Tag: Marcelo Gomes

Posted on

MARCELO GOMES, THE FAVORITE, ON YOUTUBE

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.

Posted on

LET’S HAVE AN "ELOQUENTLY VIOLENT" MAYERLING FOR ABT, MR. MCKENZIE

 

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 🙂

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!

Posted on

MORE ON AMERICAN BALLET THEATER’S AVERY FISHER SEASON

 

Daniil Simkin and cast in Benjamin Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once in Gene Schiavone photo, courtesy of ABT; all photos by Gene Schiavone (except for Arron Scott headshot below and bottom picture).

Just to let people know, as the photos shows above, the guy who was flinging himself into the group lifts in the first cast of the Millepied was Daniil Simkin; in the second cast it was Arron Scott (below). The program notes only gave a special mention to the two dancers doing the pas de deux and a lot of people were asking who the main soloist was.

 

Anyway, here are a few more reviews:

Here is James Wolcott on opening night gala (and our fab Shun Lee dinner afterward 🙂 ), here is Apollinaire Scherr’s FT review; and here are more of Apollinaire’s thoughts on her blog, Foot in Mouth. I’m surprised there aren’t more reviews — this was a pretty big season, with three world premieres — but that’s all I can find at the moment. (Update: Robert Greskovic’s WSJ review just went up; thanks to Meg for letting me know.)

Re the Wolcott write-up: I forgot to mention the models — Iman and Veronica Webb, who, instead of A.D. Kevin McKenzie, thanked the gala sponsors and introduced the program — screwing up Benjamin Millepied’s name. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal if they wouldn’t have been so giggly over it. It seemed like they were reading their notes for the first time and were really unprepared. I really don’t know how to pronounce his name either — I’ve always said the last two syllables to rhyme with plie (without the “l”) but have been told that’s wrong. But damn did ABT get a lot of press for signing them on. Just Google “ABT Fall 2009 Season” and it’s all about Iman.

 

(Gillian Murphy, Cory Stearns and Eric Tamm in Aszure Barton’s One of Three)

Anyway, I saw four of the six programs, saw the Ratmansky and the Millepied ballets four times and the Barton three, and they each grew on me the more I saw them. The Saturday matinee was my last performance and I found it by far the best. I felt like the dancers were finally comfortable with the new dances, knew what they were all about, and really made them meaningful. I described the ballets here.

Oh and regarding SanderO’s comment on that earlier post: yes, I do need to see the story in the dance. The dancer and choreographer won’t pull me in at all if they don’t each tell me some sort of story. That doesn’t mean the ballet has to be a traditional full-length dramatic novel or something with a clearly defined beginning, middle, and end, inciting incident, rising action with crises 1,2, and 3, climax and resolution, etc etc. but there needs to be some kind of story; there needs to be some intention in the abstraction. A lot of critics use the word “evocative” — a dance needs to be evocative of something, and I just mean the same thing. If there isn’t something meaningful going on, there’s no reason for me to see it. I can appreciate the neat geometric patterns and pretty images, but that’s not enough to make me go.

Anyway, I saw more in Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once on further viewings. At first I thought it was kind of everything but the kitchen sink the way Apollinaire kind of describes, but after several viewings I saw more of an evolutionary, battle of the sexes theme throughout, which becomes a more literal battle by the end. The piece starts with the stage looking swimming-pool like with the dancers making broad strokes with their arms. The stage gets over-crowded and eventually someone in charge — looking rather conductor-like, kind of throws his arms up and dismisses everyone.

Then, there’s a pas de trois (two men one woman), which becomes a double pas de trois (same), which turns into the central pas de deux (man-woman). Throughout there seems to be struggle going on — in the pas de trois the men kind of manipulate the woman around, until she’s practically on her side. In the central pas de deux is in places tender, in places more angsty as if the girl is trying to get away from the guy or fight him in some way, and he is struggling to hang onto her.

By the end, the scene has evolved into a kind of battlefield with marching music and the ballerinas doing those Balanchinian marches en pointe. Except they’re more unsettling than cutesy, like in Balanchine. This is the part where Daniil / Arron gets tossed into the crowd, throws himself with wild abandon at the groups of men, who catch him mid-split, then gets caught up with a bunch of grabbing girls.

Interestingly, the audience laughed when this role was danced by Simkin — I think because he is small and a bit long-haired and it kind of looked like he was afraid he’d be taken for one of them and was trying like hell to assert his masculinity. (I think it would have worked better had the girls been chasing him and then he flings himself into the groups of guys rather than the other way around, but not a big deal).

