Tag: Marcello Angelini

Posted on

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!

Posted on

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.