Tag: Danny Tidwell

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A Gorgeous "Clear" Debut, An Eerily-Intriguing Nocturnal Reverie, and A Sparkling "Ballo"!

Another happy night for me at American Ballet Theater [a.k.a Danny Tidwell’s Old Company — sorry, I’ll only do that for this City Center season, I promise 🙂 ] But that goes without saying; ABT is always a blast.
Tonight was the debut of a long-favorite dancer of mine, the legendary Jose Carreno, in “Clear,” Stanton Welch’s beautiful male-centered ballet which I’ve been chirping about incessantly here, here, and here. That first “here” links to my post chattering on about the excerpt of this ballet that I saw performed two nights ago with Herman Cornejo in the lead. Well, interestingly, Jose gave it a completely different tone here. Where Herman was more grounded and virile (‘man-god’ I called him), Jose was lighter and more ethereal, like Angel Corella, on whom the ballet was originally created. (Angel has skipped out on performing with ABT this season, I assume because he’s working on getting his own new company underway in Spain. Fun fun!). I know how much Jose admires Angel because, when I once sat in the front orchestra far to the side, I could see into the wings where Jose was watching Angel perform Sinatra Suite — so cute! — so I figure he’s watched Angel a lot and had his movement in mind. Also, abstract though the ballet is, Herman gave it a bit more of a story, with his more angsty interaction with his ballerina, at times seeming haughtily to refuse her, then taking notice of her, succumbing, and ultimately becoming, blissfully, one with her. Jose kind of kept it at the same level, being ‘nice’ to his ballerina throughout, and concentrating more on the watery fluidity of the movement. Jose excels at turns, and he was breathtaking in the ballet’s repeated sequence of continuous spins for the lead man, where he spots in one direction and fouettes himself around several times, then turns a quarter and spots in that direction and fouettes around, then the next quarter, and so on, into a full circle. Herman’s forte is his sky-high jumps. So, Herman’s “Clear” was more virtuostic, dramatic; Jose’s more poetic. Just fun to see how two genius interpretive artists, through their different strengths, make a ballet their own.

And can I just sound like a schoolgirl for a moment and get something out of my system: Jose is so damn gorgeous!!!!! The girls behind me were giggling all through the beginning movement. It was hard not to join them. But Sir Alastair was sitting right in front of me, so I had to behave like an adult…

And all the up & coming young dancers like Jared Matthews were so cute; I was sitting up close tonight so could see faces well. He and the others kind of had these looks like “oh my god, I can’t believe I am sharing the stage with this legend…” Adorable 🙂

Just one more thing regarding “Clear” and then I’ll shut up about it: Blaine Hoven!!!!! I made a trip to the ladies room during intermission and a woman in line whom I didn’t know turned around to me. “You know who I am really liking?” she blurted out to me as if we were the best of friends, as she looked down at her Playbill and scanned the cast list. Her finger stopped at Blaine’s name and just as she looked back up at me, I nodded and we simultaneously said “Blaine Hoven.” The man is starting conversations amongst complete strangers in the ladies room line! He needs to develop his artistry more, and perhaps hone his partnering skills, but as a soloist, his technique, his lines, and the ease with which he takes on the modern movement vocabulary: extraordinary.

Second on tonight’s program was Lar Lubovitch’s beautiful, but somewhat eery, crepuscular dreamscape, “Meadow,” danced by my favorite partnership, Marcelo Gomes and Julie Kent. This is a ballet that makes me yearn to know more about dance and the way choreographers create meaning. The whole thing unfolds behind a scrim, so from the start it has that feeling about it that it’s not quite real; it takes place in the land of the imaginary. It begins with an ensemble of both women and men, the women wearing nude-colored tops, the men shirtless, and both in flowing, blue skirts (more like skorts for the men) bearing abstract, cloud-like shapes. They flitter around the stage almost like night-time fireflies, or night-nymphs, some throwing their arms up as they run, a couple at a time doing a lift and carry. The music is a melodic Franz Schubert. But intriguingly, at various points a sole instrument — an untuned violin here, a bass there — will strike out discordantly over the mellifluous music. It sounds like an orchestra warming up, one instrument at a time, but why in the midst of already-playing music? Then, the sound completely shuts off while the dancers are still in the midst of a sequence, before slowly scattering off into the wings. This musical disruption, to me, gives the piece a disconcerting, eery feel, like something is awry, but what?