But no one laughed when it was Arron. It looked far more serious with him in the role — it looked like he was practically getting raped by that rabid group of girls.

Also I noticed with Arron that after the rabid group of girls leaves him alone, he kind of internalized the tauning; there was now an invisible fist punching him all about. It really looked like he was getting beaten up by that thing. But the fist was invisible so it was like he’d been driven mad. It was very unsettling, and I think, with the music and the rest of the action, this feeling is more of what Millepied was going for — not all the high air flips, crazy long spins, and windmill jumps that Simkin is known for and did here. Simkin’s character made the end of the ballet more playful than battle-like.

There’s also a short section where there’s all this marching music and there’s more centerstage chaos with all 24 dancers out there at once and suddenly a group of dancers standing at one corner break into partners and go waltzing through the crowd. But it’s really short-lived, like even courtship is a battle.

I don’t know — that’s what I saw on further inspection. But I could be making it all up. It’s kind of fun with abstract ballets (the ones that have a lot going on in them anyway) to make up your own story. I mean, the way dances get made anyway, as I learned at a Guggenheim event last night featuring ABT’s efforts to adapt ballets to different stages (including this small one in AF Hall, meant for concerts), is that things get changed depending on space, depending on the logistics of the stage, depending on dancers. Whoever knows if the end product is what the choreographer originally had in mind anyway.

I don’t think Millepied’s was a perfect ballet — I found a lot of the bird-like patterns from his recent NYCB ballet, Quasi Una Fantasia, to be out of place here – he didn’t need all that; he should have focused more on the battle — but I found his the darkest, the most thematically clear and the most absorbing.

 

Stella Abrera and Gennadi Saveliev in Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas.

The Ratmansky grew on me, as did the Barton. On the last day, Michele Wiles danced the main female character (in the long white ballgown) in the Barton and I loved her. She gave the character a real story. When she comes out onstage she is all bitchy and glamorous, but Michele it’s really an act; she is seeking attention from the main man (in that cast Blaine Hoven) while trying to maintain her haughty demeanor so as not to be shown up by him if he dismisses her. At one point, she extends her arm out to him, as if he’s supposed to kiss it but he turns and runs offstage. She crumbles. It’s heartbreaking.

I also really loved Craig Salstein, Jared Matthews and Daniil Simkin in Barton’s second cast (Matthews and Simkin alternated parts opposite Salstein). They danced a section in the second part and all three made it clear (Salstein most so) that they were in a little competition for the girl’s attention. The girl (Luciana Paris), meanwhile, was just dancing on her own, in her own world, paying them no mind at all. It was hilarious.

But back to Michele Wiles for a minute: a wonderful ABT patron gave me her ticket for a company class, which she couldn’t attend, and Michele seemed so sweet — smiling out and waving at people during the class and even during warm-up.

Also, can some choreographer please please please create a little solo or some kind of dance just for Gillian Murphy! Please! During that company class, during the center floor work when the dancers divided into groups and did turns in a diagonal down the center, Gillian blew everyone completely away. She was like a tornado. But a technically perfect tornado! Everyone in my section literally began to laugh and shake their heads in amazement. She needs something to showcase her technical brilliance and athletic prowess. C’mon ABT!

Each of the dancers brought their own special thing to the Ratmansky. Christine Shevchenko (an up and coming corps member) was gorgeous with the role created by Julie Kent (danced opposite David Hallberg). She was more lyrical than Julie, with flowing, expressive arms that resembled Natalia Makarova in Other Dances. Julie’s arms were more staccato. Hee Seo, who completely blew me away as well, did a combination of the two — by turns feathery and lyrical, and modern and staccato. Alexandre Hammoudi and Jared Matthews both danced David’s original part and they were very different than David. Both connected with their ballerinas much more — when they were left alone onstage they clearly looked about for her, wondering where she was, then accepting they were alone and falling into their solo.

David Hallberg. I can never get enough David Hallberg. He didn’t look around for his ballerina when she left him, but when she returned to the stage, he danced well with her. But when she was offstage, she was out of sight, out of mind with him — he was too busy making Ratmansky’s movement wholly his own. He seems to be a rapidly maturing artist, playing with the music, playing with rhythm, giving some things more emphasis than others. When I first saw him dance this role I thought his “character’s” movement was more modern than classical, but I think that was just because of the way he did one section where he keeps pushing out with his hands, like he’s stopping the air, or stopping something from getting too close. He slowed down that movement a lot, really emphasizing the arms, and then did some ensuing footwork at the speed of light, whereas the others did everything in equal measures -so it didn’t have the same look.

