him in the ballroom watching. I’ll look forward to seeing him and his new partner compete, when they are ready. I also saw Andrei Gavriline and Elena Kruschkova in the ballroom watching. They’re former US National Latin champs, now retired, and I miss watching them. And another favorite Latin couple of mine — Vaidotas Skimelis and Jurga Puplyte — he reminds me of my favorite ballet dancer, Marcelo Gomes — this is the second year they haven’t shown up for this competition. I know they’re based in California and traveling is expensive, but c’mon man, when am I going to get to see them again? I guess I really do have to go to Blackpool next year.
ROBERTO BOLLE IN THE LA TIMES
Here’s an article in the L.A. Times by NY writer Susan Reiter. It’s focused on Roberto Bolle, in anticipation of his debut there, in ABT’s season kick-off, which happened last night. There’s a sweet little interview with him that she conducted back here, in the Met. Aw, he pronounces “ballet” with the final “t”! My Argentinian tango teacher used to do that too.
But some of the words that most struck me in the article were:
“He admits to being stunned by the intensity of ABT’s eight-shows-a-week schedule during the eight-week Met season. He is accustomed to the less intense pace of the opera-house ballet companies of Europe, which share the theater with the opera, performing throughout a long season, but fewer times per week.”
I think that may be one reason why ballet is generally more popular in Europe than here; opera is popular in both places and in Europe it’s more integrated with ballet. With longer seasons, there would definitely be a bigger audience throughout — though ABT was pretty packed this season. Actually, VERY packed. But they would have that packed house all throughout the year, and there would be a “trickle down” effect on other ballet companies. Oh can’t you work something out with Peter Gelb, Mr. McKenzie? Please please.