After the ensemble disappears, Marcelo and Julie, standing in the background and in the midst of an impossible-looking overhead lift, slowly come to view under an increasingly bright light shining down from above. They wear skin-tight unitards, Julie’s completely skin-toned like the tops of the night-nymphs, Marcelo’s the same blue with cloud shapes as the skirts / skorts of the ensemble. They complete a series of slow, high, dangerous-looking lifts that have that same, slow-motion dreamy feel. The ensemble returns, another pas de deux happens, and eventually Julie and Marcelo interact with the night creatures, Julie getting lost among them, and lifted away by one of their men-folk, Marcelo reaching out in vain behind her. It’s rather sad. The piece ends with the ensemble gone again and a final pas de deux beginning in the same crazy-high overhead lift as in the first duet. This time, though, Julie is lifted (by stage wires apparently emanating from the ceiling), all the way up to the heavens, Marcelo standing on the ground, reaching up, looking very alone. The audience oooohed and aaaahed over the trick with the wires, but I was left feeling unsettled; it was beautiful but discomfitting. And I still am not sure about the soundscape at the beginning. The dancers didn’t react to it at all; their movement corresponded to the underlying mellifluous Schubert. Maybe it was supposed to evoke the consciousness trying to wake the subconscious before it goes too far and there’s no turning back?…

Last was Balanchine’s pretty, poetic, female-centric “Ballo Della Regina,” which I also just blogged about as being performed opening night. This one starred Michele Wiles and Maxim Beloserkovsky. As I mentioned earlier, I was nearly knocked out of my seat and catapulted up to the chandeliers by David‘s opening-night performance. So I was expecting to be a bit let down tonight, which I most definitely was not. Max was great, perfect really, for what I imagine Balanchine to have wanted. David took over the stage, but Max blended in more; he was just a happy-as-can-be man amongst the butterflies. Of course that’s not to say there was anything wrong with David’s performance. Never! David is what makes you want to spend the money and go to the ballet in the first place. You just really don’t want to see anyone else onstage when he is around; you just want him.

Michele was the one who really blew me away tonight. She not only danced the female lead here perfectly, she gave it so much life, so much sparkle, she set the stage on fire tonight. Of course Kristi Boone and others in the ensemble helped. The women’s bright smiles brought a real humor to some of Balanchine’s more original, subversive-at-the-time steps: the high-leg-lifted marching on pointe, sometimes with bent knee resembling a playful tip-toe-ing across the stage, the cute little square-dancish jumps, the jazzy can-can-esque kicks. I noticed the ABT dancers wear wide grins while the NYCBallet dancers (who perform Balanchine much more frequently) are generally more subdued (excepting Ashley Bouder). I don’t know which is officially better, or if one even can be said to be, but to me the lively facial expressions bring out the charming fun of Balanchine.

Anyway, off to bed for me now, I’m tired… Tomorrow night at ABT is the premiere of a new ballet by NYCB’s Benjamin Millipied, and Saturday night another, the new one, a Jorma Elo / Chuck Close / Philip Glass collab. And tonight’s program will repeat later in the week. Go here for info.

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David is the Next Nureyev, Herman is a Man-God, Jose is a Legend, and Marcelo Brightens the Whole World!!!

Yay, my favorites returned to City Center last night 😀 😀 😀 I feel like I should call them DOC (“Danny’s old company”); can’t figure out if that sounds funny or obnoxious: ABT/ DOC… Hmm, guess it depends…

Okay, well, I gave my sum-up of the evening in the title’s post, above, I have nothing more to say now… No, seriously, I felt like there wasn’t a whole lot to the gala program, it was a pretty short evening of excerpts, but nearly everything I saw was spectacular.

First, I just have to say, I found the perfect place to sit in City Center with its universally acknowledged evil sightlines: the very last row of the rear mezzanine. You sit all the way back there, you fold up your seat til it’s against the seat back, and then you sit on the top of the seatback. You’re not blocking anyone since you’re in the back. Of course I have a permanent indentation on the tops of my back thighs and I could hardly walk afterwards since my legs were numb from cut-off circulation, but I could see!!!