 

Jared Matthews and Maria Riccetto in Some Assembly Required, photo by Rosalie O’Connor.

ABT also put on Clark Tippet’s Some Assembly Required from 1989, a male-female pas de deux evoking a lovers’ quarral replete with difficult-looking angst-filled lifts, struggling pushes and pulls, then more tender making up. It went on a bit too long; some middle parts that were repetitive could have been taken out, but the cast I saw — Jared Matthews and Maria Riccetto did very well with it. Jared is dancing and dramatizing better than ever before, imo.

And the company also did Robbins’ Other Dances, another male-female pas de deux (this one pretty famous) that was choreographed on Baryshnikov and Makarova. I saw both casts — Marcelo Gomes and Veronika Part, and David Hallberg and Gillian Murphy. I liked both — although I think I honestly prefer Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia’s at NYCB. Gonzalo has a smaller body, more like Baryshnikov’s, and I think some of the gestures — like the placing the hand behind the head, kind of primping, looked sweetest on him. Ditto for Tiler. David is dancing very aggressively these days. He’s making the absolute most of every movement — it can be stunning at times, and at times it seems a bit overdone, which it seemed to me a tad here.

I also think that joke on the Kirov dancers getting dizzy and losing their footing because they don’t spot-turn doesn’t come across as such to new audiences. When Marcelo and Gonzalo did it, many in the audience honestly thought the dancers screwed up for real, not on purpose. David really didn’t do the joke because he’s a cheat 🙂 I’m kidding — he did, but he spun, stopped, got dizzy, shook himself out of it, and started the next phrase all in the blink of an eye, so you didn’t even notice he “got lost.”

Gillian was good but it didn’t seem to be a dance that showcased her talents to their fullest. I’ll say it again — I really think she is the most athletic and technically one of the best female dancers in the world and she desperately needs more roles that prove that!

Posted on

SOME PHOTOS OF ABT’S FALL ’09 OPENING NIGHT GALA

 

Above photo by Rosalie O’Connor of Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once by Benjamin Millepied; photos below by Andrea Mohin from the NY Times, of Millepied’s Everything (dancers: Marcelo Gomes and Isabella Boylston), and Alexei Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas (dancers l-r: Stella Abrera, Xiomara Reyes, and Julie Kent).

 

 

Here is Gia Kourlas’s review in the Times.

Posted on

ABT OPENING NIGHT GALA FALL 2009: THREE PREMIERES IN BLACK AND WHITE, AND WOOD

 

Photo of Veronika Part in The Dying Swan, taken from Vogue; photos of the three premieres coming as soon as I receive them.

After ABT‘s fall season opening night gala performance last night, the really wonderful James Wolcott and Laura Jacobs took friend Siobhan and me out for dinner at Shun Lee (I’d never been there — but wow, excellent excellent food!) and when Laura asked me if I was going to write about the performance, I kind of rolled my eyes and said, “I’ll try!” We all agreed that dance is absolutely the hardest art form to review, especially on seeing a dance for the first time. Let alone THREE dances seen for the first time. With visual art you can stand there all day and examine at it, with music you have recordings and scores, film critics generally see a movie several times before writing a review. With dance you have one chance — often one split mili-second — to remember a half an hour or so of movement, images, patterns, structure, costumes, music, lighting — everything. It’s impossible. Since starting this blog I have so much more respect for dance critics.

Anyway, there were three premieres last night: Seven Sonatas by Alexei Ratmansky, One of Three by Aszure Barton, and Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once by Benjamin Millepied. Also on the bill was a performance by Veronika Part of Fokine’s The Dying Swan. ABT performed, for the first time, in Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall, a concert hall not accustomed to housing dance performances. (ABT usually holds its fall season in City Center, but changed venues because of City Center’s renovation plans.)

I’m going to be seeing each premiere a couple more times this season and prefer to write after I’ve seen each more than once. But since the season is so short (it ends October 10, this Saturday), I’ll write something up front. These are only first impressions though, and I’ve found I see so many more things with repeated viewings.

Honestly, everything kind of blended together for me. Part of this was because of the sparseness of the Avery Fisher stage — there were no sets, no wings, no curtains — so dancers warmed up onstage before us, giving each piece a kind of Cabaret-like feel; and part of it was because costumes for each piece were all black and white. I remember lots of black, lots of white and the hardwood of that stage.