First on was David in Ballo Della Regina, a pretty, pastel, story-less Balanchine with about 10,000 women wearing simple light-colored leotards and flowing diaphanous skirts, and one man in a white blousy top and pastel tights. David was the man. Well, I just said that… I don’t know if I’m “supposed to” feel this way since Balanchine’s ballets are so female-centric, but David made the ballet for me. He was by far the most beautiful, poetic element in the whole thing. His high high HIGH demi-pointe (tip toes), the way he just flies about the stage with those ethereal jumps — forget Balanchine’s gender divisive, man is human, woman is soul universe. David is the consummate combination of both. In her 1996 New Criterion essay, “Figures in the Carpet,” (contained in her book “Landscape With Moving Figures”) Laura Jacobs wrote this, “When you first see this dancer set foot upon the stage, though blond and not overly muscled, you can’t help thinking of Nureyev. He has the deliberate walk and the stage-bound self-containment … Where Nureyev brings a dark force to his dancing, he brings lightness, restraint… He can break your heart with a tendu.” She was talking about Vladimir Malakhov; David was a child then. (I feel that unfortunately, being relatively new to ballet, I’ve all but missed the era of Malakhov.) But I feel like she could easily be talking about David here. He’s not so ferociously feline or animalistic like Nureyev and he’s certainly not dark; he’s sheer radiant perfection. And talk about “breaking your heart” with a simple point of the foot… By the time the ballet was over I had this pit in my stomach and I felt kind of sick, like when you see something truly sublime and someone so perfect. I don’t mean to be corny. Gillian Murphy was sweet and danced beautifully as his partner, as well. David just stole the show to me. I think he’s the greatest dancer in the world right now.

Next, they juxtaposed Balanchine’s beatific feminine universe with some excerpts from “Clear,” Stanton Welch’s glorious male-centric ballet. Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes had the pas de deux leads here. The more I see of this ballet, the more I’m loving it, and I’m realizing that though it is abstract, there is a little story in it. And I really love its spirituality. Herman is really starting to come alive to me. When I first started watching him dance I thought he was technically spectacular, but didn’t show enough emotion and so kind of bored me. Now I feel that he is really putting a lot of thought and emotional strength into everything he does. He was really intense in “Clear,” the way he’d brush off Xiomara’s advances, then hesitantly succumb to her. And the way he raises his chest, the way he jetes and pirouettes, he’s like a demi-god. He’s the antithesis of David, not ethereal at all but totally somehow grounded even when airborne (and he flies high). He’s a virile beauty.

Then there was a very short excerpt duet from Antony Tudor’s “The Leaves are Fading.” It was danced nicely by Michele Wiles and Alexandre Hammoudi, but the pas de deux was so short, it didn’t leave much impact.

Then there was a fun, flirty, Latiny pas de deux from the classical Petipa ballet, Don Quixote, danced by the now legendary Jose Manuel Carreno (one of my longtime favorites, and, for SYTYCD fans, Danny Tidwell’s chief idol!) and Paloma Herrera. I love Jose so much and I miss not seeing him as often as I used to; he doesn’t seem to dance all that often anymore. This fun, sexy Latin role is so perfect for him; he owns it like no other.

And last was Jerome Robbins’s 1944 ballet “Fancy Free” about three sailors on shore leave and the comical little troubles they get themselves into trying to pick up women in a bar. This one “starred” (because that’s just the word that most comes to mind when I think of him) Marcelo, along with Herman, and Sascha Radetsky as the sailors, and Julie Kent and Stella Abrera as the unsuspecting pick-up-ees. So fun. I always love this little romp, especially when ABT does it. The guy next to me and I giggled throughout the entire thing. Marcelo is the best dramatic dancer out there, no doubt about it. He just brings the stage to life; he brings the whole theater to life. If anyone wants to learn how to have absolute massive amounts of stage-presence, look no further than the master!

That was it; then the party began (which I am far too poor to attend). Their City Center season is only two short weeks this year; usually it’s three. Two world premieres happen later this week: the Millipied, which I blogged about here, and the Chuck Close / Philip Glass / Jorma Elo collaboration, which I blogged about here. Just too much excitement for one week… Visit CC for tix.

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Movmnt Magazine Has Lots of Promise

When I was in the bookstore earlier I finally had the chance to check out this newish magazine, co-founded by Danny Tidwell and journalist David Benaym, devoted to pop culture, fashion and of course dance. I remember they had a stack of an earlier issue in the lobby at Bad Boys of Dance at Jacob’s Pillow, and I remember flipping through and seeing some ads featuring Mia Michaels, but at that point I wasn’t really sure what it was.

It’s slim (as is to be expected with any new publication), but has some good articles. There are, amongst other things, an interview with choreographer Lar Lubovitch (one of my favorites) by dancer Rasta Thomas (also one of my favorites!), an article on up-and-coming choreographer Aszure Barton, an interview with Grey’s Anatomy song writer Ingrid Michaelson, a photo essay on Cuba that’s part glossy travel essay and part photo-journalism, and a write-up of The Winger featuring interviews with five of its contributors: founder Kristin Sloan, ballet and modern dance stars David Hallberg and Miki Orihara respectively, and, happily, South African grad student and dance artist Maia Jordaan, and dance and technology expert and B-boy Tony Schultz. Being theory-based, the Winger posts of the latter two are a bit more esoteric than the others’, and thus harder to understand (though definitely worth trying!), and I’m really happy the magazine decided to include interviews with them instead of only the most “popular” contributors. In particular, I just love Maia — she’s so smartly charming: “My work is inspired by the sense of a body in motion emoting a connection with the audience. Even stillness contains movement … In a society where the head is often cut off from the body, it is essential to bring head, heart and body together … My work is open-ended, asking the audience to fill the empty spaces with their own appreciation and understanding…” There’s also a little description of one of her own dance pieces, entitled “Still Waters” a site-specific work in which Jordaan, wearing pink underwear, half submerges herself in the dangerously murky waters of the Kaolin Quarry not knowing what may be found underneath. I don’t remember ever seeing this posted on the actual website and I wish she’d post more often her own work and South African performances she attends. She and Tony have thus far concentrated on leading the book discussion group, which so far has focused on the very theory-oriented work of dance philosopher Andre Lepecki, which is, I think very difficult for non-grad students of dance to comprehend.

In his “letter from the editor” at the front of the magazine, Benaym says he’s recently travelled around the country speaking with today’s teens, asking them that age-old question, what do you want to be when you grow up? Benaym laments the responses of the Facebook / MySpace generation (which Thomas Friedman calls Gen. Q.) as centering more around being “famous” than real achievement. “What happened to wanting to be an actor, or an astronaut, or a fireman?” he asks. “Yesterday’s kids dreamed of becoming heroes. Today they just want to be famous.” The magazine, by bringing pop culture together with artistry, “yearn[s] for a movement where talent and dedication take precedence over a thirst for stardom.” Hopefully they’ll continue to showcase and bring public attention to those who, like Jordaan and Schultz, have a hunger for art and knowledge and can pass it on to their audiences, and not just go after the celebrities. Anyway, I think it’s off to a great start!

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Very Happy Night :)

It’s almost 4 in the morning and I’m very tired, so am just going to post some pictures now and will blog about it (So You Think You Can Dance tour) tomorrow (well, later on today, I guess). In general, it was a lot of fun, the dancing was all excellent — really some of the best I’ve ever seen, the choregraphy so so (some good, some not as good as the rest, but oh well … there was a new group number I hadn’t seen before: the swamp creatures? Was it on a show I missed? Anyway, I really liked it — it was contemporary lyrical mixed with some African moves, very interesting). Dominic is a doll, has THE BEST personality with a great comedic sensibility and I think has a future as an actor, seriously! He also looked awesome break-dancing on that big stage! Danny it goes without saying looked great on a big stage as well, but I still think his solo (same one he did on the show) could be much better — turn some of those grand jetes into barrel turns and do some of the pirouettes on a bent knee going up and down like Angel Corella 🙂 In my opinion Pasha and Anya stole the show with their samba/cha cha, but of course I am biased 🙂 One thing I noticed is that Latin / Ballroom looks better on TV and on a small stage, ballet on a big stage. (Tidwell, by the way, introduced himself as a jazz and contemporary dancer, no ballet.)