1) Ratmansky’s Seven Sonatas was performed to Domenico Scarlatti music by three male-female couples: David Hallberg and Julie Kent, Herman Cornejo and Xiomara Reyes, and Gennadi Saveliev and Stella Abrera. Costumes were all white — flowing dresses for the women, classical tights and 18th-Century tops for the men. The movement was a combination of classical and modern and, though the ballet was generally story-less, each couple seemed to have a little narrative: Cornejo and Reyes were the young, playful couple, Herman full of high jumps with many beats of the feet that really wowed the crowd and Xiomara dizzying rapid multiple turns. At one point Herman did this crazy turn in the air, landed on his back, and caught her. Crowd went wild.

Abrera and Saveliev seemed to be a more mature couple, perhaps in mourning. It seemed Abrera was a woman, possibly a mother, who’d lost a child or something — Saveliev seemed to be trying to console her and keep her from self-destructing. It seemed like she kept trying to break free of him and reach out to some invisible thing.

I’m not sure what Hallberg and Kent were meant to represent except maybe a modern couple — they seemed to have the most modern movement. David appeared to be trapped in a box and he kept pushing out; he had a lot of quick movement with fast stops in different directions and a lot of it in parallel — not turned-out — position. Julie had a lot of sharp, staccato movement. They could’ve also been a courting couple: at one point, David was on one knee and he invited Julie to run at him and jump on him. When she did, he took her into this lovely lift. It’s sweet and many in the audience lightly laughed.

The ballet was broken into duets and solos and bookended by two ensemble movements, the first pretty and lyrical, the latter more chaotic as they all perform their very different movement motifs at once, some trying on others’ movement styles — everyone does the staccato arm patterns for a while, etc. At the end, the women lay on the floor and the men wrapped their bodies over them.

One other thing: our David Hallberg is sporting longish hair these days 🙂 I think it looks good, and fun for a change! Funny thing is, he’s so beautiful and glamorous, I tend to get jealous if him, even though he’s a man… which I guess should be kind of odd…

2) Barton’s One of Three was set to Maurice Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G and danced by a whole slew of tuxedoed men, and three women — Gillian Murphy, Misty Copeland, and Paloma Herrera. Why is it that women choreographers tend to use men so much more! (And female dance-writers tend to focus on male dancers 🙂 — is this feminist?)

Anyway, the piece begins with Cory Stearns walking out dressed in a tux and black jazz shoes. He does a little solo and his movements are all modern, angular, which contrasted in an intriguing way with the tux. I don’t know if it was his being a bit weirded out by the curtainless stage (which forced him to walk out in the dark with all of us watching) or whether it was part of the character, but he seemed to have this loopy smile in the beginning, that was really rather endearing. I chatted with a friend during intermission and she felt just the same.

Anyway, soon Cory was joined by more tuxedoed men, and then by Gillian, who came prancing out in a long white cocktail gown with her radiant red hair tied back into a sleek twist. The men would kind of veer toward her, sideways, their bodies leading their heads in, to me, a rather amusing way. Gillian’s character was very haughty, very glam and posh and she acted like she was ordering the men around with her little finger. The men often seemed led by their bodies, moving first with the back, or at times one leg would take a step, the rest of the body reluctant to follow (I noticed that most with Jared Matthews, who I thought was dancing at his best last night). I found this a very interesting movement motif.

Misty Copeland was the lead character in the second movement. She wore a short black and white dress, her costume and character more flirty and wild. But same thing — she seemed to kind of taunt her tuxedoed men.

And third movement was led by Paloma, wearing a black lacey top and black pants. She smiled a lot more than Misty and Gillian, but she seemed to move in a slinky, sexually-empowered way, like a tanguera.

Now that I think about it, though there were many more men here, the women seemed to have all the power. Fun!

3) Next on was Part’s Dying Swan, which was really poignant, as I knew it would be. It’s a very short piece, but it’s funny how the ballerina can really do it however she wants to; I just saw Diana Vishneva perform this in the Fall For Dance Festival and her Dying Swan was very different. Whereas Diana spent most of the time on her toes, bourreeing, Veronika spent more time on the floor, one leg stretched out before her (like in above picture), then rising again to her toes for one more breath. Diana’s swan seemed to flutter about more, like she was fighting death, she lay down only at the very end. Veronika kept holding her arms up in front of her, her wrists bent and her hands cupped over, as if to foreshadow what would happen to her body. In general, Veronika’s swan accepted and approached death more gracefully or willingly, but Diana’s, with that broad wingspan, at times really looked strikingly birdlike. I don’t know if I can say I liked one interpretation better than the other — both were breathtaking and both very poignant.