My only real criticism of the program is that they had too many flashbacks and too much talk about the show and not enough dancing! They had three big screens erected over the stage and they used them to show all these scenes of early rounds in which bad people were eliminated (why do we need to see this again?), they showed scenes over and over and over again of people falling, they had a bunch of footage of those little off-screen moments between the dancers most of which were already shown on TV, and the judges’ reactions to things, and even some of the dancing on the show. I wish they would have axed all this and just created more original dances for the dancers to perform. I guess it was more of the actual show on tour rather than the dancers on tour. But it was still a very fun night. I’m perturbed at Danny though for not showing up to the backstage “meet and greet”!!!!! Where were you, Danny????

Anyway, here are a few pics (the rest you can find by clicking on the link to my Flickr page, which is that very last link on the right-hand side of the blog):

Pasha greeting former student, Elaine, and spotting me!!!

Anya doing the same! (greeting another of Pasha’s former students, Mariana). So many of us 🙂 He sure was popular 🙂


Sabra greeting Tony Meredith.

Dominic and Lacey.


Neil greeting what appear to be friends.

Neil and Lacey performing the Mia Michaels choreography dedicated to her father.


Danny and Neil doing Mia’s “Princes” piece.

Sorry my pictures are so blurry but I was one of the few who actually obeyed orders and turned off my flash. If you’re a dancer and you’re reading this and you’re thinking of trying out for the show, just be assured that if you make it to the end you’re going to be performing amongst bizillions of flashes going off incessantly! It was crazy — it was like a continuous light show in there!

Pasha’s solo. He used a cape this time, no mannequin 🙂

Group number.


Danny and Anya’s beautiful waltz.

Pasha and Anya’s samba / cha cha.


Pasha and Sabra’s quickstep.

Hehhe, going back in time to the beginning of the trip, when we were just boarding the bus to go out to Long Island, this is Steve, a friend of mine from the studio and Anya’s former student, telling me, apropos of my crazy rampage yesterday against poor Claudia LaRocco and dance criticism in the Times (he assures me he reads my blog, just doesn’t comment 🙂 ), that he enjoys The Sun!


One more of Pasha! Here with former student Mariana. Isn’t he cute!!!!!

Okay, that’s all for now, I have to go to bed. It was a very fun night and I really had a lovely time reuniting with all of my friends from the studio, and of course seeing Pasha and Anya, and of course watching all of these amazing dancers. I am out of my bad mood now 🙂 At least until I read the reviews!!!

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Danny Tidwell Could Use A Bronzed Dance Belt!!!!

Hahhahha! I recently got an email about this earlier post where I was pondering whether I should get Pasha and Luis bronzed dance belts for a holiday gift as an apology for constantly kicking them there during lessons. I’m just so glad, after tonight’s SYTYCD episode that I’m not the only one with that little problem!!

It’s hard to be a male dancer!… What’s up with that look on my face??… Anyway, there we are trying this very cool Karina dip (that I stole from her but can’t do correctly to save my life because, hello, I am NOT Karina!)… This trick is so gorgeous too when done properly IF you can do it properly (when he dips you, it ends up looking similar to the graphic on the top right part of the blog, except of course it should look GOOD, not like that because that is me; I wish I could post a YouTube of Karina and her old partner Slavik doing it because it looks so gorgeous, but they withdrew the clip…) But the trick is so hard because you have to get so close to him and shove your hips into his waist / crotch so that when you arch back you can still hold yourself up and he doesn’t have to throw his back out… And with Rhumba, the beauty of the trick is that you’re coming into him really fast, and with my longish legs, often the left knee that’s kind of humping his back here would be aimed a little farther to the right… He’d shout “hellohellohellohellohello” whenever he needed to warn me. Dancing is so much harder than it looks… Anyway, Argentine tango with all those between-the-legs kicks is just all the worse and I’m sure Pasha is very happy that Argentine tango is not on the International Latin syllabus!

Gosh this is like a lifetime ago! And it’s only last September… Pasha is so incredibly sweet — I just came across these pics recently. He’d agreed to have them taken with me in the studio wearing this Winger t-shirt to model for the Winger! Kristin Sloan (Winger founder and NYCBallet dancer) offered to post pics on the site of Winger readers wearing their t’s at their dance studios or dance-related events, so Pasha nicely let me model the shirt with him 🙂 🙂

I look ridiculously scared!


This was Kristin’s favorite. I look downright in pain! The shirt design is really cool though, right!