Did anyone else see both swans?

4) And the program ended with Millepied’s Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once, set to David Lang music that was at times mellifluous and at times cacophonous or eerie. He used a large group of dancers but Marcelo Gomes, Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin had the main parts and so stood out the most (and Kristi Boone shone in a smaller role).

There was a lot going on here — both in the music and in the dance, and I felt that, unlike with Millepied’s earlier piece for ABT — From Here on Out — composed to music by Nico Muhly (who was in the audience) — in this one the movement kept up, didn’t let the music outshine it. The stage is set up to resemble — at least to me — a pool. Dancers would gather around it and watch the people dancing in the lit-up center. At the beginning there seemed to be a swimming motif, with large, rounded arm movements resembling breaststrokes. Movement is also evocative of birds as well though, and some of the same lifts were present as in Millepied’s recent work for NYCB, where the women are perched on the men’s shoulders, their arms outstretched sideways.

In the middle part, Marcelo and Isabella have a rather haunting solo. The ballet is generally story-less but as far as I could make out any narrative, it appeared she was sort of struggling against him. He seemed very careful and gentle with her (in sharp contrast to a later, more hostile duet he has with the super-strong Kristi Boone, who seemed to be either Isabella’s competitor or her double), but she — Isabella — nevertheless kept trying to push away from Marcelo as he held her. The duet ends with them walking toward the back of the stage holding hands, connected, but her body is lunging as far as possible away from his. A rather warped relationship.

Then there’s a rather amusing section where bravura dancer Daniil Simkin is struggling with a bunch of women. He tries to break free of them but then he keeps throwing himself into their arms, making them catch him in these rather breathtaking group lifts — one of them ending in a perfect split in the air. And he has a bunch of crazy multiple pirouettes that had the audience audibly gasping. It all went with his character though, who seemed rather crazed, like he may have just escaped from an asylum or something. I kept wondering who else was ever going to be able to perform that role…

I didn’t go to the gala party but in addition to Muhly, I saw Alessandra Ferri in the audience, one of the Billy Elliots, and apparently Natalie Portman was there.

Anyway, I’ll write more at the end of the season, when I’ve seen these new dances a few more times. Here is Haglund’s review.

Posted on

ABT OPENS AT BARD

 

…to rave reviews, particularly Benjamin Millepied’s latest:

“Receiving its world premiere performance, Benjamin Millepied’s “Everything Doesn’t Happen at Once” was a knockout.  Contrary to its title, there was a lot happening all the time, as the full compliment of 24 dancers often filled the tight performance space with a busy but ordered beauty.  Solos and lifts popped up like little tornados.  A sensual pas de deux featured Stella Abrera and Marcelo Gomes.  Near the conclusion, lines of dancers moved in a militaristic lock step.

During the final movement Daniil Simkin – a 22 year-old blonde Russian – stole the show. As the other men flung him up and about, he balanced in their raised hands and posed like a bare-chested god. And in solos that went by in a flash, Simkin seemed to tumble in midair, as strong as a gymnast yet light as a bird.

To the kinetic music of David Lang and the stark but effective lighting of Brad Fields, Millepied’s choreography was propulsive and contemporary. After making a strong impression with a new work at SPAC last summer, Millepied showed an even steadier hand here and with a larger compliment of dancers to boot.  Move over Christopher Wheeldon, Millepied is now the ballet choreographer to watch.”

ABT begins its four-day NYC season at Avery Fisher Hall this Wednesday. Can’t wait!

 

Posted on

MARTHA WAINWRIGHT, MORPHOSES, AND MARCELO IN THE PARK

copy-of-pic-17

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:

copy-of-pic-1-1

copy-of-pic-2-1

And here are some of Tears of St. Lawrence:

copy-of-pic-16-11

copy-of-pic-6-21

copy-of-pic-20-1

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).

Posted on

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…

Posted on

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.

Posted on

BURN THE FLOOR STARRING MAKS & KARINA

 

 

So this is your last week to see Dancing With the Stars stars Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Karina Smirnoff perform in Jason Gilkison’s Broadway ballroom extravaganza, Burn the Floor.

The show’s really good. It gets off to a bit of a slow start (and I saw it when it was still in previews so maybe now they’ve even worked out those few early kinks), but mid-way through the first act I knew I wasn’t going to want it to end. There’s no through story-line (thankfully — I haven’t yet seen a ballroom show with one that really works); rather it’s a set of Latin and Standard dance routines, some performed with ensemble, some in duos and trios. There’s more Latin than Standard, owing to the small size of the floor.