I miss him so much! And I miss dancing so much. The most worrisome thing is that, we took these pics right after we’d all returned from Nationals last September (which is on my mind since I’m about to book my tkts for this year — yay!) and I just re-looked at some of my posts on that. I was worried about my flabby butt back then… now, that I haven’t danced in a good — geez eight months — it’s so far beyond sag it’s not even funny. I MUST take dance lessons. I MUST find an inexpensive place.

Anyway, speaking of the Winger, Bennyroyce posted some excellent pics of Bad Boys, the troupe I’d posted on yesterday — they’re far better than mine since they’re up close, or from the perspective of … the Wings! Also, here’s an interesting article in a local Berkshires paper about Rasta and his guys. (Speaking further of the Winger, we still do not know for sure if that dance belt model above is indeed Mr. Hallberg. He would never fess up!!! I think it is — look how similar the face… it’s you, David!)

And coming full circle to Danny and SYTYCD, I was being masochistic and looking up photos of Rasta’s wedding 🙁 and I found this from his ballet school’s alumni page. Look who is in the center of the bottom right-hand picture! And who’s above him — is it Travis from last season?

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Pasha and Danny and … Mark: Everyone's a Star!

I just received my copy of Time Out NY in the mail and was flipping through while watching my favorite TV show (actually, the only one I watch, SYTYCD) and, in glancing at the “Dating Section” noticed a blurb recommending as the ideal date the weekly Friday night dance lesson and party hosted by my first studio, DanceSport. They included a photo of said party, which, on close inspection, I realized included my old Swing team partner, Mark!

He’s the guy in black all the way in the back left corner of the picture. Hi Mark!!

For corny old times’ sake, here we are swingin’ in Atlanta two years ago at the National Swing Championships — we’re the couple nearest the back screen. Hi again, Mark!

Benji Schwimmer (last year’s SYTYCD champ) was probably at that event. Don’t remember him though; that was before it all…

Anyway, I was excited to watch the show tonight, after inadvertently missing it last week. Fun fun!

Pasha 🙂 I know I shouldn’t say anything because I’m UNOBJECTIVE but I’m just so proud — he was so out of his element tonight and he really nailed that jazz routine. I worried about him — as I do all ballroom dancers trying to do other dance styles — but, clearly, I had no need 🙂 Of course Pasha and Anya had loads of dance training back in Russia so that’s coming to their aid now.

I had to laugh though at Sara‘s hair comment. He DOES take forever with the damn hair! But it’s a Latin ballroom thing, I swear. They all wear their hair greased down, slicked back, blown-dry and hair sprayed firmly, stiffly into place, not a stray strand or else. It’s basically a rule of competition. It looks a bit kooky to me, to be honest, but no one challenges them rules… I’m thrilled they’re encouraging change with the hair thing here, but after all this time, it’s probably just one of those things that’s part of life for him. And the women’s makeup is another thing — so much of it at the comps, and just caked on! I’ve never seen so little makeup on Anya as here, and she looks gorgeous.

My second favorite: Danny, about which I guess I’m semi-unobjective (in that he’s dancing with Pasha’s partner, and of course he hails from the greatest dance company in the world). Okay, arguably, whatever 🙂 I missed his 10,000 pirouettes last week. Were they brilliant?! I got a quick glimpse of them tonight, but it was far too brief. And that grand jete with fully extended air splits across the entire floor at the beginning of his and Anya’s Foxtrot!!! And he was a natural ‘Foxtrotter’ too. Which, Standard is sometimes hard for ballet dancers because your feet have to be perfectly parallel, no turnout, and sometimes you can get a little knock-kneed, and it feels very weird. But he not only nailed it but gave it that little something undefinably special as well.

But personality-wise: I think he’s just shy, right? Don’t you think he’s shy? Or perhaps… maybe he is someone who’s taken some hard knocks in life and is just a bit too used to getting beaten down? He just seems a bit sad to me. In any event, I have NO idea how anyone could call him arrogant? Unless I’m missing something, he seems the antithesis of pompous ass. If anyone had that interpretation earlier, it might have been because sometimes people feel compelled to erect a protective facade and it came across as haughty… Who knows. Anyway I find him sympathetic and spectaular and stunning and all that and I really want him to make it to the finals please please!

Til tomorrow night…