I never thought until I saw this production how hard it can be to put a dance show on a stage meant for plays. It’s so hard for the poor dancers to really get around and move freely, and that’s my one real problem with the show. They’ve got a band with two huge sets of drums that takes up the entire back half of the stage, which they don’t even really need because much of the music is recorded; the only live players are a couple of drummers and a violinist (along with some singers, who of course don’t stand in one place). In my opinion, if the theater has no orchestra pit, then they should have erected a stage above the floor for the band, like in Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out.

Anyway, that aside, they still manage to get a couple Viennese Waltzes and Foxtrots and Quicksteps in there. I do think the Cha Chas and Rumbas and Jives work best though. My favorite part of the first act is the extended Swing section, titled “Things That Swing.” Extremely fast-footed, with lightning fast flicks of the feet and difficult-looking, detailed footwork, the dancers really excel in Jive. I remember from the video too, years old now and with an entirely different set of dancers and choreography – thinking how I liked the Jive the best. Maybe Jive and Swing are simply most entertaining, the Big Band music of the thirties and the fifties so upbeat and recognizable and sentimental, maybe with their flair and tempo their power is the most translatable to the stage and screen, or maybe Gilkison (who’s an former ballroom champ and has choreographed for SYTYCD) just excels at choreographing those dances. But for whatever reason, they always stand out to me as the most entertaining in his shows.

Maks and Karina dance throughout, but they have a gorgeous Rumba duet in the second act that is really one of the high points of the show. They’re both barefoot and he’s shirtless and she’s dressed in a bra and underwear with open shirt and it’s really passionate and sensual. But also, Karina is one of the greatest Latin dancers in the world right now (she and her former partner Slavik Kryklyvyy were U.S. national champs and ranked second in the world the last time they competed together) and because the dance is so slow and she’s wearing so little you can really see the subtle movements she makes in her hips and pelvis and torso. A simple, basic hip twist she did was breathtaking. It’s really worth going just to see her.

And to see Maks as well!  The man is a total hoot, actually. He and his former partner, Elena Grinenko (who’s also been on DWTS) were ranked very high the last time they competed together as well, but more than just a technically good dancer, he’s just a lot of fun to watch – kind of in the same way someone like Vaidotas Skimelis is, or in the ballet world, Marcelo Gomes. He’s a huge man and he just eats up the stage (especially this one) with his body alone, but he’s got so much personality and character and charm. Even just watching him interact with Karina and watching him concentrate — you can see it on his face, in his eyes! You can see how much he’s trying to be a good partner and make her look good and it’s just so incredibly endearing!! I honestly fell in love with his dancer persona like never before watching this show.

Seeing him also reminded of my friend, Sharon. He was one of her favorites on DWTS. I think I will always think of her whenever I see one of these dancers.

The other real standout in the show was Peta Murgatroyd. Well, there were several dancers I really liked — Kevin Clifton, Gordana Grandosek, Giselle Peacock — but Murgatroyd stood out because I could tell right away she had a great deal of ballet training and that, along with her height and long limbs and flexibility just gave her really gorgeous lines. She kept doing these mouthwatering arabesques.

 

 

The whole time I couldn’t help comparing the show to those put on by Tony Meredith and Melanie LaPatin (who are my friends). Theirs are much smaller in scope, showing for only one night and mainly highlighting their studio’s (Dance Times Square) students, along with the pro dances who currently teach or have taught at the studio. Lately, they’ve been branching out and getting some of the stars from So You Think You Can Dance (which of course they choreograph for) to perform. But to me the most intense numbers that just make me nearly fall out of my seat are by Pasha & Anya (Kovalev and Garnis, also my friends), and top U.S. Latin pair Eugene Katsevman and Maria Manusova. I kept wondering what Burn the Floor would look like with one of those couples.

So I was just a bit ecstatic to find out the the former are to take over the Maks & Karina roles beginning August 18th 🙂 I simply CAN’T WAIT!!!

Posted on

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,

p7031723

and Katusha Demidova and Arunas Bizokas even more easily in the latter.

p70519751

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).

p7031771

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.

p7041926

p7051956

p7051962

And Riccardo and Yulia are so much fun. His Jive is to die for, as are her Rumba walks.

p70418331

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 🙂

p7031775

p7031824

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).

P7041860

(JT and Tomas above; Mazen and Lisa below)

P7041863

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.

P7041900

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!

P7041868

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.